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  • Multiple monitors showing same screen but different resolutions

    - by Luis Alvarado
    Is it possible to have 2 or more monitors showing the same screen, for example the same desktop but with different resolutions. Like the clone option in Nvidia or the mirror option using the Display settings in Ubuntu but instead of showing the same output with the same resolution, the both show the same output using a resolution that is native for each monitor connected. In my case if I have a netbook that has max resolution of 1360x768 and a TV that has 1280x1024, the would both show the same desktop but each with their own resolution that is compatible for each device. This would help in trying to find a resolution that works on both monitors and in cases like a mini netbook and a huge TV it would solve issues like having max 800x600 in one monitor and min 1024x768 in the other. In the case I tested I was using an HDMI cable but this question also involves VGA and any other connection. I have 3 tests scenarios for this: Scenario 1 - Laptop HP DV6000 (Intel Integrated Video) with 1360x760 connected to a Samsung LED 42 TV that has 1280x900. Scenario 2 - Laptop EEE with 1024x600 (Intel Integrated Video) connected to Sony LCD TV that supports 1280x900. Scenario 3 - Intel Desktop with Nvidia 440 GT with HDMI connected to Soneview 32' TV that supports 1920x1080 and VGA connected to an Epson Video Beam that supports 1280x1024 max. In this 3 scenarios I need to be able to show the same desktop and same views but on different resolutions for each output device. UPDATE: Tested with Xubuntu and the way it handles multiple monitors is precisely what I am asking. The ability to handle the resolution of different monitors showing the same thing.

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  • Using JDialog with Tabbed Pane to draw different pictures [migrated]

