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  • career planning advice [closed]

    - by JDB
    Possible Duplicate: Are certifications worth it? I am at the point in my career where people start to veer off into either management-type roles or they focus on solidifying their technical skills to stay in the development game for the long-haul. Here's my story: I've got a degree in economics, an MA in Political Science and an MBA in Finance and Management. In addition, I've done coursework in advanced math and software development (although no degree in math or software). All-in-all, I've got 13 years of post-secondary education under my belt. I, however, currently work as a software developer using C# for desktop, Silverlight, Flex and javascript for web, and objective c for mobile. I've been in software development for the past 3.3 years, and it seems like it comes pretty easy to me. I work in a field called "geospatial information systems," which just involves customization and manipulation of geospatial data. Right now I am looking at one of several certifications. Given this background, which of these certifications has the highest ceiling? CFA PMP various development/technological certifications from Microsoft, etc. Other? My academic and work experience are all heavy on the analytical/development side, esp. so given the MBA and the B.S. in Econ. The political science degree was really a lot of stats. So it seems that I would be good pursuing more of the CFA/analytical role. This is a difficult path, however, because I have no work experience in the financial sector, and the developers in finance are all "quants," which again, I am OK with, but I haven't done much statistical modeling in the past 3.3 years. The PMP would require knowledge of best practices as it pertains explicitly to software development. I also don't enjoy a lot of business travel, a common theme for most PMP jobs I've seen. If certifications is the route, which would you recommend? Anything else? I've thought about going back to try to knock out a B.S. in C.S., but I wasn't sure how long that would take, or what would be involved. Thoughts or recommendations? Thanks in advance! I turn 32 this weekend, which is what has forced me to think about these issues.

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  • Java word scramble game [closed]

    - by Dan
    I'm working on code for a word scramble game in Java. I know the code itself is full of bugs right now, but my main focus is getting a vector of strings broken into two separate vectors containing hints and words. The text file that the strings are taken from has a colon separating them. So here is what I have so far. public WordApp() { inputRow = new TextInputBox(); inputRow.setLocation(200,100); phrases = new Vector <String>(FileUtilities.getStrings()); v_hints = new Vector<String>(); v_words = new Vector<String>(); textBox = new TextBox(200,100); textBox.setLocation(200,200); textBox.setText(scrambled + "\n\n Time Left: \t" + seconds/10 + "\n Score: \t" + score); hintBox = new TextBox(200,200); hintBox.setLocation(300,400); hintBox.hide(); Iterator <String> categorize = phrases.iterator(); while(categorize.hasNext()) { int index = phrases.indexOf(":"); String element = categorize.next(); v_words.add(element.substring(0,index)); v_hints.add(element.substring(index +1)); phrases.remove(index); System.out.print(index); } The FileUtilities file was given to us by the pofessor, here it is. import java.util.*; import java.io.*; public class FileUtilities { private static final String FILE_NAME = "javawords.txt"; //------------------ getStrings ------------------------- // // returns a Vector of Strings // Each string is of the form: word:hint // where word contains no spaces. // The words and hints are read from FILE_NAME // // public static Vector<String> getStrings ( ) { Vector<String> words = new Vector<String>(); File file = new File( FILE_NAME ); Scanner scanFile; try { scanFile = new Scanner( file); } catch ( IOException e) { System.err.println( "LineInput Error: " + e.getMessage() ); return null; } while ( scanFile.hasNextLine() ) { // read the word and follow it by a colon String s = scanFile.nextLine().trim().toUpperCase() + ":"; if( s.length()>1 && scanFile.hasNextLine() ) { // append the hint and add to collection s+= scanFile.nextLine().trim(); words.add(s); } } // shuffle Collections.shuffle(words); return words; } }

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  • Speaker Notes...

    - by wulfers
    At a .Net User Group meeting this week, I experienced two poorly prepared speakers floundering through presentations….  As a Lead Technologist at the company I work for, I have experience training technical staff and also giving presentations at code camps.  Here are a few guidelines for aspiring speakers you might find helpful…   1.       Do not stand in front of your audience and read your slides.  This is  offensive to your audience and not what they came for...  Your slides are there to reinforce the information you are presenting and to give the audience a little clarification on some terms you may use and as a visual aid for some complicated issues. 2.       Have someone review your presentation (slides, notes, …) who speaks the language you will be presenting in fluently.  Also record at least ten minutes of your presentation and have that same person review that.  One of the speakers this week used the word “Basically” fifty times in less than thirty minutes…  I started to flinch every time he used the term. 3.       Be Prepared  -  before the presentation begins.  Don’t make any last minute changes to your presentation or demo code the night before.  Don’t patch your laptop or demo servers the night before.  If possible create a virtual image that you only use for presentations and use that (refreshed before every presentation). 4.       Know the level of expertise of your audience.  Speaking above or below their abilities will make or break your presentation. 5.       Deliver what you promise. The presentation this week was supposed to be on BDD (Behavior Driven Develpment).  The presenter completely ran off track and 90% of the discussion was how his team mistakenly used TDD (Test Driven Development), and was unhappy with the results.  Based on his loss of focus we only heard a rushed 10 minute presentation on DBB which was a disservice to the audience. 6.       Practice your presentation with your own small team before you try this on a room full of people you don’t know.  A side benefit of doing this with your own team is that you can get candid feedback from your team and also get kudos for training your own team.  I find I can also turn my presentations into technical white papers and get a third benefit from the work I’ve put into a presentation. 7.       Sharpen your own saw.  Pick a topic that is fairly current.  Something you would like to learn about and would benefit your current career path. 8.       Have fun doing it.

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  • Travelling at Magenic

    - by Chris G. Williams
    I occasionally get asked if we travel "a lot" at Magenic. Sometimes the question comes from job candidates. Other times it's clients, recruiters or friends. To give a simple yes or no answer would be a disservice to the person asking the question. So here is my standard answer:It depends.(That was the short version.  Here's the long version...)We do have some guys that are more "national" in focus, and they can travel a fair amount. They also receive a little extra in compensation for doing so. It's a balancing act, and not necessarily a one-size-fits-all situation. Not everyone is well suited to constant travel. Some folks enjoy it and some folks hate it.With our local guys, our general policy is to TRY and keep them close to home whenever possible, but sometimes the needs of the client will dictate otherwise. (As Spock would say... the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.)In most cases though, we really do try to avoid sending our guys on extended travel gigs (i.e. every week for 6 months) when a simple kickoff trip and occasional visit will do. This depends on the nature of the gig, of course. Some types of work lend themselves to this model better than others. Additionally, this can and does vary by office. If one office is having trouble staffing a gig (not enough available bodies) and another office has a few too many folks on the bench, well... you can connect the dots. But again, we try to keep that to a minimum.Lastly, we all have our own thresholds for what we consider "a lot" of travel. There are two parts to this threshold:Half of it is whatever you're accustomed to already. The other half is being honest with yourself about how much you [like/hate] dealing with airports, car rentals, taxis, hotels, disruptions to your workout schedule, time away from friends/family, etc.Knowing a bit about yourself will definitely help you decide how much travel is too much for you.

