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• SQL SERVER – Speed Up! – Parallel Processes and Unparalleled Performance – TechEd 2012 India

  - by pinaldave

  TechEd India 2012 is just around the corner and I will be presenting there on two different session. SQL Server Performance Tuning is a very challenging subject that requires expertise in Database Administration and Database Development. I always have enjoyed talking about SQL Server Performance tuning subject. Just like doctors I like to call my every attempt to improve the performance of SQL Server queries and database server as a practice too. I have been working with SQL Server for more than 8 years and I believe that many of the performance tuning concept I have mastered. However, performance tuning is not a simple subject. However there are occasions when I feel stumped, there are occasional when I am not sure what should be the next step. When I face situation where I cannot figure things out easily, it makes me most happy because I clearly see this as a learning opportunity. I have been presenting in TechEd India for last three years. This is my fourth time opportunity to present a technical session on SQL Server. Just like every other year, I decided to present something different, something which I have spend years of learning. This time, I am going to present about parallel processes. It is widely believed that more the CPU will improve performance of the server. It is true in many cases. However, there are cases when limiting the CPU usages have improved overall health of the server. I will be presenting on the subject of Parallel Processes and its effects. I have spent more than a year working on this subject only. After working on various queries on multi-CPU systems I have personally learned few things. In coming TechEd session, I am going to share my experience with parallel processes and performance tuning. Session Details Title: Speed Up! – Parallel Processes and Unparalleled Performance (Add to Calendar) Abstract: “More CPU More Performance” – A  very common understanding is that usage of multiple CPUs can improve the performance of the query. To get maximum performance out of any query – one has to master various aspects of the parallel processes. In this deep dive session, we will explore this complex subject with a very simple interactive demo. An attendee will walk away with proper understanding of CX_PACKET wait types, MAXDOP, parallelism threshold and various other concepts. Date and Time: March 23, 2012, 12:15 to 13:15 Location: Hotel Lalit Ashok - Kumara Krupa High Grounds, Bengaluru – 560001, Karnataka, India. Add to Calendar Please submit your questions in the comments area and I will be for sure discussing them during my session. If I pick your question to discuss during my session, here is your gift I commit right now – SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers Book. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Performance, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Wait Stats, SQL Wait Types, T SQL, Technology Tagged: TechEd, TechEdIn

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• Help finding time of collision

  - by WannaBe

  I am making a simple game right now and am struggling with collision response. My goal is to someday be able to turn it into a 2D platformer but I have a long way to go. I am currently making this in JavaScript and using the canvas element so (0,0) is in the top left and positive X is to the right and positive Y is down. I read a helpful post on StackExchange that got me started on this but I can't seem to get the algorithm 100% correct. How to deal with corner collisions in 2D? I can detect the collision fine but I can't seem to get the response right. The goal is to detect which side the player hit first since minimum displacement doesn't always work. The X response seems to work fine but the Y only works when I am far from the corners. Here is a picture showing what happens Here is the code var bx = box.x; var by = box.y; var bw = box.width; var bh = box.height; var boxCenterX = bx + (bw/2); var boxCenterY = by + (bh/2); var playerCenterX = player.x + player.xvel + (player.width/2); var playerCenterY = player.y + player.yvel + (player.height/2); //left = negative and right = positve, 0 = middle var distanceXin = playerCenterX - boxCenterX; var distanceYin = playerCenterY - boxCenterY; var distanceWidth = Math.abs(distanceXin); var distanceHeight = Math.abs(distanceYin); var halfWidths = (bw/2) + (player.width/2); var halfHeights = (bh/2) + (player.height/2); if(distanceWidth < halfWidths){ //xcollision if(distanceHeight < halfHeights){ //ycollision if(player.xvel == 0){ //adjust y if(distanceYin > 0){ //bottom player.y = by + bh; player.yvel = 0; }else{ player.y = by - player.height; player.yvel = 0; } }else if(player.yvel == 0){ //adjust x if(distanceXin > 0){ //right player.x = bx + bw; player.xvel = 0; }else{ //left player.x = bx - player.width; player.xvel = 0; } }else{ var yTime = distanceYin / player.yvel; var xTime = distanceXin / player.xvel; if(xTime < yTime){ //adjust the x it collided first if(distanceXin > 0){ //right player.x = bx + bw; player.xvel = 0; }else{ //left player.x = bx - player.width; player.xvel = 0; } }else{ //adjust the y it collided first if(distanceYin > 0){ //bottom player.y = by + bh; player.yvel = 0; }else{ player.y = by - player.height; player.yvel = 0; } } } } } And here is a JSFiddle if you would like to see the problem yourself. http://jsfiddle.net/dMumU/ To recreate this move the player to here And press up and left at the same time. The player will jump to the right for some reason. Any advice? I know I am close but I can't seem to get xTime and yTime to equal what I want every time.

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• Dual boot Ubuntu and Windows 7, I Can only boot ubuntu through recovery mode

  - by Alec

  I want to become a new user of Ubuntu, however this problem is preventing me. I have/had Window 7 professional on my computer. I recently looked into getting linux. I discovered dual-booting and decided to give it a try. First I created a bootable flash drive with ubuntu 12.10 64 bit. I then followed the instructions on: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot after I finished going through the setup, my computer rebooted. After the reboot I was able to select Ubuntu, advanced options for Ubuntu, 2 memory tests, and windows 7 (loader). So I chose Windows ( honestly i was more concerned that i still had everything on windows at this point). I then rebooted again and selected Ubuntu. When i selected Ubuntu, the background screen of Grub (the crimson/burgandy color) stayed for a few seconds then the screen went black: video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kKcG4sT7Lg&feature=plcp I tried again with the same results. so i redid the ubuntu install differently using http://www.liberiangeek.net/2012/10/dual-booting-windows-7-and-ubuntu-12-10-quantal-quetzal/. After rebooting the same thing happened. After that i was stumped, so i figured it could hurt to experiment. after all i backed up my windows 7 stuff, and i have the software disk. I tried booting in recovery mode under "advanced options for Ubuntu" and sure enough, after selecting continue to normal reboot it worked. So i updated and everything but when i rebooted it still wouldn't boot under Ubuntu. It would always boot after recovery mode. So i try installing 12.10 32 bit Ubuntu. the same problem keeps happening. I can still get to Ubuntu through recovery mode. so i went online and tried using the terminal (in ubuntu that i booted through recovery mode) when i was using it i discovered that "Error in sitecustomize; set PYTHONVERBOSE for traceback: EOFError: EOF read where not expected" kept showing up. also i noticed a notification in the top right corner that looked like a do not enter sign. it said "an error occured, please run package manager from the right-click menu or apt-get in a terminal to see what is wrong. the error message was: 'ror in sitecustomize;set PYTHONVERBOSE for traceback: EOFError: EOF read where not expected traceback (most recent called last): File "/usr/bin/lsb_release EOFError: EOF read where not expected 39;0' this usually means that your installed packages have unmet dependencies" Naturally i assumed this was what was causing my boot problems. I downloaded synaptic and updated everything and the error went away. but my boot problem was still a problem. so i go online find some things that have worked for others, like this Try to do this (in your terminal: sudo nano /etc/default/grub Look for: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" Change it too : GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet" And update Grub: sudo update-grub This should fix stuff.) I did this and i still have the problem. sorry for the excessive explanation, please help.

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• SQLUG Events - London/Edinburgh/Cardiff/Reading - Masterclass, NoSQL, TSQL Gotcha's, Replication, BI