    - by Bryam Ulloa
    I am using NetBeans, and I have a class that extends to JDialog, inside that Dialog box I have created a Tabbed Pane. The Tabbed Pane contains 6 different tabs, with 6 different panels of course. What I want to do is when I click on the different tabs, a diagram is supposed to be drawn with the paint method. My question is how can I draw on the different panels with just one paint method in another class being called from the Dialog class? Here is my code for the Dialog class: package GUI; public class NewJDialog extends javax.swing.JDialog{ /** * Creates new form NewJDialog */ public NewJDialog(java.awt.Frame parent, boolean modal) { super(parent, modal); initComponents(); } /** * This method is called from within the constructor to initialize the form. * WARNING: Do NOT modify this code. The content of this method is always * regenerated by the Form Editor. */ @SuppressWarnings("unchecked") // <editor-fold defaultstate="collapsed" desc="Generated Code"> private void initComponents() { jTabbedPane1 = new javax.swing.JTabbedPane(); jPanel1 = new javax.swing.JPanel(); jPanel2 = new javax.swing.JPanel(); jPanel3 = new javax.swing.JPanel(); jPanel4 = new javax.swing.JPanel(); jPanel5 = new javax.swing.JPanel(); jPanel6 = new javax.swing.JPanel(); jPanel7 = new javax.swing.JPanel(); jLabel1 = new javax.swing.JLabel(); jLabel2 = new javax.swing.JLabel(); setDefaultCloseOperation(javax.swing.WindowConstants.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE); javax.swing.GroupLayout jPanel1Layout = new javax.swing.GroupLayout(jPanel1); jPanel1.setLayout(jPanel1Layout); jPanel1Layout.setHorizontalGroup( jPanel1Layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING) .addGap(0, 466, Short.MAX_VALUE) ); jPanel1Layout.setVerticalGroup( jPanel1Layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING) .addGap(0, 242, Short.MAX_VALUE) ); jTabbedPane1.addTab("FCFS", jPanel1); javax.swing.GroupLayout jPanel2Layout = new javax.swing.GroupLayout(jPanel2); jPanel2.setLayout(jPanel2Layout); jPanel2Layout.setHorizontalGroup( jPanel2Layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING) .addGap(0, 466, Short.MAX_VALUE) ); jPanel2Layout.setVerticalGroup( jPanel2Layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING) .addGap(0, 242, Short.MAX_VALUE) ); jTabbedPane1.addTab("SSTF", jPanel2); javax.swing.GroupLayout jPanel3Layout = new javax.swing.GroupLayout(jPanel3); jPanel3.setLayout(jPanel3Layout); jPanel3Layout.setHorizontalGroup( jPanel3Layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING) .addGap(0, 466, Short.MAX_VALUE) ); jPanel3Layout.setVerticalGroup( jPanel3Layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING) .addGap(0, 242, Short.MAX_VALUE) ); jTabbedPane1.addTab("LOOK", jPanel3); javax.swing.GroupLayout jPanel4Layout = new javax.swing.GroupLayout(jPanel4); jPanel4.setLayout(jPanel4Layout); jPanel4Layout.setHorizontalGroup( jPanel4Layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING) .addGap(0, 466, Short.MAX_VALUE) ); jPanel4Layout.setVerticalGroup( jPanel4Layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING) .addGap(0, 242, Short.MAX_VALUE) ); jTabbedPane1.addTab("LOOK C", jPanel4); javax.swing.GroupLayout jPanel5Layout = new javax.swing.GroupLayout(jPanel5); jPanel5.setLayout(jPanel5Layout); jPanel5Layout.setHorizontalGroup( jPanel5Layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING) .addGap(0, 466, Short.MAX_VALUE) ); jPanel5Layout.setVerticalGroup( jPanel5Layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING) .addGap(0, 242, Short.MAX_VALUE) ); jTabbedPane1.addTab("SCAN", jPanel5); javax.swing.GroupLayout jPanel6Layout = new javax.swing.GroupLayout(jPanel6); jPanel6.setLayout(jPanel6Layout); jPanel6Layout.setHorizontalGroup( jPanel6Layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING) .addGap(0, 466, Short.MAX_VALUE) ); jPanel6Layout.setVerticalGroup( jPanel6Layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING) .addGap(0, 242, Short.MAX_VALUE) ); jTabbedPane1.addTab("SCAN C", jPanel6); getContentPane().add(jTabbedPane1, java.awt.BorderLayout.CENTER); jLabel1.setText("Distancia:"); jLabel2.setText("___________"); javax.swing.GroupLayout jPanel7Layout = new javax.swing.GroupLayout(jPanel7); jPanel7.setLayout(jPanel7Layout); jPanel7Layout.setHorizontalGroup( jPanel7Layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING) .addGroup(jPanel7Layout.createSequentialGroup() .addGap(21, 21, 21) .addComponent(jLabel1) .addPreferredGap(javax.swing.LayoutStyle.ComponentPlacement.RELATED) .addComponent(jLabel2) .addContainerGap(331, Short.MAX_VALUE)) ); jPanel7Layout.setVerticalGroup( jPanel7Layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING) .addGroup(jPanel7Layout.createSequentialGroup() .addContainerGap() .addGroup(jPanel7Layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.BASELINE) .addComponent(jLabel1) .addComponent(jLabel2)) .addContainerGap(15, Short.MAX_VALUE)) ); getContentPane().add(jPanel7, java.awt.BorderLayout.PAGE_START); pack(); }// </editor-fold> /** * @param args the command line arguments */ public static void main(String args[]) { /* Set the Nimbus look and feel */ //<editor-fold defaultstate="collapsed" desc=" Look and feel setting code (optional) "> /* If Nimbus (introduced in Java SE 6) is not available, stay with the default look and feel. * For details see http://download.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/lookandfeel/plaf.html */ try { for (javax.swing.UIManager.LookAndFeelInfo info : javax.swing.UIManager.getInstalledLookAndFeels()) { if ("Nimbus".equals(info.getName())) { javax.swing.UIManager.setLookAndFeel(info.getClassName()); break; } } } catch (ClassNotFoundException ex) { java.util.logging.Logger.getLogger(NewJDialog.class.getName()).log(java.util.logging.Level.SEVERE, null, ex); } catch (InstantiationException ex) { java.util.logging.Logger.getLogger(NewJDialog.class.getName()).log(java.util.logging.Level.SEVERE, null, ex); } catch (IllegalAccessException ex) { java.util.logging.Logger.getLogger(NewJDialog.class.getName()).log(java.util.logging.Level.SEVERE, null, ex); } catch (javax.swing.UnsupportedLookAndFeelException ex) { java.util.logging.Logger.getLogger(NewJDialog.class.getName()).log(java.util.logging.Level.SEVERE, null, ex); } //</editor-fold> /* Create and display the dialog */ java.awt.EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() { public void run() { NewJDialog dialog = new NewJDialog(new javax.swing.JFrame(), true); dialog.addWindowListener(new java.awt.event.WindowAdapter() { @Override public void windowClosing(java.awt.event.WindowEvent e) { System.exit(0); } }); dialog.setVisible(true); } }); } // Variables declaration - do not modify private javax.swing.JLabel jLabel1; private javax.swing.JLabel jLabel2; private javax.swing.JPanel jPanel1; private javax.swing.JPanel jPanel2; private javax.swing.JPanel jPanel3; private javax.swing.JPanel jPanel4; private javax.swing.JPanel jPanel5; private javax.swing.JPanel jPanel6; private javax.swing.JPanel jPanel7; private javax.swing.JTabbedPane jTabbedPane1; // End of variables declaration } This is another class that I have created for the paint method: package GUI; import java.awt.Graphics; import javax.swing.JPanel; /** * * @author TOSHIBA */ public class Lienzo { private int width = 5; private int height = 5; private int y = 5; private int x = 0; private int x1 = 0; public Graphics Draw(Graphics g, int[] pistas) { //Im not sure if this is the correct way to do it //The diagram gets drawn according to values from an array //The array is not always the same thats why I used the different Panels for (int i = 0; i < pistas.length; i++) { x = pistas[i]; x1 = pistas[i + 1]; g.drawOval(x, y, width, height); g.drawString(Integer.toString(x), x, y); g.drawLine(x, y, x1, y); } return g; } } I hope you guys understand what I am trying to do with my program.