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  • SEO effects of intermix of WP blog, custom PHP site and FB app game

    - by melbournetechlover
    We're a melbourne tech company in the process of building a custom site in PHP. We plan to launch a "pre-launch" page which is also custom coded (CSS3 on twitter bootstrap framework + HTML5 front end and PHP back end). On that site will be a link to a blog - the idea behind this is to build up ranking for a variety of relevant keywords prior to the full site going live (given the majority of the site is a member only community anyway so the blog is really the main way we'll be able to execute on-site SEO. Ideally, we would like to install wordpress in a subdirectory on our servers and just customise the header to look the same as the landing page of the website. But some questions and concerns... Is there any detrimental effect on SEO efforts in having two separate systems (one custom PHP, the other an installation of wordpress) to manage the blog vs the rest of the site? Are there any benefits or detriments to installing on a sub domain such as blog.sitename.com vs. sitename.com/blog. My preference would be sitename.com/blog as it feels neater - but open to suggestions based on knowledge of Google preferences. Separately, we are building a Facebook app which is under another site name. Again because we are launching this app first, from an SEO perspective, would it actually be better to run it from a sub domain on the main site - e.g. gamename.mainsitename.com instead of on app.gamename.com? Currently we have it on app.gamename.com, but if there are SEO benefits to moving it to the other domain and server then we'll do it. Basically we don't want to have our SEO efforts divided - will Google algorithms prefer two sites heavily referring traffic, or is it better to focus our efforts on one. I guess that's the crux of the issue. But the other one is - does Google care about traffic accessing a page built for the Facebook app iFrame - does that count toward rankings? Sorry I hope these questions aren't too complex - but we're in the tech world every day and still can't seem to find a good answer to these ones...hence I'm taking to the forums!! Free beer for whoever can give me a solid answer!

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  • How to be successful at BDD Specifications Workshops?

    - by sigo
    Today we tried to introduce BDD in our software development process by having a specification workshop. For this workshop we had 2 developers, 1 tester and 1 business analyst. The workshop lasted 1h30 and by the end of it we managed to figure out some BDD scenarios for our new feature. We tried to focus on finding the scenarios that we could miss, and the difficult ones. At the end of the workshop some people were actually unhappy with the workshop. One developer felt he wasted his time as he was used to be given out the scenarios directly by the business analyst and review them with her. The business analyst didn't feel confident with our scenario coverage (Had a feeling that we could have missed out other important stuff) but more importantly felt that this workshop was also a waste of time as she could have figured out all these scenarios by herself and in a shorter period of time. So my question is how that kind of workshop can actually work. In the theory, given you have a new feature to develop, you put the tree 'amigos' (dev/tester/ba) in the same room so that they can collaborate together on writing the differents requirements for the new feature using examples. I can see all the benefits from that. Specially in term of knowledge sharing and common product/end goal/done vision. But in practice, we still think it is more cost effective to first have a BA to work on his own on the examples and only then to have the scenarios to be reviewed/reworked by the 3 'amigos'. By having the BA to work on his own, we actually feel more confident that we are less going to miss out stuff + we still get to review the scenarios afterward to double check. We don't think than simple brainstorming/deliberate discovery is actually enought to seriously cover all the requirement for a feature. The business analyst is actually the best person for that kind of stuff. The thing we just do is to review what she wrote and see if then we have a common understanding (which could then lead to rewrite some of her scenarios or add new ones she could have missed). This workshop lasted 1h30, and by the end of it, we didn't feel confident enought about wha we did...sure we could have spent more time on it but honestly most people get exhausted after 1h30 of brainstorming. So how can you get that to work effectively in practice ?

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  • Problem Solving vs. Solution Finding

    - by ryanabr
    By enlarge, most developers fall into these two camps I will try to explain what I mean by way of example. A manager gives the developer a task that is communicated like this: “Figure out why control A is not loading on this form”. Now, right there it could be argued that the manager should probably have given better direction and said something more like: “Control A is not loading on the Form, fix it”. They might sound like the same thing to most people, but the first statement will have the developer problem solving the reason why it is failing. The second statement should have the developer looking for the solution to make it work, not focus on why it is broken. In the end, they might be the same thing, but I usually see the first approach take way longer than the second approach. The Problem Solver: The problem solver’s approach to fixing something that is broken is likely to take the error or behavior that is being observed and start to research it using a tool like Google, or any other search engine. 7/10 times this will yield results for the most common of issues. The challenge is in the other 30% of issues that will take the problem solver down the rabbit hole and cause them not to surface for days on end while every avenue is explored for the cause of the problem. In the end, they will probably find the cause of the issue and resolve it, but the cost can be days, or weeks of work. The Solution Finder: The solution finder’s approach to a problem will begin the same way the Problem Solver’s approach will. The difference comes in the more difficult cases. Rather than stick to the pure “This has to work so I am going to work with it until it does” approach, the Solution Finder will look for other ways to get the requirements satisfied that may or may not be using the original approach. For example. there are two area of an application of externally equivalent features, meaning that from a user’s perspective, the behavior is the same. So, say that for whatever reason, area A is now not working, but area B is working. The Problem Solver will dig in to see why area A is broken, where the Solution Finder will investigate to see what is the difference between the two areas and solve the problem by potentially working around it. The other notable difference between the two types of developers described is what point they reach before they re-emerge from their task. The problem solver will likely emerge with a triumphant “I have found the problem” where as the Solution Finder will emerge with the more useful “I have the solution”. Conclusion At the end of the day, users are what drives features in software development. With out users there is no need for software. In todays world of software development with so many tools to use, and generally tight schedules I believe that a work around to a problem that takes 8 hours vs. the more pure solution to the problem that takes 40 hours is a more fruitful approach.

