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  • Nginx as a reverse proxy + Apache or completely cut out Apache? (WordPress Multisite)

    - by user715564
    I am starting a WordPress multisite network with domain mapping and I am trying to think through my server set up. Right now, I only have one medium sized VPS but hopefully I will need to add more servers later so ideally the solution will also accommodate future growth. My question is, would it be better to set up Nginx as a reverse proxy with Apache or use only Nginx? It seems like setting up Nginx as a reverse proxy would be easier and offer less of a possibility of problems but, on the other hand, would using only Nginx add substantial benefits?

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  • How do I cut and paste between different files using emacs?

    - by JStarx
    I'm running OSX 10.6.8. Lets say I have two terminal windows open and in each window I begin editing a different file using emacs. In the first file I select some text and then copy it (M-w), and in the second file I then try and paste it (C-y). I thought this would paste what I copied from the other file but instead I get the error message "previous command was not a yank". Those commands work just fine for copying and pasting within a single file, how do I copy and paste between different files?

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  • How to find minimum cut-sets for several subgraphs of a graph of degrees 2 to 4

    - by Tore
    I have a problem, Im trying to make A* searches through a grid based game like pacman or sokoban, but i need to find "enclosures". What do i mean by enclosures? subgraphs with as few cut edges as possible given a maximum size and minimum size for number of vertices that act as soft constraints. Alternatively you could say i am looking to find bridges between subgraphs, but its generally the same problem. Given a game that looks like this, what i want to do is find enclosures so that i can properly find entrances to them and thus get a good heuristic for reaching vertices inside these enclosures. So what i want is to find these colored regions on any given map. The reason for me bothering to do this and not just staying content with the performance of a simple manhattan distance heuristic is that an enclosure heuristic can give more optimal results and i would not have to actually do the A* to get some proper distance calculations and also for later adding competitive blocking of opponents within these enclosures when playing sokoban type games. Also the enclosure heuristic can be used for a minimax approach to finding goal vertices more properly. Do you know of a good algorithm for solving this problem or have any suggestions in things i should explore?

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  • Is there a design pattern to cut down on code duplication when subclassing Activities in Android?

    - by Daniel Lew
    I've got a common task that I do with some Activities - downloading data then displaying it. I've got the downloading part down pat; it is, of course, a little tricky due to the possibility of the user changing the orientation or cancelling the Activity before the download is complete, but the code is there. There is enough code handling these cases such that I don't want to have to copy/paste it to each Activity I have, so I thought to create an abstract subclass Activity itself such that it handles a single background download which then launches a method which fills the page with data. This all works. The issue is that, due to single inheritance, I am forced to recreate the exact same class for any other type of Activity - for example, I use Activity, ListActivity and MapActivity. To use the same technique for all three requires three duplicate classes, except each extends a different Activity. Is there a design pattern that can cut down on the code duplication? As it stands, I have saved much duplication already, but it pains me to see the exact same code in three classes just so that they each subclass a different type of Activity.

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  • JsTree v1.0 - How to manipulate effectively the data from the backend to render the trees and operate correctly?

