Search Results

Search found 2385 results on 96 pages for 'credit cards'.

Page 71/96 | < Previous Page | 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78  | Next Page >

• How valuable are you to your organization?

  - by Lance Shaw

  I don't know about you but I find it easy to get bogged down with the daily list of tasks and deliverables.  We all have lots to do and it all seems to be due tomorrow.  If you are reading this blog, than your to-do list is almost certainly filled with tasks related to the management, processing and publishing of information.  As we get mired in the daily routine of making sure that the content management needs of the organizations are met, we can easily lose sight of the value that we bring.  After all, if information and content is the lifeblood of our organizations, then surely maintaining the healthy flow of that information has real value.  But how can you measure that value and bring it forward on your résumé or your list of achievements in time for your next performance review? The AIIM organization has spent a lot of time recently researching the value of certification for "information professionals".  When it comes to enterprise content management (ECM) there are many areas of specialization including records management, content archivist, digital asset manager, content librarian and more.  Specialization can clearly drive up your value but it can also lock you into a narrow niche area of focus.  AIIM has found that what companies also need is someone that can apply their knowledge of how information is managed within the operational scope of the business in order to drive real, measurable strategic value.  When you can showcase the value of a broader, business-wide mindset to your management, you have more opportunity to make professional progress and drive real growth where it counts, your paycheck.   We here on the Oracle WebCenter team partnered with AIIM on the research they performed around the value of an information professional certification program. In a webinar this week, Doug Miles of AIIM and I will be talking about the results of that recent survey and what it is going to mean in the future to be recognized as a "Certified Information Professional" (CIP).  Oracle sponsored this research to help individuals and companies understand the value of enterprise content management and what it means across the entire organization. I hope you will join us. If any of us were stopped in the street and were asked about it, I bet most of us would think of ourselves as an "Information Professional".  Now we have a way to actually prove it!  There's only one downside that I can see...  you will have to get your business cards updated to include the "CIP" acronym after your name.  I think you will agree that is a price worth paying!

  Read the article

• How I might think like a hacker so that I can anticipate security vulnerabilities in .NET or Java before a hacker hands me my hat [closed]

  - by Matthew Patrick Cashatt

  Premise I make a living developing web-based applications for all form-factors (mobile, tablet, laptop, etc). I make heavy use of SOA, and send and receive most data as JSON objects. Although most of my work is completed on the .NET or Java stacks, I am also recently delving into Node.js. This new stack has got me thinking that I know reasonably well how to secure applications using known facilities of .NET and Java, but I am woefully ignorant when it comes to best practices or, more importantly, the driving motivation behind the best practices. You see, as I gain more prominent clientele, I need to be able to assure them that their applications are secure and, in order to do that, I feel that I should learn to think like a malevolent hacker. What motivates a malevolent hacker: What is their prime mover? What is it that they are most after? Ultimately, the answer is money or notoriety I am sure, but I think it would be good to understand the nuanced motivators that lead to those ends: credit card numbers, damning information, corporate espionage, shutting down a highly visible site, etc. As an extension of question #1--but more specific--what are the things most likely to be seeked out by a hacker in almost any application? Passwords? Financial info? Profile data that will gain them access to other applications a user has joined? Let me be clear here. This is not judgement for or against the aforementioned motivations because that is not the goal of this post. I simply want to know what motivates a hacker regardless of our individual judgement. What are some heuristics followed to accomplish hacker goals? Ultimately specific processes would be great to know; however, in order to think like a hacker, I would really value your comments on the broader heuristics followed. For example: "A hacker always looks first for the low-hanging fruit such as http spoofing" or "In the absence of a CAPTCHA or other deterrent, a hacker will likely run a cracking script against a login prompt and then go from there." Possibly, "A hacker will try and attack a site via Foo (browser) first as it is known for Bar vulnerability. What are the most common hacks employed when following the common heuristics? Specifics here. Http spoofing, password cracking, SQL injection, etc. Disclaimer I am not a hacker, nor am I judging hackers (Heck--I even respect their ingenuity). I simply want to learn how I might think like a hacker so that I may begin to anticipate vulnerabilities before .NET or Java hands me a way to defend against them after the fact.

  Read the article

• Viewing at Impossible Angles

  - by kemer

  The picture of the little screwdriver with the Allen wrench head to the right is bound to invoke a little nostalgia for those readers who were Sun customers in the late 80s. This tool was a very popular give-away: it was essential for installing and removing Multibus (you youngsters will have to look that up on Wikipedia…) cards in our systems. Back then our mid-sized systems were gargantuan: it was routine for us to schlep around a 200 lb. desk side box and 90 lb. monitor to demo a piece of software your smart phone will run better today. We were very close to the hardware, and the first thing a new field sales systems engineer had to learn was how put together a system. If you were lucky, a grizzled service engineer might run you through the process once, then threaten your health and existence should you ever screw it up so that he had to fix it. Nowadays we make it much easier to learn the ins and outs of our hardware with simulations–3D animations–that take you through the process of putting together or replacing pieces of a system. Most recently, we have posted three sophisticated PDFs that take advantage of Acrobat 9 features to provide a really intelligent approach to documenting hardware installation and repair: Sun Fire X4800/X4800 M2 Animations for Chassis Components Sun Fire X4800/X4800 M2 Animations for Sub Assembly Module (SAM) Sun Fire X4800/X4800 M2 Animations for CMOD Download one of these documents and take a close look at it. You can view the hardware from any angle, including impossible ones. Each document has a number of procedures, that break down into steps. Click on a procedure, then a step and you will see it animated in the drawing. Of course hardware design has generally eliminated the need for things like our old giveaway tools: components snap and lock in. Often you can replace redundant units while the system is hot, but for heaven’s sake, you’ll want to verify that you can do that before you try it! Meanwhile, we can all look forward to a growing portfolio of these intelligent documents. We would love to hear what you think about them. –Kemer

  Read the article

• What Am I doing for my 5 months 1 week old baby for his first cold?

