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  • Does a "nofollow" attribute on a link prevent URL discovery by search engines?

    - by Stephen Ostermiller
    I know that nofollow prevents link juice from being passed across a link. But if search engine robots discover a link with a nofollow on it, will they add that link to their crawl queue? In other words, if I create a link to a brand new page and put a rel=nofollow attribute on that link, will it prevent search engine bots (particularly Googlebot) from crawling the page. (Assuming that this link remains the only link into that page.) I've read conflicting reports about this over the years and I'm looking for authoritative references about the current state of affairs. Official statements from Google or published results of independent testing would be ideal.

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  • Online Launch of 3 new Telerik products JustMock, TeamPulse and WebUI Test Studio

    As you probably already know we have introduced 3 new products in the last 10 days, two of them at DevConnections in Las Vegas alone. If you didnt get a chance to attend DevConnections, we have organized an online launch so you get to see our new products first hand. Here is the schedule: Introduction to Telerik JustMock Tuesday, April 20 @11am ET Join the online launch of JustMock - a new developer productivity tool from Telerik designed to make it easy to create unit tests. In this webinar you will find out what is in the current release and learn about JustMocks future. JustMock cuts your development time and helps you create better unit tests without requiring you to change your code. It allows you to perform fast and controlled tests that are independent of external dependencies like databases, web services, or proprietary code. With JustMock, there are ...Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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  • Direct3d - Code structure

    - by marcg11
    I'm learning directx in a master's degree and they taught us to have a GraphicsLayer class which is the one connecting with the direct3d library. That way this class is completly independent from the other classes (my game classes), meaning changing the renderer to OpenGL wouldn't require much effort but only changing the graphicLayer. This classe has it's LoadAssets, Paint methods, but I have a question, they told us to load all the assets inside this class. This means all these methods will be in the loadAssets method: D3DXCreateTextureFromFileEx(g_pD3DDevice,"tiles.png",0,0,1,0,D3DFMT_UNKNOWN,D3DPOOL_DEFAULT,D3DX_FILTER_NONE,D3DX_FILTER_NONE,NULL,NULL,NULL,&texTiles); // And more resources to load //... texTiles as you see is a LPDIRECT3DTEXTURE9 instance which is declared in the graphicLayer.h. So my question is, how do you manage all the resources? Do I have to declare in the .h all my game textures even if I'm not using them? How would you load only those resources there are in a scene and draw them in a code-strucured way?

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  • How did programmers resolve their problems before the internet?

    - by 9a3eedi
    When programming, anytime I get stuck, perhaps with a compiler error that doesn't make sense, or from a GUI function that didn't do what I expected, I automatically google my problem, find someone else that faced the same thing, and read what's going on and why I'm getting the problem. Before the internet, how did people handle these situations? People used to read books and manuals more, I know. But books don't explain everything, like the odd compiler problem that you get sometimes, or nothing showing up on your screen despite you clearly writing correct OpenGL code. How did people cope when facing challenges? Did they simply "bash their head" on the wall till they figured it out? Is there something people used to do regularly on the side that gave them the ability to get themselves unstuck more easily? Were libraries/compilers much simpler back then? I've been asking this question because I sometimes feel guilty depending on Google so much when I'm pretty sure programmers before my time were more independent when it comes to facing these matters.

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  • Siemens AG, Sector Healthcare, Increases Transparency and Improves Customer Loyalty with Web Portal Solution