    - by Jean Paul
    Backend info: PHP 5 / MySQL URL: http://github.com/downloads/vakata/jstree/jstree_pre1.0_fix_1.zip Table structure for table discussions_tree -- CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `discussions_tree` ( `id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, `parent_id` int(11) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0', `user_id` int(11) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0', `label` varchar(16) DEFAULT NULL, `position` bigint(20) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0', `left` bigint(20) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0', `right` bigint(20) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0', `level` bigint(20) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0', `type` varchar(255) CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci DEFAULT NULL, `h_label` varchar(16) NOT NULL DEFAULT '', `fulllabel` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL, UNIQUE KEY `uidx_3` (`id`), KEY `idx_1` (`user_id`), KEY `idx_2` (`parent_id`) ) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 AUTO_INCREMENT=8 ; /*The first element should in my understanding not even be shown*/ INSERT INTO `discussions_tree` (`id`, `parent_id`, `user_id`, `label`, `position`, `left`, `right`, `level`, `type`, `h_label`, `fulllabel`) VALUES (0, 0, 0, 'Contacts', 0, 1, 1, 0, NULL, '', NULL); INSERT INTO `discussions_tree` (`id`, `parent_id`, `user_id`, `label`, `position`, `left`, `right`, `level`, `type`, `h_label`, `fulllabel`) VALUES (1, 0, 0, 'How to Tag', 1, 2, 2, 0, 'drive', '', NULL); Front End : I've simplified the logic, it has 6 trees actually inside of a panel and that works fine $array = array("Discussions"); $id_arr = array("d"); $nid = 0; foreach ($array as $k=> $value) { $nid++; ?> <li id="<?=$value?>" class="label"> <a href='#<?=$value?>'><span> <?=$value?> </span></a> <div class="sub-menu" style="height:auto; min-height:120px; background-color:#E5E5E5" > <div class="menu" id="menu_<?=$id_arr[$k]?>" style="position:relative; margin-left:56%"> <img src="./js/jsTree/create.png" alt="" id="create" title="Create" > <img src="./js/jsTree/rename.png" alt="" id="rename" title="Rename" > <img src="./js/jsTree/remove.png" alt="" id="remove" title="Delete"> <img src="./js/jsTree/cut.png" alt="" id="cut" title="Cut" > <img src="./js/jsTree/copy.png" alt="" id="copy" title="Copy"> <img src="./js/jsTree/paste.png" alt="" id="paste" title="Paste"> </div> <div id="<?=$id_arr[$k]?>" class="jstree_container"></div> </div> </li> <!-- JavaScript neccessary for this tree : <?=$value?> --> <script type="text/javascript" > jQuery(function ($) { $("#<?=$id_arr[$k]?>").jstree({ // List of active plugins used "plugins" : [ "themes", "json_data", "ui", "crrm" , "hotkeys" , "types" , "dnd", "contextmenu"], // "ui" :{ "initially_select" : ["#node_"+ $nid ] } , "crrm": { "move": { "always_copy": "multitree" }, "input_width_limit":128 }, "core":{ "strings":{ "new_node" : "New Tag" }}, "themes": {"theme": "classic"}, "json_data" : { "ajax" : { "url" : "./js/jsTree/server-<?=$id_arr[$k]?>.php", "data" : function (n) { // the result is fed to the AJAX request `data` option return { "operation" : "get_children", "id" : n.attr ? n.attr("id").replace("node_","") : 1, "state" : "", "user_id": <?=$uid?> }; } } } , "types" : { "max_depth" : -1, "max_children" : -1, "types" : { // The default type "default" : { "hover_node":true, "valid_children" : [ "default" ], }, // The `drive` nodes "drive" : { // can have files and folders inside, but NOT other `drive` nodes "valid_children" : [ "default", "folder" ], "hover_node":true, "icon" : { "image" : "./js/jsTree/root.png" }, // those prevent the functions with the same name to be used on `drive` nodes.. internally the `before` event is used "start_drag" : false, "move_node" : false, "remove_node" : false } } }, "contextmenu" : { "items" : customMenu , "select_node": true} }) //Hover function binded to jstree .bind("hover_node.jstree", function (e, data) { $('ul li[rel="drive"], ul li[rel="default"], ul li[rel=""]').each(function(i) { $(this).find("a").attr('href', $(this).attr("id")+".php" ); }) }) //Create function binded to jstree .bind("create.jstree", function (e, data) { $.post( "./js/jsTree/server-<?=$id_arr[$k]?>.php", { "operation" : "create_node", "id" : data.rslt.parent.attr("id").replace("node_",""), "position" : data.rslt.position, "label" : data.rslt.name, "href" : data.rslt.obj.attr("href"), "type" : data.rslt.obj.attr("rel"), "user_id": <?=$uid?> }, function (r) { if(r.status) { $(data.rslt.obj).attr("id", "node_" + r.id); } else { $.jstree.rollback(data.rlbk); } } ); }) //Remove operation .bind("remove.jstree", function (e, data) { data.rslt.obj.each(function () { $.ajax({ async : false, type: 'POST', url: "./js/jsTree/server-<?=$id_arr[$k]?>.php", data : { "operation" : "remove_node", "id" : this.id.replace("node_",""), "user_id": <?=$uid?> }, success : function (r) { if(!r.status) { data.inst.refresh(); } } }); }); }) //Rename operation .bind("rename.jstree", function (e, data) { data.rslt.obj.each(function () { $.ajax({ async : true, type: 'POST', url: "./js/jsTree/server-<?=$id_arr[$k]?>.php", data : { "operation" : "rename_node", "id" : this.id.replace("node_",""), "label" : data.rslt.new_name, "user_id": <?=$uid?> }, success : function (r) { if(!r.status) { data.inst.refresh(); } } }); }); }) //Move operation .bind("move_node.jstree", function (e, data) { data.rslt.o.each(function (i) { $.ajax({ async : false, type: 'POST', url: "./js/jsTree/server-<?=$id_arr[$k]?>.php", data : { "operation" : "move_node", "id" : $(this).attr("id").replace("node_",""), "ref" : data.rslt.cr === -1 ? 1 : data.rslt.np.attr("id").replace("node_",""), "position" : data.rslt.cp + i, "label" : data.rslt.name, "copy" : data.rslt.cy ? 1 : 0, "user_id": <?=$uid?> }, success : function (r) { if(!r.status) { $.jstree.rollback(data.rlbk); } else { $(data.rslt.oc).attr("id", "node_" + r.id); if(data.rslt.cy && $(data.rslt.oc).children("UL").length) { data.inst.refresh(data.inst._get_parent(data.rslt.oc)); } } } }); }); }); // This is for the context menu to bind with operations on the right clicked node function customMenu(node) { // The default set of all items var control; var items = { createItem: { label: "Create", action: function (node) { return {createItem: this.create(node) }; } }, renameItem: { label: "Rename", action: function (node) { return {renameItem: this.rename(node) }; } }, deleteItem: { label: "Delete", action: function (node) { return {deleteItem: this.remove(node) }; }, "separator_after": true }, copyItem: { label: "Copy", action: function (node) { $(node).addClass("copy"); return {copyItem: this.copy(node) }; } }, cutItem: { label: "Cut", action: function (node) { $(node).addClass("cut"); return {cutItem: this.cut(node) }; } }, pasteItem: { label: "Paste", action: function (node) { $(node).addClass("paste"); return {pasteItem: this.paste(node) }; } } }; // We go over all the selected items as the context menu only takes action on the one that is right clicked $.jstree._reference("#<?=$id_arr[$k]?>").get_selected(false, true).each(function(index,element) { if ( $(element).attr("id") != $(node).attr("id") ) { // Let's deselect all nodes that are unrelated to the context menu -- selected but are not the one right clicked $("#<?=$id_arr[$k]?>").jstree("deselect_node", '#'+$(element).attr("id") ); } }); //if any previous click has the class for copy or cut $("#<?=$id_arr[$k]?>").find("li").each(function(index,element) { if ($(element) != $(node) ) { if( $(element).hasClass("copy") || $(element).hasClass("cut") ) control=1; } else if( $(node).hasClass("cut") || $(node).hasClass("copy")) { control=0; } }); //only remove the class for cut or copy if the current operation is to paste if($(node).hasClass("paste") ) { control=0; // Let's loop through all elements and try to find if the paste operation was done already $("#<?=$id_arr[$k]?