  - by Rekha

  With my limited friends circle with babies, I heard that babies in their fifth month usually gets affected by cold all of a sudden. This is unavoidable and I feel it is good for the babies as they start developing their immune system right on. We usually take our son for a small walk so that he is able to explore the world out there. We have been taking him for a stroll almost everyday since we was 3 months old. But only now he is getting his first cold. So things happen only now I think. Till that day I had somehow brought some routine for him for his feed and naps during day time. Night time is still sleepless ones anyway. So when he first got his cold, that night it went on as usual getting up every few hours. From the next day on, he stopped feeding at the usual time. In the night he goes for 8-10 hours between feeds but still wakes up every two hours and cries for about 10 minutes and when we lift him for sometime, he goes back to sleep. Now to the point what all to expect: * Babies starts feeding frequently * Babies spit up increases * They dislike the food they liked before (we have just started solid foods as per our pediatricians advice) * Since they cannot breathe properly, they cannot sleep for a long time *Pees and poops less frequently. What all we did for our baby to make him comfortable during this time: * Feed the baby less quantity and more frequently whenever they expect to feed (Do not follow the schedule) * When the quantity is less, spit ups is also less * If the baby does not like the food (vegetable or fruit), avoid them till they get back to normal * Try to elevate their head while sleeping ( we used the cradle – sitting position, bouncer, car seat and finally all four sides we placed firm pillows so that he does not roll and kept a pillow for his head till his hip – this one is recommended usually but we have an eye on him always) * No need for any medicines – it will take a week for them to get back to normal whether or not we gives medicines * We applied home made Cold Reliever (heat 2 teaspoons of coconut oil with a small camphor piece till the camphor disappears – then cool the mixture) on his chest, back, neck and feet and covered the feet with socks in the nights * Bathe him everyday – hot (that your baby can withstand) *  Whenever possible give him a steam bath (open the hot showers for sometime in the bathroom and close the doors. When the steam is bearable, close the shower and take the baby inside the bathroom for sometime) * Also use a bulb syringe provided in the hospital to clear the nose (use some saline water drops for ease) * Cuddle him when he cries But please do take him to his doctor if he has fever and other symptoms other than cold or the cold persists for more than 5 – 7 days. Image Credit : MiriamBJDolls

  Read the article

• schedule compliance and keeping technical supports and resolving issues

  - by imays

  I am an entrepreneur of a small software developer company. The flagship product is developed by myself and my company grew up to 14 people. One of pride is that we've never have to be invested or loaned. The core development team is 5 people. 3 are seniors and 2 are juniors. After the first release, we've received many issues from our customers. Most of them are bug issues, customization needs, usage questions and upgrade requests. The issues from customers are incoming many times everyday, so it takes little time or much time of our developers. Because of our product is a software development kit(SDK) so most of questions can be answered only from our developers. And, for resolving bug issues, developers must be involved. Estimating time to resolve bug is hard. I fully understand it. However, our developers insist they cannot set the any due date of each project because they are busy doing technical supports and bug fixes by issues from customers everyday. Of course, they never do overwork. I suggested them an idea to divide the team into two parts: one for focusing on development by milestones, other for doing technical supports and bug fixes without setting due days. Then we could announce release plan officially. After the finish of release, two parts exchange the role for next milestone. However, they say they "NO, because it is impossible to share knowledge and design document fully." They still say they cannot set the release date and they request me to alter the due date flexibly. They does not fix the due date of each milestone. Fortunately, our company is not loaned and invested so we are not chocked. But I think it is bad idea to keep this situation. I know the story of ant and grasshopper. Our customers are tired of waiting forever of our release date. Companies consume limited time and money. If flexible due date without limit could be acceptable, could they accept flexible salary day? What is the root cause of our problem? All that I want is to fix and achieve precisely due date of each milestone without losing frequent technical supports. I think there must be solution for this situation. Please answer me. Thanks in advance. PS. Our tools and ways of project management are Trello, Mantis-like issue tracker, shared calendar software and scrum(collected cards into series of 'small and high completeness' projects).

  Read the article

• Networking Guidelines

  - by ACShorten

  One of the things I have noticed in my years in IT is the changes in networking. In the past networking was pretty simple with the host name and name resolution (via DNS) being pretty simple. Some sites still use this simple networking setup. These days, more complex name resolution, proxies, firewalls, demarcation nd virtualization, can make networking more complex. This can cause issues when installing products with in built networking that can frustrate even seasoned veterans. I have put together a few basic guidelines to hopefully help along with product installation and getting a product to operate in a somewhat complex network setup. All the components of the product (including the infrastructure) need to communicate via a network (even it is within a local machine/host). Ensure any host names referred to within configuration files are accessible via your networking setup. This may mean defining the hosts to the machines, to the DNS for name resolution and even your firewall to allow machines to communicate within your network. Make sure the ports used for any of the infrastructure are accessible (even through your firewall) and are unique within the host. Host duplication can cause the product to fail on startup as the port is already in use. If there are still issues, consider using localhost as your host name. I have used this in so many situations that I tend to use it now as a default anytime I install anything myself. Most Oracle products suggest to use localhost when using dynamic host or dynamic IP addresses and this is no different for the Oracle Utilities Application Framework. If you do use localhost then installing a Loopback Adapter for the operating system is recommended to force networking to a minimum. Usually localhost resolves to 127.0.0.1. When using multiple network connections, especially in a virtualized environment, ensure the host and ports used are relevent for the network cards you have setup. One of the common issues is finding the product is using a vierualized network card only to find that it is not setup for correct networking. If you are using the batch component, do not forget to ensure that the multicast protocol is enabled on your host and that the multicast address and port number specified are valid and accessible from all machines in the batch cluster (if clustering used). The same advice applies if you are using unicast where each host/port combination should be accessible. Hopefully these basic networking recommendations will help minimize any networking issues you might encounter.

  Read the article

• Selectively Exposing Functionallity in .Net

  - by David V. Corbin

  Any developer should be aware of the principles of encapsulation, cross-tier isolation, and cross-functional separation of concerns. However, it seems the few take the time to consider the adage of "minimal yet complete"1 when developing the software. Consider the exposure of "business objects" to the user interface. Some common situations occur: Accessing a given element requires a compound set of calls that do not "make sense" to the User Interface. More information than absolutely required is exposed to the user interface It would be much cleaner if a custom interface was provided that exposed exactly (and only) the information that is required by the consumer. Achieving this using conventional techniques would require the creation (and maintenance!) of custom classes to filter and transpose the information into the ideal format. Determining the ROI on this approach can be very difficult to ascertain, and as a result it is often ignored completely. There is another approach, which is largely made practical by virtual of the Action and Func delegates. From a callers point of view, the following two samples can be used interchangeably:     interface ISomeInterface     {         void SampleMethod1(string param);         string SamepleMethod2(string param);     }       class ISomeInterface     {         public Action<string> SampleMethod1 {get; }         public Func<string,string> SamepleMethod2 {get; }     }   The capabilities this simple changes enable are significant (and remember it does not cange the syntax at the call site): The delegates can be initialized to directly call the proper method of any target class. The delegates can be dynamically updated based on the current state. The "interface" can NOT be cast to the concrete class (which often exposes more functionallity). This patterns By limiting the interface to the exact functionallity required, the reduced surface area will typically result in lower development, testing and maintenance costs. We are currently in the process of posting a project on CodePlex which illustrates this (and many other) techniques which have proven helpful in creating robust yet flexible solutions that are highly efficient2 and maintainable. This post will be updated as soon as the project is published. 1) Credit: Scott  Meyers, Effective C++, Addison-Wesley 1992 2) For those who read my previous post on performance it should be noted that the use of delegates is on the same order of magnitude (actually a tiny amount faster) as conventional interfaces.

