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• Private Cloud: Putting some method behind the madness

  - by Sudip Datta

  Finally, I decided to join the blogging community. And what could be a better time to start than the week after OpenWorld 2012. 50K+ attendees, demonstrations, speaker sessions and a whole lot of buzz on Oracle Cloud..It was raining clouds in this year's Openworld. I am not here to write about Oracle's cloud strategy in general, but on Enterprise Manager's cloud management capabilities. This year's Openworld was the first after we announced the 12c Cloud Control and we were happy to share the stage with quite a few early adopters. Stay tuned for videos from our customers and partners, I will post them as they get published. I met a number of platform administrators in Oracle-DBAs, Middleware Admins, SOA Admins...The cloud has affected them all, at least to the point where it beckoned more than just curiosity..Most IT infrastructure are already heavily virtualized (on VMWare and on others including Oracle VM), and some would claim they are already on “cloud” (at least their Sysadmins told them so). But none of them were confident of the benefits because their pain points continued to grow.. Isn't cloud supposed to ease those? Instead, they were chasing hundreds of databases running on hundreds of VMs, often with as much certainty propounded by Heisenberg. What happened to the age-old IT discipline around administration, compliance, configuration management? VMs are great for what they are. I personally think they have opened the doors to new approaches in which an application stack gets provisioned and updated. In fact, Enterprise Manager 12c is possibly the only tool out there that can provision full-fledged application as VM Assemblies. In this year's Openworld, customers talked on how they provisioned RAC and Siebel assemblies, which as the techies out there know, are not trivial (hearing provisioning time for Siebel down from weeks to hours was gratifying indeed). However, I do have an issue with a "one-size fits all" approach to cloud. In a week's span, I met several personas: Project owners requiring an EC2 like VM instance for their projects Admins needing the same for Sparc-Solaris. DBAs requiring dedicated databases for new projects APEX Developers needing just a ready-to-consume schema as a service Java Developers looking for a runtime platform QA engineers needing a fast clone of their production environment If you drill down further, you will end up peeling more layers of the details. For example, the requirements for Load testing and Functional testing are very different. For Load testing the test environment should ideally be the same as the production. You shouldn't run production on Exadata and load test on a VM; they will just not be good representations of one another. For Functional testing it does not possibly matter. DBAs seem to be at the worst affected of the lot. It seems they have been asked to choose between agile provisioning and  faster runtime performance. And in some cases, it is really a Hobson's choice, because their infrastructure provider made no distinction between the OLTP application and the Virtual desktop! Sad indeed. When one looks at the portfolio of services that we already offer (vanilla IaaS, VM Assembly based PaaS, DBaaS) or have announced (Java PaaS, Instant Cloning, Schema-aaS), one can possibly think that we are trying to be the "renaissance man" ! Well I would have possibly digested that had it not been for the various personas that I described above. Getting the use cases right is very important for an application such as cloud management. We iterate and iterate over these over and over again and re-validate them in CABs (Customer Advisory Boards). We consider over the major aspects of tenancy: service placement, resource isolation (can a tenant execute an expensive SQL and run away with all the resources), quota and security. We, in Engineering, keep reminding ourselves that we are dealing with enterprise clouds. We owe it to our customer base ! In the coming posts, I will drill down more into each of the services. In the meanwhile, here are some collateral and  demos for starters with EM 12c. http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/oem/cloud-mgmt/index.html Sudip Datta The views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oracle. Stay Connected: Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Linkedin | Newsletter --

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• Social Engagement: One Size Doesn't Fit Anyone

  - by Mike Stiles

  The key to achieving meaningful social engagement is to know who you’re talking to, know what they like, and consistently deliver that kind of material to them. Every magazine for women knows this. When you read the article titles promoted on their covers, there’s no mistaking for whom that magazine is intended. And yet, confusion still reigns at many brands as to exactly whom they want to talk to, what those people want to hear, and what kind of content they should be creating for them. In most instances, the root problem is brands want to be all things to all people. Their target audience…the world! Good luck with that. It’s 2012, the age of aggregation and custom content delivery. To cope with the modern day barrage of information, people have constructed technological filters so that content they regard as being “for them” is mostly what gets through. Even if your brand is for men and women, young and old, you may want to consider social properties that divide men from women, and young from old. Yes, a man might find something in a women’s magazine that interests him. But that doesn’t mean he’s going to subscribe to it, or buy even one issue. In fact he’ll probably never see the article he’d otherwise be interested in, because in his mind, “This isn’t for me.” It wasn’t packaged for him. News Flash: men and women are different. So it’s a tall order to craft your Facebook Page or Twitter handle to simultaneously exude the motivators for both. The Harris Interactive study “2012 Connecting and Communicating Online: State of Social Media” sheds light on the differing social behaviors and drivers. -65% of women (vs. 59% of men) stay glued to social because they don’t want to miss anything. -25% of women check social when they wake up, before they check email. Only 18% of men check social before e-mail. -95% of women surveyed belong to Facebook vs. 86% of men. -67% of women log in to Facebook once a day or more vs. 54% of men. -Conventional wisdom is Pinterest is mostly a woman-thing, right? That may be true for viewing, but not true for sharing. Men are actually more likely to share on Pinterest than women, 23% to 10%. -The sharing divide extends to YouTube. 68% of women use it mainly for consumption, as opposed to 52% of men. -Women are as likely to have a Twitter account as men, but they’re much less likely to check it often. 54% of women check it once a week compared to 2/3 of men. Obviously, there are some takeaways from this depending on your target. Women don’t want to miss out on anything, so serialized content might be a good idea, right? Promotional posts that lead to a big payoff could keep them hooked. Posts for women might be better served first thing in the morning. If sharing is your goal, maybe male-targeted content is more likely to get those desired shares. And maybe Twitter is a better place to aim your male-targeted content than Facebook. Some grocery stores started experimenting with male-only aisles. The results have been impressive. Why? Because while it’s true men were finding those same items in the store just fine before, now something has been created just for them. They have a place in the store where they belong. Each brand’s strategy and targets are going to differ. The point is…know who you’re talking to, know how they behave, know what they like, and deliver content using any number of social relationship management targeting tools that meets their expectations. If, however, you’re committed to a one-size-fits-all, “our content is for everybody” strategy (or even worse, a “this is what we want to put out and we expect everybody to love it” strategy), your content will miss the mark for more often than it hits. @mikestilesPhoto via stock.schng

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• Documentation Changes in Solaris 11.1