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  • How to make sprint planning fun

    - by Jacob Spire
    Not only are our sprint planning meetings not fun, they're downright dreadful. The meetings are tedious, and boring, and take forever (a day, but it feels like a lot longer). The developers complain about it, and dread upcoming plannings. Our routine is pretty standard (user story inserted into sprint backlog by priority story is taken apart to tasks tasks are estimated in hours repeat), and I can't figure out what we're doing wrong. How can we make the meetings more enjoyable? ... Some more details, in response to requests for more information: Why are the backlog items not inserted and prioritized before sprint kickoff? User stories are indeed prioritized; we have no idea how long they'll take until we break them down into tasks! From the (excellent) answers here, I see that maybe we shouldn't estimate tasks at all, only the user stories. The reason we estimate tasks (and not stories) is because we've been getting story-estimates terribly wrong -- but I guess that's the subject for an altogether different question. Why are developers complaining? Meetings are long. Meetings are monotonous. Story after story, task after task, struggling (yes, struggling) to estimate how long it will take and what it involves. Estimating tasks makes user-story-estimation seem pointless. The longer the meeting, the less focus in the room. The less focused colleagues are, the longer the meeting takes. A recursive hate-spiral develops. We've considered splitting the meeting into two days in order to keep people focused, but the developers wouldn't hear of it. One day of planning is bad enough; now we'll have two?! Part of our problem is that we go into very small detail (in order to get more accurate estimations). But when we estimate roughly, we go way off the mark! To sum up the question: What are we doing wrong? What additional ways are there to make the meeting generally more enjoyable?

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  • Multi-Part Map Troubleshooting

    - by Michael Stephenson
    Scenario I came across a nice little one with multi-part maps the other day. I had an orchestration where I needed to combine 4 input messages into one output message like in the below table:   Input Messages Output Messages Company Details Member Details Event Message Member Search Member Import   I thought my orchestration was working fine but for some reason when I was trying to send my message it had no content under the root node like below <ns0:ImportMemberChange xmlns:ns0="http://---------------/"></ns0:ImportMemberChange>   My map is displayed in the below picture. I knew that the member search message may not have any elements under it but its root element would always exist. The rest of the messages were expected to be fully populated. I tried a number of different things and testing my map outside of the orchestration it always worked fine. The Eureka Moment The eureka moment came when I was looking at the xslt produced by the map. Even though I'd tried swapping the order of the messages in the input of the map you can see in the below picture that the first part of the processing of the message (with the red circle around it) is doing a for-each over the GetCompanyDetailsResult element within the GetCompanyDetailsResponse message. This is because the processing is driven by the output message format and the first element to output is the OrganisationID which comes from the GetCompanyDetailsResponse message. At this point I could focus my attention on this message as the xslt shows that if this xpath statement doesn’t return the an element from the GetCompanyDetailsResponse message then the whole body of the output message will not be produced and the output from the map would look like the message I was getting. <ns0:ImportMemberChange xmlns:ns0="http://---------------/"></ns0:ImportMemberChange> I was quickly able to prove this in my map test which proved this was a likely candidate for the problem. I revisited the orchestration focusing on the creation of the GetCompanyDetailsResponse message and there was actually a bug in the orchestration which resulted in the message being incorrectly created, once this was fixed everything worked as expected. Conclusion Originally I thought it was a problem with the map itself, and looking online there wasn’t really much in the way of content around troubleshooting for multi-part map problems so I thought I'd write this up. I guess technically it isn't a multi-part map problem, but I spend a good couple of hours the other day thinking it was.

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  • Complete Beginner to Game Programming and Unreal Engine 4, Looking For Advice [on hold]

    - by onemic
    I am currently a 2nd year programming student(Just finished my first year so I will be starting my second year in September) and have mainly learned C and C++ in my classes. In terms of what I know of C++, I know about general inheritance, polymorphism, overloading operators, iterators, a little bit about templates(only class and function templates) etc. but not of the more advanced topics like linked lists and other sequential containers(containers in general I guess), enumerations, most of the standard library(other than like strings and vectors), and probably a bunch of other stuff I dont even know about yet. I subscribed to Unreal Engine 4 as I was very intrigued by their Unreal Tournament announcement earlier this month, especially after hearing that UE4 is going completely C++. Of course my end goal in doing this programming program is to eventually go into game/graphics programming. Since it's my summer off, I thought what better way then to actually apply some of my skills to a personal project so I actually have a firmer understanding of C++ past what my professors tell me. My questions are this: What would be the best way to start off making a small personal game in UE4 as a project for the summer? What should I be aiming for, especially for someone that is still learning C++? Should I focus on making a simple 2D game rather than a 3D one to get started? Seeing the Flappy Chicken showcase intrigued me because before I thought the UE engine was pretty much pigeonholed into being for FPS games What should my expectations be going into UE4 and a game engine for the first time?(UE4 will be my first foray into making a game) What can I expect to gain from making things in UE4, in terms of making games and in terms of further fleshing out my knowledge of C++? Would you recommend I start off 100% using C++ for scripting or using the visual blueprints? Since I'm not a designer, how would I be able to add objects and designs to my game? For someone at my level is retaining the UE4 subscription worth it or is it better to cancel and resub when I learn enough about UE4 and C++? Lastly is there anything to be gained in terms of knowledge/insight through me looking at the source code for UE4? I opened it in VS2013, but noticed that most of the files were C# files and not cpp's. Thanks in advance for taking the time to answer.

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  • Where does a "Technical Programmer" fit in, and what does the title mean? [closed]

    - by Mike E
    Was: "What is a 'Technical Programmer'"? I've noticed in job posting boards a few postings, all from European companies in the games industry, for a "Technical Programmer". The job description was similar, having to do with tools development, 3d graphics programming, etc. It seems to be somewhere between a Technical Artist who's more technical than artist or who can code, and a Technical Director but perhaps without the seniority/experience. Information elsewhere on the position is sparse. The title seems redundant and I haven't seen any American companies post jobs by that name, exactly. One example is this job posting on gamedev.net which isn't exactly thorough. In case the link dies: Subject: Technical Programmer Frictional Games, the creators of Amnesia: The Dark Descent and the Penumbra series, are looking for a talented programmer to join the company! You will be working for a small team with a big focus on finding new and innovating solutions. We want you who are not afraid to explore uncharted territory and constantly learn new things. Self-discipline and independence are also important traits as all work will be done from home. Some the things you will work with include: 3D math, rendering, shaders and everything else related. Console development (most likely Xbox 360). Hardware implementations (support for motion controls, etc). All coding is in C++, so great skills in that is imperative. Revised Summarised Question: So, where does a programmer of this nature fit in to software development team? If I had these on my team, what tasks am I expecting them to complete? Can I ask one to build a new level editor, or optimize the rendering engine? It doesn't seem to be a "tools programmer" which focuses on producing artist tools, often in high-level languages like C#, Python, or Java. Nor does it seem to be working directly on the engine, nor a graphics programmer, as such. Yet, a strong C++ requirement, which was mirrored in other postings besides this one I quoted. Edited To Add As far as it being a low-level programmer, I had considered that but lacking from the posting was a requirement of Assembly. Instead, they tend to require familiarity with higher-level hardware APIs such as DirectX, or DirectInput. I wasn't fully clear in my original post. I think, however, that Mathew Foscarini has it right in his answer, so barring someone who definitely works with or as a "Technical Programmer" stepping in to provide a clearer explanation, I'll go with that. A generalist, which also fits the description of a more-technical-than-artist TA.