  - by tonyrogerson

  We have acquired two additional tickets to attend the SQL Server Master Class with Paul Randal and Kimberly Tripp next Thurs (17th June), for a chance to win these coveted tickets email us ([email protected]) before 9pm this Sunday with the subject "MasterClass" - people previously entered need not worry - your still in with a chance. The winners will be announced Monday morning.As ever plenty going on physically, we've got dates for a stack of events in Manchester and Leeds, I'm looking at Birmingham if anybody has ideas? We are growing our online community with the Cuppa Corner section, to participate online remember to use the #sqlfaq twitter tag; for those wanting to get more involved in presenting and fancy trying it out we are always after people to do 1 - 5 minute SQL nuggets or Cuppa Corners (short presentations) at any of these User Group events - just email us [email protected] removing from this email list? Then just reply with remove please on the subject line.Kimberly Tripp and Paul Randal Master Class - Thurs, 17th June - LondonREGISTER NOW AND GET A SECOND REGISTRATION FREE*The top things YOU need to know about managing SQL Server - in one place, on one day - presented by two of the best SQL Server industry trainers!This one-day MasterClass will focus on many of the top issues companies face when implementing and maintaining a SQL Server-based solution. In the case where a company has no dedicated DBA, IT managers sometimes struggle to keep the data tier performing well and the data available. This can be especially troublesome when the development team is unfamiliar with the affect application design choices have on database performance.The Microsoft SQL Server MasterClass 2010 is presented by Paul S. Randal and Kimberly L. Tripp, two of the most experienced and respected people in the SQL Server world. Together they have over 30 years combined experience working with SQL Server in the field, and on the SQL Server product team itself. This is a unique opportunity to hear them present at a UK event which will:>> Debunk many of the ingrained misconceptions around SQL Server's behaviour >> Show you disaster recovery techniques critical to preserving your company's life-blood - the data >> Explain how a common application design pattern can wreak havoc in the database >> Walk through the top-10 points to follow around operations and maintenance for a well-performing and available data tier! Where: Radisson Edwardian Heathrow Hotel, LondonWhen: Thursday 17th June 2010*REGISTER TODAY AT www.regonline.co.uk/kimtrippsql on the registration form simply quote discount code: BOGOF for both yourself and your colleague and you will save 50% off each registration – that’s a 249 GBP saving! This offer is limited, book early to avoid disappointment.Wed, 23 JunREADINGEvening Meeting, More info and registerIntroduction to NoSQL (Not Only SQL) - Gavin Payne; T-SQL Gotcha's and how to avoid them - Ashwani Roy; Introduction to Recency Frequency - Tony Rogerson; Reporting Services - Tim LeungThu, 24 JunCARDIFFEvening Meeting, More info and registerAlex Whittles of Purple Frog Systems talks about Data warehouse design case studies, Other BI related session TBC Mon, 28 JunEDINBURGHEvening Meeting, More info and registerReplication (Components, Adminstration, Performance and Troubleshooting) - Neil Hambly Server Upgrades (Notes and Best practice from the field) - Satya Jayanty Wed, 14 JulLONDONEvening Meeting, More info and registerMeeting is being sponsored by DBSophic (http://www.dbsophic.com/download), database optimisation software. Physical Join Operators in SQL Server - Ami LevinWorkload Tuning - Ami LevinSQL Server and Disk IO (File Groups/Files, SSD's, Fusion-IO, In-RAM DB's, Fragmentation) - Tony RogersonComplex Event Processing - Allan MitchellMany thanks,Tony Rogerson, SQL Server MVPUK SQL Server User Grouphttp://sqlserverfaq.com"

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• Knowledge Management Feedback

  - by Robert Schweighardt

  Did you know that you can provide feedback on Knowledge Management (KM) articles? It's nice to read a technical article that is well-written, the grammar and spelling are correct, the information is up to date, concise, to the point, easy to understand and it flows from one paragraph to another.  And though we always strive for a well-written article, it doesn't always come out that way. Knowledge Management articles are written by Oracle Support Engineers and we welcome your feedback.  Providing feedback helps to improve Oracle's Knowledge Base.  If you're reading a KM article and you have a comment, please let us know about it.  Maybe it's just to fix a spelling or grammatical error.  Maybe there's a broken link that needs to be fixed.  Maybe it's a suggestion to provide additional information.  Maybe the article contains incorrect information.  Maybe some information in the article is outdated.  Maybe something is not clear in the article.  Whatever it is, we want to hear about it.  We value your input! When you provide feedback it goes directly to the owner of the article.  The owner carefully reviews the comment and decides whether or not to implement it.  Most comments are implemented and we strive to implement them within a week!  For those comments that are not implemented, there is normally a good reason.  It may not be feasible to implement the suggestion or the suggestion may not be correct.  We don't take the decision lightly! So how do you provide feedback? Providing feedback on a KM article depends on whether you're a customer or an Oracle Employee. Customer 1. In the upper right hand corner of the article, click on the little +/- Rate this document icon: Note: The grayed out Comments (0) link will only show a number when there are open comments that are still being evaluated. 2. In the Article Rating window, complete as many of the following optional fields as you like and then click the Send Rating button: Rate the article as Excellent, Good or Poor Specify whether the article helped you or not Specify the ease of finding the article Provide whatever comments you have Employee The interface for Oracle Employees is a little bit different, there are more options. 1. The +/- Rate this document icon is also available to employees and is identical to what the customers have.  Please see Customer section above. 2. The Show document comments link shows all comments that have ever been submitted for the article 3. Employees have an additional way to submit a comment.  Click on the little + Add Comment icon: 4. Fill out the Add Comment fields and click the Add Comment button: We look forward to your feedback!

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• Pondering New Technology

  - by MOSSLover

  So I have been standing at the end of a fork for a year peering down a corner looking at this way and that way trying to figure out where I fit in.  I was so enthusiastic and excited about Silverlight when it came out.  It was this amazing awesome technology that had this really cool animation and webcam/multimedia piece.  I thought if I put my money on Silverlight it’s going somewhere, then HTML 5 came out and the wind shifted.  I realized times were changing. I have been working with web technologies since I was 15 years old.  Playing with html and javascript and even css back when it first came out.  In tech years 15 years is forever.  Things change so quickly and so often.  So I guess the question is where am I heading?  The answer is mobile technology.  For some reason I was resisting change and I have no idea why.  I guess I really wanted to see more than one player.  I didn’t quite feel that Microsoft was ready with Windows Phone 7.  It was a great start, but it just didn’t feel like they went all the way.  Now with Windows 8 it feels like they are at version 2.0.  It’s like hitting Silverlight 2.0 where they finally added the .Net bits.  The path is paved, but we don’t know where it’s leading.  Then we had 3.0, 4.0, and 5.0 to mature the technology into what it is today (man I’m hoping they are going to roll some of the cool bits into other tech if they don’t exist). Anyway, I’m on board, but I’m not buying a Windows Tablet just yet.  I was hoping for a 7 inch screen from Apple around $300 or just above and a 7 inch screen from the MS side around the same price.  What I got was the Apple side, but nothing from Microsoft.  I was pretty disappointed with the $500 market price on the RT version.  I realized Microsoft is close, but not quite where Apple is today.  Yes the devices have Office that they are offering, but the sticker is just too much for a first generation device.  If you guys remember correctly the first generation iPad was quite expensive.  I guess for a 1st generation device $500 is pretty good. So I guess what I’m trying to say is that I am shifting my focus entirely away from Silverlight and more towards mobile.  I will be doing a lot of postings on iOS, Windows 8, and Windows Phone 8 with SharePoint 2013.  Since I don’t have a tablet and don’t foresee myself buying one just yet it might be mostly on the phones for right now.  I want to do a bunch of testing on various devices on what needs to be done in apps on each device.  I might add a bit on porting code from one to the other.  I think it’s going to be a lot of fun and make things flow a little better for me.  In a way it’s kind of like Star Trek 6 where they talk about the Undiscovered Country.  I’m going to jump forward completely and see where I land. Technorati Tags: SharePoint 2013,Mobile,Windows 8,iOS

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• Monitor and Control Memory Usage in Google Chrome

  - by Asian Angel

  Do you want to know just how much memory Google Chrome and any installed extensions are using at a given moment? With just a few clicks you can see just what is going on under the hood of your browser. How Much Memory are the Extensions Using? Here is our test browser with a new tab and the Extensions Page open, five enabled extensions, and one disabled at the moment. You can access Chrome’s Task Manager using the Page Menu, going to Developer, and selecting Task manager… Or by right clicking on the Tab Bar and selecting Task manager. There is also a keyboard shortcut (Shift + Esc) available for the “keyboard ninjas”. Sitting idle as shown above here are the stats for our test browser. All of the extensions are sitting there eating memory even though some of them are not available/active for use on our new tab and Extensions Page. Not so good… If the default layout is not to your liking then you can easily modify the information that is available by right clicking and adding/removing extra columns as desired. For our example we added Shared Memory & Private Memory. Using the about:memory Page to View Memory Usage Want even more detail? Type about:memory into the Address Bar and press Enter. Note: You can also access this page by clicking on the Stats for nerds Link in the lower left corner of the Task Manager Window. Focusing on the four distinct areas you can see the exact version of Chrome that is currently installed on your system… View the Memory & Virtual Memory statistics for Chrome… Note: If you have other browsers running at the same time you can view statistics for them here too. See a list of the Processes currently running… And the Memory & Virtual Memory statistics for those processes. The Difference with the Extensions Disabled Just for fun we decided to disable all of the extension in our test browser… The Task Manager Window is looking rather empty now but the memory consumption has definitely seen an improvement. Comparing Memory Usage for Two Extensions with Similar Functions For our next step we decided to compare the memory usage for two extensions with similar functionality. This can be helpful if you are wanting to keep memory consumption trimmed down as much as possible when deciding between similar extensions. First up was Speed Dial”(see our review here). The stats for Speed Dial…quite a change from what was shown above (~3,000 – 6,000 K). Next up was Incredible StartPage (see our review here). Surprisingly both were nearly identical in the amount of memory being used. Purging Memory Perhaps you like the idea of being able to “purge” some of that excess memory consumption. With a simple command switch modification to Chrome’s shortcut(s) you can add a Purge Memory Button to the Task Manager Window as shown below.  Notice the amount of memory being consumed at the moment… Note: The tutorial for adding the command switch can be found here. One quick click and there is a noticeable drop in memory consumption. Conclusion We hope that our examples here will prove useful to you in managing the memory consumption in your own Google Chrome installation. If you have a computer with limited resources every little bit definitely helps out. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Stupid Geek Tricks: Compare Your Browser’s Memory Usage with Google ChromeMonitor CPU, Memory, and Disk IO In Windows 7 with Taskbar MetersFix for Firefox memory leak on WindowsHow to Purge Memory in Google ChromeHow to Make Google Chrome Your Default Browser TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Acronis Online Backup DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows iFixit Offers Gadget Repair Manuals Online Vista style sidebar for Windows 7 Create Nice Charts With These Web Based Tools Track Daily Goals With 42Goals Video Toolbox is a Superb Online Video Editor Fun with 47 charts and graphs