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  • In Windows 7 power management, is it possible to set different sleep settings for different SATA disks?

    - by Ben Voigt
    I'm having an issue with Windows 7 either freezing up or generating a BSOD coming out of sleep. I suspect that it is related to my boot/OS drive, an OCZ Vertex SE SSD, because numerous other Vertex users have reported sleep problems. Notably, if I put the computer to sleep, it almost always wakes correctly. If it goes to sleep after a timeout, it almost always BSODs. I disabled timed sleep and now it freezes when left unattended. My next step is to disable "Put hard disks to sleep after X minutes", but I'd like to change this setting only for the SSD and not for the rotating data disks, which I would like to spin down normally. Does anyone know a place to configure sleep on a per-disk basis? I don't need to set different timeouts on different disks (although that would be nice), simply setting "this disk sleeps" and "sleep is disabled for this disk" would be great. Additional system information: Windows 7 Ultimate x64, Core i5 - P55 chipset, Intel RST drivers are installed. One SSD, two rotating HDD, and a DVD-RW drive are all connected to the Intel SATA ports. I could potentially move some of these to my motherboard's other SATA controller if that would help.

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  • 7 Ways Modern Windows 8 Apps Are Different From Windows Desktop Apps

    - by Chris Hoffman
    Windows 8 apps – originally known as Metro-style apps and now known as Windows 8 style, Modern UI style, or Windows Store style apps, depending on which Microsoft employee you ask — are very different from traditional desktop apps. The Modern interface isn’t just a fresh coat of paint. The new Windows Runtime, or WinRT, application architecture (not to be confused with Windows RT) is very different from the Windows desktop we’re used to. How To Delete, Move, or Rename Locked Files in Windows HTG Explains: Why Screen Savers Are No Longer Necessary 6 Ways Windows 8 Is More Secure Than Windows 7

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  • Choose Your Ubuntu: 8 Ubuntu Derivatives with Different Desktop Environments

    - by Chris Hoffman
    There are a wide variety of Linux distributions, but there are also a wide variety of distributions based on other Linux distributions. The official Ubuntu release with the Unity desktop is only one of many possible ways to use Ubuntu. Most of these Ubuntu derivatives are officially supported by Ubuntu. Some, like the Ubuntu GNOME Remix and Linux Mint, aren’t official. Each includes different desktop environments with different software, but the base system is the same (except with Linux Mint.) You can try each of these derivatives by downloading its appropriate live CD, burning it to a disc, and booting from it – no installation required. Testing desktop environments is probably the best way to find the one you’re most comfortable with. How Hackers Can Disguise Malicious Programs With Fake File Extensions Can Dust Actually Damage My Computer? What To Do If You Get a Virus on Your Computer

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  • google custom search gives different result number for same query