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  • Ubuntu 12.4.1 failing in vm both Vbox and Vmware on new HP Envy 4t-1000

    - by Chas
    Brand new to Linux, getting frustrated trying to get an environment up with Ubuntu. My primary goal is to learn Linux and Apache/PHP development. I need to keep my Windows OS as main on my machine for work, so i'm trying to virtualize Ubuntu 12.4.1 without luck (many attempts). I have a new HP Envy 4t-1000 with 16gb ram, and 32 gb ssd caching with 500gb spindle hard drive. Graphics card is an Intel HD 3000 with AMD Radeon 7670M. With installing Ubuntu desktop in VBox, I'm getting this result: https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=51939 With VMware workstation 7 (patched), I complete the install of Ubuntu, it reboots, purple desktop briefly flashes then it drops to command line. I bought a beginning Ubuntu book, and it recommends trying to manually configure graphics if this happens. So I tried doing a safe boot holding shift - I get to the first screen (GRUB) loads fine, and I choose recovery mode. After choosing the recovery mode, I get the recovery mode options, and can arrow down to what the book suggests 'Run in fail safe graphic mode.' Once I select this option, I get a black screen with a large white dialogue box, at the top it says "The system is running in low-graphics mode. Your screen, graphics card, and input device settings could not be detected correctly. You will need to configure these yourself." Then there is an ok button way down at the bottom. When I select 'ok' I get a menu for a few options, book recommended 'reconfigure graphics.' When I try this, I get a menu of two options: 1) "Use generic (default) configuration or 2) use backup. I've tried both options several times, hitting ok just refreshes screen and nothing more. Rebooting at this point just goes back to command line as before. I don't know what to do at this point, I've spent too many hours this weekend trying in both VBox and VMware to get Ubuntu going. Isn't there like a very basic graphic display or something I can use to at least get into the desktop? I explored the GRUB some more, and tried to look at the startup and xserver logs - both are blank. No help there I guess? When I try to choose 'Edit the configuration file, then 'ok' screen just refreshes on same menu options, nothing happens. thx for any advice. I really need to focus on learning Linux, Apache and PHP, so perhaps Ubuntu just won't work on my hardware? Any other suggestions? I will need to virtualize - THANKS for any help/advice.

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  • The difference

    So with the CTP tools available, weve been building a few apps, just to get a feel for the tools and whats supported in the framework.  Whats been great is that everything is fairly familiar and consistent, largely to do with the .net framework and Microsofts focus on providing good tools.  Weve produced mobile applications, mostly in concept form, for Windows Phone Classic, iPhone and Android but never so quickly and not of such high quality and visual impression.  I attribute some of this obviously to our familiarity to the Microsoft platform and tools.  Though when you look at the designs our team has produced, it becomes clear that this is not just another mobile application container.                                                            The Metro design language implores content prominence with fluid motion and transitions, with a crisp font and easily organized features and services placement.  In addition to a purposeful right edge tease, where the intent is for users to discover new premium content and services.   The concept that enables this is called hubs, building application with hubs changes your thinking from a single mobile application task, to thinking creatively about a mobile experience. Its engaging to think of the other brands and industry verticals that will take advantage of this core feature.  Combine this with Windows Phone 7 live tiles, more on that later, and you have a recipe for a solid mobile services platform.                                                              This so much more fun and liberating than my icon on a gridDid you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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  • How to be successfull at BDD Specifications Workshops?

    - by sigo
    Today we tried to introduce BDD in our software development process by having a specification workshop. For this workshop we had 2 developers, 1 tester and 1 business analyst. The workshop lasted 1h30 and by the end of it we managed to figure out some BDD scenarios for our new feature. We tried to focus on finding the scenarios that we could miss, and the difficult ones. At the end of the workshop some people were actually unhappy with the workshop. One developer felt he wasted his time as he was used to be given out the scenarios directly by the business analyst and review them with her. The business analyst didn't feel confident with our scenario coverage (Had a feeling that we could have missed out other important stuff) but more importantly felt that this workshop was also a waste of time as she could have figured out all these scenarios by herself and in a shorter period of time. So my question is how that kind of workshop can actually work. In the theory, given you have a new feature to develop, you put the tree 'amigos' (dev/tester/ba) in the same room so that they can collaborate together on writing the differents requirements for the new feature using examples. I can see all the benefits from that. Specially in term of knowledge sharing and common product/end goal/done vision. But in practice, we still think it is more cost effective to first have a BA to work on his own on the examples and only then to have the scenarios to be reviewed/reworked by the 3 'amigos'. By having the BA to work on his own, we actually feel more confident that we are less going to miss out stuff + we still get to review the scenarios afterward to double check. We don't think than simple brainstorming/deliberate discovery is actually enought to seriously cover all the requirement for a feature. The business analyst is actually the best person for that kind of stuff. The thing we just do is to review what she wrote and see if then we have a common understanding (which could then lead to rewrite some of her scenarios or add new ones she could have missed). This workshop lasted 1h30, and by the end of it, we didn't feel confident enought about wha we did...sure we could have spent more time on it but honestly most people get exhausted after 1h30 of brainstorming. So how can you get that to work effectively in practice ?

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  • Can Anything be Done to Make Improv (a 1993 Win 3.1 App) handle larger Files?