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• Ubuntu 11.04 and 10.04 hang with black screen while installing from USB disk

  - by Bill

  I've been trying to install Ubuntu 11.04 from a USB flash stick and each time I try to boot from the USB key one of two things happen: A) The screen that asks you what you would like to do (e.g. run Ubuntu from the USB key or install it) shows up and the countdown to the default option starts to count down but as soon as I either touch the keyboard (sometimes I press enter or the arrow keys to select an option) or the countdown gets to zero the screen just locks up and nothing happens no matter how long I wait. B) When I boot from the USB key the screen will flicker for a second and then go black with a flashing white underscore at the top left corner of the screen. Again it doesn't matter how long I wait, nothing happens and pressing keys doesn't do a thing. The very first time I tried to install it I got a terminal-like screen that said something about a directory called 'casper' having an error of some sort. I have tried installing from USB using both 11.04 and 10.10. I'm about to try 10.04. I have read tons of forum posts about this but so far I haven't seen anything in the solutions that apply to me. My intention is to dual boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu. I must keep Windows as I am required to use Visual Studio for one of my college courses. Right now I'm using Wubi but I really want a full install. I can't use LVPM because it doesn't work with the version of Wubi I used. So now I'm thinking my best bet is to try to get a clean install working. I'd also convert Wubi to a full install too but there's no solution as far as I've read. So could someone tell me a reason why this is happening or if there's something I can do to get around the problem? I'm using a Gateway LT2802u netbook with and Intel Atom N455 processor, 1GB RAM, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150 graphics card, and a 250GB HDD. I don't have anything on my current Wubi install that I can't replace so keep in mind when answering that I don't care if I lose my current settings and files from Wubi. Thanks everyone! UPDATE I just answered my own question so in case anyone else is having this same problem using similar hardware, do the following: When I first tried installing 11.04 I used the recommended universal installer tool to create the USB live/installation disk. That caused the original problem. Note that I had already downloaded the 11.04 ISO and did not use the included downloader from the USB creator. After that failed I used the same USB creator but had it download 10.10 for me. It also failed with the same issue. I repeated this process with unetbootin as well for both versions. Finally, I downloaded the Ubuntu 10.04 ISO and used the recommended USB creator once again. There was an error while creating the USB live install so I reformatted the USB key as FAT32 and tried again. It created the USB key. I then booted from the USB flash drive and selected "Install Ubuntu" (exact wording was different). It worked! It took me through the process that you see shown in pictures on the Ubuntu website. I let it create the appropriate partitions for me and it simply worked. I did get a few errors while the system tried to restart after it installed. It hung on a terminal-like screen but I pressed ENTER and it restarted. I booted into Windows 7, it checked the disks as it sensed that I messed with a partition, then it booted into Windows normally. Now I'm going to uninstall Wubi and update my new full install of Ubuntu! I'm excited to get the benefits of a full install now. So in the end, hopefully someone can learn from what I did.

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• Exposed: Fake Social Marketing

  - by Mike Stiles

  Brands and marketers who want to build their social popularity on a foundation of lies are starting to face more of an uphill climb. Fake social is starting to get exposed, and there are a lot of emperors getting caught without any clothes. Facebook is getting ready to do a purge of “Likes” on Pages that were a result of bots, fake accounts, and even real users who were duped or accidentally Liked a Page. Most of those accidental Likes occur on mobile, where it’s easy for large fingers to hit the wrong space. Depending on the degree to which your Page has been the subject of such activity, you may see your number of Likes go down. But don’t sweat it, that’s a good thing. The social world has turned the corner and assessed the value of a Like. And the verdict is that a Like is valuable as an opportunity to build a real relationship with a real customer. Its value pales immensely compared to a user who’s actually engaged with the brand. Those fake Likes aren’t doing you any good. Huge numbers may once have impressed, but it’s not fooling anybody anymore. Facebook’s selling point to marketers is the ability to use a brand’s fans to reach friends of those fans. Consequently, there has to be validity and legitimacy to a fan count. Speaking of mobile, Trademob recently reported 40% of clicks are essentially worthless, because 22% of them are accidental (again with the fat fingers), while 18% are trickery. Publishers will but huge banner ads next to tiny app buttons to increase the odds of an accident. Others even hide a banner behind another to score 2 clicks instead of 1. Pontiflex and Harris Interactive last year found 47% of users were more likely to click a mobile ad accidentally than deliberately. Beyond that, hijacked devices are out there manipulating click data. But to what end for a marketer? What’s the value of a click on something a user never even saw? What’s the value of a seen but accidentally clicked ad if there’s no resulting transaction? Back to fake Likes, followers and views; they’re definitely for sale on numerous sites, none of which I’ll promote. $5 can get you 1,000 Twitter followers. You can even get followers targeted by interests. One site was set up by an unemployed accountant out of his house in England. He gets them from a wholesaler in Brooklyn, who gets them from a 19-year-old supplier in India. The unemployed accountant is making $10,000 a day. That means a lot of brands, celebrities and organizations are playing the fake social game, apparently not coming to grips with the slim value of the numbers they’re buying. But now, in addition to having paid good money for non-ROI numbers, there’s the embarrassment factor. At least a couple of sites have popped up allowing anyone to see just how many fake and inactive followers you have. Britain’s Fake Follower Check and StatusPeople are the two getting the most attention. Enter any Twitter handle and the results are there for all to see. Fake isn’t good, period. “Inactive” could be real followers, but if they’re real, they’re just watching, not engaging. If someone runs a check on your Twitter handle and turns up fake followers, does that mean you’re suspect or have purchased followers? No. Anyone can follow anyone, so most accounts will have some fakes. Even account results like Barack Obama’s (70% fake according to StatusPeople) and Lady Gaga’s (71% fake) don’t mean these people knew about all those fakes or initiated them. Regardless, brands should realize they’re now being watched, and users are judging the legitimacy of their social channels. Use one of any number of tools available to assess and clean out fake Likes and followers so that your numbers are as genuine as possible. And obviously, skip the “buying popularity” route of social marketing strategy. It doesn’t work and it gets you busted…a losing combination.