    - by santiagozky
    We are using google custom search and we have found that often the totalResults iterates between two values, even for the same query. The different values can be slightly different or more than double. The parameters I am using look like this: https://www.googleapis.com/customsearch/v1? q=something cx=XXXXXXXXXX lr=lang_en siteSearch=www.mydomain.com start=1 fields=context%2Citems%28fileFormat%2CformattedUrl%2Clink%2Cpagemap%2Csnippet%2Ctitle%29%2Cqueries%2CsearchInformation%28searchTime%2CtotalResults%29%2Cspelling%2FcorrectedQuery key=YYYYYYYYYYYYYYY filter=0 This is problem because of calculating the number of result pages. How can I get the same results for the same query?

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  • Trying to develop a game with android for cracking glasses in different dimensions

    - by user46514
    I am trying to develop a game in android where I will have to punch a hole to get through the glass but not shatter the glass completely. The glass will show up in different forms of polygons and when a hole is created by a projectile, the rest of the polygon will still remain intact.Only a polygonal opening will get created at the point of impact with the projectile. I am new at game design in android but I was thinking that I would create a random polygon shape to show in the path and then at the point where the projectile hits it, I could create a glass polygon to create a splinter effect. The rest of the part of the glass that is randomly created at the point of impact, I could further splinter it into polygons flying at different angle. since I also need to capture the bits of glasses flying off and falling down with gravity. Is my solution the best efficient one at performance of threads or is there a better solution for this glass breaking effect. Thanks Dhiren

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  • building a game for different resoulution phones

    - by Jason
    Hi, I am starting some tests for building a game on the android program. So far everything is working and seems nice. However I do not understand how to make sure my game looks correct on all phones as the all will have slightly different screen ratios (and even very different on some odd phones) What I am doing right now is making a view frustrum ( could also be ortho ) which I set to go from -ratio to +ratio ( as I have seen on many examples) however this causes my test shape to be stretched and sometimes cut off by the edge of the screen. I am tilting my phone to landscape to do my tests ( a bit extreame) but it should still render correctly if I have dome things right. Should I be scaling by some ratio before drawing or something? An example would be greatly apriciated PS I am doing a 2d game

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  • Handling different screen densities in Android Devices?

    - by DevilWithin
    Well, i know there are plenty of different-sized screens in devices that run Android. The SDK I code with deploys to all major desktop platforms and android. I am aware i must have special cares to handle the different screen sizes and densities, but i just had an idea that would work in theory, and my question is exactly about that method, How could it FAIL ? So, what I do is to have an ortho camera of the same size for all devices, with possible tweaks, but anyway that would grant the proper positioning of all elements in all devices, right? We can assume everything is drawn in OpenGLES and input handling is converted to the proper camera coordinates. If you need me to improve the question, please tell me.

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  • Projecting onto different size screens by cropping

    - by Jason
    Hi, I am building a phone application which will display a shape on screen. The shape should look the same on different screen sizes. I. Decided the best way to do this is to show more of the background on larger screen keeping the shapes proportion the same on all screens. My problem is I am not sure how to achieve this, I can query the screen size at runtime and calculate how different it is from the six is designed for but I am not sure what to do with this value. What kind of projection should I use for my orthographic matrix an hour will I display more on larger screens and not loose information on smaller screens? Thanks, Jason.

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  • VirtualBox: Import on different platform

    - by katsumii
    VirtualBox behaves almost the same on different OSes but the default network name for host-only network is different.The picture below is from Windows. On Linux, it will be named "vboxnet0" by default.This causes a problem on cross-platform export/import and it's already reported.#7067 (VERRINTERNALERROR: Inexistent host networking interface, named 'vboxnet0') – Oracle VM VirtualBoxVERR_INTERNAL_ERROR: Inexistent host networking interface, named 'vboxnet0'There are at least 2 workarounds.Open the imported VM in VBox GUI and pick correct network.Run CUI command like below. This one is for Windows.VBoxManage.exe modifyvm node1_1  --hostonlyadapter1 "VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter"

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  • How to shade a texture two different colors?