>").find("li").each(function(index,element) { if( $(element).hasClass("copy") ) $(this).removeClass("copy"); if ( $(element).hasClass("cut") ) $(this).removeClass("cut"); if ( $(element).hasClass("paste") ) $(this).removeClass("paste"); }); } switch (control) { //Remove the paste item from the context menu case 0: switch ($(node).attr("rel")) { case "drive": delete items.renameItem; delete items.deleteItem; delete items.cutItem; delete items.copyItem; delete items.pasteItem; break; case "default": delete items.pasteItem; break; } break; //Remove the paste item from the context menu only on the node that has either copy or cut added class case 1: if( $(node).hasClass("cut") || $(node).hasClass("copy") ) { switch ($(node).attr("rel")) { case "drive": delete items.renameItem; delete items.deleteItem; delete items.cutItem; delete items.copyItem; delete items.pasteItem; break; case "default": delete items.pasteItem; break; } } else //Re-enable it on the clicked node that does not have the cut or copy class { switch ($(node).attr("rel")) { case "drive": delete items.renameItem; delete items.deleteItem; delete items.cutItem; delete items.copyItem; break; } } break; //initial state don't show the paste option on any node default: switch ($(node).attr("rel")) { case "drive": delete items.renameItem; delete items.deleteItem; delete items.cutItem; delete items.copyItem; delete items.pasteItem; break; case "default": delete items.pasteItem; break; } break; } return items; } $("#menu_<?=$id_arr[$k]?> img").hover( function () { $(this).css({'cursor':'pointer','outline':'1px double teal'}) }, function () { $(this).css({'cursor':'none','outline':'1px groove transparent'}) } ); $("#menu_<?=$id_arr[$k]?> img").click(function () { switch(this.id) { //Create only the first element case "create": if ( $.jstree._reference("#<?=$id_arr[$k]?>").get_selected(false, true).length ) { $.jstree._reference("#<?=$id_arr[$k]?>").get_selected(false, true).each(function(index,element){ switch(index) { case 0: $("#<?=$id_arr[$k]?>").jstree("create", '#'+$(element).attr("id"), null, /*{attr : {href: '#' }}*/null ,null, false); break; default: $("#<?=$id_arr[$k]?>").jstree("deselect_node", '#'+$(element).attr("id") ); break; } }); } else { $.facebox('<p class=\'p_inner error bold\'>A selection needs to be made to work with this operation'); setTimeout(function(){ $.facebox.close(); }, 2000); } break; //REMOVE case "remove": if ( $.jstree._reference("#<?=$id_arr[$k]?>").get_selected(false, true).length ) { $.jstree._reference("#<?=$id_arr[$k]?>").get_selected(false, true).each(function(index,element){ //only execute if the current node is not the first one (drive) if( $(element).attr("id") != $("div.jstree > ul > li").first().attr("id") ) { $("#<?=$id_arr[$k]?>").jstree("remove",'#'+$(element).attr("id")); } else $("#<?=$id_arr[$k]?>").jstree("deselect_node", '#'+$(element).attr("id") ); }); } else { $.facebox('<p class=\'p_inner error bold\'>A selection needs to be made to work with this operation'); setTimeout(function(){ $.facebox.close(); }, 2000); } break; //RENAME NODE only one selection case "rename": if ( $.jstree._reference("#<?=$id_arr[$k]?>").get_selected(false, true).length ) { $.jstree._reference("#<?=$id_arr[$k]?>").get_selected(false, true).each(function(index,element){ if( $(element).attr("id") != $("div.jstree > ul > li").first().attr("id") ) { switch(index) { case 0: $("#<?=$id_arr[$k]?>").jstree("rename", '#'+$(element).attr("id") ); break; default: $("#<?=$id_arr[$k]?>").jstree("deselect_node", '#'+$(element).attr("id") ); break; } } else $("#<?=$id_arr[$k]?>").jstree("deselect_node", '#'+$(element).attr("id") ); }); } else { $.facebox('<p class=\'p_inner error bold\'>A selection needs to be made to work with this operation'); setTimeout(function(){ $.facebox.close(); }, 2000); } break; //Cut case "cut": if ( $.jstree._reference("#<?=$id_arr[$k]?>").get_selected(false, true).length ) { $.jstree._reference("#<?=$id_arr[$k]?>").get_selected(false, true).each(function(index,element){ switch(index) { case 0: $("#<?=$id_arr[$k]?>").jstree("cut", '#'+$(element).attr("id")); $.facebox('<p class=\'p_inner teal\'>Operation "Cut" successfully done.<p class=\'p_inner teal bold\'>Where to place it?'); setTimeout(function(){ $.facebox.close(); $("#<?=$id_arr[$k]?>").jstree("deselect_node", '#'+$(element).attr("id")); }, 2000); break; default: $("#<?=$id_arr[$k]?>").jstree("deselect_node", '#'+$(element).attr("id") ); break; } }); } else { $.facebox('<p class=\'p_inner error bold\'>A selection needs to be made to work with this operation'); setTimeout(function(){ $.facebox.close(); }, 2000); } break; //Copy case "copy": if ( $.jstree._reference("#<?=$id_arr[$k]?>").get_selected(false, true).length ) { $.jstree._reference("#<?=$id_arr[$k]?>").get_selected(false, true).each(function(index,element){ switch(index) { case 0: $("#<?=$id_arr[$k]?>").jstree("copy", '#'+$(element).attr("id")); $.facebox('<p class=\'p_inner teal\'>Operation "Copy": Successfully done.<p class=\'p_inner teal bold\'>Where to place it?'); setTimeout(function(){ $.facebox.close(); $("#<?=$id_arr[$k]?>").jstree("deselect_node", '#'+$(element).attr("id") ); }, 2000); break; default: $("#<?=$id_arr[$k]?>").jstree("deselect_node", '#'+$(element).attr("id") ); break; } }); } else { $.facebox('<p class=\'p_inner error bold\'>A selection needs to be made to work with this operation'); setTimeout(function(){ $.facebox.close(); }, 2000); } break; case "paste": if ( $.jstree._reference("#<?=$id_arr[$k]?>").get_selected(false, true).length ) { $.jstree._reference("#<?=$id_arr[$k]?>").get_selected(false, true).each(function(index,element){ switch(index) { case 0: $("#<?=$id_arr[$k]?>").jstree("paste", '#'+$(element).attr("id")); break; default: $("#<?=$id_arr[$k]?>").jstree("deselect_node", '#'+$(element).attr("id") ); break; } }); } else { $.facebox('<p class=\'p_inner error bold\'>A selection needs to be made to work with this operation'); setTimeout(function(){ $.facebox.close(); }, 2000); } break; } }); <? } ?> server.php $path='../../../..'; require_once "$path/phpfoo/dbif.class"; require_once "$path/global.inc"; // Database config & class $db_config = array( "servername"=> $dbHost, "username" => $dbUser, "password" => $dbPW, "database" => $dbName ); if(extension_loaded("mysqli")) require_once("_inc/class._database_i.php"); else require_once("_inc/class._database.php"); //Tree class require_once("_inc/class.ctree.php"); $dbLink = new dbif(); $dbErr = $dbLink->connect($dbName,$dbUser,$dbPW,$dbHost); $jstree = new json_tree(); if(isset($_GET["reconstruct"])) { $jstree->_reconstruct(); die(); } if(isset($_GET["analyze"])) { echo $jstree->_analyze(); die(); } $table = '`discussions_tree`'; if($_REQUEST["operation"] && strpos($_REQUEST["operation"], "_") !== 0 && method_exists($jstree, $_REQUEST["operation"])) { foreach($_REQUEST as $k => $v) { switch($k) { case 'user_id': //We are passing the user_id from the $_SESSION on each request and trying to pick up the min and max value from the table that matches the 'user_id' $sql = "SELECT max(`right`) , min(`left`) FROM $table WHERE `user_id`=$v"; //If the select does not return any value then just let it be :P if (!list($right, $left)=$dbLink->getRow($sql)) { $sql = $dbLink->dbSubmit("UPDATE $table SET `user_id`=$v WHERE `id` = 1 AND `parent_id` = 0"); $sql = $dbLink->dbSubmit("UPDATE $table SET `user_id`=$v WHERE `parent_id` = 1 AND `label`='How to Tag' "); } else { $sql = $dbLink->dbSubmit("UPDATE $table SET `user_id`=$v, `right`=$right+2 WHERE `id` = 1 AND `parent_id` = 0"); $sql = $dbLink->dbSubmit("UPDATE $table SET `user_id`=$v, `left`=$left+1, `right`=$right+1 WHERE `parent_id` = 1 AND `label`='How to Tag' "); } break; } } header("HTTP/1.0 200 OK"); header('Content-type: application/json; charset=utf-8'); header("Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate"); header("Expires: Mon, 26 Jul 1997 05:00:00 GMT"); header("Pragma: no-cache"); echo $jstree->{$_REQUEST["operation"]}($_REQUEST); die(); } header("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found"); ?> The problem: DND *(Drag and Drop) works, Delete works, Create works, Rename works, but Copy, Cut and Paste don't work

