Search Results

Search found 23890 results on 956 pages for 'issue'.

Page 674/956 | < Previous Page | 670 671 672 673 674 675 676 677 678 679 680 681  | Next Page >

• Why does the login screen fail to appear?

  - by a different ben

  My system: Dell Precision T3500 nVidia Quadro NVS 295 Ubuntu 12.04 x86_64 (3.2.0-32) Essential problem: On boot my system won't get past the splash screen. I can switch to another virtual terminal and log in, I can also ssh from another system -- so it appears that the problem might be with the display manager. How can I diagnose and fix this problem? More info: From a VT I can issue sudo lightdm restart, and this will bring up the login screen and and I can continue from there. So I do have access to my system. Update-manager recently updated a number of packages, including a bunch of x11 and xorg packages, some nVidia drivers, rpcbind, etc etc. My boot log (if that is any guidance) says the following: fsck from util-linux 2.20.1 fsck from util-linux 2.20.1 fsck from util-linux 2.20.1 fsck from util-linux 2.20.1 rpcbind: Cannot open '/run/rpcbind/rpcbind.xdr' file for reading, errno 2 (No such file or directory) rpcbind: Cannot open '/run/rpcbind/portmap.xdr' file for reading, errno 2 (No such file or directory) /dev/sda1: clean, 597650/1525920 files, 3963433/6103296 blocks /dev/sda7: clean, 11/6406144 files, 450097/25608703 blocks /dev/sda5: clean, 158323/1525920 files, 1886918/6103296 blocks /dev/sda8: clean, 250089/107929600 files, 111088810/431689728 blocks Skipping profile in /etc/apparmor.d/disable: usr.bin.firefox Skipping profile in /etc/apparmor.d/disable: usr.sbin.rsyslogd * Starting AppArmor profiles [80G [74G[ OK ] Loading the saved-state of the serial devices... /dev/ttyS0 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A * Starting ClamAV virus database updater freshclam [80G [74G[ OK ] * Starting Name Service Cache Daemon nscd [80G [74G[ OK ] * Starting modem connection manager[74G[ OK ] * Starting K Display Manager[74G[ OK ] * Starting mDNS/DNS-SD daemon[74G[ OK ] * Stopping GNOME Display Manager[74G[ OK ] * Stopping K Display Manager[74G[ OK ] * Starting bluetooth daemon[74G[ OK ] * Starting network connection manager[74G[ OK ] * Starting Postfix Mail Transport Agent postfix [80G [74G[ OK ] speech-dispatcher disabled; edit /etc/default/speech-dispatcher * Starting VirtualBox kernel modules [80G [74G[ OK ] * Starting the Winbind daemon winbind [80G [74G[ OK ] saned disabled; edit /etc/default/saned * Starting anac(h)ronistic cron[74G[ OK ] * Stopping anac(h)ronistic cron[74G[ OK ] * Checking battery state... [80G [74G[ OK ] nxsensor is disabled in '/usr/NX/etc/node.cfg' Trying to start NX server: NX 122 Service started. NX 999 Bye. Trying to start NX statistics: NX 723 Cannot start NX statistics: NX 709 NX statistics are disabled for this server. NX 999 Bye. * Stopping System V runlevel compatibility[74G[ OK ] * Starting Mount network filesystems[74G[ OK ] * Stopping Mount network filesystems[74G[ OK ] * Stopping regular background program processing daemon[74G[ OK ] * Starting regular background program processing daemon[74G[ OK ] * Starting anac(h)ronistic cron[74G[ OK ] * Stopping anac(h)ronistic cron[74G[ OK ]

  Read the article

• PASS Summit Location follow up - result analysis

  - by simonsabin

  I've had a chance to look at the results directly and it is clear that there is a tough choice. On the one hand people are saying that they prefer to have PASS put their money into chapters and things like 24hrs of PASS rather than an event on the east coast. Whilst at the same time almost 50% more people said they would be more likely to attend an East Coast event than a Seattle event, and 60% more said they would be more likley to attend a US Central region event. Whats more 60% said that the summit should be outside of Seattle every other year with only 19% saying it should always stay in Seattle. So clearly there is a huge desire for a non Seattle event. Looking at the other reasons for keeping in Seattle and the big one being that people want Microsoft speakers. More people think its somewhat important of very important that the conference is in walking distance of the hotels and restaurants. Essentially the Q6 questions show an even balance for normal conference, highlighting that they are prepared to travel, not with the family and they want a well laid out conference. Whats very annoying is that the questions, as people have commented, were biased towards certain answers. For instance there was no option about whether people feel its important to have industry leading speakers, MVPs etc at the conference. Only questions about Microsoft speakers. I know survey writing is very difficult to avoid biasing the answers one way or another. There was also no choice to show peoples preference, would people prefer Microsoft speakers or the summit to be held on the East Coast/Central US. I also find it amazing that people prefer hundres of developers rather than the SQLCAT and CSS teams, surely that indicates another issue about a lack of understanding of what the these teams do. All in all it is clear that people showed they want an event outside of Seattle and don't want PASS to be putting money into that instead of into other community activites. I find it suprising that there appears to have been a huge weighting against certain questions which have prioritised them over the huge desire for a PASS summit outside of Seattle. Lets see where we will be in 2013 or maybe they will rethink 2012 who knows.

