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• I need some career guidance, please.

  - by user18956

  Hi, I have been a teacher of guitar and music theory for the last ten years or so, and I have decided to get out of it and pursue something involving computers, but I am very confused about it all. I have no training related to programming besides a knowledge of xhtml and css - which I realize are not even programming languages. My problem is that I know I want to do something with either making video games, computer/online applications, or some other programming job, but I haven't a clue how to begin. I picked up a book from the Head First series entitled, Head First Programming that uses Python to teach programming concepts, but after that, I don't really know what is a good direction for me in terms of balancing career satisfaction with job availability and acceptable pay. I am not looking for a huge salary, I just want to be able to survive doing something I love, and which challenges me. I don't know even a single person involved in a related field, so I am in need of guidance. The first thing I would like to know is whether pursuing a career as a programmer for video games is a realistic option. I love video games, and play them all the time, and I have always wanted to make them. If this is an option, what would be the recommended course of action? What is a good language or technology to get involved in for the job market now? I have read that PHP/MySQL is a good place to find a job for some. Can I find a job without school, or do I need to got o college? Also, will the Python I learn in this book translate into any other language I need to learn? If it is anything like music, then I am sure it will, but I don't know much about programming - yet. And last, yet perhaps most important, is thirty years old too old to take such a radical redirection in careers? Thank you for any help you can offer. I really need it.

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• Too sell or give for free

  - by QAH

  Hello everyone! I am currently making a game that I was originally planning to sell. It is a simple 2D arcade style game for the PC. I've seen many indie games become popular and generate revenue from advertisements, but the game itself remains free. I need some advice on whether or not I should sell my game, release it for free with advertisements, or ask for donations and keep the game free. I feel that my game is fun, but of course the graphics aren't tip top because I am a programmer, not an artist. I just take screenshots of 3D models I get from Turbosquid and crop around it to make a sprite. Also, and I could be very wrong about this, it seems that there are more legal issues surrounding selling a game than making it free and generating revenue from advertisement, or asking for donations. If I am wrong, someone please correct me. Also, I am very interested in generating some revenue for my work, but that isn't at the very top of my list. I am in my last year of high school, soon to be going to college, and I am going to major in computer science/software engineering. So I am trying to gain some preliminary experience at home by coding stuff every day. One way of getting this experience is by making this game. So what do you think? What route should I take? What has worked well with other indie games? Thanks in advance.

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• Is browser fingerprinting a viable technique for identifying anonymous users?

  - by SMrF

  Is browser fingerprinting a sufficient method for uniquely identifying anonymous users? What if you incorporate biometric data like mouse gestures or typing patterns? The other day I ran into the Panopticlick experiment EFF is running on browser fingerprints. Of course I immediately thought of the privacy repercussions and how it could be used for evil. But on the other hand, this could be used for great good and, at the very least, it's a tempting problem to work on. While researching the topic I found a few companies using browser fingerprinting to attack fraud. And after sending out a few emails I can confirm at least one major dating site is using browser fingerprinting as but one mechanism to detect fake accounts. (Note: They have found it's not unique enough to act as an identity when scaling up to millions of users. But, my programmer brain doesn't want to believe them). Here is one company using browser fingerprints for fraud detection and prevention: http://www.bluecava.com/ Here is a pretty comprehensive list of stuff you can use as unique identifiers in a browser: http://browserspy.dk/

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• Linux to Solaris @ Morgan Stanley

  - by mgerdts

  I came across this blog entry and the accompanying presentation by Robert Milkoski about his experience switching from Linux to Oracle Solaris 11 for a distributed OpenAFS file serving environment at Morgan Stanley. If you are an IT manager, the presentation will show you: Running Solaris with a support contract can cost less than running Linux (even without a support contract) because of technical advantages of Solaris. IT departments can benefit from hiring computer scientists into Systems Programmer or similar roles.  Their computer science background should be nurtured so that they can continue to deliver value (savings and opportunity) to the business as technology advances. If you are a sysadmin, developer, or somewhere in between, the presentation will show you: A presentation that explains your technical analysis can be very influential. Learning and using the non-default options of an OS can make all the difference as to whether one OS is better suited than another.  For example, see the graphs on slides 3 - 5.  The ZFS default is to not use compression. When trying to convince those that hold the purse strings that your technical direction should be taken, the financial impact can be the part that closes the deal.  See slides 6, 9, and 10.  Sometimes reducing rack space requirements can be the biggest impact because it may stave off or completely eliminate the need for facilities growth. DTrace can be used to shine light on performance problems that may be suspected but not diagnosed.  It is quite likely that these problems have existed in OpenAFS for a decade or more.  DTrace made diagnosis possible. DTrace can be used to create performance analysis tools without modifying the source of software that is under analysis.  See slides 29 - 32. Microstate accounting, visible in the prstat output on slide 37 can be used to quickly draw focus to problem areas that affect CPU saturation.  Note that prstat without -m gives a time-decayed moving average that is not nearly as useful. Instruction level probes (slides 33 - 34) are a super-easy way to identify which part of a function is hot.