  - by alanc

  One of the first places you can see Solaris 11.1 changes are in the docs, which have now been posted in the Solaris 11.1 Library on docs.oracle.com. I spent a good deal of time reviewing documentation for this release, and thought some would be interesting to blog about, but didn't review all the changes (not by a long shot), and am not going to cover all the changes here, so there's plenty left for you to discover on your own. Just comparing the Solaris 11.1 Library list of docs against the Solaris 11 list will show a lot of reorganization and refactoring of the doc set, especially in the system administration guides. Hopefully the new break down will make it easier to get straight to the sections you need when a task is at hand. Packaging System Unfortunately, the excellent in-depth guide for how to build packages for the new Image Packaging System (IPS) in Solaris 11 wasn't done in time to make the initial Solaris 11 doc set. An interim version was published shortly after release, in PDF form on the OTN IPS page. For Solaris 11.1 it was included in the doc set, as Packaging and Delivering Software With the Image Packaging System in Oracle Solaris 11.1, so should be easier to find, and easier to share links to specific pages the HTML version. Beyond just how to build a package, it includes details on how Solaris is packaged, and how package updates work, which may be useful to all system administrators who deal with Solaris 11 upgrades & installations. The Adding and Updating Oracle Solaris 11.1 Software Packages was also extended, including new sections on Relaxing Version Constraints Specified by Incorporations and Locking Packages to a Specified Version that may be of interest to those who want to keep the Solaris 11 versions of certain packages when they upgrade, such as the couple of packages that had functionality removed by an (unusual for an update release) End of Feature process in the 11.1 release. Also added in this release is a document containing the lists of all the packages in each of the major package groups in Solaris 11.1 (solaris-desktop, solaris-large-server, and solaris-small-server). While you can simply get the contents of those groups from the package repository, either via the web interface or the pkg command line, the documentation puts them in handy tables for easier side-by-side comparison, or viewing the lists before you've installed the system to pick which one you want to initially install. X Window System We've not had good X11 coverage in the online Solaris docs in a while, mostly relying on the man pages, and upstream X.Org docs. In this release, we've integrated some X coverage into the Solaris 11.1 Desktop Adminstrator's Guide, including sections on installing fonts for fontconfig or legacy X11 clients, X server configuration, and setting up remote access via X11 or VNC. Of course we continue to work on improving the docs, including a lot of contributions to the upstream docs all OS'es share (more about that another time). Security One of the things Oracle likes to do for its products is to publish security guides for administrators & developers to know how to build systems that meet their security needs. For Solaris, we started this with Solaris 11, providing a guide for sysadmins to find where the security relevant configuration options were documented. The Solaris 11.1 Security Guidelines extend this to cover new security features, such as Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) and Read-Only Zones, as well as adding additional guidelines for existing features, such as how to limit the size of tmpfs filesystems, to avoid users driving the system into swap thrashing situations. For developers, the corresponding document is the Developer's Guide to Oracle Solaris 11 Security, which has been the source for years for documentation of security-relevant Solaris API's such as PAM, GSS-API, and the Solaris Cryptographic Framework. For Solaris 11.1, a new appendix was added to start providing Secure Coding Guidelines for Developers, leveraging the CERT Secure Coding Standards and OWASP guidelines to provide the base recommendations for common programming languages and their standard API's. Solaris specific secure programming guidance was added via links to other documentation in the product doc set. In parallel, we updated the Solaris C Libary Functions security considerations list with details of Solaris 11 enhancements such as FD_CLOEXEC flags, additional *at() functions, and new stdio functions such as asprintf() and getline(). A number of code examples throughout the Solaris 11.1 doc set were updated to follow these recommendations, changing unbounded strcpy() calls to strlcpy(), sprintf() to snprintf(), etc. so that developers following our examples start out with safer code. The Writing Device Drivers guide even had the appendix updated to list which of these utility functions, like snprintf() and strlcpy(), are now available via the Kernel DDI. Little Things Of course all the big new features got documented, and some major efforts were put into refactoring and renovation, but there were also a lot of smaller things that got fixed as well in the nearly a year between the Solaris 11 and 11.1 doc releases - again too many to list here, but a random sampling of the ones I know about & found interesting or useful: The Privileges section of the DTrace Guide now gives users a pointer to find out how to set up DTrace privileges for non-global zones and what limitations are in place there. A new section on Recommended iSCSI Configuration Practices was added to the iSCSI configuration section when it moved into the SAN Configuration and Multipathing administration guide. The Managing System Power Services section contains an expanded explanation of the various tunables for power management in Solaris 11.1. The sample dcmd sources in /usr/demo/mdb were updated to include ::help output, so that developers like myself who follow the examples don't forget to include it (until a helpful code reviewer pointed it out while reviewing the mdb module changes for Xorg 1.12). The README file in that directory was updated to show the correct paths for installing both kernel & userspace modules, including the 64-bit variants.

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• Why bother writing an Windows 8 app?

  - by Dennis Vroegop

  So you want to know more about development for Window 8. Great! There are lots of reasons you should be excited about this. Since I don’t know why YOU are interested in this, I’ll make a list of reasons people can choose from. (as a side note: whenever I talk about Win8 development I am referring to the Metro Style / WinRt side of things. Apps for the ‘classic’ desktop side of Win8 on Intel are business as usual…) So… Why would you care about making an app for Windows 8? 1. It’s cool. Let’s not beat around the bush: if you like development for a hobby then you’ll love to work on this new platform. You can create apps in a relative short time (short time as in compared to writing a new CRM system) and that makes it great for a hobby product. 2. You’ll stand out. Hey, we all need an ego boost every now and then. We all need to feel special. So if you can manage to be one of the first to have you app in the Store then you’ll likely to be noticed. Just close your eyes for a moment and image you standing in a bar. It’s crowded, and then you casually say “Oh yeah, I just had my app certified and it’s in the Win8 store now”. People will stop talking, will offer you drinks and beautiful women / gorgeous man / furry creatures from Alpha Centauri (whatever your preferences are) will propose. Or maybe not. Anyway…. 3. Make some cash! IDC predicts there will be about 350,000,000 Windows 8 licenses sold in the next year. Think about that number. 350,000,000. And they all have access to the Store. Where you’re app will be. With one little click they can select it, download and somehow magically $1.00 or $2.00 from their bank account is transferred to yours. Now, I am not saying that all of those people will download and buy your app but what if only 1% of them did? Remember: there aren’t that many apps available yet….. 4. Learn. Creating new small apps is a great way to learn new stuff. Yes, you could read about it (on this blog for instance) but the only way to learn something is to do it. So be prepared for the future and learn something new by doing it.Write an app! Now! 5. The biggie (for me at least): it’s fun. Even if you remove the points above it’s still fun to write for these devices and this platform. Now some of you will say : “But why not write a great app for IOS or Android?” I think this is a valid question. Of course the novelty of the platform wears out and points 2 and 3 from above list will not be as relevant as it is today. But still 1 4 and 5 remain. And don’t forget: if you already work on the Microsoft platform it’s not that hard to learn this new Win8 stuff. If you have done some XAML development (be it WPF or Silverlight) you are almost there in becoming a good Win8 developer. So you’ll be more productive much sooner than when you have to learn Objective C or Java. Even if you’re a HTML / Javascript developer (I say developer here, not designer) you’ll be up to speed on Win8 development pretty soon. Yes, you, that funky Web Developer who lives and breathes HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript / Node.Js / JQuery: you too can be a Win8 developer. A first class Win8 developer! So.. Download the stuff you need from http://dev.windows.com install Windows 8 and Visual Studio 12 and by the time you’re ready I’ll be working on the next article: how to do all this? Happy coding!