  Read the article

• Failed to start up after upgrading software in ubuntu 10.10

  - by Landy

  I asked this question in SuperUser one hour ago, then I know this community so I moved the question here... I've been running Ubuntu 10.10 in a physical x86-64 machine. Today Update Manager reminded me that there are some updates to install and I confirmed the action. I should had read the update list but I didn't. I can only remember there is an update about cups. After the upgrading, Update Manager requires a restart and I confirmed too. But after the restart, the computer can't start up. There are errors in the console. Begin: Running /scripts/init-premount ... done. Begin: Mounting root file system ... Begin: Running /scripts/local-top ... done. [xxx]usb 1-8: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 3 [xxx]usb 2-1: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 2 [xxx]hub 2-1:1.0: USB hub found [xxx]hub 2-1:1.0: 4 ports detected [xxx]usb 2-1.1: new low speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 3 Gave up waiting for root device. Common probles: - Boot args (cat /proc/cmdline) - Check rootdelay=(did the system wait long enough) - Check root= (did the system wait for the right device?) - Missing modules (cat /proc/modules; ls /dev) FATAL: Could not load /lib/modules/2.6.35-22-generic/modules.dep: No such file or directory FATAL: Could not load /lib/modules/2.6.35-22-generic/modules.dep: No such file or directory ALERT! /dev/sda1 does not exist. Dropping to a shell! BusyBox v1.15.3 (Ubuntu 1:1.15.3-1ubuntu5) built-in shell(ash) Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands. (initramfs)[cursor is here] At the moment, I can't input anything in the console. The keyboard doesn't work at all. What's wrong? How can I check boot args or "root=" as suggested? How can I fix this issue? Thanks. =============== PS1: the /dev/sda1 is type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev) PS2: the /dev/sda1 can be mounted and accessed successfully under SUSE 11 SP1 x64. PS3: From this link, I think the keyboard doesn't work because the USB driver is not loaded at that time.

  Read the article

• Bump mapping Problem GLSL

  - by jmfel1926

  I am having a slight problem with my Bump Mapping project. Although everything works OK (at least from what I know) there is a slight mistake somewhere and I get incorrect shading on the brick wall when the light goes to the one side or the other as seen in the picture below: The light is on the right side so the shading on the wall should be the other way. I have provided the shaders to help find the issue (I do not have much experience with shaders). Shaders: varying vec3 viewVec; varying vec3 position; varying vec3 lightvec; attribute vec3 tangent; attribute vec3 binormal; uniform vec3 lightpos; uniform mat4 cameraMat; void main() { gl_TexCoord[0] = gl_MultiTexCoord0; gl_Position = ftransform(); position = vec3(gl_ModelViewMatrix * gl_Vertex); lightvec = vec3(cameraMat * vec4(lightpos,1.0)) - position ; vec3 eyeVec = vec3(gl_ModelViewMatrix * gl_Vertex); viewVec = normalize(-eyeVec); } uniform sampler2D colormap; uniform sampler2D normalmap; varying vec3 viewVec; varying vec3 position; varying vec3 lightvec; vec3 vv; uniform float diffuset; uniform float specularterm; uniform float ambientterm; void main() { vv=viewVec; vec3 normals = normalize(texture2D(normalmap,gl_TexCoord[0].st).rgb * 2.0 - 1.0); normals.y = -normals.y; //normals = (normals * gl_NormalMatrix).xyz ; vec3 distance = lightvec; float dist_number =length(distance); float final_dist_number = 2.0/pow(dist_number,diffuset); vec3 light_dir=normalize(lightvec); vec3 Halfvector = normalize(light_dir+vv); float angle=max(dot(Halfvector,normals),0.0); angle= pow(angle,specularterm); vec3 specular=vec3(angle,angle,angle); float diffuseterm=max(dot(light_dir,normals),0.0); vec3 diffuse = diffuseterm * texture2D(colormap,gl_TexCoord[0].st).rgb; vec3 ambient = ambientterm *texture2D(colormap,gl_TexCoord[0].st).rgb; vec3 diffusefinal = diffuse * final_dist_number; vec3 finalcolor=diffusefinal+specular+ambient; gl_FragColor = vec4(finalcolor, 1.0); }

  Read the article

• Can't boot Ubuntu 12.10 graphics problem

  - by Frantumn

  I can't boot since installing Ubuntu 12.10 When I try to run Ubuntu My computer never gets to the Ubuntu screen with the loading dots. I tried to run in recovery mode with safe graphics (failsafex) When I do this a message pops up saying "the system is running in low graphics mode", If I click okay I am asked what would I like to do and am given four options. I tried running low graphics for one session and then a message appears with a progress bar and says standby one minute while the display restarts. The progress bar never moves and if I click okay the whole process just restarts. I Don't know what to do from here I can't get into the OS. I'm not sure whether the problem is related to compatibility with my laptop monitor or my graphic card nvidia360m I had to install using a safe graphics mode. To learn about how I installed see this link. This link also has information on my computer hardware. Can't install Ubuntu since 10.10 ----UPDATE--- I was able to get into a desktop environment By installing Nvidia-current however it is messy. I have a screen and I am able to see my desktop however there is no unity bar and none of the keyboard controls work. I can right click and create a folder on the desktop and then I can see inside that folder in a traditional browser window. There is still no top menu or unity bar. When I boot normally I don't get into the desktop environment and I get this message in tty 'GPU lockup switching to software FBCON' Okay, I've played around with tips the pages from comments. I've been able to consistantly get into a safemode desktop environment using the xorg & nouveau drivers. I've tried switching between the 5 different options in the Additional Drivers tab in Software Sources. The nVidia (proprietary, tested) driver gets beyond the GPU lockup on a normal boot and actually gets into a Desktop. The issue is then that there is no Unity bar, or top screen menu bar and the resolution is very low. I've tried switching to the (prop, tested) driver and then reinstalling Unity and Ubuntu-Desktop but that didn't work either.

  Read the article

• New computer hangs on shutdown/reboot, how to troubleshoot?