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• Choosing between PHP and Java

  - by user996459

  I've recently started University, studying Computing and IT. My Uni focuses on Java. My study will consist of mathematics, 'boring' IT related stuff and several Java units such as: -Software development with Java, -Object-oriented Java programming, -Relational databases: theory and practice (using Java), -Developing concurrent distributed systems (using Java), -Software engineering with objects (using Java). I'm trying to determine whenever I should focus on Java and self study it in my free time so that I can actually learn and become a competent Java programmer by the time I graduate, or, only do enough Java to get the degree but in my free time self study PHP and related web technologies. Job market in my area appears to be balanced for the two, salary and availability wise. Regardless of which patch I'd take getting a job should not be a problem however Java does seem to pay almost insignificantly more. In terms of my interest and career expectations, I don't have anything specific planned. I very much enjoy writing code but I don't really care what kind. So far I equally enjoyed writing C, AutoIT, vb.net, PHP and even Java. Basically, I'm happy as long as I get to type in code (be it low level programming or web back-end scripting). So the question really is, would my Uni and their Java focus profit me should I choose PHP? Or should I buy what my university is selling and stick to Java like a fly sticks to poop...? Apologies for cryptic writing, still learning English

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• Computer Bugs - Etymology and Entomology

  - by PointsToShare

  Whatever bugs you My wife and I used to take some of our summer vacation I a cabin on the shore of Lake Atsion in NJ. I t is a delightful place in the Wharton forest with Brown yet fresh water, where we would canoe, swim and enjoy true rest. Alas, in the last few years, yellow flies also discovered the area’s pastoral delights and came in hoards to bug us. So much so that we had to give up. As a computer programmer I abhor bugs. The bugs that bug me – except the pesky yellow flies – are program bugs , a specific variety of computer bugs. You can find an excellent take on the etymology of the word ‘bug” in this delightful monogram: http://www.jamesshuggins.com/h/tek1/first_computer_bug.htm In my youth, I worked on Burroughs computers. Unlike their IBM brethren, the Burroughs used a 96 column card. The cards were much smaller than the 80 column IBM cards. We wrote our programs on coding sheets and then a key-punch operator transcribed them into punched cards. These were fed into a card reader and compiled. The compiler would notify us of compiler errors or bugs, but it was not always easy to get the meaning of the message. My friend Mark Wildt, also a Burroughs veteran, gave me an old punched card from one of his programs. Obviously a bug!! Here It Is!! That’s All Folks!

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• How to advertise (free) software?

  - by nebukadnezzar

  I'm not sure if this fits on SO, but other SE sites don't seem to fit either, so I understand when this question gets moved, Although I'd like to avoid getting it closed due to being offtopics, since I think that this question might fit, considering this part of the FAQ: Stack Overflow is for professional and enthusiast programmers, ... covers … a specific programming problem ... matters that are unique to the programming profession Sorry for the lengthy Introduction, though. When Software is advertised, it is usually Software for one (or more) specific purpose, such as: Mozilla Firefox - A Web Browser Ubuntu - An Operating System Python - A Programming Language Visual Studio - A Development Studio ... And so on. But when writing Libraries, that is, Software that doesn't necessarily serve one specific purpose, but instead multiple purposes, which are usually supposed to be used inside an application, such as: Irrlicht - A 3D Engine Qt - An Application Framework ... The process of advertisement gets a little more difficult. I'm a developer of the latter kind of Software, and I naturally want to advertise my Software. It's not commercial Software; It's not GPL either. It's completely free (Licensed under the MIT License :-)). I naturally host my stuff at github, which technically makes it very easy to access the software, and I thought that these might be possible options, although I have no experience with them: Submit the Software to Freshmeat, and hope for the best Submit the Software to Sourceforge, and hope someone accidently stumbles over it Write spammails, and get death threats via Mail ... But something tells me that these methods are probably not the best Methods. So, my final question would be, How does the Average Joe Hobby Programmer advertise his/her Software Library?