    - by Kellsey Ruppel
    Siemens AG, Sector Healthcare, Increases Transparency and Improves Customer Loyalty with Web Portal Solution CUSTOMER AND PARTNER INFORMATION Customer Name – Siemens AG, Sector Healthcare Customer Revenue – 73,515 Billion Euro (2011, Siemens AG total) Customer Quote – “The realization of our complex requirements within a very short amount of time was enabled through the competent implementation partner Sapient, who fully used the  very broad scope of standard functionality provided in the Oracle WebCenter Portal, and the management of customer services, who continuously supported the project setup. ” – Joerg Modlmayr, Project Manager, Healthcare Customer Service Portal, Siemens AG The Siemens Healthcare Sector is one of the world's largest suppliers to the healthcare industry and a trendsetter in medical imaging, laboratory diagnostics, medical information technology and hearing aids. Siemens offers its customers products and solutions for the entire range of patient care from a single source – from prevention and early detection to diagnosis, and on to treatment and aftercare. By optimizing clinical workflows for the most common diseases, Siemens also makes healthcare faster, better and more cost-effective. To ensure greater transparency, increased efficiency, higher user acceptance, and additional services, Siemens AG, Sector Healthcare, replaced several existing legacy portal solutions that could not meet the company’s future needs with Oracle WebCenter Portal. Various existing portal solutions that cannot meet future demands will be successively replaced by the new central service portal, which will also allow for the efficient and intuitive implementation of new service concepts.  With Oracle, doctors and hospitals using Siemens medical solutions now have access to a central information portal that provides important information and services at just the push of a button.  Customer Name – Siemens AG, Sector Healthcare Customer URL – www.siemens.com Customer Headquarters – Erlangen, Germany Industry – Industrial Manufacturing Employees – 360,000  Challenges – Replace disparate medical service portals to meet future demands and eliminate an  unnecessarily high level of administrative work caused by heterogeneous installations Ensure portals meet current user demands to improve user-acceptance rates and increase number of total users Enable changes and expansion through standard functionality to eliminate the need for reliance on IT and reduce administrative efforts and associated high costs Ensure efficient and intuitive implementation of new service concepts for all devices and systems Ensure hospitals and clinics to transparently monitor and measure services rendered for the various medical devices and systems  Increase electronic interaction and expand services to achieve a higher level of customer loyalty Solution –  Deployed Oracle WebCenter Portal to ensure greater transparency, and as a result, a higher level of customer loyalty  Provided a centralized platform for doctors and hospitals using Siemens’ medical technology solutions that provides important information and services at the push of a button Reduced significantly the administrative workload by centralizing the solution in the new customer service portal Secured positive feedback from customers involved in the pilot program developed by design experts from Oracle partner Sapient. The interfaces were created with customer needs in mind. The first survey taken shortly after implementation came back with 2.4 points on a scale of 0-3 in the category “customer service portal intuitiveness level” Met all requirements including alignment with the Siemens Style Guide without extensive programming Implemented additional services via the portal such as benchmarking options to ensure the optimal use of the Customer Device Park Provided option for documentation of all services rendered in conjunction with the medical technology systems to ensure that the value of the services are transparent for the decision makers in the hospitals  Saved and stored all machine data from approximately 100,000 remote systems in the central service and information platform Provided the option to register errors online and follow the call status in real-time on the portal Made  available at the push of a button all information on the medical technology devices used in hospitals or clinics—from security checks and maintenance activities to current device statuses Provided PDF format Service Performance Reports that summarize information from periods of time ranging from previous weeks up to one year, meeting medical product law requirements  Why Oracle – Siemens AG favored Oracle for many reasons, however, the company ultimately decided to go with Oracle due to the enormous range of functionality the solutions offered for the healthcare sector.“We are not programmers; we are service providers in the medical technology segment and focus on the contents of the portal. All the functionality necessary for internet-based customer interaction is already standard in Oracle WebCenter Portal, which is a huge plus for us. Having Oracle as our technology partner ensures that the product will continually evolve, providing a strong technology platform for our customer service portal well into the future,” said Joerg Modlmayr project manager, Healthcare Customer Service Portal, Siemens AG. Partner Involvement – Siemens AG selected Oracle Partner Sapient because the company offered a service portfolio that perfectly met Siemens’ requirements and had a wealth of experience implementing Oracle WebCenter Portal. Additionally, Sapient had designers with a very high level of expertise in usability—an aspect that Siemens considered to be of vast importance for the project.  “The Sapient team completely met all our expectations. Our tightly timed project was completed on schedule, and the positive feedback from our users proves that we set the right measures in terms of usability—all thanks to the folks at Sapient,” Modlmayr said.  Partner Name – Sapient GmbH Deutschland Partner URL – www.sapient.com

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  • What php programmer should know?