  - by Torben Gundtofte-Bruun

  My system is working perfectly but it freezes during shutdown/reboot/suspend/hibernate: All windows and the menu bar disappear but the desktop wallpaper remains. It doesn't even show the shutdown screen (the one with the animated dots) where I could hit ESC and watch the shutdown console text. The system is brand-new and fully updated using Update Manager. How can I determine what is causing the freeze? Is there a log I can investigate? How can I fix this? I see no obvious cause of the freeze. The only USB attachment is a mouse/keyboard; I don't have any external storage attached; and I don't have any programs running (the machine freezes even when doing shutdown right from the login screen). What I've tried so far: Based on other questions (this, this, and this) that suggest some ACPI settings, I've tried sudo shutdown -h now to see whether the shutdown console text display offers any hints, but the system doesn't even get that far - it still freezes while the screen shown the desktop background image, without any toolbars. Only sudo shutdown --force works, but that's not a solution. Editing the grub menu to add acpi=off to the kernel didn't help. I guess there's not much point in trying the other (lesser) ACPI suggestions? Adding noapic to the grub entry had no discernible effect. Adding nolapic instead did something (I had removed the quiet option) - the system managed to continue further with the shutdown, right until the line Checking for running unattended-upgrades: which were the last characters on the screen. I've also checked the system BIOS, especially regarding power options, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Switching the BIOS standby setting from S3 to S1 didn't help. The standby setting can't be disabled, and there are no other ACPI-related settings AFAIK. BIOS reset didn't help. Not surprised; hadn't changed anything. I tried going to a virtual console (CtrlAltF1) as suggested by djeikyb and from there did a shutdown -h now and it froze there too, after this console output. I didn't try killing processes one at a time because I'm still too newbie to figure out how to do that. Booting with kernel 2.6.35.22 rather than 2.6.35.25 didn't help. Disabling the Nvidia drivers didn't help. Booting from Live CD (USB stick in fact) didn't help; it freezes the same way. Booting from Live CD, with acpi=off noapic nolapic didn't help either. Neither did just nolapic. So evidently this is not some custom setting in my install, but some sort of basic issue. MemTest competed in 1 hour without errors.

  Read the article

• How do I know if I am using Scrum methodologies?

  - by Jake

  When I first started at my current job, my purpose was to rewrite a massive excel-VBA workbook-application to C# Winforms because it was thought that the new C# app will fix all existing problems and have all the new features for a perfect world. If it were a direct port, in theory it would be easy as i just need to go through all the formulas, conditional formatting, validations, VBA etc. to understand it. However, that was not the case. Many of the new features are tightly dependant on business logic which I am unfamiliar with. As a solo programmer, the first year was spent solely on deciphering the excel workbook and writing the C# app. In theory, I had the business people to "help" me specify requirements, how GUI looks and work, and testing of the app etc; but in practice it is like a contant tsunami of feature creep. At the beginning of the second year I managed to convince the management that this is not going anywhere. I made them start from scratch with the excel-VBA. I have this "issue log" saved on the network, each time they found something they didn't like about the excel-VBA app, they will write it in there. I check the log daily and consolidate issues (in my mind) mainly into 2 groups: (1) requires massive change. (2) can be fixed in current version. For massive change issues, I make a copy of the latest excel-VBA and give it a new version number, then work on it whenever I can. For current version fixes, I make the changes in a few days to a week, and then immediately release it. I also ensure I update the same change in any in-progress massive change future versions. This has gone on for about 4 months and I feel it works great. I made many releases and solved many real issues, also understood the business logic more and more. However, my boss (non-IT trained) thinks what I am doing are just adhoc changes and that i am not looking at the "bigger picture". I am struggling to convince my boss that this works. So I hope to formalise my approach and maybe borrow a buzzword to confuse him. Incidentally, I read about Agile and SCRUM, about backlog and sprints. But it's all very vague to me still. QUESTION (finally): I want to tell him that this is SCRUM! But I want to hold my breath first and ask whether my current approach is considered SCRUM or SCRUM-like? How can I make it more SCRUM-like? Note that I have only myself, there's no project leader or teams.

  Read the article

• Defining a service layer: the text-based adventure

  - by Stacy Vicknair

  Applications these days have more options than ever for a user interface, and it’s only going to grow. A successful product might require native applications for mobile devices, a regular web implementation, or even a gaming console. These systems often will be centralized and data driven. The solution is one that’s fairly solitary, a service layer! Simply put, take what’s shared and put it behind a physical or abstract layer that defines the boundary between the specific user interface and the shared content.   I know, I know, none of this is complicated. But some times it can be difficult to discern what belongs on which side of the line. For instance, say we’re creating a service that will provide content for both an ASP.NET MVC application and a WP7 application. Although the content served to each application is the same, there are different paradigms and patterns for displaying that data in the different environments. In ASP.NET MVC, you may create a model specific to a page that combines necessary information. In the WP7 application you might require different sets of data that you will connect via MVVM with the view. The general rule of thumb is that any shared content, business rules, or data should exist separately. Any element that is specific to the current UI implementation should be included in a separate library or with the UI implementation itself. The WP7 application doesn’t need my MVC specific model classes. My MVC application doesn’t require those INotifyPropertyChanged viewmodels that the WP7 application depends on. In both cases, there should be additional processing done above the service layer to massage the data to the application’s specific needs.   Service-ocalypse: the text based adventure What helps me the most about deciding whether or not something belongs coupled to the UI implementation or in the shared implementation is thinking of the simplest implementation you could have: a console application. You might have played a game like Peasant’s Quest: The console app is the text based adventure game version of your application. If you’re service was consumed in its simplest form, you would simply have a console based API for it that issues requests. Maybe those requests aren’t SWIM TO BOAT, but they might be CREATE USER JOHN. If I issue a request, I expect that request to be issued to the service. If the service has any exceptions or issues with my input, that business logic should be encapsulated in that service, not implemented in the UI. The service layer should be your functional application in its entirety, and anything above that layer should only assist with the display of that information.

  Read the article

• 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.