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• What are functional-programming ways of implementing Conway's Game of Life

  - by George Mauer

  I recently implemented for fun Conway's Game of Life in Javascript (actually coffeescript but same thing). Since javascript can be used as a functional language I was trying to stay to that end of the spectrum. I was not happy with my results. I am a fairly good OO programmer and my solution smacked of same-old-same-old. So long question short: what is the (pseudocode) functional style of doing it? Here is Pseudocode for my attempt: class Node update: (board) -> get number_of_alive_neighbors from board get this_is_alive from board if this_is_alive and number_of_alive_neighbors < 2 then die if this_is_alive and number_of_alive_neighbors > 3 then die if not this_is_alive and number_of_alive_neighbors == 3 then alive class NodeLocations at: (x, y) -> return node value at x,y of: (node) -> return x,y of node class Board getNeighbors: (node) -> use node_locations to check 8 neighbors around node and return count nodes = for 1..100 new Node state = new NodeState(nodes) locations = new NodeLocations(nodes) board = new Board(locations, state) executeRound: state = clone state accumulated_changes = for n in nodes n.update(board) apply accumulated_changes to state board = new Board(locations, state)

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• Would you refactor this and if so, would you charge your client?

  - by Julius

  I am working on a freelance job at home. The client wants me to write some new functionality for his CMS, but it is taking me a lot of time to figure out what the code is doing, because it is written in a very unreadable style. Below is just an example of what I mean. The previous programmer made extensive use of anonymous functions, of eval(), he uses deeply nested ternary operators, he didn't indent code, didn't use comments, and he uses funny constructions like misusing the behaviour of logical operators || and && for creating if/else conditions (the second condition of && only gets tested if the first one is true, opening the possibility to use && as an if/else construction). All in all it's insane code and it's costing me a lot of time to find out how the current code works. return ($this->main->context != "ajax" || in_array($this->type, $this->definition->ajax)) ? eval('return method_exists($this,"Show'.ucfirst($this->type).'") ? $this->Show'.ucfirst($this->type).'('.(count($args) ? join(",",array_map(create_function('$a','return (is_numeric($a) || preg_match("/^array/",$a)) ? $a : "\"".$a."\"";'),$args)) : "").') : null;') : ''; Would you refactor this code and how would you handle this sort of thing with your client, I mean financially?

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• Should my program "be lenient" in what it accepts and "discard faulty input silently"?

  - by romkyns

  I was under the impression that by now everyone agrees this maxim was a mistake. But I recently saw this answer which has a "be lenient" comment upvoted 137 times (as of today). In my opinion, the leniency in what browsers accept was the direct cause of the utter mess that HTML and some other web standards were a few years ago, and have only recently begun to properly crystallize out of that mess. The way I see it, being lenient in what you accept will lead to this. The second part of the maxim is "discard faulty input silently, without returning an error message unless this is required by the specification", and this feels borderline offensive. Any programmer who has banged their head on the wall when something fails silently will know what I mean. So, am I completely wrong about this? Should my program be lenient in what it accepts and swallow errors silently? Or am I mis-interpreting what this is supposed to mean? Taken to the extreme, if Excel followed this maxim and I gave it an exe file to open, it would just show a blank spreadsheet without even mentioning that anything went wrong. Is this really a good principle to follow?

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• My Big Break - this is my story and I am sticking to it ;)

  - by dbasnett

  The value of undertaking new and difficult tasks can have many wonderful consequences, don't you agree? Here is the story of my big break. Remember yours? During the mid 70's I was in the Navy and worked as a computer operator at the CNO's Command and Control computer system (WWMCCS) in the Washington Navy Yard. I was a tape ape, but knew that I wanted to be a systems programmer. One day the Lieutenant in charge of the OS group was running a test that required the development system to be re-booted, and I was politely hinting that I wanted out of computer operations. As he watched the accounting tape rewind to BOT and then search for where it had just been (severalminutes) he told me if I would fix "that" he would have me transferred. I couldn't say "Deal" fast enough. Up until then my programming experience had been on Edsger Dijkstra's favorite computer (sic), an IBM 1620. It took almost 6 months of learning the assembler for the Honeywell 6000 and finding the code responsible for rewinding the tape and then forwarding it. After much trial and error at o’dark thirty I succeeded. The tape barely moved and my “patch” was later adopted by many other sites. Lieutenant Jack Cowan kept his promise and I have gone on to have a varied and enjoyable career. To Jack, and the rest of the crew (Ken, Stu, Neil, Tom, Silent W, Mr. Jacobs, Roy, Rocco, etc.) I’d like to thank you all.