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  • Why are my descenders being cut off when using CSS @font-face?

    - by Olly Hodgson
    I'm using the Google webfonts API to embed Droid Sans on a page. All is fine, except for the descenders (i.e. the dangly bits on y, g, etc). The latest versions of Firefox, IE and Chrome on my Windows Vista box are all cutting the bottom off. <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <title>Droid sans descender test</title> <meta charset="utf-8"> <link href="http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Droid+Sans:regular,bold" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <style type="text/css"> body { font-size: 16px; font-family: "Droid Sans"sans-serif; } h1, h2, h3 { margin: 1em 0; font-weight: normal; } h1 { font-size: 2em; } h2 { font-size: 1.5em; } h3 { font-size: 1em; } </style> </head> <body> <h1>A bug ran under the carpet anyway</h1> <h2>A bug ran under the carpet anyway</h2> <h3>A bug ran under the carpet anyway</h3> </body> </html> The above code looks like this: I've tried line-height, font-size, padding etc to no avail. I had some success with font-size-adjust, but the last time I checked it was Gecko only. Does anybody know of a fix for this?

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  • How to cut a "hole" inside a rectangular Sprite to see the Sprite underneath? (ActionScript 3)

    - by Zando
    Everytime I google this question I see confusing information about masks and blends, none of which seems to directly apply to what I think should be an easy thing... There are three Sprites involved here...the lowest layer sprite is pretty much a background. I want to overlay a translucent Sprite on top of the background and then I want the third, top-most Sprite to act as a hole, so that the area inside the third Sprite is completely transparent, so that the background sprite is completely visible. How would I go about doing this dynamically (i.e. dynamically drawing the masking sprite and hole using the Actionscript graphics calls)?

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  • Is there a way to cut and paste or clone CSS from one element to another using JQuery?

    - by Jared Christensen
    I have a situation where I'm wrapping an image with a span and I want to remove all the CSS from the image and apply it to the span. Is there a way to do this with JQuery? JQuery: $(img).wrap('<span />'); Style Sheet: img { border: 5px solid red; padding: 10px; … } I would like do to do this with out editing the HTML or CSS. For example adding a class to the image would not work very well in my situation. I need a way to truly remove the CSS from one element and place it on another.

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  • DataTables - Total rowCount - How to cut euro sign in the columns?

    - by Ivan M
    For my DataTable I'm using the fnFooterCallback function to display the total amount of the column, which is working untill the columns contain a special character, like in this case a euro valuta sign. How can I adjust this code so it will not detect the euro sign? "fnFooterCallback": function ( nRow, aaData, iStart, iEnd, aiDisplay ) { /* * Calculate the total market share for all browsers in this table (ie inc. outside * the pagination) */ var iTotal = 0; for ( var i=0 ; i<aaData.length ; i++ ) { iTotal += aaData[i][7]*1; } /* Calculate the market share for browsers on this page */ var iPage = 0; for ( var i=iStart ; i<iEnd ; i++ ) { iPage += aaData[ aiDisplay[i] ][7]*1; } /* Modify the footer row to match what we want */ var nCells = nRow.getElementsByTagName('th'); nCells[1].innerHTML = parseInt(iPage); } Thank you in advance. EDIT With not detecting I mean to str_replace or something like that. Not familiar with javascript language..

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  • How can I cut down on this spam, and what is the point of it anyway?

    - by Steven
    I run a small, niche personal ads site. People post ads and then other people reply to them, which sends an email to the original creator of the ad telling them that someone is interested and giving them contact information for that interested person. Lately there's been some weird spam. People are receiving nonsense replies to their ads. Here is an example of one: Name: xkauwvyr Reply: vRYmbI <a href="http://rypmoxdkfblf.com/">rypmoxdkfblf</a>, url=http://pnjlwvhizwbq.com/]pnjlwvhizwbq[/url], [link=http://hmenwoujxrfv.com/]hmenwoujxrfv[/link], http://ogsekuhoyeud.com/ They vary in length and composition but they all look roughly like that. The first idea I had was to simply throw out any reply that contained the string " Also, is this spam just some ass playing a trick on my website, or is it something more malicious?

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  • User-Defined Customer Events & their impact (FA Type Profile)

    - by Rajesh Sharma
    CC&B automatically creates field activities when a specific Customer Event takes place. This depends on the way you have setup your Field Activity Type Profiles, the templates within, and associated SP Condition(s) on the template. CC&B uses the service point type, its state and referenced customer event to determine which field activity type to generate.   Customer events available in the base product include: Cut for Non-payment (CNP) Disconnect Warning (DIWA) Reconnect for Payment (REPY) Reread (RERD) Stop Service (STOP) Start Service (STRT) Start/Stop (STSP)   Note the Field values/codes defined for each event.   CC&B comes with a flexibility to define new set of customer events. These can be defined in the Look Up - CUST_EVT_FLG. Values from the Look Up are used on the Field Activity Type Profile Template page.     So what's the use of having user-defined Customer Events? And how will the system detect such events in order to create field activity(s)?   Well, system can only detect such events when you reference a user-defined customer event on a Severance Event Type for an event type Create Field Activities.     This way you can create additional field activities of a specific field activity type for user-defined customer events.   One of our customers adopted this feature and created a user-defined customer event CNPW - Cut for Non-payment for Water Services. This event was then linked on a Field Activity Type Profile and referenced on a Severance Event - CUT FOR NON PAY-W. The associated Severance Process was configured to trigger a reconnection process if it was cancelled (done by defining a Post Cancel Algorithm). Whenever this Severance Event was executed, a specific type of Field Activity was generated for disconnection purposes. The Field Activity type was determined by the system from the Field Activity Type Profile referenced for the SP Type, SP's state and the referenced user-defined customer event. All was working well until the time when they realized that in spite of the Severance Process getting cancelled (when a payment was made); the Post Cancel Algorithm was not executed to start a Reconnection Severance Process for the purpose of generating a reconnection field activity and reconnecting the service.   Basically, the Post Cancel algorithm (if specified on a Severance Process Template) is triggered when a Severance Process gets cancelled because a credit transaction has affected/relieved a Service Agreement's debt.   So what exactly was happening? Now we come to actual question as to what is the impact in having a user-defined customer event.   System defined/base customer events are hard-coded across the entire system. There is an impact even if you remove any customer event entry from the Look Up. User-defined customer events are not recognized by the system anywhere else except in the severance process, as described above.   There are few programs which have routines to first validate the completion of disconnection field activities, which were raised as a result of customer event CNP - Cut for Non-payment in order to perform other associated actions. One such program is the Post Cancel Algorithm, referenced on a Severance Process Template, generally used to reconnect services which were disconnected from other Severance Event, specifically CNP - Cut for Non-Payment. Post cancel algorithm provided by the product - SEV POST CAN does the following (below is the algorithm's description):   This algorithm is called after a severance process has been cancelled (typically because the debt was paid and the SA is no longer eligible to be on the severance process). It checks to see if the process has a completed 'disconnect' event and, if so, starts a reconnect process using the Reconnect Severance Process Template defined in the parameter.    Notice the underlined text. This algorithm implicitly checks for Field Activities having completed status, which were generated from Severance Events as a result of CNP - Cut for Non-payment customer event.   Now if we look back to the customer's issue, we can relate that the Post Cancel algorithm was triggered, but was not able to find any 'Completed' CNP - Cut for Non-payment related field activity. And hence was not able to start a reconnection severance process. This was because a field activity was generated and completed for a customer event CNPW - Cut for Non-payment of Water Services instead.   To conclude, if you introduce new customer events that extend or simulate base customer events, the ones that are included in the base product, ensure that there is no other impact either direct or indirect to other business functions that the application has to offer.  