  Read the article

• SSH from external network refused

  - by wulfsdad

  I've installed open-ssh-server on my home computer(running Lubuntu 12.04.1) in order to connect to it from school. This is how I've set up the sshd_config file: # Package generated configuration file # See the sshd_config(5) manpage for details # What ports, IPs and protocols we listen for #Port 22 Port 2222 # Use these options to restrict which interfaces/protocols sshd will bind to #ListenAddress :: #ListenAddress 0.0.0.0 Protocol 2 # HostKeys for protocol version 2 HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key #Privilege Separation is turned on for security UsePrivilegeSeparation yes # Lifetime and size of ephemeral version 1 server key KeyRegenerationInterval 3600 ServerKeyBits 768 # Logging SyslogFacility AUTH #LogLevel INFO LogLevel VERBOSE # Authentication: LoginGraceTime 120 PermitRootLogin no StrictModes yes RSAAuthentication yes PubkeyAuthentication yes #AuthorizedKeysFile %h/.ssh/authorized_keys # Don't read the user's ~/.rhosts and ~/.shosts files IgnoreRhosts yes # For this to work you will also need host keys in /etc/ssh_known_hosts RhostsRSAAuthentication no # similar for protocol version 2 HostbasedAuthentication no # Uncomment if you don't trust ~/.ssh/known_hosts for RhostsRSAAuthentication #IgnoreUserKnownHosts yes # To enable empty passwords, change to yes (NOT RECOMMENDED) PermitEmptyPasswords no # Change to yes to enable challenge-response passwords (beware issues with # some PAM modules and threads) ChallengeResponseAuthentication no # Change to no to disable tunnelled clear text passwords #PasswordAuthentication yes # Kerberos options #KerberosAuthentication no #KerberosGetAFSToken no #KerberosOrLocalPasswd yes #KerberosTicketCleanup yes # GSSAPI options #GSSAPIAuthentication no #GSSAPICleanupCredentials yes X11Forwarding no X11DisplayOffset 10 PrintMotd no PrintLastLog yes TCPKeepAlive yes #UseLogin no #MaxStartups 10:30:60 #Banner /etc/issue.net Banner /etc/sshbanner.net # Allow client to pass locale environment variables AcceptEnv LANG LC_* Subsystem sftp /usr/lib/openssh/sftp-server # Set this to 'yes' to enable PAM authentication, account processing, # and session processing. If this is enabled, PAM authentication will # be allowed through the ChallengeResponseAuthentication and # PasswordAuthentication. Depending on your PAM configuration, # PAM authentication via ChallengeResponseAuthentication may bypass # the setting of "PermitRootLogin without-password". # If you just want the PAM account and session checks to run without # PAM authentication, then enable this but set PasswordAuthentication # and ChallengeResponseAuthentication to 'no'. UsePAM yes #specify which accounts can use SSH AllowUsers onlyme I've also configured my router's port forwarding table to include: LAN Ports: 2222-2222 Protocol: TCP LAN IP Address: "IP Address" displayed by viewing "connection information" from right-click menu of system tray Remote Ports[optional]: n/a Remote IP Address[optional]: n/a I've tried various other configurations as well, using primary and secondary dns, and also with specifying remote ports 2222-2222. I've also tried with TCP/UDP (actually two rules because my router requires separate rules for each protocol). With any router port forwarding configuration, I am able to log in with ssh -p 2222 -v localhost But, when I try to log in from school using ssh -p 2222 onlyme@IP_ADDRESS I get a "No route to host" message. Same thing when I use the "Broadcast Address" or "Default Route/Primary DNS". When I use the "subnet mask", ssh just hangs. However, when I use the "secondary DNS" I recieve a "Connection refused" message. :^( Someone please help me figure out how to make this work.

  Read the article

• Why my collision detection is not accurate?

  - by optimisez

  After trying and trying, I still cannot understand why the leg of character exceeds the wall but no clipping issue when I hit the wall from below. How should I fix it to make him standstill on the wall? void initPlayer() { // Create texture. hr = D3DXCreateTextureFromFileEx(d3dDevice, "player.png", 169, 44, D3DX_DEFAULT, NULL, D3DFMT_A8R8G8B8, D3DPOOL_MANAGED, D3DX_DEFAULT, D3DX_DEFAULT, D3DCOLOR_XRGB(255, 255, 255), NULL, NULL, &player); playerRect.left = playerRect.top = 0; playerRect.right = 29; playerRect.bottom = 36; playerDest.X = 0; playerDest.Y = 564; playerDest.length = playerRect.right - playerRect.left; playerDest.height = playerRect.bottom - playerRect.top; } void initBox() { hr = D3DXCreateTextureFromFileEx(d3dDevice, "brock.png", 330, 132, D3DX_DEFAULT, NULL, D3DFMT_A8R8G8B8, D3DPOOL_MANAGED, D3DX_DEFAULT, D3DX_DEFAULT, D3DCOLOR_XRGB(255, 255, 255), NULL, NULL, &box); boxRect.left = 33; boxRect.top = 0; boxRect.right = 63; boxRect.bottom = 30; boxDest.X = boxDest.Y = 300; boxDest.length = boxRect.right - boxRect.left; boxDest.height = boxRect.bottom - boxRect.top; } bool spriteCollide(Entity player, Entity target) { float left1, left2; float right1, right2; float top1, top2; float bottom1, bottom2; left1 = player.X; left2 = target.X; right1 = player.X + player.length; right2 = target.X + target.length; top1 = player.Y; top2 = target.Y; bottom1 = player.Y + player.height; bottom2 = target.Y + target.height; if (bottom1 < top2) return false; if (top1 > bottom2) return false; if (right1 < left2) return false; if (left1 > right2) return false; return true; } void collideWithBox() { if ( spriteCollide(playerDest, boxDest) && keyArr[VK_UP]) //playerDest.Y += 50; playerDest.Y = boxDest.Y + boxDest.height; else if ( spriteCollide(playerDest, boxDest) && !keyArr[VK_UP]) playerDest.Y = boxDest.Y - boxDest.height; }