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• Is there any evidence that drugs can actually help programmers produce "better" code? [closed]

  - by sytycs

  I just read this quote from Steve Jobs: "Doing LSD was one of the two or three most important things I have done in my life." Also a quote from that article: He was hardly alone among computer scientists in his appreciation of hallucinogenics and their capacity to liberate human thought from the prison of the mind. Now I'm wondering if there's any evidence to support the theory that drugs can help make a "better" programmer. Has there ever been a study where programmers have been given drugs to see if they could produce "better" code? Is there a well-known programming concept or piece of code which originated from people who were on drugs? EDIT So I did a little more research and it turns out Dennis R. Wier actually documented how he took LSD to wrap his head around a coding project: "At one point in the project I could not get an overall viewpoint for the operation of the entire system. It really was too much for my brain to keep all the subtle aspects and processing nuances clear so I could get a processing and design overview. After struggling with this problem for a few weeks, I decided to use a little acid to see if it would enable a breakthrough, because otherwise, I would not be able to complete the project and be certain of a consistent overall design"[1] There is also an interesting article on wired about Kevin Herbet, who used LSD to solve tough technical problems and chemist Kary Mullis even said "...that LSD had helped him develop the polymerase chain reaction that helps amplify specific DNA sequences." [2]

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• How old is "too old"?

  - by Dori

  I've been told that to be taken seriously as a job applicant, I should drop years of relevant experience off my résumé, remove the year I got my degree, or both. Or not even bother applying, because no one wants to hire programmers older than them.1 Or that I should found a company, not because I want to, or because I have a product I care about, but because that way I can get a job if/when my company is acquired. Or that I should focus more on management jobs (which I've successfully done in the past) because… well, they couldn't really explain this one, except the implication was that over a certain age you're a loser if you're still writing code. But I like writing code. Have you seen this? Is this only a local (Northern California) issue? If you've ever hired programmers:2 Of the résumés you've received, how old was the eldest applicant? What was the age of the oldest person you've interviewed? How old (when hired) was the oldest person you hired? How old is "too old" to employed as a programmer? 1 I'm assuming all applicants have equivalent applicable experience. This isn't about someone with three decades of COBOL applying for a Java guru job. 2 Yes, I know that (at least in the US) you aren't supposed to ask how old an applicant is. In my experience, though, you can get a general idea from a résumé.

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• Where could Distributed Version Control Systems currently be in Gartner's hype cycle?

  - by dukeofgaming

  Edit: Given the recent downvoting (+8/-6 at this point) it was made clear to me that Gartner's lifecycle is a biased metric from a programmer's perspective. This is something that is part of a paper I'm going to present to management, and management types are part of Gartner's audience. Giving DVCS exposure & enthusiasm (that "could" be deemed as hype, or at least attacked as such), think about the following question when reading this one: "how could I use Gartner's hype cycle to convince management that DVCSs are ready (or ready-enough) for us, and that it is not just hype" Just asking if DVCSs is hype wouldn't be constructive, Gartner's hype cycle is a more objective instrument than just asking that (even if this instrument is regarded as biased). If you know any other instrument please, by all means, mention it. Edit #2: I agree that Gartner's Life Cycle is not for every technology, but I consider it may have generated enough buzz to be considered hype by some, so it maybe deserves to be at least evaluated/pondered as such by using this instrument in order to prove/disprove it to whatever degree. I'm an advocate of DVCS, BTW. I'm doing research for a whitepaper I'm writing in favor of DVCS adoption at company and I stumbled upon the concept of social proof. I want to prove that the social proof of DVCS adoption is not necessarily cargo cult and doing further research I now stumbled upon Gartner's hype cycle which describes technology maturity in 5 phases. My question is: what could be an indicator of the current location of Distributed Version Control Systems (I mean git, mercurial, bazaar, etc. in general) at a particular phase in the hype cycle?... in other (less convoluted) words, would you say that currently expectations of DVCSs are a) starting, b)inflated, c)decreasing (disillusionment), d)increasing (enlightenment) or e)stabilizing (mature) and (more importantly) why? I know it is a hard question and there is subjectivity involved, but I'll grant the answer (and the traditional cookie) to the clearest argument/evidence for a particular phase.