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  • Limitations of User-Defined Customer Events (FA Type Profile)

    - by Rajesh Sharma
    CC&B automatically creates field activities when a specific Customer Event takes place. This depends on the way you have setup your Field Activity Type Profiles, the templates within, and associated SP Condition(s) on the template. CC&B uses the service point type, its state and referenced customer event to determine which field activity type to generate.   Customer events available in the base product include: Cut for Non-payment (CNP) Disconnect Warning (DIWA) Reconnect for Payment (REPY) Reread (RERD) Stop Service (STOP) Start Service (STRT) Start/Stop (STSP)   Note the Field values/codes defined for each event.   CC&B comes with a flexibility to define new set of customer events. These can be defined in the Look Up - CUST_EVT_FLG. Values from the Look Up are used on the Field Activity Type Profile Template page.     So what's the use of having user-defined Customer Events? And how will the system detect such events in order to create field activity(s)?   Well, system can only detect such events when you reference a user-defined customer event on a Severance Event Type for an event type Create Field Activities.     This way you can create additional field activities of a specific field activity type for user-defined customer events.   One of our customers adopted this feature and created a user-defined customer event CNPW - Cut for Non-payment for Water Services. This event was then linked on a Field Activity Type Profile and referenced on a Severance Event - CUT FOR NON PAY-W. The associated Severance Process was configured to trigger a reconnection process if it was cancelled (done by defining a Post Cancel Algorithm). Whenever this Severance Event was executed, a specific type of Field Activity was generated for disconnection purposes. The Field Activity type was determined by the system from the Field Activity Type Profile referenced for the SP Type, SP's state and the referenced user-defined customer event. All was working well until the time when they realized that in spite of the Severance Process getting cancelled (when a payment was made); the Post Cancel Algorithm was not executed to start a Reconnection Severance Process for the purpose of generating a reconnection field activity and reconnecting the service.   Basically, the Post Cancel algorithm (if specified on a Severance Process Template) is triggered when a Severance Process gets cancelled because a credit transaction has affected/relieved a Service Agreement's debt.   So what exactly was happening? Now we come to actual question as to what are limitations in having user-defined customer event.   System defined/base customer events are hard-coded across the entire system. There is an impact even if you remove any customer event entry from the Look Up. User-defined customer events are not recognized by the system anywhere else except in the severance process, as described above.   There are few programs which have routines to first validate the completion of disconnection field activities, which were raised as a result of customer event CNP - Cut for Non-payment in order to perform other associated actions. One such program is the Post Cancel Algorithm, referenced on a Severance Process Template, generally used to reconnect services which were disconnected from other Severance Event, specifically CNP - Cut for Non-Payment. Post cancel algorithm provided by the product - SEV POST CAN does the following (below is the algorithm's description):   This algorithm is called after a severance process has been cancelled (typically because the debt was paid and the SA is no longer eligible to be on the severance process). It checks to see if the process has a completed 'disconnect' event and, if so, starts a reconnect process using the Reconnect Severance Process Template defined in the parameter.    Notice the underlined text. This algorithm implicitly checks for Field Activities having completed status, which were generated from Severance Events as a result of CNP - Cut for Non-payment customer event.   Now if we look back to the customer's issue, we can relate that the Post Cancel algorithm was triggered, but was not able to find any 'Completed' CNP - Cut for Non-payment related field activity. And hence was not able to start a reconnection severance process. This was because a field activity was generated and completed for a customer event CNPW - Cut for Non-payment of Water Services instead.   To conclude, if you introduce new customer events, you should be aware that you don't extend or simulate base customer events, the ones that are included in the base product, as they are further used to provide/validate additional business functions.  

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  • Farseer: Cutting body from texture

    - by Robin Betka
    Is it possible to cut a body from a texture in Farseer 3.0? I have a texture converted to a body with multiple fixtures ( using BayazitDecomposer, CreatePolygon method, ..) and can even do it as a BreakableBody. But when I try to cut it with the cutting tool, the fixture itself gets cutted but it's connections get discarded! So when I have 14 fixtures, and cut fixture 3 for example, fixture 3 gets cutted but 1,2 and 3-14 just go away. Is there a way to do it? It would work already if I could convert the texture into a body with 1 fixture only, but I haven't figured out it that's possible. BayazitDecomposer creates the multiple verticles, but letting it away creates something weird and I get assert messages all the time. I know I couldn't break it that way but I don't need that anyway when I could cut it. The breaking is just the work around I'm using now. Extending the cuttingtool to support multiple fixtures is very hard especially when you consider that in one cut multiple fixtures could be cutted and then connected again.

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  • One dimensional cutting algorithm with minimum waste

    - by jm666
    Can anybody point me to some resources about "cutting algorithm"? The problem: have rods with length of L meters, e.g. 6 m need cut smaller pieces of different lengths, e.g. need: 4 x 1.2m 8 x 0,9m etc... (many other lengths and counts) How to determine the optimal cutting, what will produce the minimum wasted material? I'm capable write an perl program, but haven't any idea about the algorithm. (if here is already some CPAN module what can help, would be nice). Alternatively, if someone can point me to some "spreadsheet" solution, or to anything what helps. Ps: in addition, need care about the "cutting line width" too, whats means than from the 6m long rod is impossible to cut 6 x 1m, because the cutting itself takes "3mm" width, so it is possible cut only 5 x 1m and the last piece will be only 98.5 cm (1m minus 5 x 3mm cut-width) ;(.