    - by emchinee
    I've dig the database here and didn't found any answer for my question. What is a standard for a php programmer to know? I mean, literally, what group of language functions, mechanisms, variables should person know to consider oneself a (good) php programmer? (I know 'being good' is beyond language syntax, still I'm considering syntax of plain php only) To give an example what I mean: functions to control http sessions, cookies functions to control connection with databases functions to control file handling functions to control xml etc.. I omit phrases like 'security' or 'patterns' or 'framework' intentionally as it applies to every programming language. Hope I made myself clear, any input appreciated :) Note: Michael J.V. is right claiming that databases are independent from language, so to put my question more precisely and emphasise differences: Practises or security, are some ideas to implement (there is no 'Pattern' object with 'Decorator()' method, is there?) while using databases means knowing a mysqli and a set of its methods.

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  • How can I handle copyrighted music?

    - by David Dimalanta
    I have a curious question regarding on musics used in music rhythm game. In Guitar Hero for example, they used all different music albums in one program. Then, each album requires to ask permission to the owner, composer of the music, or the copyright owner of the music. Let's say, if you used 15 albums for the music rhythm game, then you have to contact 15 copyright owners and it might be that, for the game developer, that the profit earned goes to the copyright owner or owner of this music. For the independent game developers, was it okay if either used the copyright music by just mentioning the name of the singer included in the credits and in the music select screen or use the non-popular/old music that about 50 years ago? And, does still earn money for the indie game developers by making free downloadable game?

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  • Addicted to Oil

    30 years ago, Brazil imported 80% of its oil. With a strong sense of purpose, Brazil invested heavily in bio-fuel technology and refocused its transportation energy towards a resource Brazil could manufacture internallysugar based ethanol. Today, Brazil uses flexible fuel vehicles that can run on gas, ethanol, or any combination of the two. It still has a mandate to be 100% independent of oil in 2011. Yes, Brazil still drills for oil, and they still use it - plenty of it. But at least they've had...Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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  • Would a professional, self taught programmer benefit from reading an algorithms book?

    - by user65483
    I'm a 100% self taught, professional programmer (I've worked at a few web startups and made a few independent games). I've read quite a few of the "essential" books (Clean Code, The Pragmatic Programmer, Code Complete, SICP, K&R). I'm considering reading Introduction to Algorithms. I've asked a few colleagues if reading it will improve my programming skills, and I got very mixed answers. A few said yes, a few said no, and a one said "only if you spend a lot of time implementing these algorithms" (I don't). So, I figured I'd ask Stack Exchange. Is it worth the time to read about algorithms if you're a professional programmer who seldom needs to use complex algorithms? For what it's worth, I have a strong mathematical background (have a 2 year degree in Mathematics; took Linear Algebra, Differential Equations, Calc I-III).

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  • How can test users access an unpublished iOS app?

    - by David
    I am considering outsourcing the development of an iOS app to various independent developers. I will have have various testers of the app. We all work for separate companies. Some of these testers will be customers, who I would like feedback from. As there are multiple developers involved I expect there to be a new release on a daily basis. How can this be done? Would each of the testers need to buy some sort of license to avoid having to go through the app approval process? Is there any smooth way to do this so that it will not be a hassle for our friendly customers, who are willing to test our app?

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  • Recommended book on Actors concurrency model (patterns, pitfalls, etc.)?

    - by Larry OBrien
    The Actors concurrency model is clearly gaining favor. Is there a good book that presents the patterns and pitfalls of the model? I am thinking about something that would discuss, for instance, the problems of consistency and correctness in the context of hundreds or thousands of independent Actors. It would be okay if it were associated with a specific language (erlang, I would imagine, since that seems universally regarded as the proven implementation of Actors), but I am hoping for something more than an introductory chapter or two. (FWIW, I'm actually most interested in Actors as they are implemented in Scala.)