  Read the article

• 2D Collision in Canvas - Balls Overlapping When Velocity is High

  - by kushsolitary

  I am doing a simple experiment in canvas using Javascript in which some balls will be thrown on the screen with some initial velocity and then they will bounce on colliding with each other or with the walls. I managed to do the collision with walls perfectly but now the problem is with the collision with other balls. I am using the following code for it: //Check collision between two bodies function collides(b1, b2) { //Find the distance between their mid-points var dx = b1.x - b2.x, dy = b1.y - b2.y, dist = Math.round(Math.sqrt(dx*dx + dy*dy)); //Check if it is a collision if(dist <= (b1.r + b2.r)) { //Calculate the angles var angle = Math.atan2(dy, dx), sin = Math.sin(angle), cos = Math.cos(angle); //Calculate the old velocity components var v1x = b1.vx * cos, v2x = b2.vx * cos, v1y = b1.vy * sin, v2y = b2.vy * sin; //Calculate the new velocity components var vel1x = ((b1.m - b2.m) / (b1.m + b2.m)) * v1x + (2 * b2.m / (b1.m + b2.m)) * v2x, vel2x = (2 * b1.m / (b1.m + b2.m)) * v1x + ((b2.m - b1.m) / (b2.m + b1.m)) * v2x, vel1y = v1y, vel2y = v2y; //Set the new velocities b1.vx = vel1x; b2.vx = vel2x; b1.vy = vel1y; b2.vy = vel2y; } } You can see the experiment here. The problem is, some balls overlap each other and stick together while some of them rebound perfectly. I don't know what is causing this issue. Here's my balls object if that matters: function Ball() { //Random Positions this.x = 50 + Math.random() * W; this.y = 50 + Math.random() * H; //Random radii this.r = 15 + Math.random() * 30; this.m = this.r; //Random velocity components this.vx = 1 + Math.random() * 4; this.vy = 1 + Math.random() * 4; //Random shade of grey color this.c = Math.round(Math.random() * 200); this.draw = function() { ctx.beginPath(); ctx.fillStyle = "rgb(" + this.c + ", " + this.c + ", " + this.c + ")"; ctx.arc(this.x, this.y, this.r, 0, Math.PI*2, false); ctx.fill(); ctx.closePath(); } }

  Read the article

• Link instead of Attaching

  - by Daniel Moth

  With email storage not being an issue in many companies (I think I currently have 25GB of storage on my email account, I don’t even think about storage), this encourages bad behaviors such as liberally attaching office documents to emails instead of sharing a link to the document in SharePoint or SkyDrive or some file share etc. Attaching a file admittedly has its usage scenarios too, but it should not be the default. I thought I'd list the reasons why sharing a link can be better than attaching files directly. In no particular order: Better Review. It allows multiple recipients to review the file and their comments are aggregated into a single document. The alternative is everyone having to detach the document, add their comments, then send back to you, and then you have to collate. Wirth the alternative, you also potentially miss out on recipients reading comments from other recipients. Always up to date. The attachment becomes a fork instead of an always up to date document. For example, you send the email on Thursday, I only open it on Tuesday: between those days you could have made updates that now I am missing because you decided to share a link instead of an attachment. Better bookmarking. When I need to find that document you shared, you are forcing me to search through my email (I may not even be running outlook), instead of opening the link which I have bookmarked in my browser or my collection of links in my OneNote or from the recent/pinned links of the office app on my task bar, etc. Can control access. If someone accidentally or naively forwards your link to someone outside your group/org who you’d prefer not to have access to it, the location of the document can be protected with specific access control. Can add more recipients. If someone adds people to the email thread in outlook, your attachment doesn't get re-attached - instead, the person added is left without the attachment unless someone remembers to re-attach it. If it was a link, they are immediately caught up without further actions. Enable Discovery. If you put it on a share, I may be able to discover other cool stuff that lives alongside that document. Save on storage. So this doesn't apply to me given my opening statement, but if in your company you do have such limitations, attaching files eats up storage on all recipients accounts and will also get "lost" when those people archive email (and lose completely at some point if they follow the company retention policy). Like I said, attachments do have their place, but they should be an explicit choice for explicit reasons rather than the default. Comments about this post by Daniel Moth welcome at the original blog.

  Read the article

• Self-Executing Anonymous Function vs Prototype

  - by Robotsushi

  In Javascript there are a few clearly prominent techniques for create and manage classes/namespaces in javascript. I am curious what situations warrant using one technique vs. the other. I want to pick one and stick with it moving forward. I write enterprise code that is maintained and shared across multiple teams, and I want to know what is the best practice when writing maintainable javascript ? I tend to prefer Self-Executing Anonymous Functions however I am curious what the community vote is on these techniques. Prototype : function obj() { } obj.prototype.test = function() { alert('Hello?'); }; var obj2 = new obj(); obj2.test(); Self-Closing Anonymous Function : //Self-Executing Anonymous Function (function( skillet, $, undefined ) { //Private Property var isHot = true; //Public Property skillet.ingredient = "Bacon Strips"; //Public Method skillet.fry = function() { var oliveOil; addItem( "\t\n Butter \n\t" ); addItem( oliveOil ); console.log( "Frying " + skillet.ingredient ); }; //Private Method function addItem( item ) { if ( item !== undefined ) { console.log( "Adding " + $.trim(item) ); } } }( window.skillet = window.skillet || {}, jQuery )); //Public Properties console.log( skillet.ingredient ); //Bacon Strips //Public Methods skillet.fry(); //Adding Butter & Fraying Bacon Strips //Adding a Public Property skillet.quantity = "12"; console.log( skillet.quantity ); //12 //Adding New Functionality to the Skillet (function( skillet, $, undefined ) { //Private Property var amountOfGrease = "1 Cup"; //Public Method skillet.toString = function() { console.log( skillet.quantity + " " + skillet.ingredient + " & " + amountOfGrease + " of Grease" ); console.log( isHot ? "Hot" : "Cold" ); }; }( window.skillet = window.skillet || {}, jQuery )); //end of skillet definition try { //12 Bacon Strips & 1 Cup of Grease skillet.toString(); //Throws Exception } catch( e ) { console.log( e.message ); //isHot is not defined } I feel that I should mention that the Self-Executing Anonymous Function is the pattern used by the jQuery team. Update When I asked this question I didn't truly see the importance of what I was trying to understand. The real issue at hand is whether or not to use new to create instances of your objects or to use patterns which do not require constructors of the use of the new keyword. I added my own answer, because in my opinion we should make use of patterns which don't use the new keyword. For more information please see my answer.