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  • How to program a cutting tool for 3D model in game

    - by Jesse S
    I'm looking for a resource to figure out how to program a function to cut a 3d model in game. Example: Enemy/NPC is sliced into 2 pieces with a sword. His body is not hollow, you can see bloody texture where normally a 'polygon hole' would be. The first step is to actually 'cut/slice' the model, then add in polygons to fill the hole in the model. I know this can be done in 3D modelling software, but I'm not sure how to go about doing this in a game, code-wise. I do not wish to use 'pre cut-up" models, the code will determine where the cut is. Any pointers in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

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  • PASS: Bylaw Changes

    - by Bill Graziano
    While you’re reading this, a post should be going up on the PASS blog on the plans to change our bylaws.  You should be able to find our old bylaws, our proposed bylaws and a red-lined version of the changes.  We plan to listen to feedback until March 31st.  At that point we’ll decide whether to vote on these changes or take other action. The executive summary is that we’re adding a restriction to prevent more than two people from the same company on the Board and eliminating the Board’s Officer Appointment Committee to have Officers directly elected by the Board.  This second change better matches how officer elections have been conducted in the past. The Gritty Details Our scope was to change bylaws to match how PASS actually works and tackle a limited set of issues.  Changing the bylaws is hard.  We’ve been working on these changes since the March board meeting last year.  At that meeting we met and talked through the issues we wanted to address.  In years past the Board has tried to come up with language and then we’ve discussed and negotiated to get to the result.  In March, we gave HQ guidance on what we wanted and asked them to come up with a starting point.  Hannes worked on building us an initial set of changes that we could work our way through.  Discussing changes like this over email is difficult wasn’t very productive.  We do a much better job on this at the in-person Board meetings.  Unfortunately there are only 2 or 3 of those a year. In August we met in Nashville and spent time discussing the changes.  That was also the day after we released the slate for the 2010 election. The discussion around that colored what we talked about in terms of these changes.  We talked very briefly at the Summit and again reviewed and revised the changes at the Board meeting in January.  This is the result of those changes and discussions. We made numerous small changes to clean up language and make wording more clear.  We also made two big changes. Director Employment Restrictions The first is that only two people from the same company can serve on the Board at the same time.  The actual language in section VI.3 reads: A maximum of two (2) Directors who are employed by, or who are joint owners or partners in, the same for-profit venture, company, organization, or other legal entity, may concurrently serve on the PASS Board of Directors at any time. The definition of “employed” is at the sole discretion of the Board. And what a mess this turns out to be in practice.  Our membership is a hodgepodge of interlocking relationships.  Let’s say three Board members get together and start a blog service for SQL Server bloggers.  It’s technically for-profit.  Let’s assume it makes $8 in the first year.  Does that trigger this clause?  (Technically yes.)  We had a horrible time trying to write language that covered everything.  All the sample bylaws that we found were just as vague as this. That led to the third clause in this section.  The first sentence reads: The Board of Directors reserves the right, strictly on a case-by-case basis, to overrule the requirements of Section VI.3 by majority decision for any single Director’s conflict of employment. We needed some way to handle the trivial issues and exercise some judgment.  It seems like a public vote is the best way.  This discloses the relationship and gets each Board member on record on the issue.   In practice I think this clause will rarely be used.  I think this entire section will only be invoked for actual employment issues and not for small side projects.  In either case we have the mechanisms in place to handle it in a public, transparent way. That’s the first and third clauses.  The second clause says that if your situation changes and you fall afoul of this restriction you need to notify the Board.  The clause further states that if this new job means a Board members violates the “two-per-company” rule the Board may request their resignation.  The Board can also  allow the person to continue serving with a majority vote.  I think this will also take some judgment.  Consider a person switching jobs that leads to three people from the same company.  I’m very likely to ask for someone to resign if all three are two weeks into a two year term.  I’m unlikely to ask anyone to resign if one is two weeks away from ending their term.  In either case, the decision will be a public vote that we can be held accountable for. One concern that was raised was whether this would affect someone choosing to accept a job.  I think that’s a choice for them to make.  PASS is clearly stating its intent that only two directors from any one organization should serve at any time.  Once these bylaws are approved, this policy should not come as a surprise to any potential or current Board members considering a job change.  This clause isn’t perfect.  The biggest hole is business relationships that aren’t defined above.  Let’s say that two employees from company “X” serve on the Board.  What happens if I accept a full-time consulting contract with that company?  Let’s assume I’m working directly for one of the two existing Board members.  That doesn’t violate section VI.3.  But I think it’s clearly the kind of relationship we’d like to prevent.  Unfortunately that was even harder to write than what we have now.  I fully expect that in the next revision of the bylaws we’ll address this.  It just didn’t make it into this one. Officer Elections The officer election process received a slightly different rewrite.  Our goal was to codify in the bylaws the actual process we used to elect the officers.  The officers are the President, Executive Vice-President (EVP) and Vice-President of Marketing.  The Immediate Past President (IPP) is also an officer but isn’t elected.  The IPP serves in that role for two years after completing their term as President.  We do that for continuity’s sake.  Some organizations have a President-elect that serves for one or two years.  The group that founded PASS chose to have an IPP. When I started on the Board, the Nominating Committee (NomCom) selected the slate for the at-large directors and the slate for the officers.  There was always one candidate for each officer position.  It wasn’t really an election so much as the NomCom decided who the next person would be for each officer position.  Behind the scenes the Board worked to select the best people for the role. In June 2009 that process was changed to bring it line with what actually happens.  An Officer Appointment Committee was created that was a subset of the Board.  That committee would take time to interview the candidates and present a slate to the Board for approval.  The majority vote of the Board would determine the officers for the next two years.  In practice the Board itself interviewed the candidates and conducted the elections.  That means it was time to change the bylaws again. Section VII.2 and VII.3 spell out the process used to select the officers.  We use the phrase “Officer Appointment” to separate it from the Director election but the end result is that the Board elects the officers.  Section VII.3 starts: Officers shall be appointed bi-annually by a majority of all the voting members of the Board of Directors. Everything else revolves around that sentence.  We use the word appoint but they truly are elected.  There are details in the bylaws for term limits, minimum requirements for President (1 prior term as an officer), tie breakers and filling vacancies. In practice we will have an election for President, then an election for EVP and then an election for VP Marketing.  That means that losing candidates will be able to fall down the ladder and run for the next open position.  Another point to note is that officers aren’t at-large directors.  That means if a current sitting officer loses all three elections they are off the Board.  Having Board member votes public will help with the transparency of this approach. This process has a number of positive and negatives.  The biggest concern I expect to hear is that our members don’t directly choose the officers.  I’m going to try and list all the positives and negatives of this approach. Many non-profits value continuity and are slower to change than a business.  On the plus side this promotes that.  On the negative side this promotes that.  If we change too slowly the members complain that we aren’t responsive.  If we change too quickly we make mistakes and fail at various things.  We’ve been criticized for both of those lately so I’m not entirely sure where to draw the line.  My rough assumption to this point is that we’re going too slow on governance and too quickly on becoming “more than a Summit.”  This approach creates competition in the officer elections.  If you are an at-large director there is no consequence to losing an election.  If you are an officer the only way to stay on the Board is to win an officer election or an at-large election.  If you are an officer and lose an election you can always run for the next office down.  This makes it very easy for multiple people to contest an election. There is value in a person moving through the officer positions up to the Presidency.  Having the Board select the officers promotes this.  The down side is that it takes a LOT of time to get to the Presidency.  We’ve had good people struggle with burnout.  We’ve had lots of discussion around this.  The process as we’ve described it here makes it possible for someone to move quickly through the ranks but doesn’t prevent people from working their way up through each role. We talked long and hard about having the officers elected by the members.  We had a self-imposed deadline to complete these changes prior to elections this summer. The other challenge was that our original goal was to make the bylaws reflect our actual process rather than create a new one.  I believe we accomplished this goal. We ran out of time to consider this option in the detail it needs.  Having member elections for officers needs a number of problems solved.  We would need a way for candidates to fall through the election.  This is what promotes competition.  Without this few people would risk an election and we’ll be back to one candidate per slot.  We need to do this without having multiple elections.  We may be able to copy what other organizations are doing but I was surprised at how little I could find on other organizations.  We also need a way for people that lose an officer election to win an at-large election.  Otherwise we’ll have very little competition for officers. This brings me to an area that I think we as a Board haven’t done a good job.  We haven’t built a strong process to tell you who is doing a good job and who isn’t.  This is a double-edged sword.  I don’t want to highlight Board members that are failing.  That’s not a good way to get people to volunteer and run for the Board.  But I also need a way let the members make an informed choice about who is doing a good job and would make a good officer.  Encouraging Board members to blog, publishing minutes and making votes public helps in that regard but isn’t the final answer.  I don’t know what the final answer is yet.  I do know that the Board members themselves are uniquely positioned to know which other Board members are doing good work.  They know who speaks up in meetings, who works to build consensus, who has good ideas and who works with the members.  What I Could Do Better I’ve learned a lot writing this about how we communicated with our members.  The next time we revise the bylaws I’d do a few things differently.  The biggest change would be to provide better documentation.  The March 2009 minutes provide a very detailed look into what changes we wanted to make to the bylaws.  Looking back, I’m a little surprised at how closely they matched our final changes and covered the various arguments.  If you just read those you’d get 90% of what we eventually changed.  Nearly everything else was just details around implementation.  I’d also consider publishing a scope document defining exactly what we were doing any why.  I think it really helped that we had a limited, defined goal in mind.  I don’t think we did a good job communicating that goal outside the meeting minutes though. That said, I wish I’d blogged more after the August and January meeting.  I think it would have helped more people to know that this change was coming and to be ready for it. Conclusion These changes address two big concerns that the Board had.  First, it prevents a single organization from dominating the Board.  Second, it codifies and clearly spells out how officers are elected.  This is the process that was previously followed but it was somewhat murky.  These changes bring clarity to this and clearly explain the process the Board will follow. We’re going to listen to feedback until March 31st.  At that time we’ll decide whether to approve these changes.  I’m also assuming that we’ll start another round of changes in the next year or two.  Are there other issues in the bylaws that we should tackle in the future?