    - by user75185
    My very favorite spradsheet is Improv, a 1993 Windows 3.1 application. It still puts Excel to shame for building spreadsheets and writing formulas. The only problem is because Improv was written when 1 Meg of RAM was state of the art, it becomes unstable when working with larger spreadsheets and often crashes and/or corrupts the data file. I am working on a project that greatly exceeds Improv's limits. Although it will ultimately require more robust databasing capability, I could save a lot of critical time if I could delay that headache and continue working in Improv for now. To that end, I moved to the only product I could find that comes close, Quantrix, which is nothing more than Improv updated to handle large spreadsheets and utilize today's technologies. The problems with Quantrix are its speed (significantly slower than Improv) and its $1000 price (which I cannot afford). I have already had 3 15 day extensions after the initial 30 day trial, so my time to use Quantrix as a bridge is at its end. Searches for Improv over the years have gotten me nowhere and, not surprisingly after reading some posts on this site, I got nothing for the money and time invested to find a programmer to write code to "fix" this problem. Improv is freely available as "abandonware" at http://vetusware.com/download/LotusImprov2.1/?id=5797 , and the best background info can be found on Wikipedia and at "Moose's Greatest Software Products of All Time - Lotus Improv" http://moosevalley.fhost.com.au/mooses_review_page_lotus_improv.html It is critically urgent for me to focus on analyzing the data asap. Working in a stable Improv would, without question, be the fastest route. To that end, I am looking for answers to the following questions and anything else that might be helpful: 1) Is it lawful to hire someone to fix Improv for my own use? If so, 2) About how much should it cost? 3) About how long should it take? 4) What skills should I be looking for &/or how should a post be worded? 5) Is there a niche site where it should it be posted? 6) What questions can I ask to quickly screen candidates? Since I am not a programmer, I need questions the answers to which leave no room to confuse me, whether intentional or not. For example, what tools or players should someone with an acceptable competency level have knowledge of?

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  • Testing and Validation – You Really Do Have The Time

    - by BuckWoody
    One of the great advantages in my role as a Technical Specialist here at Microsoft is that I get to work with so many great clients. I get to see their environments and how they use them, and the way they work with SQL Server. I’ve been a data professional myself for many years. Over that time I’ve worked with many database platforms, lots of client applications, and written a lot of code in many industries. For a while I was also a consultant, so I got to see how other shops did things as well. But because I now focus on a “set” base of clients (over 500 professionals in over 150 companies) I get to see them over a longer period of time. Many of them help me understand how they use the product in their projects, and I even attend some DBA regular meetings. I see the way the product succeeds, and I see when it fails. Something that has really impacted my way of thinking is the level of importance any given shop is able to place on testing and validation. I’ve always been a big proponent of setting up a test system and following a very disciplined regimen to make sure it will work in production for any new projects, and then taking the lessons learned into production as standards. I know, I know – there’s never enough time to do things right like this. Yet the shops I see that do it have the same level of work that they output as the shops that don’t. They just make the time to do the testing and validation and create a standard that they will follow in production. And what I’ve found (surprise surprise) is that they have fewer production problems. OK, that might seem obvious – but I’ve actually tracked it and those places that do the testing and best practices really do save stress, time and trouble from that effort. We all think that’s a good idea, but we just “don’t have time”. OK – but from what I’m seeing, you can gain time if you spend a little up front. You may find that you’re actually already spending the same amount of time that you would spend in doing the testing, you’re just doing it later, at night, under the gun. Food for thought.  Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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  • Response: Agile's Second Chasm

    - by Malcolm Anderson
    William Pietri over at Agile Focus has written an interesting article entitled, "Agile’s Second Chasm (and how we fell in)" in which he talks about how agile development has fallen into a common trap where large companies are now spending a lot of money hiring agile (Scrum) consultants just so that they can say they are agile, but all the while avoiding any change that is required by Scrum.   It echoes the questions that I've been asking for a while, "Can a fortune 500 company actually do agile development?"  I'm starting to think that the answer is "usually not"   William ask 3 questions at the end of his article that I will answer here.   1) Have I seen agile development brought in and then preemptively customized (read: made into ScrummerFall)?   Yes, Scrum is hard and disruptive.  It's a spotlight on company dysfunction.  In a low trust environment like most fortune 500 companies Scrum will be subverted by anyone who has ever seen "transparency" translate into someone being laid off.   2) If I had to do it all over again, would I change anything?  No, this is a natural progression, but the agile principles are powerful enough, that the companies that don't adopt them will no longer be competitive and will start to fail.   3) Is this situation solvable?  I think it is.  I think that one of the issues is that you often see companies implementing Scrum, but avoiding the agile engineering practices.  I believe that you cannot do one without the other.  Scrum keeps the ship sailing in smooth deep waters.  The agile engineering practices keep the engine running smoothly and cleanly.  If you implement agile engineering practices without Scrum, you run the risk of ending up with a great running piece of software that is useful to no one.  On the other hand, implementing cargo-cult Scrum without the agile engineering practices and you end up (especially in a fortune 500 company) being steered in the right direction, but with your development practices coming to a dead halt because you have code that can not keep up with the changes in requirements.   If you are trying to do Scrum, make sure that you hire some agile engineering coaches, or else you may find your deveolpment engines grinding to a dead halt in the middle of the open ocean.

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  • How to set up an rsync backup to Ubuntu securely?

    - by ws_e_c421
    I have been following various other tutorials and blog posts on setting up a Ubuntu machine as a backup "server" (I'll call it a server, but it's just running Ubuntu desktop) that I push new files to with rsync. Right now, I am able to connect to the server from my laptop using rsync and ssh with an RSA key that I created and no password prompt when my laptop is connected to my home router that the server is also connected to. I would like to be able to send files from my laptop when I am away from home. Some of the tutorials I have looked at had some brief suggestions about security, but they didn't focus on them. What do I need to do to let my laptop with send files to the server without making it too easy for someone else to hack into the server? Here is what I have done so far: Ran ssh-keygen and ssh-copy-id to create a key pair for my laptop and server. Created a script on the server to write its public ip address to a file, encrypt the file, and upload to an ftp server I have access to (I know I could sign up for a free dynamic DNS account for this part, but since I have the ftp account and don't really need to make the ip publicly accessible I thought this might be better). Here are the things I have seen suggested: Port forwarding: I know I need to assign the server a fixed ip address on the router and then tell the router to forward a port or ports to it. Should I just use port 22 or choose a random port and use that? Turn on the firewall (ufw). Will this do anything, or will my router already block everything except the port I want? Run fail2ban. Are all of those things worth doing? Should I do anything else? Could I set up the server to allow connections with the RSA key only (and not with a password), or will fail2ban provide enough protection against malicious connection attempts? Is it possible to limit the kinds of connections the server allows (e.g. only ssh)? I hope this isn't too many questions. I am pretty new to Ubuntu (but use the shell and bash scripts on OSX). I don't need to have the absolute most secure set up. I'd like something that is reasonably secure without being so complicated that it could easily break in a way that would be hard for me to fix.

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  • Why shouldn't I be using public variables in my Java class?