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• Rules for Naming

  - by PointsToShare

  © 2011 By: Dov Trietsch. All rights reserved Naming Documents (or is it “Document, Naming”?) Tis but thy name that is my enemy; Thou art thyself, though not a Montague. What's Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot, Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part Belonging to a man. O, be some other name! What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet; So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd, Retain that dear perfection which he owes Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name And for that name which is no part of thee Take all myself.  Shakespeare – Romeo and Juliet Act II, Scene 2 We normally only use the bold portion of the famous Shakespearean quote above, but it is really out of context. As the play unfolds, we learn that a name is all too powerful. Indeed it is because of their names that the doomed lovers die. There might be life and death in a name (BTW, when I wrote this monogram, I was in Hatfield, PA. Remember the Hatfields and the McCoys?) This is a bit extreme, but in the field of Knowledge Management (KM) names are of the utmost importance as well. When I write an article about managing SharePoint sites, how should I name it? “Managing a site” or “Site, managing”? Nine times out of ten I’d opt for the latter. Almost everything we do is “Managing” so to make life easier for a person looking for meaningful content, we title our articles starting with the differentiator rather than the common factor. As a rule of thumb, we start the name with the noun rather than the verb. It is not what we do that is the primary key; it is what we do it to. So, answer this – is it a “rule of thumb” or a “thumb rule?” This is tough. A lot of what we do when naming is a judgment call. Both thumb and rule are nouns, albeit concrete and abstract (more about this later), but to most people “thumb rule” is meaningless while “rule of thumb” is an idiom. The difference between knowledge and information is that knowledge is meaningful information placed in context. Thus I elect the “rule of thumb”. It is the more meaningful title. Abstract and Concrete are relative terms. Many nouns (and verbs) that are abstract to a commoner, are concrete to a practitioner of one profession or another and may even have different concrete meanings in different professional jargons. Think about “running”. To an executive it means running a business, to a marathoner its meaning is much more literal. Generally speaking, we store and disseminate knowledge within a practice more than we do it in general. Even dictionaries encyclopedias define terms as they apply to different audiences. The rule of thumb is to put the more concrete first, but within the audience’s jargon. Even the title of this monogram is a question. Do I name it “Naming Documents” or “Documents, Naming”? Well, my own rule of thumb (“Here he goes again!?”) states that the latter is better because it starts with a noun, but this is a document about naming more than it about documents. The rules of naming also apply to graphs and charts, excel spreadsheets, and so on. Thus, I vote for the former.  A better title could have been “Naming Objects” only the word “Object” is a bit too abstract. How about just “Naming” or “Naming, rules of”? You get the drift. One of the ways to resolve all of this is to store the documents in Knowledge-Bases, which may become the subjects of a future punditry. Knowledge bases use keywords to describe their content.  Use a Metadata store for the keywords to at least attempt some common grounds. Here is another general rule (rule of thumb?!!) – put at least the one keyword in the title. Use subtitles. Here is an example: Migrating documents – Screening, cleaning, and organizing our knowledge. The main keyword is “documents”, next is “migrating”, other keywords also appear in the subtitle. They are “screening”, “cleaning”, and “organizing”. Any questions? Send me an amply named document by email: [email protected]

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• Some Early Considerations

  - by Chris Massey

  Following on from my previous post, I want to say "thank you" to everyone who has got in touch and got involved – you are pioneers! An update on where we are right now: paper prototypes v1 To be more specific, we’ve picked two of the ideas that seem to have more pros than cons, turned them into Balsamiq mockups, and are getting them fleshed out with realistic content. We’ll initially make these available to the aforementioned pioneers (thank you again), roll in the feedback, and then open up to get more data on what works and what doesn’t. If you’ve got any questions about this (or what we’re working on right now), feel free to ask me in the comments below. I’ve had a few people express an interest in the process we’re going through, and I’m more than happy to share details more frequently as we go along – not least because you, dear reader, will help us stay on target and create something Good. To start with, here’s a quick flashback to bring you all up to speed. A Brief Retrospective As you may already know, we’re creating a new publishing asset specifically focused on providing great content for web developers. We don’t yet know exactly what this thing will look like, or exactly how it will work, but we know we want to create something that is useful different. For my part, I’m seriously excited at the prospect of building a genuinely digital publishing system (as opposed to what most publishing is these days, which is print-style publishing which just happens to be on the web). The main challenge at this point is working out our build-measure-assess loop to speed up our experimental turn-around, and that’ll get better as we run more trials. Of course, there are a few things we’ve been pondering at this early conceptual stage: Do we publishing about heterogeneous technology stacks from day 1, or do we start with ASP.NET (which we’re familiar with) & branch out later? There are challenges with either approach. What publishing "modes" are already being well-handled? For example, the likes of Pluralsight, TekPub, and Treehouse have pretty much nailed video training (debate about price, if you like), and unless we think we can do it faster / better / cheaper (unlikely, for the record), we should leave them to it. Where should we base whatever we create? Should we create a completely new asset under a new name, graft something onto Simple-Talk (like the labs), or just build something directly into Simple-Talk? It sounds trivial, but it does have at least some impact on infrastructure and what how we manage the different types of content we (will) have. Are there any obvious problems or niches that we think could address really well, or should we just throw ideas out and see what readers respond to? What kind of users do we want to provide for? This actually deserves a little bit of unpacking… Why are you here? We currently divide readers into (broadly) the categories: Category 1: I know nothing about X, and I’d like to learn about it. Category 2: I know something about X, but I’d like to learn how to do something specific with it. Category 3: Ah man, I have a problem with X, and I need to fix it now. Now that I think about it, I might also include a 4th class of reader: Category 4: I’m looking for something interesting to engage my brain. These are clearly task-based categorizations, and depending on which task you’re performing when you arrive here, you’re going to need different types of content, or will have specific discovery needs. One of the questions that’s at the back of my mind whenever I consider a new idea is “How many of the categories will this satisfy?” As an example, typical video training is very well suited to categories 1, 2, and 4. StackOverflow is very well suited to category 3, and serves as a sign-posting system to the rest. Clearly it’s not necessary to satisfy every category need to be useful and popular, but being aware of what behavior readers might be exhibiting when they arrive will help us tune our ideas appropriately. < / Flashback > We don’t have clean answers to most of these considerations – they’re things we’re aware of, and each idea we look at is going to be best suited to a different mix of the options I’ve described. Our first experimental loop will be coming full circle in the next few days, so we should start to see how the different possibilities vary between ideas. Free to chime in with questions and suggestions about anything I’ve just brain-dumped, or at any stage as we go along. If you see anything that intrigued or enrages you, or just have an idea you’d like to share, I’d love to hear from you.