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  • PASS: The Legal Stuff

    - by Bill Graziano
    I wanted to give a little background on the legal status of PASS.  The Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) is an American corporation chartered in the state of Illinois.  In America a corporation has to be chartered in a particular state.  It has to abide by the laws of that state and potentially pay taxes to that state.  Our bylaws and actions have to comply with Illinois state law and United States law.  We maintain a mailing address in Chicago, Illinois but our headquarters is currently in Vancouver, Canada. We have roughly a dozen people that work in our Vancouver headquarters and 4-5 more that work remotely on various projects.  These aren’t employees of PASS.  They are employed by a management company that we hire to run the day to day operations of the organization.  I’ll have more on this arrangement in a future post. PASS is a non-profit corporation.  The term non-profit and not-for-profit are used interchangeably.  In a for-profit corporation (or LLC) there are owners that are entitled to the profits of a company.  In a non-profit there are no owners.  As a non-profit, all the money earned by the organization must be retained or spent.  There is no money that flows out to shareholders, owners or the board of directors.  Any money not spent in furtherance of our mission is retained as financial reserves. Many non-profits apply for tax exempt status.  Being tax exempt means that an organization doesn’t pay taxes on its profits.  There are a variety of laws governing who can be tax exempt in the United States.  There are many professional associations that are tax exempt however PASS isn’t tax exempt.  Because our mission revolves around the software of a single company we aren’t eligible for tax exempt status. PASS was founded in the late 1990’s by Microsoft and Platinum Technologies.  Platinum was later purchased by Computer Associates. As the founding partners Microsoft and CA each have two seats on the Board of Directors.  The other six directors and three officers are elected as specified in our bylaws. As a non-profit, our bylaws layout our governing practices.  They must conform to Illinois and United States law.  These bylaws specify that PASS is governed by a Board of Directors elected by the membership with two members each from Microsoft and CA.  You can find our bylaws as well as a proposed update to them on the governance page of the PASS web site. The last point that I’d like to make is that PASS is completely self-funded.  All of our $4 million in revenue comes from conference registrations, sponsorships and advertising.  We don’t receive any money from anyone outside those channels.  While we work closely with Microsoft we are independent of them and only derive a very small percentage of our revenue from them.

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  • Hurry! See the uncensored OOW videos before they get edited!

    - by rickramsey
    source Uploaded so far: Which Oracle Solaris 11 Technologies Have Sysadmins Been Using Most? Director's Cut - Uncensored - Markus Flierl, VP Solaris Core Engineering, describes how Oracle Solaris 11 customers are taking advantage of the Image Packaging System and the snapshot capability of ZFS to run more frequent updates of not only the OS, but also the applications (agile development, anyone?), and how they're using the network virtualization capabilities in Oracle Solaris 11 to isolate applications and manage workloads on the cloud. Watch How Hybrid Columnar Compression Saves Storage Space Director's Cut - Uncensored - Art Licht shows how hyprid columnar compression (HCC) compresses data 30x without slowing down other queries that the database is performing. First he shows what happens when he runs database queries without HCC, then he shows what happens when he runs the queries with HCC. Security Capabilities and Design in Oracle Solaris 11 Director's Cut - Uncensored - Compliance reporting. Extended policy. Immutable zones. Three of the best minds in Oracle Solaris security explain what they are, what customers are doing with them, and how they were engineered. Filmed at Oracle Open World 2012. Why DTrace and Ksplice Have Made Oracle Linux 6 Popular with Sysadmins Use the DTrace scripts you wrote for Oracle Solaris on Oracle Linux without modification. Wim Coekaerts, VP of Engineering for Oracle Linux, explains how this capability of DTrace, the zero downtime updates enabled by KSplice, and other performance and stability enhancements have made Oracle Linux 6 popular with sysadmins. Why Solaris 11 Is Being Adopted Faster Than Solaris 10 Sneak Preview - Uncut Version - Lynn Rohrer, Director of Oracle Solaris Product Management explains why customers are adopting Oracle Solaris 11 at a faster rate than Oracle Solaris 10, and proves why you should never challenge a Montana woman to a test of strength. What Forsythe Corp Is Helping Its Customers Do With Oracle Solaris 11 Director's Cut - Unedited - Lee Diamante, Solutions Architect for Forsythe Corp, an Oracle Solaris Partner, explains why Forsythe has been recommending Oracle Solaris to its customers, and what those customers have been doing with it. Lots more to come ... - Rick Website Newsletter Facebook Twitter