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  • Adoption of Exadata - Gartner research note

    - by Javier Puerta
    Independent research note by Gartner acknowledges Oracle Exadata Database Machine has achieved significant early adoption and acceptance of its database appliance value proposition. Analyst Merv Adrian looks at some of the main issues that IT professionals have solved as they assess or deploy the Oracle Exadata solution, including: OLTP and DSS workload support workload consolidation increasing performance and scalability demands data compression improvements  Gartner reports clients using Oracle Exadata experienced the following: report significant performance improvements substantial amounts of cache memory which greatly improves processing speed Oracle Advanced Compression providing 2-4X data compression delivering significant reductions in storage requirements and driving shorter times for backup operations Tables compressed with Oracle Advanced Compression automatically recompress as data is added/updated. One client specifically reported consolidating more than 400 applications onto the Oracle Exadata platform Read the full Gartner note

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  • OPN Developer Services for Solaris Developers

    - by user13333379
    Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) who develop applications for Solaris 11 can exploit a number of interesting services as long as they are OPN Members with a Gold (or above) status and a Solaris Knowledge specialization: Free access to a Solaris development cloud with preconfigured Solaris developer zones through the apply for the: Oracle Exastack Remote Labs to get free access to Solaris development environments for SPARC and x86. Free access to patches and support information through MOS for Oracle Solaris, Oracle Solaris Studio, Oracle Solaris Cluster including updates for development systems  apply for the Oracle Solaris Development Initiative. Free email developer support for all questions around Oracle Solaris, Oracle Solaris Studio, Oracle Solaris Cluster and Oracle technologies integrating with Solaris 11 apply for the Solaris Adoption Technical Assistance.  

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  • What are the preferred documentation tools for the major programming languages?

    - by Dave Peck
    I'm interested in compiling a list of major programming languages and their preferred documentation toolsets. To scope this a bit: The exact structure of the answer may vary from language to language, but there appear to be two aspects common to all languages: (1) in-code syntax for documentation, and (2) documentation generators that make use of said syntax. There are also cases where generators are used independent of code. For example, tutorial-style documentation is common in the Python world and is often disconnected from underlying code. Many languages have multiple commonly-used documentation strategies and tool chains, and I'd love to capture this. Finally, there are cross-language tools like Doxygen that also have some traction and would be worth noting here. Here are some obvious target languages to start with: Python, Ruby, Java, C#, PHP, Objective-C, C/C++, Haskell, Erlang, Scala, Clojure If this question catches on, I'll try and keep this section updated with the most recent list. Thanks!

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  • A Comparison of Store Layouts

    - by David Dorf
    Belus Capital Advisors is an independent stock market research firm that sometimes rolls up its sleeves and walks retail stores.  This month Brian Sozzi walked both Macy's and Sears and snapped pictures along the way.  The results are a good lesson in what to do and what not to do in retail.  The dichotomy between the two brands is stark, and Brian's pictures tell the stories of artistry and neglect.  For example, look at these two pictures: Where do you want to shop for sneakers?  The left picture shows the Finish Line store within Macy's and the right shows empty shelves at Sears.  The pictures really show the importance of assortments, in-stock inventory, and presentation.  Take a look at the two stories, and pay particular attention to the pictures of Sears. 19 Photos that Show the New Magic of Macy’s Sears is Vanishing from our Minds, the Shocking 18 Photos That Show Why

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  • How to link subprograms to a main program's game loop?

    - by Jim
    I recently discovered Crobot which is (briefly) a game where each player codes a virtual robot in a pseudo-C language. Each robot is then put in an arena where it fights against other robots. A robots' source code has this shape : /* Beginning file robot.r */ main() { while (1) { /* Do whatever you want */ ... move(); ... fire(); } } /* End file robot.r */ You can see that : The code is totally independent from any library/include Some predefined functions are available (move, fire, etc…) The program has its own game loop, and consequently is not called every frame My question is roughly : how does it work ? It seems that each robot's code is compiled by the main program and then used in a way I cannot understand. I thought it could yields a thread for each robot, but I have not any proof of this and it seems a bit complicated to achieve it. Any idea how it could work, someone ?