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• Bootstrap Backbone Marionette Modal

  - by Greg Pagendam-Turner

  I'm trying to create a dialog in backbone and Marionette based on this article: http://lostechies.com/derickbailey/2012/04/17/managing-a-modal-dialog-with-backbone-and-marionette/ I have a fiddle here: http://jsfiddle.net/netroworx/ywKSG/ HTML: <script type="text/template" id="edit-dialog"> <div class="modal-header"> <button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="modal">×</button> <h3 id="actionTitle">Create a New Action</h3> </div> <div class="modal-body"> <input type="hidden" id="actionId" name="actionId" /> <table> <tbody> <tr> <td>Goal: </td> <td> <input type="text" id="goal" name="goal" > <input type="hidden" id="goalid" name="goalid" > <a tabindex="-1" title="Show All Items" class="ui-button ui-widget ui-state-default ui-button-icon-only ui-corner-right ui-combobox-toggle ui-state-hover" role="button" aria-disabled="false" > <span class="ui-button-icon-primary ui-icon ui-icon-triangle-1-s"></span><span class="ui-button-text"></span> </a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Action name: </td> <td> <input type="text" id="actionName" name="actionName"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Target date:</td> <td> <input type="text" id="actionTargetDate" name="actionTargetDate"/> </td> </tr> <tr id="actionActualDateRow"> <td>Actual date:</td> <td> <input type="text" id="actionActualDate" name="actionActualDate"/> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <div class="modal-footer"> <a href="#" class="btn" data-dismiss="modal">Close</a> <a href='#' class="btn btn-primary" id="actionActionLabel">Create Action</a> </div> </script> <div id="modal"></div> <a href="#" id="showModal">Show Modal</a> Javascript: var ActionEditView = Backbone.Marionette.ItemView.extend({ template: "#edit-dialog" }); function showModal() { var view = new ActionEditView(); view.render(); var $modalEl = $("#modal"); $modalEl.html(view.el); $modalEl.modal(); } $('#showModal').click(showModal); When I click on the show modal link the html pane goes dark as expected and the dialog content is displayed but on the background layer. Why is this happening?

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• CSG operations on implicit surfaces with marching cubes [SOLVED]

  - by Mads Elvheim

  I render isosurfaces with marching cubes, (or perhaps marching squares as this is 2D) and I want to do set operations like set difference, intersection and union. I thought this was easy to implement, by simply choosing between two vertex scalars from two different implicit surfaces, but it is not. For my initial testing, I tried with two spheres circles, and the set operation difference. i.e A - B. One circle is moving and the other one is stationary. Here's the approach I tried when picking vertex scalars and when classifying corner vertices as inside or outside. The code is written in C++. OpenGL is used for rendering, but that's not important. Normal rendering without any CSG operations does give the expected result. void march(const vec2& cmin, //min x and y for the grid cell const vec2& cmax, //max x and y for the grid cell std::vector<vec2>& tri, float iso, float (*cmp1)(const vec2&), //distance from stationary circle float (*cmp2)(const vec2&) //distance from moving circle ) { unsigned int squareindex = 0; float scalar[4]; vec2 verts[8]; /* initial setup of the grid cell */ verts[0] = vec2(cmax.x, cmax.y); verts[2] = vec2(cmin.x, cmax.y); verts[4] = vec2(cmin.x, cmin.y); verts[6] = vec2(cmax.x, cmin.y); float s1,s2; /********************************** ********For-loop of interest****** *******Set difference between **** *******two implicit surfaces****** **********************************/ for(int i=0,j=0; i<4; ++i, j+=2){ s1 = cmp1(verts[j]); s2 = cmp2(verts[j]); if((s1 < iso)){ //if inside circle1 if((s2 < iso)){ //if inside circle2 scalar[i] = s2; //then set the scalar to the moving circle } else { scalar[i] = s1; //only inside circle1 squareindex |= (1<<i); //mark as inside } } else { scalar[i] = s1; //inside neither circle } } if(squareindex == 0) return; /* Usual interpolation between edge points to compute the new intersection points */ verts[1] = mix(iso, verts[0], verts[2], scalar[0], scalar[1]); verts[3] = mix(iso, verts[2], verts[4], scalar[1], scalar[2]); verts[5] = mix(iso, verts[4], verts[6], scalar[2], scalar[3]); verts[7] = mix(iso, verts[6], verts[0], scalar[3], scalar[0]); for(int i=0; i<10; ++i){ //10 = maxmimum 3 triangles, + one end token int index = triTable[squareindex][i]; //look up our indices for triangulation if(index == -1) break; tri.push_back(verts[index]); } } This gives me weird jaggies: It looks like the CSG operation is done without interpolation. It just "discards" the whole triangle. Do I need to interpolate in some other way, or combine the vertex scalar values? I'd love some help with this. A full testcase can be downloaded HERE EDIT: Basically, my implementation of marching squares works fine. It is my scalar field which is broken, and I wonder what the correct way would look like. Preferably I'm looking for a general approach to implement the three set operations I discussed above, for the usual primitives (circle, rectangle/square, plane)

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• Strategy and AI for the game 'Proximity'