    - by Omega
    In school, I've been told many times to stop using public for my variables. I haven't asked why yet. This question: Are Java's public fields just a tragic historical design flaw at this point? seems kinda related to this. However, they don't seem to discuss why is it "wrong", but instead focus on how can they use them instead. Look at this (unfinished) class: public class Reporte { public String rutaOriginal; public String rutaNueva; public int bytesOriginales; public int bytesFinales; public float ganancia; /** * Constructor para objetos de la clase Reporte */ public Reporte() { } } No need to understand Spanish. All this class does is hold some statistics (those public fields) and then do some operations with them (later). I will also need to be modifying those variables often. But well, since I've been told not to use public, this is what I ended up doing: public class Reporte { private String rutaOriginal; private String rutaNueva; private int bytesOriginales; private int bytesFinales; private float ganancia; /** * Constructor para objetos de la clase Reporte */ public Reporte() { } public String getRutaOriginal() { return rutaOriginal; } public String getRutaNueva() { return rutaNueva; } public int getBytesOriginales() { return bytesOriginales; } public int getBytesFinales() { return bytesFinales; } public float getGanancia() { return ganancia; } public void setRutaOriginal(String rutaOriginal) { this.rutaOriginal = rutaOriginal; } public void setRutaNueva(String rutaNueva) { this.rutaNueva = rutaNueva; } public void setBytesOriginales(int bytesOriginales) { this.bytesOriginales = bytesOriginales; } public void setBytesFinales(int bytesFinales) { this.bytesFinales = bytesFinales; } public void setGanancia(float ganancia) { this.ganancia = ganancia; } } Looks kinda pretty. But seems like a waste of time. Google searches about "When to use public in Java" and "Why shouldn't I use public in Java" seem to discuss about a concept of mutability, although I'm not really sure how to interpret such discussions. I do want my class to be mutable - all the time.