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  • Add Widget via Action in Toolbar

    - by Geertjan
    The question of the day comes from Vadim, who asks on the NetBeans Platform mailing list: "Looking for example showing how to add Widget to Scene, e.g. by toolbar button click." Well, the solution is very similar to this blog entry, where you see a solution provided by Jesse Glick for VisiTrend in Boston: https://blogs.oracle.com/geertjan/entry/zoom_capability Other relevant articles to read are as follows: http://netbeans.dzone.com/news/which-netbeans-platform-action http://netbeans.dzone.com/how-to-make-context-sensitive-actions Let's go through it step by step, with this result in the end, a solution involving 4 classes split (optionally, since a central feature of the NetBeans Platform is modularity) across multiple modules: The Customer object has a "name" String and the Droppable capability has a method "doDrop" which takes a Customer object: public interface Droppable {    void doDrop(Customer c);} In the TopComponent, we use "TopComponent.associateLookup" to publish an instance of "Droppable", which creates a new LabelWidget and adds it to the Scene in the TopComponent. Here's the TopComponent constructor: public CustomerCanvasTopComponent() {    initComponents();    setName(Bundle.CTL_CustomerCanvasTopComponent());    setToolTipText(Bundle.HINT_CustomerCanvasTopComponent());    final Scene scene = new Scene();    final LayerWidget layerWidget = new LayerWidget(scene);    Droppable d = new Droppable(){        @Override        public void doDrop(Customer c) {            LabelWidget customerWidget = new LabelWidget(scene, c.getTitle());            customerWidget.getActions().addAction(ActionFactory.createMoveAction());            layerWidget.addChild(customerWidget);            scene.validate();        }    };    scene.addChild(layerWidget);    jScrollPane1.setViewportView(scene.createView());    associateLookup(Lookups.singleton(d));} The Action is displayed in the toolbar and is enabled only if a Droppable is currently in the Lookup: @ActionID(        category = "Tools",        id = "org.customer.controler.AddCustomerAction")@ActionRegistration(        iconBase = "org/customer/controler/icon.png",        displayName = "#AddCustomerAction")@ActionReferences({    @ActionReference(path = "Toolbars/File", position = 300)})@NbBundle.Messages("AddCustomerAction=Add Customer")public final class AddCustomerAction implements ActionListener {    private final Droppable context;    public AddCustomerAction(Droppable droppable) {        this.context = droppable;    }    @Override    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ev) {        NotifyDescriptor.InputLine inputLine = new NotifyDescriptor.InputLine("Name:", "Data Entry");        Object result = DialogDisplayer.getDefault().notify(inputLine);        if (result == NotifyDescriptor.OK_OPTION) {            Customer customer = new Customer(inputLine.getInputText());            context.doDrop(customer);        }    }} Therefore, when the Properties window, for example, is selected, the Action will be disabled. (See the Zoomable example referred to in the link above for another example of this.) As you can see above, when the Action is invoked, a Droppable must be available (otherwise the Action would not have been enabled). The Droppable is obtained in the Action and a new Customer object is passed to its "doDrop" method. The above in pictures, take note of the enablement of the toolbar button with the red dot, on the extreme left of the toolbar in the screenshots below: The above shows the JButton is only enabled if the relevant TopComponent is active and, when the Action is invoked, the user can enter a name, after which a new LabelWidget is created in the Scene. The source code of the above is here: http://java.net/projects/nb-api-samples/sources/api-samples/show/versions/7.3/misc/WidgetCreationFromAction Note: Showing this as an MVC example is slightly misleading because, depending on which model object ("Customer" and "Droppable") you're looking at, the V and the C are different. From the point of view of "Customer", the TopComponent is the View, while the Action is the Controler, since it determines when the M is displayed. However, from the point of view of "Droppable", the TopComponent is the Controler, since it determines when the Action, i.e., which is in this case the View, displays the presence of the M.

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  • Modular enterprise architecture using MVC and Orchard CMS

    - by MrJD
    I'm making a large scale MVC application using Orchard. And I'm going to be separating my logic into modules. I'm also trying to heavily decouple the application for maximum extensibility and testability. I have a rudimentary understanding of IoC, Repository Pattern, Unit of Work pattern and Service Layer pattern. I've made myself a diagram. I'm wondering if it is correct and if there is anything I have missed regarding an extensible application. Note that each module is a separate project. Update So I have many UI modules that use the db module, that's why they've been split up. There are other services the UI modules will use. The UI modules have been split up because they will be made over time, independent of each other.