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• Recover Lost Form Data in Firefox

  - by Asian Angel

  Have you ever filled in a text area or form in a webpage and something happens before you can finish it? If you like the idea of recovering that lost data then you will want to have a look at the Lazarus: Form Recovery extension for Firefox. Lazarus: Form Recovery in Action For our first example we chose the comment text box area for one of the articles here at the website. As you can see we were not finished typing in the whole comment yet… Notice the “Lazarus Icon” in the lower right corner. Note: We simulated accidental tab closures for our two examples. After getting our webpage opened up again all of our text was gone. Right clicking within the text area showed two options available…”Recover Text & Recover Form”. Notice that our lost text was listed as a “sub menu”…this could be extremely useful in matching up the appropriate text to the correct webpage if you had multiple tabs open before something happened. Click on the correct text listing to insert it. So easy to finish writing our comment without having to start from zero again. In our second example we chose the sign-up form page for the website. As before we were not finished filling in the form… Getting the webpage opened back up showed the same problem as before…all the entered text was lost. This time we right clicked in the browser window area and there was that wonderful “Recover Form Command” waiting to be used. One click and… All of our lost form data was back and we were able to finish filling in the form. For those who may be interested you can disable Lazarus: Form Recovery on individual websites using the “Context Menu” for the “Status Bar Icon” Options There are three sections in the options and you should take a quick look through them to make any desired modifications in how Lazarus: Form Recovery functions. The first “Options Area” focuses on display/access for the extension. The second “Options Area” allows you to expand the type of data retained, enable removal of data within a given time frame, set up a password, disable search indexing, and enable form data retention while in “Private Browsing Mode”. The third “Options Area” focuses on the Lazarus database itself. Conclusion If you have ever lost text area or form data before then you know how much time could be lost in starting over. Lazarus: Form Recovery helps provide a nice backup solution to get you up and running once again with a minimum of effort. Links Download the Lazarus: Form Recovery extension (Mozilla Add-ons) Download the Lazarus: Form Recovery extension (Extension Homepage) Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Quick Tip: Resize Any Textbox or Textarea in FirefoxWhy Doesn’t AutoComplete Always Work in Firefox?Pass Variables between Windows Forms Windows without ShowDialog()Using Secure Login in FirefoxAdd Search Forms to the Firefox Search Bar TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Looking for Good Windows Media Player 12 Plug-ins? Find Out the Celebrity You Resemble With FaceDouble Whoa ! Use Printflush to Solve Printing Problems Icelandic Volcano Webcams Open Multiple Links At One Go

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• How to Use Sparklines in Excel 2010

  - by DigitalGeekery

  One of the cool features of Excel 2010 is the addition of Sparklines. A Sparkline is basically a little chart displayed in a cell representing your selected data set that allows you to quickly and easily spot trends at a glance. Inserting Sparklines on your Spreadsheet You will find the Sparklines group located on the Insert tab.   Select the cell or cells where you wish to display your Sparklines. Select the type of Sparkline you’d like to add to your spreadsheet. You’ll notice there are three types of Sparklines, Line, Column, and Win/Loss. We’ll select Line for our example. A Create Sparklines pops up and will prompt you to enter a Data Range you are using to create the Sparklines. You’ll notice that the location range (the range where the Sparklines will appear) is already filled in. You can type in the data range manually, or click and drag with your mouse across to select the data range. This will auto-fill the data range for you. Click OK when you are finished.   You will see your Sparklines appear in the desired cells.   Customizing Sparklines Select the one of more of the Sparklines to reveal the Design tab. You can display certain value points like high and low points, negative points, and first and last points by selecting the corresponding options from the Show group. You can also mark all value points by selecting  Markers. Select your desired Sparklines and click one of the included styles from the Style group on the Design tab. Click the down arrow on the lower right corner of the box to display additional pre-defined styles…   or select Sparkline Color or Marker Color options to fully customize your Sparklines. The Axis options allow additional options such as Date Axis Type, Plotting Data Left to Right, and displaying an axis point to represent the zero line in your data with Show Axis. Column Sparklines Column Sparklines display your data in individual columns as opposed to the Line view we’ve been using for our examples. Win/Loss Sparklines Win/Loss shows a basic positive or negative representation of your data set.   You can easily switch between different Sparkline types by simply selecting the current cells (individually or the entire group), and then clicking the desired type on the Design tab. For those that may be more visually oriented, Sparklines can be a wonderful addition to any spreadsheet. Are you just getting started with Office 2010? Check out some of our other great Excel posts such as how to copy worksheets, print only selected areas of a spreadsheet, and how to share data with Excel in Office 2010. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Convert a Row to a Column in Excel the Easy WayShare Access Data with Excel in Office 2010Make Excel 2007 Print Gridlines In Workbook FileMake Excel 2007 Always Save in Excel 2003 FormatConvert Older Excel Documents to Excel 2007 Format TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Office 2010 reviewed in depth by Ed Bott FoxClocks adds World Times in your Statusbar (Firefox) Have Fun Editing Photo Editing with Citrify Outlook Connector Upgrade Error Gadfly is a cool Twitter/Silverlight app Enable DreamScene in Windows 7

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• Welcome 2011

  - by PSteele

  About this time last year, I wrote a blog post about how January of 2010 was almost over and I hadn’t done a single blog post.  Ugh…  History repeats itself. 2010 in Review If I look back at 2010, it was a great year in terms of technology and development: Visited Redmond to attend the MVP Summit in February.  Had a great time with the MS product teams and got to connect with some really smart people. Continued my work on Visual Studio Magazine’s “C# Corner” column.  About mid-year, the column changed from an every-other-month print column to an every-other-month print column along with bi-monthly web-only articles.  Needless to say, this kept me even busier and away from my blog. Participated in another GiveCamp!  Thanks to the wonderful leadership of Michael Eaton and all of his minions, GiveCamp 2010 was another great success.  Planning for GiveCamp 2011 will be starting soon… I switched to DVCS full time.  After years of being a loyal SVN user, I got bit by the DVCS bug.  I played around with both Mercurial and Git and finally settled on Mercurial.  It’s seamless integration with Windows Explorer along with it’s wealth of plugins made me fall in love.  I can’t imagine going back and using a centralized version control system. Continued to work with the awesome group of talent at SRT Solutions.  Very proud that SRT won it’s third consecutive FastTrack award! Jumped off the BlackBerry train and enjoying the smooth ride of Android.  It was time to replace the old BlackBerry Storm so I did some research and settled on the Motorola DroidX.  I couldn’t be happier.  Android is a slick OS and the DroidX is a sweet piece of hardware.  Been dabbling in some Android development with both Eclipse and IntelliJ IDEA (I like IntelliJ IDEA a lot better!).   2011 Plans On January 1st I was pleasantly surprised to get an email from the Microsoft MVP program letting me know that I had received the MVP award again for my community work in 2010.  I’m honored and humbled to be recognized by Microsoft as well as my peers! I’ll continue to do some Android development.  I’m currently working on a simple app to get me feet wet.  It may even makes it’s way into the Android Market. I’ve got a project that could really benefit from WPF so I’ll be diving into WPF this year.  I’ve played around with WPF a bit in the past – simple demos and learning exercises – but this will give me a chance to build an entire application in WPF.  I’m looking forward to the increased freedom that a WPF UI should give me. I plan on blogging a lot more in 2011! Technorati Tags: Android,MVP,Mercurial,WPF,SRT,GiveCamp

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• DotNetNuke 7.0 Only Weeks Away!

  - by sbwalker

  The software industry moves at a lightning pace, and it is only through constant focus and continuous investment that a software product can remain both stable and relevant over the long term. As we approach the 10 Year Anniversary of the DotNetNuke platform, it seems only fitting that we are on the verge of announcing yet another significant product milestone. DotNetNuke 7.0 is just around the corner and represents a bold step forward for our Content Management Platform, including substantial business productivity enhancements, investments in web platform relevance, and a significant overhaul and modernization of the user interface and user experience. It has been five months since I posted the announcement that the next major version of the platform was going to be DotNetNuke 7.0.  This announcement created tremendous excitement and anticipation in the DotNetNuke community, as major version increments have always been utilized as an opportunity  to introduce revolutionary new product features and capabilities. After months of intense product development, the finish line is finally in sight. With that, I am pleased to announce that we released a Release Candidate (RC) of DotNetNuke 7.0 yesterday. You can download the RC from our project page on Codeplex. A Release Candidate represents a software version which is very near to “release” quality. So although we will not be officially endorsing the RC for production use, or providing an official upgrade path, it does represent a significant milestone in our software development efforts ( if you are looking for a more detailed explanation of our software release terminology, I would encourage you to read the blog written by Co-Founder, Joe Brinkman titled "What's In A Name?" ). Modernizing a software platform does have its share of challenges from a backward compatibility perspective and, as usual, we are taking great care in ensuring a seamless upgrade path for our customers. In order to remain relevant and progressive, you need to be aware that DotNetNuke 7.0 has adopted a new set of baseline infrastructure requirements including ASP.NET 4.0.  As a result we are encouraging all major stakeholders in the ecosystem ( module developers, designers, partners, customers, etc... ) to take the opportunity to install the RC in their own local environments. This is the last opportunity to let us know about any final issues which may need to be addressed prior to final release. Mark your calendars now… the expected public release date (RTM) for DotNetNuke 7.0 will be Wednesday, November 28th. On a side note, we expect to release a 6.2.5 Maintenance version today. This release contains some high priority product quality improvements as well as security patches for some vulnerabilities reported through our standard ecosystem channels. As a result we will be encouraging all of our customers to upgrade to the 6.2.5 release as soon as it is available. I hope everyone is as excited as I am about the upcoming DotNetNuke 7.0 release. Please take the opportunity over the next week to put the new platform through its paces. Remember, only through our collective efforts can we ensure that this release has the greatest market impact of any DotNetNuke release to date.