  - by smci

  'Proximity' is a strategy game of territorial domination similar to Othello, Go and Risk. Two players, uses a 10x12 hex grid. Game invented by Brian Cable in 2007. Seems to be a worthy game for discussing a) optimal strategy then b) how to build an AI Strategies are going to be probabilistic or heuristic-based, due to the randomness factor, and the high branching factor (starts out at 120). So it will be kind of hard to compare objectively. A compute time limit of 5s per turn seems reasonable. Game: Flash version here and many copies elsewhere on the web Rules: here Object: to have control of the most armies after all tiles have been placed. Each turn you received a randomly numbered tile (value between 1 and 20 armies) to place on any vacant board space. If this tile is adjacent to any ally tiles, it will strengthen each tile's defenses +1 (up to a max value of 20). If it is adjacent to any enemy tiles, it will take control over them if its number is higher than the number on the enemy tile. Thoughts on strategy: Here are some initial thoughts; setting the computer AI to Expert will probably teach a lot: minimizing your perimeter seems to be a good strategy, to prevent flips and minimize worst-case damage like in Go, leaving holes inside your formation is lethal, only more so with the hex grid because you can lose armies on up to 6 squares in one move low-numbered tiles are a liability, so place them away from your main territory, near the board edges and scattered. You can also use low-numbered tiles to plug holes in your formation, or make small gains along the perimeter which the opponent will not tend to bother attacking. a triangle formation of three pieces is strong since they mutually reinforce, and also reduce the perimeter Each tile can be flipped at most 6 times, i.e. when its neighbor tiles are occupied. Control of a formation can flow back and forth. Sometimes you lose part of a formation and plug any holes to render that part of the board 'dead' and lock in your territory/ prevent further losses. Low-numbered tiles are obvious-but-low-valued liabilities, but high-numbered tiles can be bigger liabilities if they get flipped (which is harder). One lucky play with a 20-army tile can cause a swing of 200 (from +100 to -100 armies). So tile placement will have both offensive and defensive considerations. Comment 1,2,4 seem to resemble a minimax strategy where we minimize the maximum expected possible loss (modified by some probabilistic consideration of the value ß the opponent can get from 1..20 i.e. a structure which can only be flipped by a ß=20 tile is 'nearly impregnable'.) I'm not clear what the implications of comments 3,5,6 are for optimal strategy. Interested in comments from Go, Chess or Othello players. (The sequel ProximityHD for XBox Live, allows 4-player -cooperative or -competitive local multiplayer increases the branching factor since you now have 5 tiles in your hand at any given time, of which you can only play one. Reinforcement of ally tiles is increased to +2 per ally.)

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• Find optimal strategy and AI for the game 'Proximity'?

  - by smci

  'Proximity' is a strategy game of territorial domination similar to Othello, Go and Risk. Two players, uses a 10x12 hex grid. Game invented by Brian Cable in 2007. Seems to be a worthy game for discussing a) optimal algorithm then b) how to build an AI. Strategies are going to be probabilistic or heuristic-based, due to the randomness factor, and the insane branching factor (20^120). So it will be kind of hard to compare objectively. A compute time limit of 5s per turn seems reasonable. Game: Flash version here and many copies elsewhere on the web Rules: here Object: to have control of the most armies after all tiles have been placed. Each turn you received a randomly numbered tile (value between 1 and 20 armies) to place on any vacant board space. If this tile is adjacent to any ally tiles, it will strengthen each tile's defenses +1 (up to a max value of 20). If it is adjacent to any enemy tiles, it will take control over them if its number is higher than the number on the enemy tile. Thoughts on strategy: Here are some initial thoughts; setting the computer AI to Expert will probably teach a lot: minimizing your perimeter seems to be a good strategy, to prevent flips and minimize worst-case damage like in Go, leaving holes inside your formation is lethal, only more so with the hex grid because you can lose armies on up to 6 squares in one move low-numbered tiles are a liability, so place them away from your main territory, near the board edges and scattered. You can also use low-numbered tiles to plug holes in your formation, or make small gains along the perimeter which the opponent will not tend to bother attacking. a triangle formation of three pieces is strong since they mutually reinforce, and also reduce the perimeter Each tile can be flipped at most 6 times, i.e. when its neighbor tiles are occupied. Control of a formation can flow back and forth. Sometimes you lose part of a formation and plug any holes to render that part of the board 'dead' and lock in your territory/ prevent further losses. Low-numbered tiles are obvious-but-low-valued liabilities, but high-numbered tiles can be bigger liabilities if they get flipped (which is harder). One lucky play with a 20-army tile can cause a swing of 200 (from +100 to -100 armies). So tile placement will have both offensive and defensive considerations. Comment 1,2,4 seem to resemble a minimax strategy where we minimize the maximum expected possible loss (modified by some probabilistic consideration of the value ß the opponent can get from 1..20 i.e. a structure which can only be flipped by a ß=20 tile is 'nearly impregnable'.) I'm not clear what the implications of comments 3,5,6 are for optimal strategy. Interested in comments from Go, Chess or Othello players. (The sequel ProximityHD for XBox Live, allows 4-player -cooperative or -competitive local multiplayer increases the branching factor since you now have 5 tiles in your hand at any given time, of which you can only play one. Reinforcement of ally tiles is increased to +2 per ally.)

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• Find optimal/good-enough strategy and AI for the game 'Proximity'?

  - by smci

  'Proximity' is a strategy game of territorial domination similar to Othello, Go and Risk. Two players, uses a 10x12 hex grid. Game invented by Brian Cable in 2007. Seems to be a worthy game for discussing a) optimal algorithm then b) how to build an AI. Strategies are going to be probabilistic or heuristic-based, due to the randomness factor, and the insane branching factor (20^120). So it will be kind of hard to compare objectively. A compute time limit of 5s per turn seems reasonable. Game: Flash version here and many copies elsewhere on the web Rules: here Object: to have control of the most armies after all tiles have been placed. Each turn you received a randomly numbered tile (value between 1 and 20 armies) to place on any vacant board space. If this tile is adjacent to any ally tiles, it will strengthen each tile's defenses +1 (up to a max value of 20). If it is adjacent to any enemy tiles, it will take control over them if its number is higher than the number on the enemy tile. Thoughts on strategy: Here are some initial thoughts; setting the computer AI to Expert will probably teach a lot: minimizing your perimeter seems to be a good strategy, to prevent flips and minimize worst-case damage like in Go, leaving holes inside your formation is lethal, only more so with the hex grid because you can lose armies on up to 6 squares in one move low-numbered tiles are a liability, so place them away from your main territory, near the board edges and scattered. You can also use low-numbered tiles to plug holes in your formation, or make small gains along the perimeter which the opponent will not tend to bother attacking. a triangle formation of three pieces is strong since they mutually reinforce, and also reduce the perimeter Each tile can be flipped at most 6 times, i.e. when its neighbor tiles are occupied. Control of a formation can flow back and forth. Sometimes you lose part of a formation and plug any holes to render that part of the board 'dead' and lock in your territory/ prevent further losses. Low-numbered tiles are obvious-but-low-valued liabilities, but high-numbered tiles can be bigger liabilities if they get flipped (which is harder). One lucky play with a 20-army tile can cause a swing of 200 (from +100 to -100 armies). So tile placement will have both offensive and defensive considerations. Comment 1,2,4 seem to resemble a minimax strategy where we minimize the maximum expected possible loss (modified by some probabilistic consideration of the value ß the opponent can get from 1..20 i.e. a structure which can only be flipped by a ß=20 tile is 'nearly impregnable'.) I'm not clear what the implications of comments 3,5,6 are for optimal strategy. Interested in comments from Go, Chess or Othello players. (The sequel ProximityHD for XBox Live, allows 4-player -cooperative or -competitive local multiplayer increases the branching factor since you now have 5 tiles in your hand at any given time, of which you can only play one. Reinforcement of ally tiles is increased to +2 per ally.)