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  • Current state of the art for holographic displays?

    - by kamziro
    In another thread I was asking about independent arcade system development, and partly it was because I'm interested in using available 3D holographic technology for the displays. I saw one which involved a rotating mirror at very high speeds, so that's probably not going to be too feasible (I'd hate to think of what happens when something goes wrong). However, I looked around for videos from trade shows, and I found this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vl0EIngM-RA But information is scarce, and I'm led to believe it's just using mirrors and reflections, and does not convey true 3D depth like the one using rotating mirrors at high speed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKCUGQ-uo8c So yeah, does anyone know if there's something better available today?

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  • Open Grid Engine or Akka/Something more fault tolerant?

    - by Mike Lyons
    My use case is that I have a pipeline of independent, stand alone programs, that I want to execute in a certain order on specific pieces of data that our output from previous pipeline stages. The pipeline is entirely linear and doesn't do anything in terms of alternate paths through the pipe. I'm currently using SGE to do this and it works OK, however occasionally a job will overstep it's memory bounds, fail, and all jobs that require that output data will fail. The pipe needs to be restarted in that case, and it seems that whatever is providing the fault tolerance in akka might solve that for me?

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  • Is there a way to group 2 or 3 gui windows so that they don't get lost behind other open windows?

    - by Gonzalo
    For instance floating panels and main window in Gimp are independent windows. If I change focus to a full window (e.g. Firefox by doing Alt-Shift) and go back to the main Gimp window I don't get back the floating panels also (I have to change to them as well in order to see them). It would be great if the 3 windows can be "tied" (or linked) together in order that they don't get lost behind other open windows when I change back to (make active window) any of them? I think this configuration (if it exists) should show itself more obviously in the gnome environment. This question seems to address the same problem but it doesn't seem to be accurately answered.

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  • My Feelings About Microsoft Surface