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• Site Review: Facebook.com and Blockbuster.com - Navigation Schemes

  After cycling through a list of my favorite sites I decided to select Facebook.com and Blockbuster.com for this  post because I found their navigation schemes very intuitive. Facebook in my opinion took a very simplistic and minimalistic approach when they designed their site and its navigation. For example, when you login to your account you will find on the upper left hand side a generic section of the site common areas to all users like news, messages, events, photos and friends. Below this in a separate navigation menu is a list of applications that a user has elected to access through bookmarks. Finally in the upper right hand corner of the site contains links to administer the user’s account like account settings, public profile, and a link back to the users’ home page. Blockbuster on the other had tried to make site navigation a little more slick by using a menu-submenu approach to navigation where user can click on things like Rent, Buy, On Demand, Games, Stores, and Gifts and a submenu of corresponding items appears below the original menu item. In addition they also took this approach and added categorized lists of movies that they offer on the homepage so that users can click on an item like “DVD Spotlight” and a list of movies represented as actual DVD box cases appear on the user’s screen so they can scroll through the list by using left and right arrows on either side of the images displayed. Both Facebook and Blockbuster have more than one navigation groupings because their respected sites are so large and offer an absorbent amount of features. Because of this reason they have to group the main functionality of information in to logical groups based on their actions they perform and the access to specific information. For example it would not make sense for Facebook to include a particular game you like to play within your account with a section pertaining to account administration. The game link would be completely out of place and really confuse the users experience because the groupings where not logically grouped. In addition I think that Facebook users would benefit if Facebook allowed its users to specify what they want on the general navigation from within their site or at least create a section to show frequently accessed pages or favorite sections. Finally regarding additional navigation, I think blockbuster users really benefit from the submenu system of categorizing data, and if fact Blockbuster even allows them to refine the information they are looking for through the use of secondary submenu systems allowing users to really drill down in to what they are looking for to learn more on. I do not think that having more than one navigation bar on a web page is not confusing for the user. For example if you have a navigation bar at the top of your page and at the bottom will allow users to move around the website easier because they can utilize the navigation closest to where their cursor is on the page. In regards to designers forcing all the navigation in to one navigation bar, I think it would be hard for the user to fully understand what is going on based on the size and complexity of the site they are dealing with. For example Blockbuster has a ton of content that could not easily be put in to one navigation bar. From my experience with both Facebook and Blockbuster, they both do a good job with cross browser compatibility. I have had no issues with either site in IE, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari over the years. In addition, I do not believe that either Facebook or Blockbuster require any additional plug-in to utilize their navigation bars.

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• How to Add Your Gmail Account to Outlook 2013 Using IMAP

  - by Lori Kaufman

  If you use Outlook to check and manage your email, you can easily use it to check your Gmail account as well. You can setup your Gmail account to allow you to synchronize email across multiple machines using email clients instead of a browser. We will show you how to use IMAP in your Gmail account so you can synchronize your Gmail account across multiple machines, and then how to add your Gmail account to Outlook 2013. To setup your Gmail account to use IMAP, sign in to your Gmail account and go to Mail. Click the Settings button in the upper, right corner of the window and select Settings from the drop-down menu. On the Settings screen, click Forwarding and POP/IMAP. Scroll down to the IMAP Access section and select Enable IMAP. Click Save Changes at the bottom of the screen. Close your browser and open Outlook. To begin adding your Gmail account, click the File tab. On the Account Information screen, click Add Account. On the Add Account dialog box, you can choose the E-mail Account option which automatically sets up your Gmail account in Outlook. To do this enter your name, email address, and the password for your Gmail account twice. Click Next. The progress of the setup displays. The automatic process may or may not work. If the automatic process fails, select Manual setup or additional server types, instead of E-mail Account, and click Next. On the Choose Service screen, select POP or IMAP and click Next. On the POP and IMAP Account Settings enter the User, Server, and Logon Information. For the Server Information, select IMAP from the Account Type drop-down list and enter the following for the incoming and outgoing server information: Incoming mail server: imap.googlemail.com Outgoing mail server (SMTP): smtp.googlemail.com Make sure you enter your full email address for the User Name and select Remember password if you want Outlook to automatically log you in when checking email. Click More Settings. On the Internet E-mail Settings dialog box, click the Outgoing Server tab. Select the My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication and make sure the Use same settings as my incoming mail server option is selected. While still in the Internet E-mail Settings dialog box, click the Advanced tab. Enter the following information: Incoming server: 993 Incoming server encrypted connection: SSL Outgoing server encrypted connection TLS Outgoing server: 587 NOTE: You need to select the type of encrypted connection for the outgoing server before entering 587 for the Outgoing server (SMTP) port number. If you enter the port number first, the port number will revert back to port 25 when you change the type of encrypted connection. Click OK to accept your changes and close the Internet E-mail Settings dialog box. Click Next. Outlook tests the accounts settings by logging into the incoming mail server and sending a test email message. When the test is finished, click Close. You should see a screen saying “You’re all set!”. Click Finish. Your Gmail address displays in the account list on the left with any other email addresses you have added to Outlook. Click the Inbox to see what’s in your Inbox in your Gmail account. Because you’re using IMAP in your Gmail account and you used IMAP to add the account to Outlook, the messages and folders in Outlook reflect what’s in your Gmail account. Any changes you make to folders and any time you move email messages among folders in Outlook, the same changes are made in your Gmail account, as you will see when you log into your Gmail account in a browser. This works the other way as well. Any changes you make to the structure of your account (folders, etc.) in a browser will be reflected the next time you log into your Gmail account in Outlook.     

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• Problems with texture orientation in space

  - by frankie

  I am currently drawing texture in 3D space and have some problems with it's orientation. I'd like me textures always to be oriented with front face to user. My desirable result looks like Note, that text size stay without changes when we rotating world and stay oriented with front face to user. Now I can draw text in 3D space, but it is not oriented with front but rotating with world. Such results I got with following shaders: Vertex Shader uniform vec3 Position; void main() { gl_Position = vec4(Position, 1.0); } Geometry Shader layout(points) in; layout(triangle_strip, max_vertices = 4) out; out vec2 fsTextureCoordinates; uniform mat4 projectionMatrix; uniform mat4 modelViewMatrix; uniform sampler2D og_texture0; uniform float og_highResolutionSnapScale; uniform vec2 u_originScale; void main() { vec2 halfSize = vec2(textureSize(og_texture0, 0)) * 0.5 * og_highResolutionSnapScale; vec4 center = gl_in[0].gl_Position; center.xy += (u_originScale * halfSize); vec4 v0 = vec4(center.xy - halfSize, center.z, 1.0); vec4 v1 = vec4(center.xy + vec2(halfSize.x, -halfSize.y), center.z, 1.0); vec4 v2 = vec4(center.xy + vec2(-halfSize.x, halfSize.y), center.z, 1.0); vec4 v3 = vec4(center.xy + halfSize, center.z, 1.0); gl_Position = projectionMatrix * modelViewMatrix * v0; fsTextureCoordinates = vec2(0.0, 0.0); EmitVertex(); gl_Position = projectionMatrix * modelViewMatrix * v1; fsTextureCoordinates = vec2(1.0, 0.0); EmitVertex(); gl_Position = projectionMatrix * modelViewMatrix * v2; fsTextureCoordinates = vec2(0.0, 1.0); EmitVertex(); gl_Position = projectionMatrix * modelViewMatrix * v3; fsTextureCoordinates = vec2(1.0, 1.0); EmitVertex(); } Fragment Shader in vec2 fsTextureCoordinates; out vec4 fragmentColor; uniform sampler2D og_texture0; uniform vec3 u_color; void main() { vec4 color = texture(og_texture0, fsTextureCoordinates); if (color.a == 0.0) { discard; } fragmentColor = vec4(color.rgb * u_color.rgb, color.a); } Any ideas how to get my desirable result? EDIT 1: I make edit in my geometry shader and got part of lable drawn on screen at corner. But it is not rotating. .......... vec4 centerProjected = projectionMatrix * modelViewMatrix * center; centerProjected /= centerProjected.w; vec4 v0 = vec4(centerProjected.xy - halfSize, 0.0, 1.0); vec4 v1 = vec4(centerProjected.xy + vec2(halfSize.x, -halfSize.y), 0.0, 1.0); vec4 v2 = vec4(centerProjected.xy + vec2(-halfSize.x, halfSize.y), 0.0, 1.0); vec4 v3 = vec4(centerProjected.xy + halfSize, 0.0, 1.0); gl_Position = og_viewportOrthographicMatrix * v0; ..........