  Read the article

• WebCenter Customer Spotlight: Institute of Financing for Agriculture and Fisheries

  - by kellsey.ruppel

   Author: Peter Reiser - Social Business Evangelist, Oracle WebCenter  Solution SummaryThe Institute of Financing for Agriculture and Fisheries (IFAP) provides access, process payments, and oversee the application of EU and domestic funds distribution to individuals and companies. IFAP business objectives were to establish electronic processing of EU funds, improve relations between government agencies and public in compliance with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) requirements for information management and security They implemented a complete solution for managing the entire document content life cycle through the use of Oracle WebCenter Content and Oracle WebCenter Capture. IFAP improved relationships with the public by accelerating payments electronically to individuals and organizations engaged in agriculture and fisheries, which is much easier, faster, and more secure than paper-based payments and the solution complies with ISO information and security requirements.  Company OverviewAs part of the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development, and Fisheries, the mission of the Institute of Financing for Agriculture and Fisheries (IFAP) is to provide access, process payments, and oversee the application of European Union (EU) and domestic funds distribution to individuals and companies engaged in the agriculture, rural development, and fisheries industries. Business ChallengesIFAP main business objective was to establish electronic processing of EU funds invested in agriculture and fisheries, improve relations between government agencies and the public and  comply with International Organization for Standardization (ISO) requirements for information management and security systems regarding access to stored documents. Solution DeployedIFAP implemented a complete solution for managing the entire document content life cycle through the use of Oracle WebCenter Content and Oracle WebCenter Capture.  The use of paper was replaced with digital formats, accelerating internal processes and ensuring compliance with ISO requirements Business Results Scalability The number of documents included and managed in the document system, called iDOC, increased to a total of 490,847, of which 103,298 are internally generated, 113,824 are digitized correspondence, and 264,870 are forms that have been digitized or received via the institute’s Web site. Efficiency  IFAP improved relationships with the public by accelerating payments electronically to individuals and organizations engaged in agriculture and fisheries, which is much easier, faster, and more secure than paper-based payments. The overall productivity increased through the use of digital formats and citizens’ ID cards as digital signatures. Compliance The implemented solution complies with International Organization for Standardization (ISO) requirements for information management and security systems regarding access to stored documents. Oracle Products and Services IFAP Customer Snapshot Oracle WebCenter Content Oracle WebCenter Capture Oracle Application Server Oracle Forms Oracle Reports

  Read the article

• Why wearing Jeans is considered unprofessional?

  - by Gopinath

  When I started my career 9 years ago I use to wear casual wear to office – Jeans & T-Shirts all the 5 days. The environment at workplace during those days encouraged me to be casual and many of my colleagues use to come in Jeans. We just started our career those days it was perfectly fine to be in casual. As I grow up in the ladder, I started feeling the discomfort of wearing Jeans at work. During clients visits, senior managers meetings and consultations I was an odd man in the crowd as the rest of them are in formals. In order to be one among the professionals I’m forced change my dressing style and start wearing formals. But  the question of “Why wearing jeans to workplace is considered as unprofessional?” use in linger in my mind till today. I got the answer to my question from a discussion thread on Quora When they were invented, jeans were associated with blue-collar work. They were meant to get muddy and gross and take lots of abuse without falling apart, even if you wore the same pair every day. The people who bought them were the ones whose lives required durable clothing. And another commenter says… A professional image is critical to cementing business relationships, and part of that is, for right or wrong, how you dress. Jeans are typically associated with "kicking back", relaxation, leisure, informality,  and even a slightly rebellious flavor. The style and condition of the jeans are a consideration, as we often wear jeans into advanced states of being worn down, with tearing, etc.. that we generally do not do with other clothing items. I agree with this theory even though it may be centuries old. If you want to look like a professional and treated like a professional it’s better to be dress up in formals. These days I make a point to be in formals at workplace. Not everyone is Steve Jobs to wear a Jean & Turtle Neck T-shirt  right? CC Image credit flickr/exey