    - by Valter Minute
    Advice: read the title carefully, I’m talking about “feelings” and not about advanced technical points proved in a scientific and objective way I still haven’t had a chance to play with a MS Surface tablet (I would love to, of course) and so my ideas just came from reading different articles on the net and MS official statements. Remember also that the MVP motto begins with “Independent” (“Independent Experts. Real World Answers.”) and this is just my humble opinion about a product and a technology. I know that, being an MS MVP you can be called an “MS-fanboy”, I don’t care, I hope that people can appreciate my opinion, even if it doesn’t match theirs. The “Surface” brand can be confusing for techies that knew the “original” surface concept but I think that will be a fresh new brand name for most of the people out there. But marketing department are here to confuse people… so I can understand this “recycle” of an existing name. So Microsoft is entering the hardware arena… for me this is good news. Microsoft developed some nice hardware in the past: the xbox, zune (even if the commercial success was quite limited) and, last but not least, the two arc mices (old and new model) that I use and appreciate. In the past Microsoft worked with OEMs and that model lead to good and bad things. Good thing (for microsoft, at least) is market domination by windows-based PCs that only in the last years has been reduced by the return of the Mac and tablets. Google is also moving in the hardware business with its acquisition of Motorola, and Apple leveraged his control of both the hardware and software sides to develop innovative products. Microsoft can scare OEMs and make them fly away from windows (but where?) or just lead the pack, showing how devices should be designed to compete in the market and bring back some of the innovation that disappeared from recent PC products (look at the shelves of your favorite electronics store and try to distinguish a laptop between the huge mass of anonymous PCs on displays… only Macs shine out there…). Having to compete with MS “official” hardware will force OEMs to develop better product and bring back some real competition in a market that was ruled only by prices (the lower the better even when that means low quality) and no innovative features at all (when it was the last time that a new PC surprised you?). Moving into a new market is a big and risky move, but with Windows 8 Microsoft is playing a crucial move for its future, trying to be back in the innovation run against apple and google. MS can’t afford to fail this time. I saw the new devices (the WinRT and Pro) and the specifications are scarce, misleading and confusing. The first impression is that the device looks like an iPad with a nice keyboard cover… Using “HD” and “full HD” to define display resolution instead of using the real figures and reviving the “ClearType” brand (now dead on Win8 as reported here and missed by people who hate to read text on displays, like myself) without providing clear figures (couldn’t you count those damned pixels?) seems to imply that MS was caught by surprise by apple recent “retina” displays that brought very high definition screens on tablets.Also there are no specifications about the processors used (even if some sources report NVidia Tegra for the ARM tablet and i5 for the x86 one) and expected battery life (a critical point for tablets and the point that killed Windows7 x86 based tablets). Also nothing about the price, and this will be another critical point because other platform out there already provide lots of applications and have a good user base, if MS want to enter this market tablets pricing must be competitive. There are some expansion ports (SD and USB), so no fixed storage model (even if the specs talks about 32-64GB for RT and 128-256GB for pro). I like this and don’t like the apple model where flash memory (that it’s dirt cheap used in thumdrives or SD cards) is as expensive as gold (or cocaine to have a more accurate per gram measurement) when mounted inside a tablet/phone. For big files you’ll be able to use external media and an SD card could be used to store files that don’t require super-fast SSD-like access times, I hope. To be honest I really don’t like the marketplace model and the limitation of Windows RT APIs (no local database? from a company that based a good share of its success on VB6+Access!) and lack of desktop support on the ARM (even if the support is here and has been used to port office). It’s a step toward the consumer market (where competitors are making big money), but may impact enterprise (and embedded) users that may not appreciate Windows 8 new UI or the limitations of the new app model (if you aren’t connected you are dead ). Not having compatibility with the desktop will require brand new applications and honestly made all the CPU cycles spent to convert .NET IL into real machine code in the past like a huge waste of time… as soon as a new processor architecture is supported by Windows you still have to rewrite part of your application (and MS is pushing HTML5+JS and native code more than .NET in my perception). On the other side I believe that the development experience provided by Visual Studio is still miles (or kilometres) ahead of the competition and even the all-uppercase menu of VS2012 hasn’t changed this situation. The new metro UI got mixed reviews. On my side I should say that is very pleasant to use on a touch screen, I like the minimalist design (even if sometimes is too minimal and hides stuff that, in my opinion, should be visible) but I should also say that using it with mouse and keyboard is like trying to pick your nose with boxing gloves… Metro is also very interesting for embedded devices where touch screen usage is quite common and where having an application taking all the screen is the norm. For devices like kiosks, vending machines etc. this kind of UI can be a great selling point. I don’t need a new tablet (to be honest I’m pretty happy with my wife’s iPad and with my PC), but I may change my opinion after having a chance to play a little bit with those new devices and understand what’s hidden under all this mysterious and generic announcements and specifications!

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  • 81% of European Shoppers Willing to Pay More for Better Customer Experience

    - by Richard Lefebvre
    Customer Experience provides strategic driver for business growth Research released today from Oracle has revealed that customer experience is now a key driver for revenue growth in Europe, and an effective channel for brand differentiation in a globalized economy where products and services are increasingly commoditized. The research report, “Why Customer Satisfaction is No Longer Good Enough,” reveals that 81% of consumers surveyed are willing to pay more for superior customer experience. With nearly half (44%) willing to pay a premium of more than 5%. Improvement of the overall customer experience (40%), providing quick access to information and making it easier for customers to ask questions (35%) were cited as key drivers for spending more with a brand. The pan-European research, carried out in June 2012 by independent research company Loudhouse, surveyed 1400 online shoppers (50% female, 50% male) who had made a complaint or enquiry to a customer service department in the last 12 months. For full research findings please go to: http://bit.ly/UwmB3j or check the Press Release

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  • Which will be faster? Switching shaders or ignore that some cases don't need full code?

    - by PolGraphic
    I have two types of 2d objects: In first case (for about 70% of objects), I need that code in the shader: float2 texCoord = input.TexCoord + textureCoord.xy But in the second case I have to use: float2 texCoord = fmod(input.TexCoord, texCoordM.xy - textureCoord.xy) + textureCoord.xy I can use second code also for first case, but it will be a little slower (fmod is useless here, input.TexCoord will be always lower than textureCoord.xy - textureCoord.xy for sure). My question is, which way will be faster: Making two independent shaders for both types of rectangles, group rectangles by types and switch shaders during rendering. Make one shader and use some if statement. Make one shader and ignore that sometimes (70% of cases) I don't need to use fmod.