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  • Robotic Arm &ndash; Hardware

    - by Szymon Kobalczyk
    This is first in series of articles about project I've been building  in my spare time since last Summer. Actually it all began when I was researching a topic of modeling human motion kinematics in order to create gesture recognition library for Kinect. This ties heavily into motion theory of robotic manipulators so I also glanced at some designs of robotic arms. Somehow I stumbled upon this cool looking open source robotic arm: It was featured on Thingiverse and published by user jjshortcut (Jan-Jaap). Since for some time I got hooked on toying with microcontrollers, robots and other electronics, I decided to give it a try and build it myself. In this post I will describe the hardware build of the arm and in later posts I will be writing about the software to control it. Another reason to build the arm myself was the cost factor. Even small commercial robotic arms are quite expensive – products from Lynxmotion and Dagu look great but both cost around USD $300 (actually there is one cheap arm available but it looks more like a toy to me). In comparison this design is quite cheap. It uses seven hobby grade servos and even the cheapest ones should work fine. The structure is build from a set of laser cut parts connected with few metal spacers (15mm and 47mm) and lots of M3 screws. Other than that you’d only need a microcontroller board to drive the servos. So in total it comes a lot cheaper to build it yourself than buy an of the shelf robotic arm. Oh, and if you don’t like this one there are few more robotic arm projects at Thingiverse (including one by oomlout). Laser cut parts Some time ago I’ve build another robot using laser cut parts so I knew the process already. You can grab the design files in both DXF and EPS format from Thingiverse, and there are also 3D models of each part in STL. Actually the design is split into a second project for the mini servo gripper (there is also a standard servo version available but it won’t fit this arm).  I wanted to make some small adjustments, layout, and add measurements to the parts before sending it for cutting. I’ve looked at some free 2D CAD programs, and finally did all this work using QCad 3 Beta with worked great for me (I also tried LibreCAD but it didn’t work that well). All parts are cut from 4 mm thick material. Because I was worried that acrylic is too fragile and might break, I also ordered another set cut from plywood. In the end I build it from plywood because it was easier to glue (I was told acrylic requires a special glue). Btw. I found a great laser cutter service in Kraków and highly recommend it (www.ebbox.com.pl). It cost me only USD $26 for both sets ($16 acrylic + $10 plywood). Metal parts I bought all the M3 screws and nuts at local hardware store. Make sure to look for nylon lock (nyloc) nuts for the gripper because otherwise it unscrews and comes apart quickly. I couldn’t find local store with metal spacers and had to order them online (you’d need 11 x 47mm and 3 x 15mm). I think I paid less than USD $10 for all metal parts. Servos This arm uses five standards size servos to drive the arm itself, and two micro servos are used on the gripper. Author of the project used Modelcraft RS-2 Servo and Modelcraft ES-05 HT Servo. I had two Futaba S3001 servos laying around, and ordered additional TowerPro SG-5010 standard size servos and TowerPro SG90 micro servos. However it turned out that the SG90 won’t fit in the gripper so I had to replace it with a slightly smaller E-Sky EK2-0508 micro servo. Later it also turned out that Futaba servos make some strange noise while working so I swapped one with TowerPro SG-5010 which has higher torque (8kg / cm). I’ve also bought three servo extension cables. All servos cost me USD $45. Assembly The build process is not difficult but you need to think carefully about order of assembling it. You can do the base and upper arm first. Because two servos in the base are close together you need to put first with one piece of lower arm already connected before you put the second servo. Then you connect the upper arm and finally put the second piece of lower arm to hold it together. Gripper and base require some gluing so think it through too. Make sure to look closely at all the photos on Thingiverse (also other people copies) and read additional posts on jjshortcust’s blog: My mini servo grippers and completed robotic arm  Multiply the robotic arm and electronics Here is also Rob’s copy cut from aluminum My assembled arm looks like this – I think it turned out really nice: Servo controller board The last piece of hardware I needed was an electronic board that would take command from PC and drive all seven servos. I could probably use Arduino for this task, and in fact there are several Arduino servo shields available (for example from Adafruit or Renbotics).  However one problem is that most support only up to six servos, and second that their accuracy is limited by Arduino’s timer frequency. So instead I looked for dedicated servo controller and found a series of Maestro boards from Pololu. I picked the Pololu Mini Maestro 12-Channel USB Servo Controller. It has many nice features including native USB connection, high resolution pulses (0.25µs) with no jitter, built-in speed and acceleration control, and even scripting capability. Another cool feature is that besides servo control, each channel can be configured as either general input or output. So far I’m using seven channels so I still have five available to connect some sensors (for example distance sensor mounted on gripper might be useful). And last but important factor was that they have SDK in .NET – what more I could wish for! The board itself is very small – half of the size of Tic-Tac box. I picked one for about USD $35 in this store. Perhaps another good alternative would be the Phidgets Advanced Servo 8-Motor – but it is significantly more expensive at USD $87.30. The Maestro Controller Driver and Software package includes Maestro Control Center program with lets you immediately configure the board. For each servo I first figured out their move range and set the min/max limits. I played with setting the speed an acceleration values as well. Big issue for me was that there are two servos that control position of lower arm (shoulder joint), and both have to be moved at the same time. This is where the scripting feature of Pololu board turned out very helpful. I wrote a script that synchronizes position of second servo with first one – so now I only need to move one servo and other will follow automatically. This turned out tricky because I couldn’t find simple offset mapping of the move range for each servo – I had to divide it into several sub-ranges and map each individually. The scripting language is bit assembler-like but gets the job done. And there is even a runtime debugging and stack view available. Altogether I’m very happy with the Pololu Mini Maestro Servo Controller, and with this final piece I completed the build and was able to move my arm from the Meastro Control program.   The total cost of my robotic arm was: $10 laser cut parts $10 metal parts $45 servos $35 servo controller ----------------------- $100 total So here you have all the information about the hardware. In next post I’ll start talking about the software that I wrote in Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 4. Stay tuned!

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