  Read the article

• Can't install "cedar trail drm driver in DKMS format" on Ubuntu 12.04

  - by Mychal Phillip Segala Sajulga

  Ubuntu 12.04 32bit ... Toshiba NB520 *side-note, this computer is so slow even with a 2gbram; far better than my emachine and neo laptop. I think this is the answer: driver. /var/log/jockey.log 2013-09-19 05:29:36,773 DEBUG: Comparing 3.8.0-29 with 2013-09-19 05:32:45,094 DEBUG: updating <jockey.detection.LocalKernelModulesDriverDB instance at 0x8427a0c> 2013-09-19 05:32:50,861 DEBUG: reading modalias file /lib/modules/3.8.0-29-generic/modules.alias 2013-09-19 05:32:56,240 DEBUG: reading modalias file /usr/share/jockey/modaliases/b43 2013-09-19 05:32:56,265 DEBUG: reading modalias file /usr/share/jockey/modaliases/disable-upstream-nvidia 2013-09-19 05:32:56,474 DEBUG: loading custom handler /usr/share/jockey/handlers/dvb_usb_firmware.py 2013-09-19 05:32:56,791 DEBUG: Instantiated Handler subclass __builtin__.DvbUsbFirmwareHandler from name DvbUsbFirmwareHandler 2013-09-19 05:32:56,792 DEBUG: Firmware for DVB cards not available 2013-09-19 05:32:56,793 DEBUG: loading custom handler /usr/share/jockey/handlers/cdv.py 2013-09-19 05:32:56,927 WARNING: modinfo for module cedarview_gfx failed: ERROR: modinfo: could not find module cedarview_gfx 2013-09-19 05:32:58,213 DEBUG: linux-lts-raring installed: True linux-lts-saucy installed: False linux minor version: 8 xserver ABI: 13 xserver-lts-quantal: False 2013-09-19 05:32:58,214 DEBUG: Instantiated Handler subclass __builtin__.CdvDriver from name CdvDriver 2013-09-19 05:32:58,214 DEBUG: cdv.available: falling back to default 2013-09-19 05:32:58,685 DEBUG: XorgDriverHandler(cedarview_gfx, cedarview-graphics-drivers, None): Disabling as package video ABI(s) xorg-video-abi-11 not compatible with X.org video ABI xorg-video-abi-13 2013-09-19 05:32:58,686 DEBUG: Intel Cedarview graphics driver not available 2013-09-19 05:32:58,687 DEBUG: loading custom handler /usr/share/jockey/handlers/vmware-client.py 2013-09-19 05:32:58,716 WARNING: modinfo for module vmxnet failed: ERROR: modinfo: could not find module vmxnet 2013-09-19 05:32:58,717 DEBUG: Instantiated Handler subclass __builtin__.VmwareClientHandler from name VmwareClientHandler 2013-09-19 05:32:58,758 DEBUG: VMWare Client Tools availability undetermined, adding to pool 2013-09-19 05:32:58,758 DEBUG: loading custom handler /usr/share/jockey/handlers/nvidia.py 2013-09-19 05:32:58,826 WARNING: modinfo for module nvidia_304 failed: ERROR: modinfo: could not find module nvidia_304 2013-09-19 05:32:58,836 DEBUG: Instantiated Handler subclass __builtin__.NvidiaDriver304 from name NvidiaDriver304 2013-09-19 05:32:58,837 DEBUG: nvidia.available: falling back to default 2013-09-19 05:33:11,682 DEBUG: NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver availability undetermined, adding to pool 2013-09-19 05:33:11,688 WARNING: modinfo for module nvidia_304_updates failed: ERROR: modinfo: could not find module nvidia_304_updates 2013-09-19 05:33:11,696 DEBUG: Instantiated Handler subclass __builtin__.NvidiaDriver304Updates from name NvidiaDriver304Updates 2013-09-19 05:33:11,696 DEBUG: nvidia.available: falling back to default 2013-09-19 05:33:24,326 DEBUG: NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (post-release updates) availability undetermined, adding to pool 2013-09-19 05:33:24,332 WARNING: modinfo for module nvidia_current_updates failed: ERROR: modinfo: could not find module nvidia_current_updates 2013-09-19 05:33:24,339 DEBUG: Instantiated Handler subclass __builtin__.NvidiaDriverCurrentUpdates from name NvidiaDriverCurrentUpdates 2013-09-19 05:33:24,340 DEBUG: nvidia.available: falling back to default 2013-09-19 05:33:24,381 DEBUG: NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (post-release updates) not available 2013-09-19 05:33:24,387 WARNING: modinfo for module nvidia_experimental_304 failed: ERROR: modinfo: could not find module nvidia_experimental_304 2013-09-19 05:33:24,427 DEBUG: Instantiated Handler subclass __builtin__.NvidiaDriverExperimental304 from name NvidiaDriverExperimental304 2013-09-19 05:33:24,427 DEBUG: nvidia.available: falling back to default 2013-09-19 05:33:24,461 DEBUG: NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (**experimental** beta) not available 2013-09-19 05:33:24,467 WARNING: modinfo for module nvidia_current failed: ERROR: modinfo: could not find module nvidia_current

  Read the article

• Stop Saying "Multi-Channel!"

  - by David Dorf

  I keep hearing the term "multi-channel" in our industry, but its time to move on. It kinda reminds me of the term "ECR" or electronic cash register. Long ago ECR was a leading-edge term, but nowadays its rarely used because its table-stakes. After all, what cash register today isn't electronic? The same logic applies to multi-channel, at least when we're talking about tier-1 and tier-2 retailers. If you're still talking about multi-channel retailing, you're in big trouble. Some have switched over to the term "cross-channel," and that's a step in the right direction but still falls short. Its kinda like saying, "I upgraded my ECR to accept debit cards!" Yawn. Who hasn't? Today's retailers need to focus on omni-channel, which I first heard from my friends over at RSR but was originally coined at IDC. First retailers added e-commerce to their store and catalog channels yielding multi-channel retailing. Consumers could use the channel that worked best for them. Then some consumers wanted to combine channels with features like buy-on-the-Web, pickup-in-the-store. Thus began the cross-channel initiatives to breakdown the silos and enable the channels to communicate with each other. But the multi-channel architecture is full of duplication that thwarts efforts of providing a consistent experience. Each has its own cart, its own pricing, and often its own CRM. This was an outcrop of trying to bring the independent channels to market quickly. Rather than reusing and rebuilding existing components to meet the new demands, silos were created that continue to exist today. Today's consumers want omni-channel retailing. They want to interact with brands in a consistent manner that is channel transparent, yet optimized for that particular interaction. The diagram below, from the soon-to-be-released NRF Mobile Blueprint v2, shows this progression. For retailers to provide an omni-channel experience, there needs to be one logical representation of products, prices, promotions, and customers across all channels. The only thing that varies is the presentation of the content based on the delivery mechanism (e.g. shelf labels, mobile phone, web site, print, etc.) and often these mechanisms can be combined in various ways. I'm looking forward to the day in which I can use my phone to scan QR-codes in a catalog to create a shopping cart of items. Then do some further research on the retailer's Web site and be told about related items that might interest me. Be able to easily solicit opinions and reviews from social sites, and finally enter the store to pickup my items, knowing that any applicable coupons have been applied. In this scenario, I the consumer are dealing with a single brand that is aware of me and my needs throughout the entire transaction. Nirvana.

  Read the article

• HighPoint RocketRAID 62x Controller

  - by TeXnewbie

  I have the subject card recently installed in Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS (GNU/Linux 3.2.0-31-generic x86_64). See partial lspci -vv listing below (complete listing played havoc with pre tags): 03:00.0 RAID bus controller: HighPoint Technologies, Inc. Device 0622 (rev 01) Subsystem: HighPoint Technologies, Inc. Device 0001 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx- Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 32 bytes Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11 Region 0: I/O ports at 9c00 [size=8] Region 1: I/O ports at 9800 [size=4] Region 2: I/O ports at 9400 [size=8] Region 3: I/O ports at 9000 [size=4] Region 4: I/O ports at 8c00 [size=16] Region 5: Memory at fdbff000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K] Expansion ROM at fdbe0000 [disabled] [size=64K] Capabilities: I followed instructions I found at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RocketRaid to compile the drivers for it, and although performing the process described there seemed to work fine with no noticeable errors, when I rebooted after performing that procedure I could not boot. During dkms steps, I noticed messages indicating that (If next boot fails, revert to initrd.img-3.2.0-31-generic.old-dkms image) update-initramfs................ so I booted using a Ubuntu 12.10 LiveDVD and reverted to the old-dkms initrd.img as suggested above, but this failed to repair the boot problem. Ultimately, I used https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair in Ubuntu-Secure-Remix to fix the boot problem and was able to boot normally again, but now with the newly generated initrd.img in place again (which now boots normally), when I modprobe the rr62x kernel module, I immediately get a hard crash with messages to console about a kernel paging request that seems to have caused the problem. I've tried on multiple occasions now to use the newly built kernel module so as to allow me to use an eSATA port multiplier plugged into the card, but to no avail. Any suggestions on fixes or workarounds (I've read that some of the HighPoint cards (2720SGL) seem to work as a host bus adapter and thus may not need a custom driver, but that seems not to be the case for mine) would be most appreciated. My goal is to use the card as described here and with software RAID mdadm utilities. If necessary, I can hand-copy the console messages after the hard crash into a follow-up message, but I obviously can't do a cut/paste. I'll gladly provide any other details that are needed, but not sure what those would be at this point, so I'll refrain from adding other details for now. Thanks in advance for any help.