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• CSG operations on implicit surfaces with marching cubes

  - by Mads Elvheim

  I render isosurfaces with marching cubes, (or perhaps marching squares as this is 2D) and I want to do set operations like set difference, intersection and union. I thought this was easy to implement, by simply choosing between two vertex scalars from two different implicit surfaces, but it is not. For my initial testing, I tried with two spheres, and the set operation difference. i.e A - B. One sphere is moving and the other one is stationary. Here's the approach I tried when picking vertex scalars and when classifying corner vertices as inside or outside. The code is written in C++. OpenGL is used for rendering, but that's not important. Normal rendering without any CSG operations does give the expected result. void march(const vec2& cmin, //min x and y for the grid cell const vec2& cmax, //max x and y for the grid cell std::vector<vec2>& tri, float iso, float (*cmp1)(const vec2&), //distance from stationary sphere float (*cmp2)(const vec2&) //distance from moving sphere ) { unsigned int squareindex = 0; float scalar[4]; vec2 verts[8]; /* initial setup of the grid cell */ verts[0] = vec2(cmax.x, cmax.y); verts[2] = vec2(cmin.x, cmax.y); verts[4] = vec2(cmin.x, cmin.y); verts[6] = vec2(cmax.x, cmin.y); float s1,s2; /********************************** ********For-loop of interest****** *******Set difference between **** *******two implicit surfaces****** **********************************/ for(int i=0,j=0; i<4; ++i, j+=2){ s1 = cmp1(verts[j]); s2 = cmp2(verts[j]); if((s1 < iso)){ //if inside sphere1 if((s2 < iso)){ //if inside sphere2 scalar[i] = s2; //then set the scalar to the moving sphere } else { scalar[i] = s1; //only inside sphere1 squareindex |= (1<<i); //mark as inside } } else { scalar[i] = s1; //inside neither sphere } } if(squareindex == 0) return; /* Usual interpolation between edge points to compute the new intersection points */ verts[1] = mix(iso, verts[0], verts[2], scalar[0], scalar[1]); verts[3] = mix(iso, verts[2], verts[4], scalar[1], scalar[2]); verts[5] = mix(iso, verts[4], verts[6], scalar[2], scalar[3]); verts[7] = mix(iso, verts[6], verts[0], scalar[3], scalar[0]); for(int i=0; i<10; ++i){ //10 = maxmimum 3 triangles, + one end token int index = triTable[squareindex][i]; //look up our indices for triangulation if(index == -1) break; tri.push_back(verts[index]); } } This gives me weird jaggies: It looks like the CSG operation is done without interpolation. It just "discards" the whole triangle. Do I need to interpolate in some other way, or combine the vertex scalar values? I'd love some help with this. A full testcase can be downloaded HERE

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• Seemingly simple skinning problem in Flex4; style gives disco effect

  - by Cheradenine

  I'm doing something wrong, but I can't figure out what. Simple project in flex4, whereby I create a skinned combobox (fragments at end). If I turn on the 3 skin references (over-skin, up-skin, down-skin), the combobox appears to simply stop working. If I remove the up-skin, hovering over the combo produces a flickering effect, where it appears to apply the style, then remove it immediately. I get the same thing with a button instead of a combo. I'm sure it's something really simple, but it's evading me. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <s:Application xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009" xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark" xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/mx" minWidth="955" minHeight="600" xmlns:containers="flexlib.containers.*"> <fx:Declarations> <!-- Place non-visual elements (e.g., services, value objects) here --> </fx:Declarations> <fx:Style> @namespace s "library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark"; @namespace mx "library://ns.adobe.com/flex/mx"; #myCombo { over-skin: ClassReference("nmx.MyComboSkin"); up-skin: ClassReference("nmx.MyComboSkin"); down-skin: ClassReference("nmx.MyComboSkin"); } </fx:Style> <fx:Script> <![CDATA[ [Bindable] public var items:Array = ["A","B","C"]; ]]> </fx:Script> <mx:Canvas backgroundColor="#ff0000" width="726" height="165" x="20" y="41"> <mx:ComboBox id="myCombo" x="10" y="10" prompt="Hospital" dataProvider="{items}"> </mx:ComboBox> </mx:Canvas> </s:Application> Skin Definition: package nmx { import flash.display.GradientType; import flash.display.Graphics; import mx.skins.Border; import mx.skins.ProgrammaticSkin; import mx.skins.halo.ComboBoxArrowSkin; import mx.skins.halo.HaloColors; import mx.utils.ColorUtil; public class MyComboSkin extends ProgrammaticSkin { public function MyComboSkin() { super(); } override protected function updateDisplayList(w:Number, h:Number):void { trace(name); super.updateDisplayList(w, h); var arrowColor:int = 0xffffff; var g:Graphics = graphics; g.clear(); // Draw the border and fill. switch (name) { case "upSkin": case "editableUpSkin": { g.moveTo(0,0); g.lineStyle(1,arrowColor); g.lineTo(w-1,0); g.lineTo(w-1,h-1); g.lineTo(0,h-1); g.lineTo(0,0); } break; case "overSkin": case "editableOverSkin": case "downSkin": case "editableDownSkin": { // border /*drawRoundRect( 0, 0, w, h, cr, [ themeColor, themeColor ], 1); */ g.moveTo(0,0); g.lineStyle(1,arrowColor); g.lineTo(w-1,0); g.lineTo(w-1,h-1); g.lineTo(0,h-1); g.lineTo(0,0); // Draw the triangle. g.beginFill(arrowColor); g.moveTo(w - 11.5, h / 2 + 3); g.lineTo(w - 15, h / 2 - 2); g.lineTo(w - 8, h / 2 - 2); g.lineTo(w - 11.5, h / 2 + 3); g.endFill(); } break; case "disabledSkin": case "editableDisabledSkin": { break; } } } } }

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• Detecting Acceleration in a car (iPhone Accelerometer)