  Read the article

• Plans for Java 7 and E-Business Suite Certification

  - by Steven Chan (Oracle Development)

  As of June 2012, Java 7 has not been certified yet with Oracle E-Business Suite.  EBS customers should continue to run JRE 6 on their Windows end-user desktops, and JDK 6 on their EBS servers. If a search engine has brought you to this article, please check the Certifications summary for our latest certified Java release. Our plans for certifying Java 7 for the E-Business Suite We plan on releasing the Java 7 certification for E-Business Suite customers in two phases: Phase 1: Certify JRE 7 for Windows end-user desktops Phase 2: Certify JDK 7 for server-based components When will Java 7 be certified with EBS? We're working on the first phase now. As usual, I cannot discuss release dates here, but you can monitor or subscribe to this blog for updates. Current known issues with JRE 7 in EBS environments Our current testing shows that there are known incompatibilities between JRE 7 and the Forms-invocation process in EBS environments.  We have been working directly with the Java division on this for a while now.  In the meantime, EBS customers should not deploy JRE 7 to their end-user Windows desktop clients. You should stick with JRE 1.6 for now.  But wait, you previously said... Older JRE certification announcements stated: Our standard policy is that all E-Business Suite customers can apply all JRE updates to end-user desktops from JRE 1.6.0_03 and higher.  We test all new JRE releases in parallel with the JRE development process, so all JRE releases are considered certified with the E-Business Suite on the same day that they're released by our Java team.  You do not need to wait for a certification announcement before applying new JRE releases to your EBS users' desktops. Yes, this is true.  This standard boilerplate text was written before JRE 7 was released, so there was no possibility of misunderstanding.  With the availability of JRE 7, that boilerplate needs to be revised to read: Our standard policy is that all E-Business Suite customers can apply all JRE updates to end-user desktops from JRE 1.6.0_03 and later updates on the 1.6 codeline.  We test all new JRE 1.6 releases in parallel with the JRE development process, so all new JRE 1.6 releases are considered certified with the E-Business Suite on the same day that they're released by our Java team.  You do not need to wait for a certification announcement before applying new JRE 1.6 releases to your EBS users' desktops. References Recommended Browsers for Oracle Applications 11i (Metalink Note 285218.1) Upgrading Sun JRE (Native Plug-in) with Oracle Applications 11i for Windows Clients (Metalink Note 290807.1) Recommended Browsers for Oracle Applications 12 (MetaLink Note 389422.1) Upgrading JRE Plugin with Oracle Applications R12 (MetaLink Note 393931.1) Related Articles Mismanaged Session Cookie Issue Fixed for EBS in JRE 1.6.0_23 Roundup: Oracle JInitiator 1.3 Desupported for EBS Customers in July 2009

  Read the article

• Good, simple reasons for having multiple environments

  - by smp7d

  Throughout my career I had worked at companies that had a collection of different environments for different purposes. We always had more or less our desktop environment, a test environment, a QA environment, a staging environment and a production environment. This went for both servers/applications and any data sources we were using. When I started at my current company I found that 90% of the apps were either developed on a desktop environment against production data sources or developed directly on the production server depending on the platform. I wasn't fazed because I was hired in part to make changes to improve the way the development team functioned, which was clear from my interview process. We slowly started to turn the philosophy and pretty soon, most of the apps could be run in either a desktop, test or production environment. Not too long after that staging came around as well. Now most of our developers see the benefit of this methodology and defend it vigilantly. However, we have a number of legacy apps that never got migrated. We also have a number of legacy programmers who think of this as a waste of time. Unfortunately, we got lip service but never full buy-in from management. We got what we thought was a commitment to invest substantially in this about a year ago, but nothing materialized despite the considerable planning that we put into it. Now we are finding that we need more and more environments. We need help from the server/network administration teams for setup and we need participation from the business stakeholders to support the release cycle. We are at a place now where a project can function what I consider "normally" only if you have the right people on the project and the time to set up the proper environments. I'd love to present a complete argument, but management really has no time and interest in hearing me out until there is a critical issue. I can't really articulate the benefits simply as it always just seemed second nature to me. I was wondering if there are any good, simple, irrefutable reasons for the separation of environments that would get managers with no development experience to get behind this idea. Are there any good resources/literature on the topic?

  Read the article

• I didn't mean to become a database developer, but now I am. Should I stop or try to get better?

  - by pretlow majette

  20 years ago I couldn't afford even a cheap POS program when I opened my first surf shop in the Virgin Islands. I bought a copy of Paradox (remember that?) in 1990 and spent months in a back room scratching out a POS application. Over many iterations, including a switch to Access (2000)/SQL Server (2003), I built a POS and backoffice solution that runs four stores with multiple cash registers, a warehouse and office. Until recently, all my stores were connected to the same LAN (in a small shopping center) and performance wasn't an issue. Now that we've opened a location in the States that's changed. Connecting to my local server via the internet has slowed that locations application to a crawl. This is partly due to the slow and crappy dsl service we have in the Virgin Islands, and partly due to my less-than-professional code and sql. With other far-away stores in the works, I need a better solution. I like my application. My staff knows it well, and I'm not inclined to take on the expense of a proper commercial solution. So where does that leave me? I should probably host my sql online to sidestep the slow dsl here. I think I can handle cleaning up my SQL querries to speed that up a bit. What about Access? My version seems so old, but I don't like the newer versions with the 'ribbon'. There are so many options... Should I be learning Visual Studio with an eye on moving completely to the web? Will my VBA skills help me at all there? I don't have the luxury of a year at the keyboard to figure it out anymore. What about dotnetnuke, sharepoint, or lightswitch? They all seem like possibilities, but even understanding their capabilities is daunting. I'm pretty deep into it, but maybe I should bail and hire a consultant or programmer. That sounds expensive tho, and there's no guarantee there either... Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Or, if anybody is interested in buying a small chain of surf shops...

  Read the article

• Enterprise with eyes on NoSQL

  - by thegreeneman

  Since joining Oracle a few months back, I have had the fortune of being able to interact with a number of large enterprise organizations and discuss their current state of adoption for NoSQL database technology.   It is worth noting that a large percentage of these organizations do have some NoSQL use and have been steadily increasing their understanding of its applicability for certain data management workloads.   Thru those discussions I’ve learned that it seems one of the biggest issues confronting enterprise adoption of NoSQL databases is the lack of standards for access, administration and monitoring.    This was not so much of an issue with the early adopters of NoSQL technology because they employed a highly DevOps centric approach to application deployment leaving a select few highly qualified developers with the task of managing the production of the system that they designed and implemented. However, as NoSQL technology moves out of the startup and into the hands of larger corporate entities, developers with a broad skill set that are capable of both development and I.T. type production management are in short supply and quickly get moved on to do new projects, often moving to different roles within the company.  This difference in the way smaller more agile startups operate as compared to more established companies is revealing a gap in the NoSQL technology segment that needs to get addressed.    This is one of places that a company such as Oracle has a leg up in the NoSQL Database front.  A combination of having gone thru a past database maturization process,  combined with a vast set of corporate relationships that have grown hand in hand to solve these types of issues, Oracle is in a great place to lead the way in closing the requirements gap for NoSQL technology.  Oracle's understanding of the needs specific to mature organizations have already made their way into the Oracle’s NoSQL Database offering with features such as:  One click cluster deployment with visual topology planning,  standards based monitoring protocols such as SNMP, support for data access for reporting via standard SQL  and integration with emerging standards for data access such as MapReduce.  Given the exciting developments we’re driving in the Oracle NoSQL Database group, I will have a lot more to say about this topic as we move into the second half of the year.