  Read the article

• Introducing Oracle Retail Mobile Point-of-Service

  - by user801960

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Oracle recently announced the introduction of Oracle Retail Mobile Point-of-Service, a mobile extension to the Oracle Retail Point-of-Service (POS) used by many retailers internationally. Oracle Retail Mobile POS offers wide ranging cost and efficiency benefits by allowing staff resource to be used more effectively whilst also reducing spend associated with fixed POS solutions. For retailers utilising Oracle Retail Stores Solutions, additional benefits can be realised. Oracle Retail Mobile POS works with these solutions to allow store personnel to check in-store inventory, access product information and specifications, and perform tasks such as the printing or emailing of receipts and the activation of gift cards.  As Oracle Retail Mobile POS is an extension of Oracle Retail Point-of-Service, retailers can benefit from seamless integration with existing systems, simple upgrade procedures and seamless delivery across the business. However, the solution’s scalable and flexible architecture also supports multiple mobile operators and systems, so retailers are not locked into particular vendors. As well as being popular with retailers, Mobile POS has also proved to be well liked by consumers as it facilitates improved customer service levels. Retail staff are able to spend more time with consumers on the shop floor, access requested inventory information, and perform tasks that would traditionally have needed to be completed at a fixed cash register. Additional information can be accessed on Oracle Retail Point-of-Service or read the press announcement Oracle Introduces Mobile Point-of-Service for Retailers. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE

  Read the article

• Card deck and sparse matrix interview questions

  - by MrDatabase

  I just had a technical phone screen w/ a start-up. Here's the technical questions I was asked ... and my answers. What do think of these answers? Feel free to post better answers :-) Question 1: how would you represent a standard 52 card deck in (basically any language)? How would you shuffle the deck? Answer: use an array containing a "Card" struct or class. Each instance of card has some unique identifier... either it's position in the array or a unique integer member variable in the range [0, 51]. Shuffle the cards by traversing the array once from index zero to index 51. Randomly swap ith card with "another card" (I didn't remember how this shuffle algorithm works exactly). Watch out for using the same probability for each card... that's a gotcha in this algorithm. I mentioned the algorithm is from Programming Pearls. Question 2: how to represent a large sparse matrix? the matrix can be very large... like 1000x1000... but only a relatively small number (~20) of the entries are non-zero. Answer: condense the array into a list of the non-zero entries. for a given entry (i,j) in the array... "map" (i,j) to a single integer k... then use k as a key into a dictionary or hashtable. For the 1000x1000 sparse array map (i,j) to k using something like f(i, j) = i + j * 1001. 1001 is just one plus the maximum of all i and j. I didn't recall exactly how this mapping worked... but the interviewer got the idea (I think). Are these good answers? I'm wondering because after I finished the second question the interviewer said the dreaded "well that's all the questions I have for now." Cheers!

  Read the article

• Getting WLAN on my Laptop to work (Medion MD98300)

  - by Anand Böhmer

  Dear Ubuntu Community, I am having difficulties to get the WLAN Adapter on my Medion 98300 Laptop to work. The WLAN Card seems to be connected through an internal USB Interface and the Card itself had shown up as a wirelles Network while installing Ubuntu. I have tried a few things earlier, but none of my google reasearches have brought me to a working solution... I am quite new to the Linux System and only knoew a couple of terminal commands so far, so I probably have missed out on a few possible solutions. Maybe you can help me? Thank you very much in advance! A fre minimal technical Details: AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technolgie TL-50 NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150 SanDisk 64GB SSD 2GB RAM DDR2 667 nForce Chipset (I forgt the Version, but deductable from the GPU I guess) WiFi: ZyDAS ZD1211B 802.11g Thank's a lot again! :) UPDATE: I tried around myself a little and found a guide on the Linux Mint forums that helped! I already had tried to install the linux backport modules etc. What I finally did was update the linux firmware and run the following command: echo "options acer_wmi wirelles=1" sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/acer_wmi.conf and rebooted now I found and could connect to networks, but unfortunately I found, that the link quality was very bad, around 40 to 50. Eventhough my Router is running at high power and is only 6 Meters away! I then switched a few channels, but that did not improve much. Before, under Windows, I had a very good link quality and had the entire 16mbit/s internet connection at disposal, now I can only get about 3-5Mbit/s. better then nothing, but still pretty bad! The "TX power" is fixed on 20dBm and iwconfig says, that the "Power Management" is off... Maybe the power of the module is set too low?... UPDATE2: I figured that 20dBm is a normal power output. I even tried to change the power using iwconfig wlan0 txpower INTEGERHERE but, obviously my "Card" does not support more then 20. More would probably be illegal as well, so I won't even use more then 20. I guess that I will have to figure out a way, or maybe just switch cards. Are the Mailboard-USB-Connectors on a laptop of the same property as the standard external ones? If so, I could simply solder a micro Wirelless N Adapter onto the board :)