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• Should I go with OpenGL to see my future in Game Development industry? [closed]

  - by Priyank

  Possible Duplicate: Should I continue studying OpenGL or just switch to DirectX to give me a better chance of landing a job in the game industry? I tried Google but found quite old articles, so I am in search of an answer in context to year 2012. Hi all, I don't know if you will consider this question appropriate for this community but I am constantly searching for a perfect answer. What I have seen is that most of the games that are released these days are DirectX 1x based. Except for few games like Starcraft or Diablo which don't have high end graphics are using OpenGL. So I have few questions to ask. The platforms i would like to target are PC (windows), Xbox 360 and PS3 (must). Should I go with learning OpenGL to see my future in game development industry? Or should I shift to Directx? If I learn OpenGL first, will it be difficult to learn direcx then? Which API is most suitable for indie development? Which one of the two API's are better from coder's (programmer's) point of view? Like OOP and style of coding. Is openGL being cross platform should be the only reason to choose it over Directx? Even when vendors are not providing enough stable drivers for it. Thanks in advance. I have read this post, but I have few questions. Should I continue studying OpenGL or just switch to DirectX to give me a better chance of landing a job in the game industry?

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• a little code to allow word substitution depending on user

  - by Fred Quimby

  Can anyone help? I'm creating a demo web app in html in order for people to physically see and comment on the app prior to committing to a proper build. So whilst the proper app will be database driven, my demo is just standard html with some javascript effects. What I do want to demonstrate is that different user group will see different words. For example, imagine I have an html sentence that says 'This will cost £100 to begin'. What I need to some way of identifying that if the user has deemed themselves to be from the US, the sentence says 'This will cost $100 to begin'. This requirement is peppered throughtout the pages but I'm happy to add each one manually. So I envisage some code along the lines of 'first, remove the [boot US] trunk' where the UK version is 'first remove the boot' but the code is saying that the visitor needs the US version. It then looks up boot (in an Access database perhaps) and sees that the table says for boot for US, display 'trunk'. I'm not a programmer but I can normally cobble together scripts so I'm hoping someone may have a relatively easy solution in javascrip, CSS or asp. To recap; I have a number of words or short sentences that need to appear differently and I'm happy to manually insert each one if necessary (but would be even better if the words were automatically changed). And I need a device which allows me to tell the pages to choose the US version, or for example, the New Zealand version. Thanks in advance. Fred

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• Why is it that software is still easily pirated today?

  - by mohabitar

  I've always been curious about this. Now I wouldn't call myself a programmer yet, but I'm learning, so maybe the answer to this is obvious. It just seems a little hard to believe that with all of our technological advances and the billions of dollars spent on engineering the most unbelievable and mind-blowing software, we still have no other means of protecting against piracy then a "serial number/activation key". I'm sure a ton of money, maybe even billions, went into creating Windows 7 or Office and even Snow Leopard, yet I can get it for free in less than 20 minutes. Same for all of Adobe's products, which are probably the easiest. I guess my question is: can there exist a fool proof and hack proof method of protecting your software against piracy? If not realistically, how about theoretically possible? Or no matter what mechanisms these companies deploy, hackers can always find a way around it? EDIT: So apparently, the answer is no. There's pretty much no way. And so I'm sure these big companies have realized this as well. Should they adopt another sales model rather than charging a crapload for their software (I know its justified and they put a lot of hard work into their software, but its still a lot of money). Are there any alternative solutions that will benefit both the company and the user (i.e. if you purchase our product, we'll apply $X dollars to your account that will apply to future purchases from our company)?

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• Why do programmers write applications and then make them free?

  - by Ken

  As an entrepreneur/programmer who makes a good living from writing and selling software, I'm dumbfounded as to why developers write applications and then put them up on the Internet for free. You've found yourself in one of the most lucrative fields in the world. A business with 99% profit margin, where you have no physical product but can name your price; a business where you can ship a buggy product and the customer will still buy it. Occasionally some of our software will get a free competitor, and I think, this guy is crazy. He could be making a good living off of this but instead chose to make it free. Do you not like giant piles of money? Are you not confident that people would pay for it? Are you afraid of having to support it? It's bad for the business of programming because now customers expect to be able to find a free solution to every problem. (I see tweets like "is there any good FREE software for XYZ? or do I need to pay $20 for that".) It's also bad for customers because the free solutions eventually break (because of a new OS or what have you) and since it's free, the developer has no reason to fix it. Customers end up with free but stale software that no longer works and never gets updated. Customer cries. Developer still working day job cries in their cubical. What gives? PS: I'm not looking to start an open-source/software should be free kind of debate. I'm talking about when developers make a closed source application and make it free.