  Read the article

• Open GL polygons not displaying

  - by Darestium

  I have tried to follow nehe's opengl tutorial lesson 2. I use sfml for my window creation. The problem I have is that both the triangle and the quad don't show up on the screen: #include <SFML/System.hpp> #include <SFML/Window.hpp> #include <iostream> void processEvents(sf::Window *app); void processInput(sf::Window *app, const sf::Input &input); void renderCube(sf::Window *app, sf::Clock *clock); void renderGlScene(sf::Window *app); void init(); int main() { sf::Window app(sf::VideoMode(800, 600, 32), "Nehe Lesson 2"); app.UseVerticalSync(false); init(); while (app.IsOpened()) { processEvents(&app); renderGlScene(&app); app.Display(); } return EXIT_SUCCESS; } void init() { glClearDepth(1.f); glClearColor(0.f, 0.f, 0.f, 0.f); // Enable z-buffer and read and write glEnable(GL_DEPTH_TEST); glDepthMask(GL_TRUE); // Setup a perpective projection glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); glLoadIdentity(); gluPerspective(45.f, 1.f, 1.f, 500.f); glShadeModel(GL_SMOOTH); } void processEvents(sf::Window *app) { sf::Event event; while (app->GetEvent(event)) { if (event.Type == sf::Event::Closed) { app->Close(); } if (event.Type == sf::Event::KeyPressed && event.Key.Code == sf::Key::Escape) { app->Close(); } } } void renderGlScene(sf::Window *app) { app->SetActive(); glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT); // Clear the screen and the depth buffer glLoadIdentity(); // Reset the view glTranslatef(-1.5f, 0.0f, -6.0f); // Move Left 1.5 units and into the screen 6.0 glBegin(GL_TRIANGLES); glVertex3f( 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f); // Top glVertex3f(-1.0,-1.0f, 0.0f); // Bottom Left glVertex3f( 1.0f,-1.0f, 0.0f); // Bottom Right glEnd(); glTranslatef(3.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f); glBegin(GL_QUADS); // Draw a quad glVertex3f(-1.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f); glVertex3f( 1.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f); glVertex3f( 1.0f,-1.0f, 0.0f); glVertex3f(-1.0f,-1.0f, 0.0f); glEnd(); } I would greatly appreciate it if someone could help me resolve my issue.

  Read the article

• SQL Saturday 194 - Exeter

  - by Dave Ballantyne

  Many kudos goes to Jonathan and Annette Allen and the others on the team for confirming SQL Saturday 194 in Exeter on the 8th and 9th of March.  The event home page is here http://www.sqlsaturday.com/194/eventhome.aspx and I delighted that myself and Dave Morrison will be presenting a full day pre-con on the 8th on favourite subjects “TSQL and Internals”. Here is the full abstract : TSQL and internals - When faced with performance issues there are many lines of attack. Tuning the engine itself can get you so far, however for maximum effect you need to understand how the engine and how it translates SQL statements into performable actions. This is not a simple task, it is a massive task to deal with a multi-table join and the number of permutations can be immense. To back up this knowledge, we can create better performing TSQL and understand the impact that is has upon the engine and recognize the pitfalls and gotcha’s that exist in SQLServer. Ultimately, there is no ‘best way’ to perform a single task only many variations of ‘it depends’ , but now we can pick the most appropriate option for the required dataload. Over the years, there have been many myths and misconceptions have grown around the product, some have basis in older versions and some are just wrong. Continuing to build on the knowledge given so far these issue will be explored and broken down and proved or disproved. Finally we will look to the future and explore SQL Server 2012 and the new functionality that that brings and some of the common uses that we will be able to address. After completion of this days pre-con, attendees will have a more complete knowledge of execution plans, and how they relate to the physical and logical actions that SQLServer will be executing on their behalf. The attendees will also have a more rounded and fuller knowledge of TSQL and the implications of incorrectly defining a query. Dave is a fountain of knowledge on execution plans and optimizer internals and ,though i may flatter myself, I’m no shrinking violet when it comes to TSQL and such matters.  I hope that if you cant join us, then there are other pre-cons available from other experts in their fields that may ‘float you boat’ too.  The pre-con page is http://sqlsouthwest.co.uk/SQLSaturday_precon.htm Also, excitingly, this pre-con day is sponsored by Fusion-IO which is a great boon for the day. If you want a more of this then i am offering a 2 day TSQL course starting on the 19th of March. More details on this are available here