    - by Venesectrix
    To give an example of what I'm asking about, I'll use Saints Row 3 since I've been playing that lately. In that game you can customize your looks and your car's appearance a lot. Your coat can have a primary color and a trim color. Your car can have a primary color and a stripe color, etc. Is there just a single coat texture that is being shaded two different colors somehow or are they overlaying a transparent second texture for the trim/stripes that gets shaded differently? If it's just one texture I'd like to know how it's done. If it's two different textures it seems like it's a waste of space. The second texture would be the same size as the first one but mostly transparent if you just wanted to lay it on top of the first one. Or are they just carefully positioning a second, smaller texture so that it aligns properly with the first one?

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  • Using allocators for different systems

    - by chadb
    I am going over the memory architecture for my game and even though I know my memory budgets may not be final, I at the point where I can start using them in a general sense. I know that I will need several allocators (for systems such as audio, rendering, etc) but I am unsure of how they will be accessed. I do not use singletons, so I can't just have something such as AudioManager::GetInstance().get_allocator(). Instead, I need to find a different method of usage but I am not sure of how. How can I store and call my allocators needed for several different systems over engine in an efficient manner?

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  • SEO Impact of using Responsive Design and the serving of different content on the same URL

    - by bmenekl
    We are currently working on redesigning our site and making it responsive. It is a search intensive site with complex functionality, a lot of search filters and a lot of content. Our mobile versions of certain pages need to hide some functionality (i.e. search filters) that exists in the desktop version and/or content (mainly blocks of text that are not necessary or are increasing page load in mobile devices). My questions is this: does the situation of having the same URL (responsive site) serving slightly different content (text and/or search filters) for certain pages in different devices affect our SEO (SERPs or otherwise)?

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  • 2d, Top-down map with different levels

    - by Ktash
    So, I'm creating a 2d, top down, sprite based (tiled) game, and right now I'm working on maps (well, a map editor at the moment, but it will be creating my maps, so basically the same thing). The scenario So, I'm thinking about efficiency and creating a map in pieces. In each piece, I plan on having 'layers'. Basically, I plan on rendering it down to a 'below hero' level, and an 'above hero' level, with the hero rendered in between obviously. There will likely also be a 'on level with hero' layer, but I'm not quite there yet. Not even worrying about events or interaction yet. Just looking to get a hero on the screen. Now for movement, I obviously need to know what tiles can be moved and in what direction. My plan at the moment is each tile getting 8 bits (4 'can enter in direction' bits, 4 'can leave in direction'). This will allow me to limit movement and even allow one way directional movement. The dilemma This works great for a lot of scenarios. It will allow me to store a map in essentially 3 layers, a string, and gives me flexibility going forward. However, I can't create maps that themselves have layers. A good example is a bridge where the user can go under or over the bridge without invalid moves being allowed. I can't create a platform and allow movement underneath. These are things I would like to be able to include in my game. My idea In theory, I could allow multiple hero layers and then allow multiple sets of 'below' and 'above' layers (or sandwich layers). But this complicates my system, and makes movement between maps potentially tricky (If the hero is on the third layer at the edge of a map, but that corresponds to the second layer on the other map, how can I allow or disallow movement). My question Is there a better way to manage multiple maps with multiple levels like this where a users level may be 'connected' on different levels on different maps? Or even... Am I doing this the hard way? Is there a more standard way to handle top-down 2d tiled maps that I am just not aware of? Things to note or that might be helpful This will be done in Javascript (transferred around in JSON) State will need to be transferred quickly, so a map-id and x/y/direction should be enough to get me a boolean 'can move' value Maps will not be standard sized (though they will be in a certain number of tiles) Making an editor tool so that I can have others help, so something that I can create in a tool would be helpful 'Teleportation' locations will likely need to exist to get into building maps and to and from different map sets (which will not necessarily be connected), but have not been created yet (lumping in with events at the moment).

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  • Image caching when rendering the same images on different pages

    - by HelpNeeder
    I'm told to think about caching of images that will be displayed on the page. The images will be repeated throughout the website on different pages and I'm told to figure out the best way to cache these images. There could be few to dozen of images on single page. Here's few questions: Will browser caching work to display the same images across different web pages? Should I rather store images in stringified form in a memory instead, using JavaScript arrays? Store them on hard drive using 'localStorage'? What would be easiest yet best option for this? Are there any other alternatives? How to force cache? Any other information would be greatly appreciated...

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  • Why does service service_name status give different responses for different services?