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  • datagrid binding

    - by abcdd007
    using System; using System.Data; using System.Configuration; using System.Collections; using System.Web; using System.Web.Security; using System.Web.UI; using System.Web.UI.WebControls; using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts; using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls; using System.Data.SqlClient; public partial class OrderMaster : System.Web.UI.Page { BLLOrderMaster objMaster = new BLLOrderMaster(); protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) { if (!Page.IsPostBack) { SetInitialRow(); string OrderNumber = objMaster.SelectDetails().ToString(); if (OrderNumber != "") { txtOrderNo.Text = OrderNumber.ToString(); txtOrderDate.Focus(); } } } private void InsertEmptyRow() { DataTable dt = new DataTable(); DataRow dr = null; dt.Columns.Add(new DataColumn("ItemCode", typeof(string))); dt.Columns.Add(new DataColumn("Description", typeof(string))); dt.Columns.Add(new DataColumn("Unit", typeof(string))); dt.Columns.Add(new DataColumn("Qty", typeof(string))); dt.Columns.Add(new DataColumn("Rate", typeof(string))); dt.Columns.Add(new DataColumn("Disc", typeof(string))); dt.Columns.Add(new DataColumn("Amount", typeof(string))); for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) { dr = dt.NewRow(); dr["ItemCode"] = string.Empty; dr["Description"] = string.Empty; dr["Unit"] = string.Empty; dr["Qty"] = string.Empty; dr["Rate"] = string.Empty; dr["Disc"] = string.Empty; dr["Amount"] = string.Empty; dt.Rows.Add(dr); } //GridView1.DataSource = dt; //GridView1.DataBind(); } private void SetInitialRow() { DataTable dt = new DataTable(); DataRow dr = null; dt.Columns.Add(new DataColumn("RowNumber", typeof(string))); dt.Columns.Add(new DataColumn("ItemCode", typeof(string))); dt.Columns.Add(new DataColumn("Description", typeof(string))); dt.Columns.Add(new DataColumn("Unit", typeof(string))); dt.Columns.Add(new DataColumn("Qty", typeof(string))); dt.Columns.Add(new DataColumn("Rate", typeof(string))); dt.Columns.Add(new DataColumn("Disc", typeof(string))); dt.Columns.Add(new DataColumn("Amount", typeof(string))); dr = dt.NewRow(); dr["RowNumber"] = 1; dr["ItemCode"] = string.Empty; dr["Description"] = string.Empty; dr["Unit"] = string.Empty; dr["Qty"] = string.Empty; dr["Rate"] = string.Empty; dr["Disc"] = string.Empty; dr["Amount"] = string.Empty; dt.Rows.Add(dr); //Store DataTable ViewState["OrderDetails"] = dt; Gridview1.DataSource = dt; Gridview1.DataBind(); } protected void AddNewRowToGrid() { int rowIndex = 0; if (ViewState["OrderDetails"] != null) { DataTable dtCurrentTable = (DataTable)ViewState["OrderDetails"]; DataRow drCurrentRow = null; if (dtCurrentTable.Rows.Count > 0) { for (int i = 1; i <= dtCurrentTable.Rows.Count; i++) { //extract the TextBox values TextBox box1 = (TextBox)Gridview1.Rows[rowIndex].Cells[1].FindControl("txtItemCode"); TextBox box2 = (TextBox)Gridview1.Rows[rowIndex].Cells[2].FindControl("txtdescription"); TextBox box3 = (TextBox)Gridview1.Rows[rowIndex].Cells[3].FindControl("txtunit"); TextBox box4 = (TextBox)Gridview1.Rows[rowIndex].Cells[4].FindControl("txtqty"); TextBox box5 = (TextBox)Gridview1.Rows[rowIndex].Cells[5].FindControl("txtRate"); TextBox box6 = (TextBox)Gridview1.Rows[rowIndex].Cells[6].FindControl("txtdisc"); TextBox box7 = (TextBox)Gridview1.Rows[rowIndex].Cells[7].FindControl("txtamount"); drCurrentRow = dtCurrentTable.NewRow(); drCurrentRow["RowNumber"] = i + 1; drCurrentRow["ItemCode"] = box1.Text; drCurrentRow["Description"] = box2.Text; drCurrentRow["Unit"] = box3.Text; drCurrentRow["Qty"] = box4.Text; drCurrentRow["Rate"] = box5.Text; drCurrentRow["Disc"] = box6.Text; drCurrentRow["Amount"] = box7.Text; rowIndex++; } //add new row to DataTable dtCurrentTable.Rows.Add(drCurrentRow); //Store the current data to ViewState ViewState["OrderDetails"] = dtCurrentTable; //Rebind the Grid with the current data Gridview1.DataSource = dtCurrentTable; Gridview1.DataBind(); } } else { // } //Set Previous Data on Postbacks SetPreviousData(); } private void SetPreviousData() { int rowIndex = 0; if (ViewState["OrderDetails"] != null) { DataTable dt = (DataTable)ViewState["OrderDetails"]; if (dt.Rows.Count > 0) { for (int i = 1; i < dt.Rows.Count; i++) { TextBox box1 = (TextBox)Gridview1.Rows[rowIndex].Cells[1].FindControl("txtItemCode"); TextBox box2 = (TextBox)Gridview1.Rows[rowIndex].Cells[2].FindControl("txtdescription"); TextBox box3 = (TextBox)Gridview1.Rows[rowIndex].Cells[3].FindControl("txtunit"); TextBox box4 = (TextBox)Gridview1.Rows[rowIndex].Cells[4].FindControl("txtqty"); TextBox box5 = (TextBox)Gridview1.Rows[rowIndex].Cells[5].FindControl("txtRate"); TextBox box6 = (TextBox)Gridview1.Rows[rowIndex].Cells[6].FindControl("txtdisc"); TextBox box7 = (TextBox)Gridview1.Rows[rowIndex].Cells[7].FindControl("txtamount"); box1.Text = dt.Rows[i]["ItemCode"].ToString(); box2.Text = dt.Rows[i]["Description"].ToString(); box3.Text = dt.Rows[i]["Unit"].ToString(); box4.Text = dt.Rows[i]["Qty"].ToString(); box5.Text = dt.Rows[i]["Rate"].ToString(); box6.Text = dt.Rows[i]["Disc"].ToString(); box7.Text = dt.Rows[i]["Amount"].ToString(); rowIndex++; } dt.AcceptChanges(); } ViewState["OrderDetails"] = dt; } } protected void BindOrderDetails() { DataTable dtOrderDetails = new DataTable(); if (ViewState["OrderDetails"] != null) { dtOrderDetails = (DataTable)ViewState["OrderDetails"]; } else { dtOrderDetails.Columns.Add(""); dtOrderDetails.Columns.Add(""); dtOrderDetails.Columns.Add(""); dtOrderDetails.Columns.Add(""); dtOrderDetails.Columns.Add(""); dtOrderDetails.Columns.Add(""); dtOrderDetails.AcceptChanges(); DataRow dr = dtOrderDetails.NewRow(); dtOrderDetails.Rows.Add(dr); ViewState["OrderDetails"] = dtOrderDetails; } if (dtOrderDetails != null) { Gridview1.DataSource = dtOrderDetails; Gridview1.DataBind(); if (Gridview1.Rows.Count > 0) { ((LinkButton)Gridview1.Rows[Gridview1.Rows.Count - 1].FindControl("btnDelete")).Visible = false; } } } protected void btnSave_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { if (txtOrderDate.Text != "" && txtOrderNo.Text != "" && txtPartyName.Text != "" && txttotalAmount.Text !="") { BLLOrderMaster bllobj = new BLLOrderMaster(); DataTable dtdetails = new DataTable(); UpdateItemDetailRow(); dtdetails = (DataTable)ViewState["OrderDetails"]; SetValues(bllobj); int k = 0; k = bllobj.Insert_Update_Delete(1, bllobj, dtdetails); if (k > 0) { ScriptManager.RegisterStartupScript(this, this.GetType(), "Login Denied", "<Script>alert('Order Code Alraddy Exist');</Script>", false); } else { ScriptManager.RegisterStartupScript(this, this.GetType(), "Login Denied", "<Script>alert('Record Saved Successfully');</Script>", false); } dtdetails.Clear(); SetInitialRow(); txttotalAmount.Text = ""; txtOrderNo.Text = ""; txtPartyName.Text = ""; txtOrderDate.Text = ""; txttotalQty.Text = ""; string OrderNumber = objMaster.SelectDetails().ToString(); if (OrderNumber != "") { txtOrderNo.Text = OrderNumber.ToString(); txtOrderDate.Focus(); } } else { txtOrderNo.Text = ""; } } public void SetValues(BLLOrderMaster bllobj) { if (txtOrderNo.Text != null && txtOrderNo.Text.ToString() != "") { bllobj.OrNumber = Convert.ToInt16(txtOrderNo.Text); } if (txtOrderDate.Text != null && txtOrderDate.Text.ToString() != "") { bllobj.Date = DateTime.Parse(txtOrderDate.Text.ToString()).ToString("dd/MM/yyyy"); } if (txtPartyName.Text != null && txtPartyName.Text.ToString() != "") { bllobj.PartyName = txtPartyName.Text; } bllobj.TotalBillAmount = txttotalAmount.Text == "" ? 0 : int.Parse(txttotalAmount.Text); bllobj.TotalQty = txttotalQty.Text == "" ? 0 : int.Parse(txttotalQty.Text); } protected void txtdisc_TextChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) { double total = 0; double totalqty = 0; foreach (GridViewRow dgvr in Gridview1.Rows) { TextBox tb = (TextBox)dgvr.Cells[7].FindControl("txtamount"); double sum; if (double.TryParse(tb.Text.Trim(), out sum)) { total += sum; } TextBox tb1 = (TextBox)dgvr.Cells[4].FindControl("txtqty"); double qtysum; if (double.TryParse(tb1.Text.Trim(), out qtysum)) { totalqty += qtysum; } } txttotalAmount.Text = total.ToString(); txttotalQty.Text = totalqty.ToString(); AddNewRowToGrid(); Gridview1.TabIndex = 1; } public void UpdateItemDetailRow() { DataTable dt = new DataTable(); if (ViewState["OrderDetails"] != null) { dt = (DataTable)ViewState["OrderDetails"]; } if (dt.Rows.Count > 0) { for (int i = 0; i < Gridview1.Rows.Count; i++) { dt.Rows[i]["ItemCode"] = (Gridview1.Rows[i].FindControl("txtItemCode") as TextBox).Text.ToString(); if (dt.Rows[i]["ItemCode"].ToString() == "") { dt.Rows[i].Delete(); break; } else { dt.Rows[i]["Description"] = (Gridview1.Rows[i].FindControl("txtdescription") as TextBox).Text.ToString(); dt.Rows[i]["Unit"] = (Gridview1.Rows[i].FindControl("txtunit") as TextBox).Text.ToString(); dt.Rows[i]["Qty"] = (Gridview1.Rows[i].FindControl("txtqty") as TextBox).Text.ToString(); dt.Rows[i]["Rate"] = (Gridview1.Rows[i].FindControl("txtRate") as TextBox).Text.ToString(); dt.Rows[i]["Disc"] = (Gridview1.Rows[i].FindControl("txtdisc") as TextBox).Text.ToString(); dt.Rows[i]["Amount"] = (Gridview1.Rows[i].FindControl("txtamount") as TextBox).Text.ToString(); } } dt.AcceptChanges(); } ViewState["OrderDetails"] = dt; } }

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  • Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Drivers Missing Would Not Install?