  Read the article

• Getting a virus is *very* annoying

  - by bconlon

  I spent most of yesterday removing an annoying virus from my PC. I feel slightly foolish for getting one in the first place, but after so many years I guess I was always going to eventually succumb. I was also a little surprised at the failure of various tools at removing it. The virus would redirect the browser to websites including ‘licosearch’, ‘hugosearch’ and ‘facebook’, and the disk would be thrashing away infecting dlls in some way. I had the full up to date version of McAfee installed. This identified that there was an issue in some dlls on the system and was able to ‘fix’ them. But they kept getting re-infected. So I installed Microsoft Security Essentials and this too was able to identify and ‘fix’ the infected dlls. The system scans take forever and I really expected better results. I also tried Malwarebytes, Hitman Pro, AVG and Sophos to no avail. Eventually I thought I’d investigate myself. It turned out that on reboot, the virus would start 3 instances of Firefox.exe which I’m guessing would do bad things including infecting as many dlls on the system as possible. I removed Firefox and the virus cleverly then launched 3 instances of Chrome! So I uninstalled Chrome and yes, it then started to launch 3 instances of iexplore.exe. If I’m honest, by this stage I was just seeing if it would be able to use any of the browsers! As it was starting these on reboot, I looked in my User Startup folder and there was a <randomly named>.exe and several log files. I deleted these and rebooted. When I looked they had been recreated. So I then looked in the registry Run and RunOnce entries: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run. Sure enough there were entries to run a file in C:\Program Files\<random name folder>\<random name file>.exe. I deleted this and rebooted and it was fixed. I also looked in the event log and found a warning that Winlogon had failed to start the file C:\Program Files\<random name folder>\<random name file>.exe So I also checked HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon and this entry had also been changed. Finally I ran a full system scan to clean up any infected dlls. I hope it’s gone for good!  #

  Read the article

• Upgrades from Beta or CTP SQL Server Software is NOT Supported

  - by BuckWoody

  As of this writing, SQL Server 2008 R2 has released, and just like every release, I get e-mails and calls from folks with this question: “Can I upgrade from Customer Technical Preview (CTP) x or Beta #x or Release Candidate (RC) to the “Released to Manufacturing” (RTM) version?” No. Right up until the last minute, things are changing in the code – and you want that to happen. Our internal testing runs right up until the second we lock down for release, and we watch the CTP/RC/Beta reports to make sure there are no show-stoppers, and fix what we find. And it’s not just “big” changes you need to worry about – a simple change in one line of code can have a massive effect. I know, I know – you’ve possibly upgraded an RC or CTP to the RTM version and it worked “just fine”. But hear this tale: I’ve dealt with someone who faced this exact situation in SQL Server 2008. They upgraded (which is clearly prohibited in the documentation) from a CTP to the RTM version over a year ago. Everything was working fine. But then…one day they had an issue. Couldn’t fix it themselves, we took a look, days went by, and we finally had to call in the big guns for support. Turns out, the upgrade was the problem. So we had to come up with some elaborate schemes to get the system migrated over while they were in production. This was painful for everyone involved. So the answer is still no. Just don’t do it. There is one caveat to this story – if you are a “TAP” customer (you’ll know if you are), we help you move from the CTP products to RTM, but that’s a special case that we track carefully and send along special instructions and tools to help you along. That level of effort isn’t possible on a large scale, so it’s not just a magic tool that we run to upgrade from CTP to RTM. So again, unless you’re a TAP customer, it’s a no-no. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

  Read the article

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

  - by rmaddy

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

  Read the article

• Are they asking too much of me?

  - by Tesserex

  Or am I just whining? Background: I work for a "startup," which I put in air quotes because the company has been around for 4 years. We have about 40 employees in three offices, 9 here plus some part time. We have a good amount of investment and bring in about 75% of what we spend (so not profitable just yet.) Standard work week is supposed to be about 60 hours, but they justify that as we have to be online when our international (Taiwan and Vietnam) offices are awake. When I started the job 6 months ago, I spent about a month prototyping an iphone app and did really well on my own. They also found out about my facebook applications and how many users they got. Putting 2 and 2 together (and winding up at -7) they realized 1. I'm independent and innovative (because I was able to use stackoverflow to answer my iOS questions instead of bugging my superiors) and 2. I must have an eye for marketing (since my fb apps grew totally organically without me doing any advertising), and assigned me to a project optimizing adwords campaigns. Today I got reviewed, and then chewed out, by our CEO for not totally rocking this project. Now I thought I was doing ok, but the CEO said the project is stagnant and they're expecting more from me. But since it's a startup, they play loose with job roles and I've had plenty of other things to do in the past three months. Every time I ask what's most important, I get conflicting responses depending who I ask, and the end result is that almost everything has equal priority - high. I could go on about how I don't think adwords is worthwhile for us since our profit margin is so slim, and how we should be trying to improve our website first, but that's not the point. I also have explained to the office director (who originally assigned me the project, not the CEO) that I don't actually know anything about marketing, I'm just a decent programmer, but they think my general smarts will prove capable of tackling this challenge. The CEO also clarified that he wants a more technical and algorithmic approach to the problem. So is there something I can do to address this? Combined with my existing and confusing workload, should I be raising an issue? Or should I do the grown up thing and give it my all, asking for help when I need it and hoping for the best? Sorry if this is very rant-ish.

  Read the article

• Innovation for Retailers

  - by David Dorf

  One of my main objectives for this blog is to point out emerging technologies and how they might apply to the retail industry.  But ideas are just the beginning; retailers either have to rely on vendors or have their own lab to explore these ideas and see which ones work.  (A healthy dose of both is probably the best solution.)  The Nordstrom Innovation Lab is a fine example of dedicating resources to cultivate ideas and test prototypes. The video below, from 2011, is a case study in which the team builds an iPad app that helps customers purchase sunglasses in the store.  Customers take pictures of themselves wearing different sunglasses, then can do side-by-side comparisons. There are a few interesting take-aways from their process.  First, they are working in the store alongside employees and customers.  There's no concept of documenting all the requirements then building the product.  Instead, they work closely with those that will be using the app in order to fully understand what's needed.  When they find an issue, they change the software onsite and try again.  This iterative prototyping ensures their product hits the mark.  Feels like Extreme Programming if you recall that movement. Second, they have time-boxed the project to one week.  Either it works or it doesn't, and either way they've only expended a week's worth of resources.  Innovation always entails failure, and those that succeed are often good at detecting failure quickly then adjusting.  Fail fast and fail often. Third, its not always about technology.  I was impressed they used paper designs to walk through user stories and help understand the needs of the customer.  Pen and paper is the innovator's most powerful tool. Our Retail Applied Research (RAR) team uses some of these concepts in our development process.  (Calling it a process is probably overkill.)  We try to give life to concepts quickly so the rest of organization can help us decide if we're heading the right direction.  It takes many failures before finding a successful product.

  Read the article

< Previous Page | 670 671 672 673 674 675 676 677 678 679 680 681  | Next Page >