    - by Code Ghar
    Running the "service service_name status" command gives three different types of output when three different service_names are used. I tried with atftpd, apache2, and isc-dhcp-server, as shown below. user@host:~$ service atftpd status Usage: /etc/init.d/atftpd {start|stop|restart|reload|force-reload} user@host:~$ service apache2 status Apache2 is running (pid 1103). user@host:~$ service isc-dhcp-server status isc-dhcp-server start/running, process 5696 Could this be because atftpd has not been converted to Upstart? The status for isc-dhcp-server shows "start/running" which indicates it has been converted to use Upstart. I would've thought apache2 would have been converted to Upstart already. If it has then why does it not display "start/running"?

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  • How to maintain different settings files in TFS

    - by aggietech
    I'm currently working on integrating the TFS source control system at my work ... I run into one small problem ... I need different version of web.config (among other config files) for different branches (due to the environment that we're releasing the web application to). (for example - i don't want to merge the web.config file all the time even though there are differences ...) Is there a good way to keep track of that (instead of manually diff-ing the files)? thanks!

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  • IPC (inter-process communication) server to connect different runtimes

    - by wvxvw
    Couple days ago I've spoken to someone who mentioned a server product that has as its main goal the ability to create inter-runtime layer that allows sharing in-memory object between different languages. The person also described the process of creating such layer as defining a number of structs in a special way such that different languages which access the objects would have the same idea of what the data they access looks like. Unfortunately, I forgot what this product is called, and Google didn't help me finding it so far. Would you happen to know what he was talking about?

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  • Software Engineering Practices &ndash; Different Projects should have different maturity levels