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• Converting openGl code to DirectX

  - by Fredrik Boston Westman

  First of all, this is kind of a follow up question on @byte56 excellent anwser on this question concerning picking algorithms. I'm trying to convert one of his code examples to directX 11 however I have run in to some problems ( I can pick but the picking is way off), and I wanted to make sure I had done it rigth before moving on and checking the rest of my code. I am not that familiar with openGl but I can imagine openGl has diffrent coordinations systems, and functions that alters how you must implement to code abit. This is his code example: public Ray GetPickRay() { int mouseX = Mouse.getX(); int mouseY = WORLD.Byte56Game.getHeight() - Mouse.getY(); float windowWidth = WORLD.Byte56Game.getWidth(); float windowHeight = WORLD.Byte56Game.getHeight(); //get the mouse position in screenSpace coords double screenSpaceX = ((float) mouseX / (windowWidth / 2) - 1.0f) * aspectRatio; double screenSpaceY = (1.0f - (float) mouseY / (windowHeight / 2)); double viewRatio = Math.tan(((float) Math.PI / (180.f/ViewAngle) / 2.00f))* zoomFactor; screenSpaceX = screenSpaceX * viewRatio; screenSpaceY = screenSpaceY * viewRatio; //Find the far and near camera spaces Vector4f cameraSpaceNear = new Vector4f((float) (screenSpaceX * NearPlane), (float) (screenSpaceY * NearPlane), (float) (-NearPlane), 1); Vector4f cameraSpaceFar = new Vector4f((float) (screenSpaceX * FarPlane), (float) (screenSpaceY * FarPlane), (float) (-FarPlane), 1); //Unproject the 2D window into 3D to see where in 3D we're actually clicking Matrix4f tmpView = Matrix4f(view); Matrix4f invView = (Matrix4f) tmpView.invert(); Vector4f worldSpaceNear = new Vector4f(); Matrix4f.transform(invView, cameraSpaceNear, worldSpaceNear); Vector4f worldSpaceFar = new Vector4f(); Matrix4f.transform(invView, cameraSpaceFar, worldSpaceFar); //calculate the ray position and direction Vector3f rayPosition = new Vector3f(worldSpaceNear.x, worldSpaceNear.y, worldSpaceNear.z); Vector3f rayDirection = new Vector3f(worldSpaceFar.x - worldSpaceNear.x, worldSpaceFar.y - worldSpaceNear.y, worldSpaceFar.z - worldSpaceNear.z); rayDirection.normalise(); return new Ray(rayPosition, rayDirection); } All rigths reserved to him of course This is my DirectX 11 code : void GraphicEngine::pickRayVector(float mouseX, float mouseY,XMVECTOR& pickRayInWorldSpacePos, XMVECTOR& pickRayInWorldSpaceDir) { float PRVecX, PRVecY; float nearPlane = 0.1f; float farPlane = 200.0f; floar viewAngle = 0.4 * 3.14; PRVecX = ((( 2.0f * mouseX) / ClientWidth ) - 1 ) * tan((viewAngle)/2); PRVecY = (1-(( 2.0f * mouseY) / ClientHeight)) * tan((viewAngle)/2); XMVECTOR cameraSpaceNear = XMVectorSet(PRVecX * nearPlane,PRVecY * nearPlane, -nearPlane, 1.0f); XMVECTOR cameraSpaceFar = XMVectorSet(PRVecX * farPlane,PRVecY * farPlane, -farPlane, 1.0f); // Transform 3D Ray from View space to 3D ray in World space XMMATRIX invMat; XMVECTOR matInvDeter; invMat = XMMatrixInverse(&matInvDeter, cam->getCameraView()); //Inverse of View Space matrix is World space matrix XMVECTOR worldSpaceNear = XMVector3TransformCoord(cameraSpaceNear, invMat); XMVECTOR worldSpaceFar = XMVector3TransformCoord(cameraSpaceFar, invMat); pickRayInWorldSpacePos = worldSpaceNear; pickRayInWorldSpaceDir = worldSpaceFar-worldSpaceNear; pickRayInWorldSpaceDir = XMVector3Normalize(pickRayInWorldSpaceDir); } A couple of notes: The mouse coordinates are already converted so that the top left corner of the client window would be (0,0) and the bottom rigth (800,600) ( or whatever resolution you would have) I hadn't used any far or near plane before, so i just made some arbitrary number up for them. To my understanding it shouldnt matter as long as the object you are trying to pick is in between the range of thoese numbers The viewAngle is the same angle that I used when setting the camera view with XMMatrixPerspectiveFovLH , I just hadn't made it a member variable of my Camera class yet. I removed the variable aspectRation and zoomFactor because I assumed that they where related to some specific function of his game. Now I'm not sure, but I think the problems lies either withing the mouse to viewspace conversion, maby that we use diffrent coordinations systems. Either that or how i transform the matrixes in the the end, because i know order is important when it comes to matrixes. Any help is appriciated! Thanks in advance. Edit: One more note, my code is in c++

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• Conference networking for the socially awkward

  - by Melanie Townsend

  Do you approach a room full of strangers with excitement at all the new people you’re going to chat to over coffee and a muffin as you swap tales of how you convinced your manager to give you the day “off”? Or, do you find rooms full of strangers intimidating and begin by scouting out a place you can stand quietly and not be in someone’s way until the next session begins? If you’re on the train to extrovert city, that’s great, well done, move along. If, on the other hand, a room full of strangers who all seem to inexplicably know each other already is more challenge than opportunity, then making those connections with other professionals can be more difficult. So, here’s some advice, some gleaned from other things I’ve read online when trying to overcome my own discomfort in large groups (hopefully minus the infuriating condescension), others are just things I’ve found helpful over the years. Start small Smaller groups are less intimidating, and, now that you’ve taken the plunge to show up, it’s harder to remain inconspicuous. I find it’s easier to speak to new people once the option NOT to has been taken away. You’re there now, smile through the awkward and you’ll be forever grateful when the three people you’ve met and gotten to know here are also at that gigantic conference later on (ideally, introducing you to other people). Smile, or at the very least, stop scowling You probably don’t even know you’re doing it. If your resting face doesn’t come across as manically happy, tinge that with some social anxiety and you become one great ball of unapproachable. Normally, I wouldn’t suggest this as a problem that needs fixing, I have personally honed this face to use while travelling alone all the time. However, if you are indeed hoping to meet some useful people and get the most out of this conference, you may need to remind yourself to smile. Prepare some ice breakers This is going to sound stupid, like “no one does this right?” stupid, but, just, trust me a minute. It’s okay to prepare. You don’t need to write word-for-word questions to ask people and practice them in a mirror – that would be strange. I’m suggesting to just have an arsenal of questions to ask people if you get stuck, what session has been your favorite, which ones are you most looking forward to, have you heard X presenter speak before, what did you think of them? Even just thinking about these things in advance can help, and, as a bonus, while the other person is answering it gives you a moment to tamp down that panic, I mean breathe, I mean get to know them. You’re not alone (in the least creepy way possible) See that person in the corner clutching their phone with a mild deer in the headlights look?  That is potentially your new conference buddy. Starting with something along the lines of: I don’t know about you, the sessions here are great but I find the crowds a little tough to deal with. Mind if I park here for a second? is a decent opener. Just walking around and looking at exhibitors (if applicable) is fine, but it’s a little too easy to wander about and not actually speak to anyone if that’s all you’re doing. If joining a group of people talking is too much to start with, one-on-one can be easier. Have goals Are there people in particular you wanted to speak to? Did you have a personal goal of speaking to at least “x” new people? Are you trying to get a contact in a specific company because you want to work with them on something? Does the business have vague goals as well that you may or may not be judged on later? Making specific goals you can accomplish lets you know whether you’ve actually succeeded in your “networking pursuits” or what you need to work on more for next time. Everyone’s got their own coping technique. Some people are able to remind themselves that “humans are fundamentally social creatures” and somehow that helps them, others drink which is not really something I recommend for professional conferences but to each their own, and some focus on the fact that networking can play a big role in their career path. Just do what works for you, and if there’re any tricks you’ve found helpful over the years, please share em.