  - by TheGazzardian

  Hello, I am working on an iPhone app where we are trying to calculate the acceleration of a moving car. Similar apps have accomplished this (Dynolicious), but the difference is that this app is designed to be used during general city driving, not on a drag strip. This leads us to one big concern that Dynolicious was luckily able to avoid: hills. Yes, hills. There are two important stages to this: calibration, and actual driving. Our initial run was simple and suffered the consequences. During the calibration stage, I took the average force on the phone, and during running, I just subtracted the average force from the current force to get the current acceleration this frame. The problem with this is that the typical car receives much more force than just the forward force - everything from turning to potholes was causing the values to go out of sync with what was really happening. The next run was to add the condition that the iPhone must be oriented in such a way that the screen was facing toward the back of the car. Using this method, I attempted to follow only force on the z-axis, but this obviously lead to problems unless the iPhone was oriented directly upright, because of gravity. Some trigonometry later, and I had managed to work gravity out of the equation, so that the car was actually being read very, very well by the iPhone. Until I hit a slope. As soon as the angle of the car changed, suddenly I was receiving accelerations and decelerations that didn't make sense, and we were once again going out of sync. Talking with someone a lot smarter than me at math lead to a solution that I have been trying to implement for longer than I would like to admit. It's steps are as follows: 1) During calibration, measure gravity as a vector instead of a size. Store that vector. 2) When the car initially moves forward, take the vector of motion and subtract gravity. Use this as the forward momentum. (Ignore, for now, the user cases where this will be difficult and let's concentrate on the math :) 3) From the forward vector and the gravity vector, construct a plane. 4) Whenever a force is received, project it onto said plane to get rid of sideways force/etc. 5) Then, use that force, the known magnitude of gravity, and the known direction of forward motion to essentially solve a triangle to get the forward vector. The problem that is causing the most difficulty in this new system is not step 5, which I have gotten to the point where all the numbers look as they should. The difficult part is actually the detection of the forward vector. I am selecting vectors whose magnitude exceeds gravity, and from there, averaging them and subtracting gravity. (I am doing some error checking to make sure that I am not using a force just because the iPhone accelerometer was off by a bit, which happens more frequently than I would like). But if I plot these vectors that I am using, they actually vary by an angle of about 20-30 degrees, which can lead to some strong inaccuracies. The end result is that the app is even more inaccurate now than before. So basically - all you math and iPhone brains out there - any glaring errors? Any potentially better solutions? Any experience that could be useful at all? Award: offering a bounty of $250 to the first answer that leads to a solution.

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• When should I use indexed arrays of OpenGL vertices?

  - by Tartley

  I'm trying to get a clear idea of when I should be using indexed arrays of OpenGL vertices, drawn with gl[Multi]DrawElements and the like, versus when I should simply use contiguous arrays of vertices, drawn with gl[Multi]DrawArrays. (Update: The consensus in the replies I got is that one should always be using indexed vertices.) I have gone back and forth on this issue several times, so I'm going to outline my current understanding, in the hopes someone can either tell me I'm now finally more or less correct, or else point out where my remaining misunderstandings are. Specifically, I have three conclusions, in bold. Please correct them if they are wrong. One simple case is if my geometry consists of meshes to form curved surfaces. In this case, the vertices in the middle of the mesh will have identical attributes (position, normal, color, texture coord, etc) for every triangle which uses the vertex. This leads me to conclude that: 1. For geometry with few seams, indexed arrays are a big win. Follow rule 1 always, except: For geometry that is very 'blocky', in which every edge represents a seam, the benefit of indexed arrays is less obvious. To take a simple cube as an example, although each vertex is used in three different faces, we can't share vertices between them, because for a single vertex, the surface normals (and possible other things, like color and texture co-ord) will differ on each face. Hence we need to explicitly introduce redundant vertex positions into our array, so that the same position can be used several times with different normals, etc. This means that indexed arrays are of less use. e.g. When rendering a single face of a cube: 0 1 o---o |\ | | \ | | \| o---o 3 2 (this can be considered in isolation, because the seams between this face and all adjacent faces mean than none of these vertices can be shared between faces) if rendering using GL_TRIANGLE_FAN (or _STRIP), then each face of the cube can be rendered thus: verts = [v0, v1, v2, v3] colors = [c0, c0, c0, c0] normal = [n0, n0, n0, n0] Adding indices does not allow us to simplify this. From this I conclude that: 2. When rendering geometry which is all seams or mostly seams, when using GL_TRIANGLE_STRIP or _FAN, then I should never use indexed arrays, and should instead always use gl[Multi]DrawArrays. (Update: Replies indicate that this conclusion is wrong. Even though indices don't allow us to reduce the size of the arrays here, they should still be used because of other performance benefits, as discussed in the comments) The only exception to rule 2 is: When using GL_TRIANGLES (instead of strips or fans), then half of the vertices can still be re-used twice, with identical normals and colors, etc, because each cube face is rendered as two separate triangles. Again, for the same single cube face: 0 1 o---o |\ | | \ | | \| o---o 3 2 Without indices, using GL_TRIANGLES, the arrays would be something like: verts = [v0, v1, v2, v2, v3, v0] normals = [n0, n0, n0, n0, n0, n0] colors = [c0, c0, c0, c0, c0, c0] Since a vertex and a normal are often 3 floats each, and a color is often 3 bytes, that gives, for each cube face, about: verts = 6 * 3 floats = 18 floats normals = 6 * 3 floats = 18 floats colors = 6 * 3 bytes = 18 bytes = 36 floats and 18 bytes per cube face. (I understand the number of bytes might change if different types are used, the exact figures are just for illustration.) With indices, we can simplify this a little, giving: verts = [v0, v1, v2, v3] (4 * 3 = 12 floats) normals = [n0, n0, n0, n0] (4 * 3 = 12 floats) colors = [c0, c0, c0, c0] (4 * 3 = 12 bytes) indices = [0, 1, 2, 2, 3, 0] (6 shorts) = 24 floats + 12 bytes, and maybe 6 shorts, per cube face. See how in the latter case, vertices 0 and 2 are used twice, but only represented once in each of the verts, normals and colors arrays. This sounds like a small win for using indices, even in the extreme case of every single geometry edge being a seam. This leads me to conclude that: 3. When using GL_TRIANGLES, one should always use indexed arrays, even for geometry which is all seams. Please correct my conclusions in bold if they are wrong.

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• SharpGL: Can't draw all lines from List