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• How to go from mainstream to indie development?

  - by Salano Software

  I'm currently working as a game programmer for a AAA-level developer and publisher - which falls into the 'nice problem to have' category, I know, except that I'm growing more and more disenchanted with the direction of both the company and the AAA portion of the industry as a whole. I don't see any games on the studio's calendar for the next several years that I'm actually interested in working on; it looks like a continuing parade of sequels, license extensions and largely-derivative work. Which isn't to say that there won't be interesting things to do on those projects; but more and more I find myself wanting to do something fundamentally different. It seems like the market's never been better for smaller-scale projects, and I'd love to jump into that (and I've done small demos for Android and have started digging into iOS), but I obviously can't put anything out while I'm working for the company, and I'm concerned that I shouldn't even do substantial development in my spare time on anything I'd eventually like to release on my own. At the same time, I'm leery of leaving the job I've got for hopefully-obvious reasons, especially without a specific plan in place. Has anyone out there got experience with 'going indie' out of a mainstream job, and does anyone have specific suggestions as to what the best approach is and what I should specifically be thinking about or be careful of?

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• September OTN Member Offers

  - by Cassandra Clark - OTN

  Oracle OpenWolrd and JavaOne are coming....so the OTN team is knee deep in planning the OTN Lounges that will be at each event this year (more info in another post soon), but we managed to work with our partners to offer a nice BIG list of NEW offers for September.  Visit Oracle Technology Network Member Discount page for codes and links to these great offers! Oracle Press Oracle Technology Network members get 40% off the newest Oracle Press title, Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud Handbook by Tom Plunkett! Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Get 30% off and sample chapter of Murach’s SQL Server 2012 for Developers by Bryan Syverson and Joel Murach Manning - 41% off titles below and sample chapter of each. Making Java Groovy OCA Java SE 7 Programmer I Certification Guide Apress - Get 30% off on apress.com on Java 7 Recipes A Problem-Solution Approach Safari Books Online - OTN members get 30 days of free access + 20% off unlimited access to Safari Books Online for 6 months. Safari Books Online offers subscription access to more than 24,000 books and training videos about technology, digital media, business management and professional development from leading publishers such as Oracle Press, O'Reilly Media, Que, Addison-Wesley, Wrox, Cisco Press, Microsoft Press, McGraw Hill, Wiley, Apress, Adobe Press and many others. Already a customer? Come see us at Oracle OpenWorld (booth 537) or JavaOne (5110) and mention this to get a shirt!

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• Whats the greatest most impressive programing feat you ever witnessed? [closed]

  - by David Reis

  Everyone knows of the old adage that the best programmers can be orders of magnitude better than the average. I've personally seen good code and programmers, but never something so absurd. So the questions is, what is the most impressive feat of programming you ever witnessed or heard of? You can define impressive by: The scope of the task at hand e.g. John single handedly developed the framework for his company, a work comparable in scope to what the other 200 employed were doing combined. Speed e.g. Stu programmed an entire real time multi-tasking app OS on an weekened including its own C compiler and shell command line tools Complexity e.g. Jane rearchitected our entire 10 millon LOC app to work in a cluster of servers. And she did it in an afternoon. Quality e.g. Charles's code had a rate of defects per LOC 100 times lesser than the company average. Furthermore he code was clean and understandable by all. Obviously, the more of these characteristics combined, and the more extreme each of them, the more impressive is the feat. So, let me have it. What's the most absurd feat you can recount? Please provide as much detail as possible and try to avoid urban legends or exaggerations. Post only what you can actually vouch for. Bonus questions: Was the herculean task a one-of, or did the individual regularly amazed people? How do you explain such impressive performance? How was the programmer recognized for such awesome work?

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• I Blame SNMP!