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• 13 Things From the Oracle Social Summit You Should Know

  - by Mike Stiles

  Oracle held its first annual Oracle Social Summit, “The School for the Socially Gifted,” this past week in Las Vegas.  If anyone came to the event uncertain as to why Oracle has such an interest in social, and what its plans for social are, they left with an entirely new vision of where social is headed, and why.For those unable to attend, I was able to keep my MacBook charged just long enough to capture some of the more pertinent takeaways.1. The social enterprise is inevitable.  Social technology is disrupting the hierarchies of big companies.  It’s a revolution in corporate structures, just as it has been in various governments.  It’s not crazy to ask yourself if your CEO is the next Mubarak.  (David Kilpatrick Author of “The Facebook Effect” and founder of the Techonomy Conference) 2. The social enterprise represents collaboration on steroids.  It’s tapping into the power of your people, as opposed to keeping them “in their place.”  3. 1 in every 7 humans on earth is an active Facebook user.  75% have posted a negative comment after a poor customer experience.  The average user will inform 53 people of a bad experience.4. Checking social media is the 2nd biggest use of phones now.  Reading posts from brands is 4th.5. 70% of marketers have little or no understanding of the social conversations happening around their brand.6. Advertising, when done well, is content we care about, preferably informed by those we trust.7. Acquiring low-quality fans through gimmicks, or focusing purely on fan acquisition is a mistake.  And relying purely on organic distribution is a mistake.  (John Yi, Head of Marketing Partnerships – Facebook)8. Using all this newfound data and insight serves to positively affect the customer experience.  It allows organizations to now leverage the investments they’ve made in social up to now.9. Social is not a marketing utopia where everything is free.  It’s pay to play.  The paid component is about driving attention.  10. We are only in the infancy of ad-targeting opportunities in social.  There’s an evolution underway from interest-based targeting to action-based targeting.11. There’s actually very little overlap of the people following you on different social platforms.  Don’t assume it’s the same audience on each.12. People who can create content and who also have an understanding of what drives that content are growing increasingly valuable.13. Oracle Social’s future is enterprise SRM, integrated across marketing, selling, service, HR and every other corner of the organization.And in case you thought those were the only gems to come out of the summit, you may want to keep an eye out for Tuesday’s Social Spotlight, ever so aptly titled “13 More Things from the Oracle Social Summit You Should Know.”

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• How can I draw an arrow at the edge of the screen pointing to an object that is off screen?

  - by Adam Henderson

  I am wishing to do what is described in this topic: http://www.allegro.cc/forums/print-thread/283220 I have attempted a variety of the methods mentioned here. First I tried to use the method described by Carrus85: Just take the ratio of the two triangle hypontenuses (doesn't matter which triagle you use for the other, I suggest point 1 and point 2 as the distance you calculate). This will give you the aspect ratio percentage of the triangle in the corner from the larger triangle. Then you simply multiply deltax by that value to get the x-coordinate offset, and deltay by that value to get the y-coordinate offset. But I could not find a way to calculate how far the object is away from the edge of the screen. I then tried using ray casting (which I have never done before) suggested by 23yrold3yrold: Fire a ray from the center of the screen to the offscreen object. Calculate where on the rectangle the ray intersects. There's your coordinates. I first calculated the hypotenuse of the triangle formed by the difference in x and y positions of the two points. I used this to create a unit vector along that line. I looped through that vector until either the x coordinate or the y coordinate was off the screen. The two current x and y values then form the x and y of the arrow. Here is the code for my ray casting method (written in C++ and Allegro 5) void renderArrows(Object* i) { float x1 = i->getX() + (i->getWidth() / 2); float y1 = i->getY() + (i->getHeight() / 2); float x2 = screenCentreX; float y2 = ScreenCentreY; float dx = x2 - x1; float dy = y2 - y1; float hypotSquared = (dx * dx) + (dy * dy); float hypot = sqrt(hypotSquared); float unitX = dx / hypot; float unitY = dy / hypot; float rayX = x2 - view->getViewportX(); float rayY = y2 - view->getViewportY(); float arrowX = 0; float arrowY = 0; bool posFound = false; while(posFound == false) { rayX += unitX; rayY += unitY; if(rayX <= 0 || rayX >= screenWidth || rayY <= 0 || rayY >= screenHeight) { arrowX = rayX; arrowY = rayY; posFound = true; } } al_draw_bitmap(sprite, arrowX - spriteWidth, arrowY - spriteHeight, 0); } This was relatively successful. Arrows are displayed in the bottom right section of the screen when objects are located above and left of the screen as if the locations of the where the arrows are drawn have been rotated 180 degrees around the center of the screen. I assumed this was due to the fact that when I was calculating the hypotenuse of the triangle, it would always be positive regardless of whether or not the difference in x or difference in y is negative. Thinking about it, ray casting does not seem like a good way of solving the problem (due to the fact that it involves using sqrt() and a large for loop). Any help finding a suitable solution would be greatly appreciated, Thanks Adam

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• SQL Saturday 27 (Portland, Oregon)

  - by BuckWoody

  I’m sitting in the Seattle airport, waiting for my flight to Silicon Valley California for the SQL Server 2008 R2 Launch Event. By some quirk of nature, they are asking me to Emcee the event – but that’s another post entirely.   I’m reflecting on the SQL Saturday 27 event that was just held in Portland, Oregon this last Saturday. These are not Microsoft-sponsored events – it’s truly the community at work. Think of a big user-group meeting – I mean REALLY big – held in a central location, like at a college (as ours was) or some larger, inexpensive venue like that. Everyone there is volunteering – it’s my own money and time to drive several hours to a hotel for the night, feed myself and present. It’s their own time and money for the folks that organize the event – unless a vendor or two steps in to help. It’s their own time and money for the attendees to drive a long way, spend the night and their Saturday to listen to the speakers. Why do all this?   Because everybody benefits. Every speaker learns something new, meets new people, and reaches a new audience. Every volunteer does the same. And the attendees? Well, it’s pretty obvious what they get. A 7Am to 10PM extravaganza of knowledge from every corner of the product. In fact, this year the Portland group hooked up with the CodeCamp folks and held a combined event. We had over 850 people, and I had everyone from data professionals to developers in my sessions.   So I’ll take this opportunity to do two things: to say “thank you” to all of the folks who attended, from those who spoke to those who worked and those who came to listen, and to challenge you to attend the next SQL Saturday anywhere near you. You can find the list here: http://www.sqlsaturday.com/. Don’t see anything in your area? Start one! The PASS folks have a package that will show you how. Sure, it’s a big job, but the key is to get as many people helping you as possible. Even if you have only a few dozen folks show up the first time, no worries. The first events I presented at had about 20 in the room. But not this week.   See you at the Launch Event if you’re near the San Francisco area tomorrow, and see you at the Redmond SQL Saturday and TechEd if not.   Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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• Must go through Windows Boot Loader to get to Grub

  - by Zach

  I just installed a fresh copy of Precise alongside Windows 7. I have to separate 750GB hard drives; /dev/sda holds the Windows partitions and /dev/sdb holds the Ubuntu partitions. Other than that, these are fresh installs of both Windows 7 and Ubuntu 12.04. Whenever I boot, Grub doesn't load, instead it goes to a black screen with a single blinking (horizontal bar) cursor in the top right corner. However, if I boot, hit escape right as the BIOS/POST screen finishes up, see the Windows Boot Loader and hit escape to make it go back to the BIOS screen. After the BIOS screen, grub shows up and everything functions normally; I can boot into Ubuntu or Win7. I don't want to have to do the Escape, Escape, Wait, Boot trick every time. I have no idea what would be wrong or what information I could give you guys to help diagnose. I have run a sudo update-grub and it found everything normally. I tried adding nomodeset flag in the /etc/default/grub line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT which searching around made me think might work. Thoughts on what I could do to fix this? EDIT: I've tried changing the boot order so that both drives in the BIOS (both are labeled as "Internal HDD") have had a try booting first. I think the problem may be that every time I boot, the BIOS boot order is different... and I have to reset it. It seems to not be stable... but I'm not sure how to go about fixing that either. The machine has both traditional BIOS and UEFI. It came standard in "Legacy" mode; so it is currently set to boot through Legacy mode. I've reinstalled Ubuntu now, and now if I hit escape at the end of the BIOS/POST startup screen, it takes me to GRUB menu. Otherwise it automatically loads Windows. It seems like GRUB is now the acting bootloader, it just doesn't automatically start that unless I ask it to open a bootloader. In my other machines, it has always automatically started at the end of BIOS/POST. EDIT2: Using gparted, I just looked at my partitions, it would seem that my linux-swap partition is currently flagged as the boot partition for my Ubuntu install. I currently only have 2 partitions: one of "ext4" with a mount point of "/" and flag " "; and the "linux-swap" with mount point " " and flag "boot." If I change the boot flag to be on "/," it does not reliably solve the problem. After 10 boots: 2 Booted successfully to GRUB 5 Booted directly to Windows 7 3 booted to the black screen with the cursor and hung there Further research makes me think this is an issue of the BIOS not reliably booting hard drives in the same order or not finding both hard drives. If I ask it to create a "boot menu" sometimes it has 2 entries for "Internal HDD," sometimes 1. Also the list it creates changes order every time I bring it up; so it is not following a consistent boot sequence. Will report back if this is not an issue with GRUB.