    - by Dylan Smith
    I’ve had a lot of discussions at the office lately about the drastically different sets of software engineering practices used on our various projects, if what we are doing is appropriate, and what factors should you be considering when determining what practices are most appropriate in a given context. I wanted to write up my thoughts in a little more detail on this subject, so here we go: If you compare any two software projects (specifically comparing their codebases) you’ll often see very different levels of maturity in the software engineering practices employed. By software engineering practices, I’m specifically referring to the quality of the code and the amount of technical debt present in the project. Things such as Test Driven Development, Domain Driven Design, Behavior Driven Development, proper adherence to the SOLID principles, etc. are all practices that you would expect at the mature end of the spectrum. At the other end of the spectrum would be the quick-and-dirty solutions that are done using something like an Access Database, Excel Spreadsheet, or maybe some quick “drag-and-drop coding”. For this blog post I’m going to refer to this as the Software Engineering Maturity Spectrum (SEMS). I believe there is a time and a place for projects at every part of that SEMS. The risks and costs associated with under-engineering solutions have been written about a million times over so I won’t bother going into them again here, but there are also (unnecessary) costs with over-engineering a solution. Sometimes putting multiple layers, and IoC containers, and abstracting out the persistence, etc is complete overkill if a one-time use Access database could solve the problem perfectly well. A lot of software developers I talk to seem to automatically jump to the very right-hand side of this SEMS in everything they do. A common rationalization I hear is that it may seem like a small trivial application today, but these things always grow and stick around for many years, then you’re stuck maintaining a big ball of mud. I think this is a cop-out. Sure you can’t always anticipate how an application will be used or grow over its lifetime (can you ever??), but that doesn’t mean you can’t manage it and evolve the underlying software architecture as necessary (even if that means having to toss the code out and re-write it at some point…maybe even multiple times). My thoughts are that we should be making a conscious decision around the start of each project approximately where on the SEMS we want the project to exist. I believe this decision should be based on 3 factors: 1. Importance - How important to the business is this application? What is the impact if the application were to suddenly stop working? 2. Complexity - How complex is the application functionality? 3. Life-Expectancy - How long is this application expected to be in use? Is this a one-time use application, does it fill a short-term need, or is it more strategic and is expected to be in-use for many years to come? Of course this isn’t an exact science. You can’t say that Project X should be at the 73% mark on the SEMS and expect that to be helpful. My point is not that you need to precisely figure out what point on the SEMS the project should be at then translate that into some prescriptive set of practices and techniques you should be using. Rather my point is that we need to be aware that there is a spectrum, and that not everything is going to be (or should be) at the edges of that spectrum, indeed a large number of projects should probably fall somewhere within the middle; and different projects should adopt a different level of software engineering practices and maturity levels based on the needs of that project. To give an example of this way of thinking from my day job: Every couple of years my company plans and hosts a large event where ~400 of our customers all fly in to one location for a multi-day event with various activities. We have some staff whose job it is to organize the logistics of this event, which includes tracking which flights everybody is booked on, arranging for transportation to/from airports, arranging for hotel rooms, name tags, etc The last time we arranged this event all these various pieces of data were tracked in separate spreadsheets and reconciliation and cross-referencing of all the data was literally done by hand using printed copies of the spreadsheets and several people sitting around a table going down each list row by row. Obviously there is some room for improvement in how we are using software to manage the event’s logistics. The next time this event occurs we plan to provide the event planning staff with a more intelligent tool (either an Excel spreadsheet or probably an Access database) that can track all the information in one location and make sure that the various pieces of data are properly linked together (so for example if a person cancels you only need to delete them from one place, and not a dozen separate lists). This solution would fall at or near the very left end of the SEMS meaning that we will just quickly create something with very little attention paid to using mature software engineering practices. If we examine this project against the 3 criteria I listed above for determining it’s place within the SEMS we can see why: Importance – If this application were to stop working the business doesn’t grind to a halt, revenue doesn’t stop, and in fact our customers wouldn’t even notice since it isn’t a customer facing application. The impact would simply be more work for our event planning staff as they revert back to the previous way of doing things (assuming we don’t have any data loss). Complexity – The use cases for this project are pretty straightforward. It simply needs to manage several lists of data, and link them together appropriately. Precisely the task that access (and/or Excel) can do with minimal custom development required. Life-Expectancy – For this specific project we’re only planning to create something to be used for the one event (we only hold these events every 2 years). If it works well this may change (see below). Let’s assume we hack something out quickly and it works great when we plan the next event. We may decide that we want to make some tweaks to the tool and adopt it for planning all future events of this nature. In that case we should examine where the current application is on the SEMS, and make a conscious decision whether something needs to be done to move it further to the right based on the new objectives and goals for this application. This may mean scrapping the access database and re-writing it as an actual web or windows application. In this case, the life-expectancy changed, but let’s assume the importance and complexity didn’t change all that much. We can still probably get away with not adopting a lot of the so-called “best practices”. For example, we can probably still use some of the RAD tooling available and might have an Autonomous View style design that connects directly to the database and binds to typed datasets (we might even choose to simply leave it as an access database and continue using it; this is a decision that needs to be made on a case-by-case basis). At Anvil Digital we have aspirations to become a primarily product-based company. So let’s say we use this tool to plan a handful of events internally, and everybody loves it. Maybe a couple years down the road we decide we want to package the tool up and sell it as a product to some of our customers. In this case the project objectives/goals change quite drastically. Now the tool becomes a source of revenue, and the impact of it suddenly stopping working is significantly less acceptable. Also as we hold focus groups, and gather feedback from customers and potential customers there’s a pretty good chance the feature-set and complexity will have to grow considerably from when we were using it only internally for planning a small handful of events for one company. In this fictional scenario I would expect the target on the SEMS to jump to the far right. Depending on how we implemented the previous release we may be able to refactor and evolve the existing codebase to introduce a more layered architecture, a robust set of automated tests, introduce a proper ORM and IoC container, etc. More likely in this example the jump along the SEMS would be so large we’d probably end up scrapping the current code and re-writing. Although, if it was a slow phased roll-out to only a handful of customers, where we collected feedback, made some tweaks, and then rolled out to a couple more customers, we may be able to slowly refactor and evolve the code over time rather than tossing it out and starting from scratch. The key point I’m trying to get across is not that you should be throwing out your code and starting from scratch all the time. But rather that you should be aware of when and how the context and objectives around a project changes and periodically re-assess where the project currently falls on the SEMS and whether that needs to be adjusted based on changing needs. Note: There is also the idea of “spectrum decay”. Since our industry is rapidly evolving, what we currently accept as mature software engineering practices (the right end of the SEMS) probably won’t be the same 3 years from now. If you have a project that you were to assess at somewhere around the 80% mark on the SEMS today, but don’t touch the code for 3 years and come back and re-assess its position, it will almost certainly have changed since the right end of the SEMS will have moved farther out (maybe the project is now only around 60% due to decay). Developer Skills Another important aspect to this whole discussion is around the skill sets of your architects and lead developers. When talking about the progression of a developers skills from junior->intermediate->senior->… they generally start by only being able to write code that belongs on the left side of the SEMS and as they gain more knowledge and skill they become capable of working at a higher and higher level along the SEMS. We all realize that the learning never stops, but eventually you’ll get to the point where you can comfortably develop at the right-end of the SEMS (the exact practices and techniques that translates to is constantly changing, but that’s not the point here). A critical skill that I’d love to see more evidence of in our industry is the most senior guys not only being able to work at the right-end of the SEMS, but more importantly be able to consciously work at any point along the SEMS as project needs dictate. An even more valuable skill would be if you could make the conscious decision to move a projects code further right on the SEMS (based on changing needs) and do so in an incremental manner without having to start from scratch. An exercise that I’m planning to go through with all of our projects here at Anvil in the near future is to map out where I believe each project currently falls within this SEMS, where I believe the project *should* be on the SEMS based on the business needs, and for those that don’t match up (i.e. most of them) come up with a plan to improve the situation.