  Read the article

• GPU hung when switching graphic card

  - by Lie Ryan

  I have a laptop (Dell Inspiron N4110) with a switchable graphic. $ lspci | grep VGA 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09) 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc NI Whistler [AMD Radeon HD 6600M Series] (rev ff) Normally, my laptop starts with both graphic cards enabled, which caused the laptop to turn very hot and the fan to become very noisy. I have been using a small script to disable the Radeon card. For some time, I'm quite happy with this arrangement. However, I have been having some issues with the Intel card (IGD), the Intel card often randomly hang when running OpenGL apps; and so I want to give the Radeon card (DIS) another chance. I have never been able to switch to the Radeon card, but recently, I found out that if I do a "delayed switching" (DDIS): # echo "DDIS" > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch root@lieryan-dell-ubuntu:/sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo# cat switch 0:IGD:+:Pwr:0000:00:02.0 1:DIS: :Pwr:0000:01:00.0 then I logoff (i.e. to restart X), the screen switch to pseudo-tty and then it stuck there freezing. At this situation, mouse and keyboard stops working so I can't switch to another ptty. I tried ssh-ing from another computer to salvage logs (dmesg at that point) and whatnot; I found out that when freezing, the active graphic card is the AMD card: -- this is from ssh -- # cat switch 0:IGD: :Off:0000:00:02.0 1:DIS:+:Pwr:0000:01:00.0 but the GPU is apparently hung, looking at dmesg gives: ... [ 1411.649974] vga_switcheroo: client 0 refused switch [ 1411.649985] vga_switcheroo: setting delayed switch to client 1 [ 1423.911759] vga_switcheroo: processing delayed switch to 1 [ 1424.006564] fbcon: Remapping primary device, fb1, to tty 1-63 [ 1424.006799] i915: switched off [ 1424.840351] [drm:drm_mode_getfb] *ERROR* invalid framebuffer id [ 1425.718088] [drm:drm_mode_getfb] *ERROR* invalid framebuffer id [ 1426.622377] [drm:drm_mode_getfb] *ERROR* invalid framebuffer id [ 1427.355683] [drm:drm_mode_getfb] *ERROR* invalid framebuffer id [ 1428.193549] [drm:drm_mode_getfb] *ERROR* invalid framebuffer id ... the invalid framebuffer id error is repeated for many times over ... I were able to successfully recover by switching back to the Intel card and restarting X from ssh; indicating that only the Radeon card has problems switching. System info: $ uname -a Linux lieryan-dell-ubuntu 3.0.0-14-generic #23-Ubuntu SMP Mon Nov 21 20:28:43 UTC 2011 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux $ lsb_release -a No LSB modules are available. Distributor ID: Ubuntu Description: Ubuntu 11.10 Release: 11.10 Codename: oneiric The laptop also do not have the option to set graphic card at BIOS and the proprietary driver, fglrx, also have never worked; when I installed it through jockey ("Additional Drivers"), glxinfo showed that it still being rendered by Mesa, the /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo directory has gone missing, and the driver crashes with a traceback if I use xorg.conf to tell X to use fglrx. Anyone had any idea if it is possible to use this AMD card either with the radeon or the fglrx driver? logs: dmesg

  Read the article

• My Graduate Experience at Oracle by Mayuri Khinvasara

  - by david.talamelli

  My experience at Oracle. I still vividly remember the day, when my name was announced in the campus hiring list of Oracle at my college. I was proud of myself but at the same time, I was getting goose bumps!!! A new world had arrived before me and the anxiousness of whether I could survive it or not had gripped me. Nervous about moving into an unknown city, I came to visit Hyderabad with my father. One look at the Oracle Campus and I felt some kind of magnetism pulling me towards it. And then, I joined Oracle in June 2009, with a lot of apprehensions in my mind. The HR Rep made us really comfortable in the first week itself. I met so many new people, managers, HR folks and most importantly 20 other Campus Hires like me. Then we had our team bonding sessions, team parties etc. I didn’t realize when the transition from campus to corporate happened. And I had started loving it. The confidence the HR Reps gave us and the bonding our managers imbibed in us, made us all ready for the new life ahead. Then started the rigorous training sessions, the excitement about our new work, new cubicles, new desktops, our first business cards, our first conference call and so on. I made new friends which were now my extended family, the freedom and courage of living alone. I was enjoying all that. As I was getting totally immersed into my regular work schedule I started getting to know the innumerable Oracle products, their functionalities, implementations and realizing the brand that Oracle is. Work pressure started increasing and so did the challenges to understand and deliver. I Didn’t realize how days and soon months passed by. Then came a golden chance to visit the Oracle Headquarters in US for 45 days training in November 2009. Once again, the excitement was enormous about the counter team-mates in HQ, the trainings ahead, the US work culture and my stay there. I felt so privileged for the company I was working. Boarding an international flight for the first time and visiting famous US cities which I had just seen in movies, was now a reality. It was a totally amazing experience. Work pressure kept me really busy, with learning new things every day, the immense satisfaction of delivering something, the nightmares of debugging a mistake, only to realize how silly it was.  I was enjoying the process. Soon a year passed by. I had transformed into this corporate software professional, I couldn’t believe I could be. Today, I complete 1 year and 8 months at Oracle and continue to look forward to the enriching experience I will have here. Truly one of the Top Companies in the World. Mayuri Khinvasara

  Read the article

• Contract Lifecycle Management for Public Sector

  - by jeffrey.waterman

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} One thing Oracle never seems to get enough credit for is its consistent quest to improve its products, even the ones as established as its back-office solutions. Here is another example of one of the latest improvements: Contract Lifecycle Management for Public Sector, or CLM. The latest EBS module geared specifically for the Federal acquisition community. Our existing customers have been asking Oracle for years to upgrade its Advanced Procurement Suite to meet the complex procurement processes of the Federal Government. You asked; we listened. Oracle, with direct input from Federal agencies, subject matter experts, integration partners, and the Federal acquisition community, has expanded and deepened its procurement suite to meet the unique demands of the Federal acquisition community. New benefits/features include: Contract Line Item/Sub-Line Item (CLIN/SLIN) structures Configurable Document Numbering Complex Pricing Contract Types ( as per FAR Part 16) Option lines and exercising of options Incremental Funding capability Support for multiple document types (delivery orders, BPA call orders, awards, agreements, IDIQ contracts) Requisition lines to fund modifications Workload assignment and milestones Contract Action Reporting to FPDS-NG I’ve been conducting many tests over the past few months and have been quite impressed with the depth of features and the seamless integration to Federal Financials, specifically the funds control within the financials. Again, thank you for reading. If you have suggestions for future posts, please leave them in the comments section and I’ll take it from there.

  Read the article

• Pro SharePoint 2010 Business Intelligence Solutions

  - by Sahil Malik

  Ad:: SharePoint 2007 Training in .NET 3.5 technologies (more information). Oh yeah baby, it’s out finally! This book is what I wanted to write for so long now, but never really got a chance to. For SharePoint 2007, I authored the SharePoint section of “Smart BI Solutions with SQL Server 2008” for MS Press. But never really got the time, to author a full book that this topic deserved. Until SharePoint 2010, we actually have a full book on this topic. So first things first, I didn’t actually write it. My role was limited to the overall concept, the outline, the layout, completion of it, code samples, identifying what we need in here, vouching for technical accuracy, identifying authors etc. The real work was done by Srini (5 chapters), and Steve (1 chapter). So credit given where it is due. But, with that said, this is a pretty good book. It has always been a challenge to find the superman that knows both, data ware housing concepts, and SharePoint concepts. The data ware housing concepts include basic stuff you need to know to work in the BI area such as cubes, MDX queries, etc. So chapter 1 covers that – and if you’re a hardcore DBA, feel free to skip Chapter 1. Then beyond that, we take every single SharePoint 2010 BI topic, and slice and dice it in detail. The topics we deal with are - Visio Services Reporting services Business Connectivity Services Excel Services PerformancePoint Services And in covering each of these topics, we ensure that a general layout was followed for each topic, to ensure completeness of content. We make sure we cover Setup related issues and advice Point and click usage Code usage, i.e. extensibility using visual studio and a walkthrough of the administration side of things, including powershell. (Yes, I insisted on that in being there in every chapter). Writing a book is always a lot of work, so we hope you find it useful. And it should go very well with the other book I just reviewed, which is Microsoft ADO.NET 4, step by step. Comment on the article ....