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• Collision detection via adjacent tiles - sprite too big

  - by BlackMamba

  I have managed to create a collision detection system for my tile-based jump'n'run game (written in C++/SFML), where I check on each update what values the surrounding tiles of the player contain and then I let the player move accordingly (i. e. move left when there is an obstacle on the right side). This works fine when the player sprite is not too big: Given a tile size of 5x5 pixels, my solution worked quite fine with a spritesize of 3x4 and 5x5 pixels. My problem is that I actually need the player to be quite gigantic (34x70 pixels given the same tilesize). When I try this, there seems to be an invisible, notably smaller boundingbox where the player collides with obstacles, the player also seems to shake strongly. Here some images to explain what I mean: Works: http://tinypic.com/r/207lvfr/8 Doesn't work: http://tinypic.com/r/2yuk02q/8 Another example of non-functioning: http://tinypic.com/r/kexbwl/8 (the player isn't falling, he stays there in the corner) My code for getting the surrounding tiles looks like this (I removed some parts to make it better readable): std::vector<std::map<std::string, int> > Game::getSurroundingTiles(sf::Vector2f position) { // converting the pixel coordinates to tilemap coordinates sf::Vector2u pPos(static_cast<int>(position.x/tileSize.x), static_cast<int>(position.y/tileSize.y)); std::vector<std::map<std::string, int> > surroundingTiles; for(int i = 0; i < 9; ++i) { // calculating the relative position of the surrounding tile(s) int c = i % 3; int r = static_cast<int>(i/3); // we subtract 1 to place the player in the middle of the 3x3 grid sf::Vector2u tilePos(pPos.x + (c - 1), pPos.y + (r - 1)); // this tells us what kind of block this tile is int tGid = levelMap[tilePos.y][tilePos.x]; // converts the coords from tile to world coords sf::Vector2u tileRect(tilePos.x*5, tilePos.y*5); // storing all the information std::map<std::string, int> tileDict; tileDict.insert(std::make_pair("gid", tGid)); tileDict.insert(std::make_pair("x", tileRect.x)); tileDict.insert(std::make_pair("y", tileRect.y)); // adding the stored information to our vector surroundingTiles.push_back(tileDict); } // I organise the map so that it is arranged like the following: /* * 4 | 1 | 5 * -- -- -- * 2 | / | 3 * -- -- -- * 6 | 0 | 7 * */ return surroundingTiles; } I then check in a loop through the surrounding tiles, if there is a 1 as gid (indicates obstacle) and then check for intersections with that adjacent tile. The problem I just can't overcome is that I think that I need to store the values of all the adjacent tiles and then check for them. How? And may there be a better solution? Any help is appreciated. P.S.: My implementation derives from this blog entry, I mostly just translated it from Objective-C/Cocos2d.

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• Social Search: Looking for Love

  - by Mike Stiles

  For marketers and enterprise executives who have placed a higher priority on and allocated bigger budgets to search over social, it might be time to notice yet another shift that’s well underway. Social is search. Search marketing was always more of an internal slam-dunk than other digital initiatives. Even a C-suite that understood little about the new technology world knew it’s a good thing when people are able to find you. Google was the new Yellow Pages. Only with Google, you could get your listing first without naming yourself “AAAA Plumbing.” There were wizards out there who could give your business prominence in front of people who were specifically looking for what you offered. Other search giants like Bing also came along to offer such ideal matchmaking possibilities. But what if the consumer isn’t using a search engine to find what they’re looking for? And what if the search engines started altering their algorithms so that search placement manipulation was more difficult? Both of those things have started to happen. Experian Hitwise’s numbers show that visits to the major search engines in the UK dropped 100 million through August. Search engines are far from dead, or even challenged. But more and more, the public is discovering the sites and brands they need through advice they get via social, not search. You’ll find the worlds of social and search increasingly co-mingling as well. Search behemoths Google and Bing are including Facebook and Google+ into their engines. Meanwhile, Facebook and Twitter have done some integration of global web search into their platforms. So what makes social such a worthwhile search entity for brands? First and foremost, the consumer has demonstrated a behavior of acting on recommendations from social connections. A cry in the wilderness like, “Anybody know any good catering companies?” will usually yield a link (and an endorsement) from a friend such as “Yeah, check out Just-Cheese-Balls Catering.” There’s no such human-driven force/influence behind the big search engines. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and others call it “Friend Mining.” It is, in essence, searching for answers from friends’ experiences as opposed to faceless code. And Facebook has all of those friends’ experiences already stored as data. eMarketer says search in an $18 billion business, and investors are really into it. So no shock Facebook’s ready to leverage their social graph into relevant search. What do you do about all this as a brand? For one thing, it’s going to lead to some interesting paid marketing opportunities around the corner, including Sponsored Stories bought against certain queries, inserting deals into search results, capitalizing on social search results on mobile, etc. Apart from that, it might be time to stop mentally separating social and search in your strategic planning and budgeting. Courting your fans on social will cumulatively add up to more valuable, personally endorsed recommendations for your company when a consumer conducts a search on social. Fail to foster those relationships, fail to engage, fail to provide knock-em-dead customer service, fail to wow them with your actual products and services…and you’ll wind up with the visibility you deserve in social search results.

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• Incorrect lighting results with deferred rendering

  - by Lasse

  I am trying to render a light-pass to a texture which I will later apply on the scene. But I seem to calculate the light position wrong. I am working on view-space. In the image above, I am outputting the attenuation of a point light which is currently covering the whole screen. The light is at 0,10,0 position, and I transform it to view-space first: Vector4 pos; Vector4 tmp = new Vector4 (light.Position, 1); // Transform light position for shader Vector4.Transform (ref tmp, ref Camera.ViewMatrix, out pos); shader.SendUniform ("LightViewPosition", ref pos); Now to me that does not look as it should. What I think it should look like is that the white area should be on the center of the scene. The camera is at the corner of the scene, and it seems as if the light would move along with the camera. Here's the fragment shader code: void main(){ // default black color vec3 color = vec3(0); // Pixel coordinates on screen without depth vec2 PixelCoordinates = gl_FragCoord.xy / ScreenSize; // Get pixel position using depth from texture vec4 depthtexel = texture( DepthTexture, PixelCoordinates ); float depthSample = unpack_depth(depthtexel); // Get pixel coordinates on camera-space by multiplying the // coordinate on screen-space by inverse projection matrix vec4 world = (ImP * RemapMatrix * vec4(PixelCoordinates, depthSample, 1.0)); // Undo the perspective calculations vec3 pixelPosition = (world.xyz / world.w) * 3; // How far the light should reach from it's point of origin float lightReach = LightColor.a / 2; // Vector in between light and pixel vec3 lightDir = (LightViewPosition.xyz - pixelPosition); float lightDistance = length(lightDir); vec3 lightDirN = normalize(lightDir); // Discard pixels too far from light source //if(lightReach < lightDistance) discard; // Get normal from texture vec3 normal = normalize((texture( NormalTexture, PixelCoordinates ).xyz * 2) - 1); // Half vector between the light direction and eye, used for specular component vec3 halfVector = normalize(lightDirN + normalize(-pixelPosition)); // Dot product of normal and light direction float NdotL = dot(normal, lightDirN); float attenuation = pow(lightReach / lightDistance, LightFalloff); // If pixel is lit by the light if(NdotL > 0) { // I have moved stuff from here to above so I can debug them. // Diffuse light color color += LightColor.rgb * NdotL * attenuation; // Specular light color color += LightColor.xyz * pow(max(dot(halfVector, normal), 0.0), 4.0) * attenuation; } RT0 = vec4(color, 1); //RT0 = vec4(pixelPosition, 1); //RT0 = vec4(depthSample, depthSample, depthSample, 1); //RT0 = vec4(NdotL, NdotL, NdotL, 1); RT0 = vec4(attenuation, attenuation, attenuation, 1); //RT0 = vec4(lightReach, lightReach, lightReach, 1); //RT0 = depthtexel; //RT0 = 100 / vec4(lightDistance, lightDistance, lightDistance, 1); //RT0 = vec4(lightDirN, 1); //RT0 = vec4(halfVector, 1); //RT0 = vec4(LightColor.xyz,1); //RT0 = vec4(LightViewPosition.xyz/100, 1); //RT0 = vec4(LightPosition.xyz, 1); //RT0 = vec4(normal,1); } What am I doing wrong here?

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