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  • Take Two: Comparing JVMs on ARM/Linux

    - by user12608080
    Although the intent of the previous article, entitled Comparing JVMs on ARM/Linux, was to introduce and highlight the availability of the HotSpot server compiler (referred to as c2) for Java SE-Embedded ARM v7,  it seems, based on feedback, that everyone was more interested in the OpenJDK comparisons to Java SE-E.  In fact there were two main concerns: The fact that the previous article compared Java SE-E 7 against OpenJDK 6 might be construed as an unlevel playing field because version 7 is newer and therefore potentially more optimized. That the generic compiler settings chosen to build the OpenJDK implementations did not put those versions in a particularly favorable light. With those considerations in mind, we'll institute the following changes to this version of the benchmarking: In order to help alleviate an additional concern that there is some sort of benchmark bias, we'll use a different suite, called DaCapo.  Funded and supported by many prestigious organizations, DaCapo's aim is to benchmark real world applications.  Further information about DaCapo can be found at http://dacapobench.org. At the suggestion of Xerxes Ranby, who has been a great help through this entire exercise, a newer Linux distribution will be used to assure that the OpenJDK implementations were built with more optimal compiler settings.  The Linux distribution in this instance is Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot. Having experienced difficulties getting Ubuntu 11.10 to run on the original D2Plug ARMv7 platform, for these benchmarks, we'll switch to an embedded system that has a supported Ubuntu 11.10 release.  That platform is the Freescale i.MX53 Quick Start Board.  It has an ARMv7 Coretex-A8 processor running at 1GHz with 1GB RAM. We'll limit comparisons to 4 JVM implementations: Java SE-E 7 Update 2 c1 compiler (default) Java SE-E 6 Update 30 (c1 compiler is the only option) OpenJDK 6 IcedTea6 1.11pre 6b23~pre11-0ubuntu1.11.10.2 CACAO build 1.1.0pre2 OpenJDK 6 IcedTea6 1.11pre 6b23~pre11-0ubuntu1.11.10.2 JamVM build-1.6.0-devel Certain OpenJDK implementations were eliminated from this round of testing for the simple reason that their performance was not competitive.  The Java SE 7u2 c2 compiler was also removed because although quite respectable, it did not perform as well as the c1 compilers.  Recall that c2 works optimally in long-lived situations.  Many of these benchmarks completed in a relatively short period of time.  To get a feel for where c2 shines, take a look at the first chart in this blog. The first chart that follows includes performance of all benchmark runs on all platforms.  Later on we'll look more at individual tests.  In all runs, smaller means faster.  The DaCapo aficionado may notice that only 10 of the 14 DaCapo tests for this version were executed.  The reason for this is that these 10 tests represent the only ones successfully completed by all 4 JVMs.  Only the Java SE-E 6u30 could successfully run all of the tests.  Both OpenJDK instances not only failed to complete certain tests, but also experienced VM aborts too. One of the first observations that can be made between Java SE-E 6 and 7 is that, for all intents and purposes, they are on par with regards to performance.  While it is a fact that successive Java SE releases add additional optimizations, it is also true that Java SE 7 introduces additional complexity to the Java platform thus balancing out any potential performance gains at this point.  We are still early into Java SE 7.  We would expect further performance enhancements for Java SE-E 7 in future updates. In comparing Java SE-E to OpenJDK performance, among both OpenJDK VMs, Cacao results are respectable in 4 of the 10 tests.  The charts that follow show the individual results of those four tests.  Both Java SE-E versions do win every test and outperform Cacao in the range of 9% to 55%. For the remaining 6 tests, Java SE-E significantly outperforms Cacao in the range of 114% to 311% So it looks like OpenJDK results are mixed for this round of benchmarks.  In some cases, performance looks to have improved.  But in a majority of instances, OpenJDK still lags behind Java SE-Embedded considerably. Time to put on my asbestos suit.  Let the flames begin...

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