  Read the article

• Stuff I learned at Innovate 2011

  - by David Dorf

  After returning from the NRF Innovate 2011 conference, I picked up few nuggets I thought I'd share here.  These thoughts are a bit random, but I hope they're useful nonetheless.Kevin Kelly opened the conference with six verbs that represent the future.  They were Screening, Interacting, Sharing, Accessing, Flowing, and Generating.  It struck me that these are all ways in which we merge the digital and physical worlds.  The internet of things continues to gain momentum.Some buzzwords:  deal economy, subscription commerce, discovery (instead of search), curationThat last one, curation, came up over and over.  Retailers, especially those in fashion, are finding value in helping their customers organize and present their own collections.  Social media has made sharing such collections easy, and mobile lets them take those ideas into the stores.  Mannequins are becoming less relevant.I heard from both HauteLook and Gilt Groupe (flash sale retailers) that a large percentage of their visits come from mobile devices, and most of those are iOS devices.  I find it interesting that even though Android has passed iPhone in units shipped (and will eventually pass iOS as a whole), its still the Apple crowd that leads the way.RadioShack mentioned their Holiday Heroes campaigned was very successful.  They asked their Foursquare users to check-in at a gym, coffee shop, and transportation hub as part of being a hero.  For this feat, customers were awarded a special badge that was worth 20% off at their next store visit. They claim a 3.5x increase in ticket size vs. regular check-in customers, and a 5x increase vs those that don't check-in at all.I also learned of RadioShack's #28 campaign, which is apparently one of the largest Twitter trends ever.  Their partnership with LIVESTRONG has gotten them followers, impressions, and credit for supporting the fight against cancer.The guys at Invodo showed the importance of video to e-commerce.  They gave compelling examples of how video can show customers the value of products better than just words.The highlight of the show was Guy Kawasaki's talk on innovation, which was not only informative but also peppered with humor and personality.  Back in the early days of the internet boom, Guy turned down the CEO position at Yahoo! because the commute was too long.  By his calculation, that was a $2B mistake.There are other good accounts of the conference at the NRF Blog.

  Read the article

• In an Entity-Component-System Engine, How do I deal with groups of dependent entities?

  - by John Daniels

  After going over a few game design patterns, I have settle with Entity-Component-System (ES System) for my game engine. I've reading articles (mainly T=Machine) and review some source code and I think I got enough to get started. There is just one basic idea I am struggling with. How do I deal with groups of entities that are dependent on each other? Let me use an example: Assume I am making a standard overhead shooter (think Jamestown) and I want to construct a "boss entity" with multiple distinct but connected parts. The break down might look like something like this: Ship body: Movement, Rendering Cannon: Position (locked relative to the Ship body), Tracking\Fire at hero, Taking Damage until disabled Core: Position (locked relative to the Ship body), Tracking\Fire at hero, Taking Damage until disabled, Disabling (er...destroying) all other entities in the ship group My goal would be something that would be identified (and manipulated) as a distinct game element without having to rewrite subsystem form the ground up every time I want to build a new aggregate Element. How do I implement this kind of design in ES System? Do I implement some kind of parent-child entity relationship (entities can have children)? This seems to contradict the methodology that Entities are just empty container and makes it feel more OOP. Do I implement them as separate entities, with some kind of connecting Component (BossComponent) and related system (BossSubSystem)? I can't help but think that this will be hard to implement since how components communicate seem to be a big bear trap. Do I implement them as one Entity, with a collection of components (ShipComponent, CannonComponents, CoreComponent)? This one seems to veer way of the ES System intent (components here seem too much like heavy weight entities), but I'm know to this so I figured I would put that out there. Do I implement them as something else I have mentioned? I know that this can be implemented very easily in OOP, but my choosing ES over OOP is one that I will stick with. If I need to break with pure ES theory to implement this design I will (not like I haven't had to compromise pure design before), but I would prefer to do that for performance reason rather than start with bad design. For extra credit, think of the same design but, each of the "boss entities" were actually connected to a larger "BigBoss entity" made of a main body, main core and 3 "Boss Entities". This would let me see a solution for at least 3 dimensions (grandparent-parent-child)...which should be more than enough for me. Links to articles or example code would be appreciated. Thanks for your time.

  Read the article

• Proper Usage of Arrays and Functions [closed]

  - by Ssegawa Victor

  Can some one help me write a C code that solves the following problem. PROBLEM Consider the faculty registrar who has to process results for 1st year 1st semester students. Students offer five courses CSC 1100, CSK 1101, CSC 1104, CSC 1105 and CSC 1106. The courses have credit units 4,4,4,3 and 3 respectively. Lecturers provide course work and exam marks. For each course, course work constitutes 40% of the final mark while the exam constitutes 60% of the final mark. The role of the registrar is to Compute the final mark for each student for each course. The final mark must be a whole number Compute the grade and grade point of the students for each course they offered. According to senate regulations, grades and grade points are awarded to final marks according to the following criteria Range Grade Grade Point 90 – 100 A+ 5.0 80 – 89 A 5.0 75 – 79 B+ 4.5 70 – 74 B 4.0 65 – 69 C+ 3.5 60 – 64 C 3.0 55 – 59 D+ 2.5 50 – 54 D 2.0 45 – 49 E 1.5 40 – 44 E- 1.0 0 – 39 F 0.0 Put a comment ‘Retake’ to a student for every course where the Grade Point is less than 2.0 Compute the cumulative grade point average CGPA for each student. The senate formula for CGPA is GGPA =(?_(i=1)^(i=N)¦?CU _i×GP _i ?)/(?_(i=1)^(i=N)¦CU i) Put a comment “Progress” for any student whose GGPA is greater than 2 and “Stay Put” on a student whose CGPA is less than 2 You are required to create a c program that considers a class of 25 students and: 1.Initializes an array ‘student’ which stores student names 2.Initializes arrays for course work and exam for each course. ‘cw_csc_1100’ and ‘ex_csc_1100’ store course work and exam marks (respectively) for CSC 1100. The same approach is considered for all other courses 3.Initializes the coursework and exam marks arrays with marks between 0 and 99 4.Write appropriate functions that will generate the final marks, generate grades, generate grade points, generate cumulative grade points, generate comments for students and comments for courses per student 5.Create appropriate arrays for final marks and insert the data there using the appropriate functions 6.Without having to create any extra arrays, use the functions created to generate a report per student that looks like the one bellow. Student Name: Ngubiri Course Unit Final mark Grade Grade Point Course Comment CSC 1100 43 E- 1.0 Retake CSK 1101 50 D 2.0 CSC 1104 59 D+ 2.5 CSC 1105 70 B 4.0 CSC 1106 65 C+ 3.5 CGPA 2.47 Overall Comment Progress NB It is advisable that the indices are used to identify the owners. Eg if student[x] is John, then cs_csc_100[x] should be a mark for John since the index is the same