    - by bleepzter
    I am building my dev machine with WS2008R2SP1. I consider Windows Server as the best development environment for C# since I tend to focus on server-centric (integration) applications. The desktop flavor of Windows (7) doesn't play nicely with things like Commerce Server or BizTalk... so I to like stick to the environment I develop for. Previously I used to develop inside of VM's but I've found that it is super inefficient and tends to take a toll on the laptops. (I've gone through two of them in 6 months). Problem is that I multiple devices that do not want to be recognized by Windows: My machine is Dell Precision M4500: Intel Core i7-Q740, 1TB HDD, 8GB RAM, Dell re-branded Broadcom DW1501 802x11n Half-Mini Card, Dell re-branded Broadcom DW375 Bluetooh Module, Intel 82577LM Gigabit Network connection NVidia Quadro FX1800 Graphics The devices in question are the Dell rebranded broadcom network and bluetooth adapters: Broadcom USH: USB\VID_0A5C&PID_5800&REV_0101&MI_00 USB\VID_0A5C&PID_5800&MI_00 DW375 Bluetooth Module USB\VID_413C&PID_8187&REV_0517 USB\VID_413C&PID_8187 When I ran the broadcom installers I get "Operating System not supported" which I think is a big oversight on Broadcom's part. Why check for system version string? UGHGHGH Moreover if I try to manually force the driver in windows... I get an error: Driver Management concluded the process to install driver FileRepository\btwampsecfl.inf_amd64_neutral_d8fc2b85d035ed47\btwampsecfl.inf for Device Instance ID USB\VID_0A5C&PID_5800&MI_00\7&66DE6C9&0&0000 with the following status: 0xe0000217. '- or - Driver Management concluded the process to install driver FileRepository\btwampfl.inf_amd64_neutral_d4c4acf036c61299\btwampfl.inf for Device Instance ID USB\VID_413C&PID_8187\90004EEEF5A6 with the following status: 0xe0000217. I googled the 0xe0000217 error code and it says Bad service install section in the driver inf file... Any ideas on how to fix this? I also tried the post by BetaIQ on MSDN Forum, unfortunately the links to the driver package included in the post were dead :( PS. On a side note I also do mobile development for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone, and BB. Having the bluetooth is quite useful with mobile devices.

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  • Advice on networking career

    - by fmysky
    Hello! I need some insights on a networking career. I have a valid CCNA and few months of experience as a Jr. network analyst. My focus is a type of job where I can administer networking/storage hardware and possibly managing servers/workstations too. I am new to this job area, specifically new to city like LA. I am currently unemployed and so, my question is: should I continue with my cisco certifications(routing/wireless) or other comptia certs or both to get a reliable job? I am really interested in CCNA wireless but watching craigslist(LA) and other job sites, it seems people need more cisco voice people. While, some others also ask for Net+ certs. I have scarce financial sources so, its better to make some good decisions. I have not been applying yet due to some personal problems but I will soon. Thank you! P.S. I don't know if I can ask questions like this here. Sorry about that.

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  • Is there any way to customize the Windows 7 taskbar auto-hide behavior? Delay activation? Timer?

    - by calbar
    I'm becoming increasingly frustrated with the way Windows 7 handles showing a hidden taskbar. It's incredibly over-eager to pop out and obscure what I'm really trying to interact with, requiring me to move the mouse away, wait for it to auto-hide again, then resume what I was doing but more deliberately. After closely examining the behavior, it appears that a hidden taskbar "peeks out" from the edge by 2 or 3 pixels, and slowly moving your mouse into this area activates it; you don't even need to touch the edge of the screen. I would love it if there was a way to customize or change this behavior. Ideally, the taskbar would only pop out if you are actively "pushing" the edge of the screen it is hidden on. So activation only occurs once you've reached the screens edge and continue to move the mouse past a customizable threshold. Alternatively, a simple activation delay would suffice as well. So only if the mouse remains in that 2-3 pixel area (a.k.a. on the taskbar) for greater than a customizable amount of time does it pop out again. This would only be a fraction of a second. Often times the cursor simply "careens" off the edge of the screen while trying to focus on something nearby. Anyway, if there are any registry settings or utilities that can achieve either of these effects, that would be great! Thanks for your help.

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  • How to completely disable laptop sound?

    - by Alvaro Rodriguez
    I have a HP Pavillion DV7 laptop with win 8 pro. The laptop has an unidentified problem with sound drivers or hardware that sometimes causes volume to constantly jiggle up and down. This is very annoying because of these consequences: Renders mute unusable - as the volume changes the sound unmutes automatically Causes an annoying win 8 "surface UI" notification to appear constantly in the upper left corner, which is distracting enough by itself, but more importantly Renders the whole "surface UI" unusable, because it loses focus whenever the sound changing notification appears When the jiggling happens, the laptop also loses the ability to redirect sound to earphones - sound comes out of the speakers even if earphones are connected. To solve these issues I want to completely disable sound in the laptop (I've tried reinstalling drivers several times to no end). I have tried disabling all sound related drivers and devices in the Device Manager but Windows re-enables those automatically whenever I restart the laptop. The BIOS doesn't have any settings to disable sound hardware either. Please don't suggest having the laptop sound serviced or fixed. It's not worth the expense. I just want to remove sound support so I can use it normally. It is very unusable as it is now.

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  • Lightweight Linux distro that includes developer tools? (or, the most BSD-like Linux)

    - by RevAaron
    I cut my teeth on Minix and Slackware 1.1, but I've been in the OS X Wilderness for the last few years. I'm trying to standardize on a Linux distribution for personal and work-related use on less powerful laptops and under virtualization. So far, NetBSD and OpenBSD are the best fit for my purposes- but after plenty of frustration I've come to the conclusion that I need to stick with Linux to get the hardware and software support that comes with it. What I like about NetBSD/OpenBSD that I'd like to keep: X, but no default KDE, GNOME or XFCE! A sensible /etc and dot file setup- startx calls xinit, xinit looks for ~/.xinitrc; nothing more complicated than that is needed. Command line tools and file-based configuration: I shouldn't need a GUI to connect to a WAP. Decent selection of binary packages; building from source is OK, but nothing source-only like Gentoo. pkg_add (BSD) and apt-get both have treated me well in the past. Modest RAM and HDD requirements: boot + X + awesome+ two xterms takes up 80 MB on OpenBSD and 240 MB on Debian 5 and Crunchbang In my experience, most "lightweight" and Live CDs focus on a nice desktop environment crammed into a CD or USB stick; once you add build-essentials you end up with something just about as bloated as Ubuntu or Debian full install. Crunchbang is a great example. Thanks in advance for all suggestions!

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