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  • SQL SERVER – Fun Post – Connecting Same SQL Server using Different Methods

    - by pinaldave
    Yesterday I had faced error when I was connecting SQL Server using 127.0.0.1. I had immediately checked if SQL Server is working perfectly by connecting to it by specifiing my local box computer. While I was doing this suddenly I realize that it is indeed interesting to know how many different way we can connect to SQL Server which is installed in the local box. I created list of 5 different way but I am sure there are many more ways and I would like to document there here. Here is my setup. I am attempting to connect to the default instance of SQL Server from the same system where it is installed. Method 1: Connecting using local host IP 127.0.0.1 Method 2: Connecting using just a single dot (.) Method 3: Connecting using (local) Method 4: Connecting using localhost Method 5: Connecting using computer name – in my case it is BIG Here are my two questions for you? (Scroll below the image) 1) Which is your favorite method? 2) What are other methods you are familiar with to connect to local host? Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)     Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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  • Naming methods that do the same thing but return different types

    - by Konstantin Ð.
    Let's assume that I'm extending a graphical file chooser class (JFileChooser). This class has methods which display the file chooser dialog and return a status signature in the form of an int: APPROVE_OPTION if the user selects a file and hits Open /Save, CANCEL_OPTION if the user hits Cancel, and ERROR_OPTION if something goes wrong. These methods are called showDialog(). I find this cumbersome, so I decide to make another method that returns a File object: in the case of APPROVE_OPTION, it returns the file selected by the user; otherwise, it returns null. This is where I run into a problem: would it be okay for me to keep the showDialog() name, even though methods with that name — and a different return type — already exist? To top it off, my method takes an additional parameter: a File which denotes in which directory the file chooser should start. My question to you: Is it okay to call a method the same name as a superclass method if they return different types? Or would that be confusing to API users? (If so, what other name could I use?) Alternatively, should I keep the name and change the return type so it matches that of the other methods? public int showDialog(Component parent, String approveButtonText) // Superclass method public File showDialog(Component parent, File location) // My method

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  • Advice for Storing and Displaying Dates and Times Across Different Time Zones

    A common question I receive from clients, colleagues, and 4Guys readers is for recommendations on how best to store and display dates and times in a data-driven web application. One of the challenges in storing and displaying dates in a web application is that it is quite likely that the visitors arriving at your site are not in the same time zone as your web server; moreover, it's very likely that your site attracts visitors from many different time zones from around the world. Consider an online messageboard site, like ASPMessageboard.com, where each of 1,000,000+ posts includes the date and time it was made. Imagine a user from New York leaves a post on April 7th at 4:30 PM and that the web server hosting the site is located in Dallas, Texas, which is one hour earlier than New York. When storing that post to the database do you record the post's date and time relative to the visitor (4:30 PM), the relative to the web server (3:30 PM), or some other value? And when displaying this post how do you show that date and time to a reader in San Francisco, which is three hours earlier than New York? Do you show the time relative to the person who made the post (4:30 PM), relative to the web server (3:30 PM), or relative to the user (1:30 PM)? And if you decide to store or display the date based on the poster's or visitor's time zone then how do you know their time zone and its offset? How do you account for daylight savings, and so on? This article provides guidance on how to store and display dates and times for visitors across different time zones and includes a demo that gives a working example of some of these techniques. Read on to learn more! Read More >

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