  Read the article

• Two interfaces with identical signatures

  - by corsiKa

  I am attempting to model a card game where cards have two important sets of features: The first is an effect. These are the changes to the game state that happen when you play the card. The interface for effect is as follows: boolean isPlayable(Player p, GameState gs); void play(Player p, GameState gs); And you could consider the card to be playable if and only if you can meet its cost and all its effects are playable. Like so: // in Card class boolean isPlayable(Player p, GameState gs) { if(p.resource < this.cost) return false; for(Effect e : this.effects) { if(!e.isPlayable(p,gs)) return false; } return true; } Okay, so far, pretty simple. The other set of features on the card are abilities. These abilities are changes to the game state that you can activate at-will. When coming up with the interface for these, I realized they needed a method for determining whether they can be activated or not, and a method for implementing the activation. It ends up being boolean isActivatable(Player p, GameState gs); void activate(Player p, GameState gs); And I realize that with the exception of calling it "activate" instead of "play", Ability and Effect have the exact same signature. Is it a bad thing to have multiple interfaces with an identical signature? Should I simply use one, and have two sets of the same interface? As so: Set<Effect> effects; Set<Effect> abilities; If so, what refactoring steps should I take down the road if they become non-identical (as more features are released), particularly if they're divergent (i.e. they both gain something the other shouldn't, as opposed to only one gaining and the other being a complete subset)? I'm particularly concerned that combining them will be non-sustainable as soon as something changes. The fine print: I recognize this question is spawned by game development, but I feel it's the sort of problem that could just as easily creep up in non-game development, particularly when trying to accommodate the business models of multiple clients in one application as happens with just about every project I've ever done with more than one business influence... Also, the snippets used are Java snippets, but this could just as easily apply to a multitude of object oriented languages.

  Read the article

• Calling home, receiving calls and smartphone data from the US

  - by Rob Farley

  I got asked about calling home from the US, by someone going to the PASS Summit. I found myself thinking “there should be a blog post about this”... The easiest way to phone home is Skype - no question. Use WiFi, and if you’re calling someone who has Skype on their phone at the other end, it’s free. Even if they don’t, it’s still pretty good price-wise. The PASS Summit conference centre has good WiFI, as do the hotels, and plenty of other places (like Starbucks). But if you’re used to having data all the time, particularly when you’re walking from one place to another, then you’ll want a sim card. This also lets you receive calls more easily, not just solving your data problem. You’ll need to make sure your phone isn’t locked to your local network – get that sorted before you leave. It’s no trouble to drop by a T-mobile or AT&T store and getting a prepaid sim. You can’t get one from the airport, but if the PASS Summit is your first stop, there’s a T-mobile store on 6th in Seattle between Pine & Pike, so you can see it from the Sheraton hotel if that’s where you’re staying. AT&T isn’t far away either. But – there’s an extra step that you should be aware of. If you talk to one of these US telcos, you’ll probably (hopefully I’m wrong, but this is how it was for me recently) be told that their prepaid sims don’t work in smartphones. And they’re right – the APN gets detected and stops the data from working. But luckily, Apple (and others) have provided information about how to change the APN, which has been used by a company based in New Zealand to let you get your phone working. Basically, you send your phone browser to http://unlockit.co.nz and follow the prompts. But do this from a WiFi place somewhere, because you won’t have data access until after you’ve sorted this out... Oh, and if you get a prepaid sim with “unlimited data”, you will still need to get a Data Feature for it. And just for the record – this is WAY easier if you’re going to the UK. I dropped into a T-mobile shop there, and bought a prepaid sim card for five quid, which gave me 250MB data and some (but not much) call credit. In Australia it’s even easier, because you can buy data-enabled sim cards that work in smartphones from the airport when you arrive. I think having access to data really helps you feel at home in a different place. It means you can pull up maps, see what your friends are doing, and more. Hopefully this post helps, but feel free to post comments with extra information if you have it. @rob_farley

  Read the article

• 3 Reasons You Need To Know Something About Every Technology

  - by Tim Murphy

  I make my living as a consultant and a general technologist.  I credit my success to the fact that I have never been afraid to pick up any product, language or platform needed to get the job done.  While Microsoft technologies I my mainstay, I have done work on mainframe and UNIX platforms and have worked with a wide variety of database engines.  Each one has it’s use and most times it is less expensive to find a way to communicate with an existing system than to replace it. So what are the main benefits of expending the effort to learn a new technology? New ways to solve problems Accelerate development Advise clients and get new business opportunities By new technology I mean ones that you haven’t had experience with before.  They don’t have to be the the one that just came out yesterday.  As they say, those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it.  If you can learn something from an older technology it can be just as valuable as the shiny new one.  Either way, when you add another tool to your kit you get a new view on each problem you face.  This makes it easier to create a sound solution. The next thing you can learn from working with different products and techniques is how to more efficiently develop solve problems.  Many times if you are working with a new language you will find that there are specific design patterns that are used with it in normal use.  These can usually be applied with most languages.  You just needed to be exposed to them. The last point is about helping your clients and helping yourself.  If you can get in on technologies early you will have advantage over your competition in the market.  You will also be able to honestly advise you client on why they should or should not go with a new product.  Being able to compare products and their features is always an ability that stake holders appreciate. You don’t need to learn every detail of a product.  Learn enough to function and get an idea of how to use the technology.  Keep eating those technology Wheaties and you will be ready to go the distance in any project. del.icio.us Tags: Technology,technologists,technology generalist,Software Architecture

  Read the article

< Previous Page | 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78  | Next Page >