  - by brendonpage

  Anyone who has been reading my blog would have noticed that I have deviated slightly from my original post plan! This post was meant to be on uploading files in Silverlight, so what happened you may ask? Well last weekend I had some friends over for a LAN and one of them brought a managed switch with, which he had just been purchased for work. He proceeded show me how cool it was, how he planned on improving his work network and how it can be monitored remotely via SNMP. After this explanation he started to google for a free SNMP graphing tool. After a few hours of hearing disgruntled mutterings from him I asked what was wrong, he proceeded to rant about how he couldn’t find any tools that suited his needs. It was at this point I though the most dangerous thing a programmer can ever think “I wonder how hard it would be to make one”, of course the answer at the time is always “It can’t be that hard”, and so started my journey into SNMP. I am still in the early stages of this journey so I don’t have to much to report yet, but once I have finished the first version of my SNMP graphing tool I will definitely be posting about it! For now if there are any of you who are interested in doing any SNMP development in C# I would recommend looking at the #Sharp project on CodePlex (http://sharpsnmplib.codeplex.com/), it is the SNMP library I have decided to use and thus far it works beautifully.

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• Is "White-Board-Coding" inappropriate during interviews?

  - by Eoin Campbell

  This is a somewhat subjective quesiton but I'd love to hear feedback/opinions from either interviewers/interviewees on the topic. We split our technical part into 4 parts. Write Code, Read & Analyse Code, Design Session & Code on the white board. For the last part what we ask interviewees to do is write a small code snippet (4-5 lines) on the whiteboard and explain as they go through it. Let me be clear the purpose is not to catch people out. We're not looking for perfect syntax. Hell it can even be pseudo-code. but the point is to give them a very simple problem and see if their brain can communicate the solution to us. By simple problems I mean "Reverse a string", "FizzBuzz" etc... EDIT Just with regards the comment about Pseudo-Code. We always ask for an explicit language first. We;re a .NET C# house. we've only said "pseudo-code" where someone has been blanking/really struggling with the code. My question is "Is it innappropriate / unreasonable to expect a programmer to write a code snippet on a whiteboard during an interview ?"

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• How to design highly scalable web services in Java?

  - by Kshitiz Sharma

  I am creating some Web Services that would have 2000 concurrent users. The services are offered for free and are hence expected to get a large user base. In the future it may be required to scale up to 50,000 users. There are already a few other questions that address the issue like - Building highly scalable web services However my requirements differ from the question above. For example - My application does not have a user interface, so images, CSS, javascript are not an issue. It is in Java so suggestions like using HipHop to translate PHP to native code are useless. Hence I decided to ask my question separately. This is my project setup - Rest based Web services using Apache CXF Hibernate 3.0 (With relevant optimizations like lazy loading and custom HQL for tune up) Tomcat 6.0 MySql 5.5 My questions are - Are there alternatives to Mysql that offer better performance for what I'm trying to do? What are some general things to abide by in order to scale a Java based web application? I am thinking of putting my Application in two tomcat instances with httpd redirecting the request to appropriate tomcat on basis of load. Is this the right approach? Separate tomcat instances can help but then database becomes the bottleneck since both applications access the same database? I am a programmer not a Db Admin, how difficult would it be to cluster a Mysql database (or, to cluster whatever database offered as an alternative to 1)? How effective are caching solutions like EHCache? Any other general best practices? Some clarifications - Could you partition the data? Yes we could but we're trying to avoid it. We need to run a lot of data mining algorithms and the design would evolve over time so we can't be sure what lines of partition should be there.

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• Creating a retro-style palette swapping effect in OpenGL

  - by Zack The Human

  I'm working on a Megaman-like game where I need to change the color of certain pixels at runtime. For reference: in Megaman when you change your selected weapon then main character's palette changes to reflect the selected weapon. Not all of the sprite's colors change, only certain ones do. This kind of effect was common and quite easy to do on the NES since the programmer had access to the palette and the logical mapping between pixels and palette indices. On modern hardware, though, this is a bit more challenging because the concept of palettes is not the same. All of my textures are 32-bit and do not use palettes. There are two ways I know of to achieve the effect I want, but I'm curious if there are better ways to achieve this effect easily. The two options I know of are: Use a shader and write some GLSL to perform the "palette swapping" behavior. If shaders are not available (say, because the graphics card doesn't support them) then it is possible to clone the "original" textures and generate different versions with the color changes pre-applied. Ideally I would like to use a shader since it seems straightforward and requires little additional work opposed to the duplicated-texture method. I worry that duplicating textures just to change a color in them is wasting VRAM -- should I not worry about that?

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