  - by Miko Kronn

  I have: float[,] nodesN = null; //indexes: //number of node; //value index 0->x, 1->y, 2->temperature int[,] elements = null; //indexes: //indexof element (triangle) //1, 2, 3 - vertexes (from nodesN) List<Pair> edges = null; //Pair is a class containing two int values which are //indexes of nodesN And function which is supposed do all elements and edges on SharpGL.OpenGLCtrl private void openGLCtrl1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) { gl = this.glCtrl.OpenGL; gl.ClearColor(this.BackColor.R / 255.0f, this.BackColor.G / 255.0f, this.BackColor.B / 255.0f, 1.0f); gl.Clear(OpenGL.COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | OpenGL.DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT); } float glMinX = -2f; float glMaxX = 2f; float glMinY = -2f; float glMaxY = 2f; private void openGLControl1_OpenGLDraw(object sender, PaintEventArgs e) { gl.Clear(OpenGL.COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | OpenGL.DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT); gl.LoadIdentity(); gl.Translate(0.0f, 0.0f, -6.0f); if (!draw) return; bool drawElements = false; if (drawElements) { gl.Begin(OpenGL.TRIANGLES); for (int i = 0; i < elementNo; i++) { for (int j = 0; j < 3; j++) { float x, y, t; x = nodesN[elements[i, j], 0]; y = nodesN[elements[i, j], 1]; t = nodesN[elements[i, j], 2]; gl.Color(t, 0.0f, 1.0f - t); gl.Vertex(x, y, 0.0f); } } gl.End(); } gl.Color(0f, 0f, 0f); gl.Begin(OpenGL.LINES); //for(int i=edges.Count-1; i>=0; i--) for(int i=0; i<edges.Count; i++) { float x1, y1, x2, y2; x1 = nodesN[edges[i].First, 0]; y1 = nodesN[edges[i].First, 1]; x2 = nodesN[edges[i].Second, 0]; y2 = nodesN[edges[i].Second, 1]; gl.Vertex(x1, y1, 0.0f); gl.Vertex(x2, y2, 0.0f); } gl.End(); } But it doesn't draw all the edges. If i change drawElements it draws different number of edges. Changing for(int i=0; i<edges.Count; i++) to for(int i=edges.Count-1; i>=0; i--) shows that esges are generated correctly, but they are not drawn. Images: for(int i=0; i<edges.Count; i++) drawElements=false for(int i=edges.Count-1; i>=0; i--) drawElements=false for(int i=0; i<edges.Count; i++) drawElements=true for(int i=edges.Count-1; i>=0; i--) drawElements=true What is wrong with this? How can I draw all edges?

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• Computer science undergraduate project ideas

  - by Mehrdad Afshari

  Hopefully, I'm going to finish my undergraduate studies next semester and I'm thinking about the topic of my final project. And yes, I've read the questions with duplicate title. I'm asking this from a bit different viewpoint, so it's not an exact dupe. I've spent at least half of my life coding stuff in different languages and frameworks so I'm not looking at this project as a way to learn much about coding and preparing for real world apps or such. I've done lots of those already. But since I have to do it to complete my degree, I felt I should spend my time doing something useful instead of throwing the whole thing out. I'm planning to make it an open source project or a hosted Web app (depending on the type) if I can make a high quality thing out of it, so I decided to ask StackOverflow what could make a useful project. Situation I've plenty of freedom about the topic. They also require 30-40 pages of text describing the project. I have the following points in mind (the more satisfied, the better): Something useful for software development Something that benefits the community Having academic value is great Shouldn't take more than a month of development (I know I'm lazy). Shouldn't be related to advanced theoretical stuff (soft computing, fuzzy logic, neural networks, ...). I've been a business-oriented software developer. It should be software oriented. While I love hacking microcontrollers and other fun embedded electronic things, I'm not really good at soldering and things like that. I'm leaning toward a Web application (think StackOverflow, PasteBin, NerdDinner, things like those). Technology It's probably going to be done in .NET (C#, F#) and Windows platform. If I really like the project (cool low level hacking), I might actually slip to C/C++. But really, C# is what I'm efficient at. Ideas Programming language, parsing and compiler related stuff: Designing a domain specific programming language and compiler Templating language compiled to C# or IL Database tools and related code generation stuff Web related technologies: ASP.NET MVC View engine doing something cool (don't know what exactly...) Specific-purpose, small, fast ASP.NET-based Web framework Applications: Visual Studio plugin to integrate with Bazaar (it's too much work, I think). ASP.NET based, jQuery-powered issue tracker (and possibly, project lifecycle management as a whole - poor man's TFS) Others: Something related to GPGPU Looking forward for great ideas! Unfortunately, I can't help on a currently existing project. I need to start my own to prevent further problems (as it's an undergrad project, nevertheless).

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• Qt vs .NET - plz no n00bs who don't know wtf they're talking about [closed]

  - by Pirate for Profit

  Man in all these Qt vs. .NET discussions 90% these people don't know WTF they're talking about. Trying to get a real comparison chart going before we embark on a major fucking project. And yes I'm drunk, and yes I use cocaine. Event Handling In Qt the event handling system you just emit signals when something cool happens and then catch them in slots, for instance emit valueChanged(int percent, bool something); and void MyCatcherObj::valueChanged(int p, bool ok){} blocking them and disconnecting them when needed, doing it across threads... once you get the hang of it, it just seems a lot more natural and intuitive than the way the .NET event handling is set up (you know, object sender, CustomEventArgs e). And I'm not just talking about syntax, because in the end the .NET delegate crap is the bomb. I'm also talking about in more than just reflection (because, yes, .NET obviously has much stronger reflection capabilities). I'm talking about in the way the system feels to a human being. Qt wins hands down i m o. Basically, the footprints make more sense and you can visualize the project easier without the clunky event handling system. I wish I could it explain it better. The only thing is, I do love some of the ease of C# compared to C++ and .NET's assembly architecture. That is a big bonus for modular projects, which are a PITA to do in C++. Database Ease of Doing Crap Also what about datasets and database manipulations. I think .net wins here but I'm not sure. Threading/Conccurency How do you guys think of the threading? In .NET, all I've ever done is make like a list of master worker threads with locks. I like QConcurrentFramework, you don't worry about locks or anything, and with the ease of the signal slot system across threads it's nice to get notified about the progress of things. Memory Usage Also what do you think of the overall memory usage comparison. Is the .NET garbage collector pretty on the ball and quick compared to the instantaneous nature of native memory management? Or does it just let programs leak up a storm and lag the computer then clean it up when it's about to really lag? However, I am a n00b who doesn't know what I'm talking about, please school me on the subject.

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• Best programming aids for a quadriplegic programmer

  - by Peter Rowell

  Before you jump to conclusions, yes, this is programming related. It covers a situation that comes under the heading of, "There, but for the grace of God, go you or I." This is brand new territory for me so I'm asking for some serious help here. A young man, Honza Ripa, in a nearby town did the classic Dumb Thing two weeks after graduating from High School -- he dove into shallow water in the Russian River and had a C-4/C-5 break, sometimes called a Swimming Pool break. In a matter of seconds he went from an exceptional golfer and wrestler to a quadriplegic. (Read the story ... all of us should have been so lucky as to have a girlfriend like Brianna.) That was 10 months ago and he has regained only tiny amounts of control of his right index finger and a couple of other hand/foot motions, none of them fine-grained. His total control of his computer (currently running Win7, but we can change that as needed) is via voice command. Honza's not dumb. He had a 3.7 GPA with AP math and physics. The Problems: Since all of his input is via voice command, he is concerned that the predominance of special characters in programming will require vast amount of verbose commands. Does anyone know of any well done voice input system specifically designed for programmers? I'm thinking about something that might be modal--e.g. you say "Python input" and it goes into a macro mode for doing class definitions, etc. Given all of the RSI in programmer-land there's got to be something out there. What OS(es) does it run on? I am planning on teaching him Python, which is my preferred language for programming and teaching. Are there any applications / whatevers that are written in Python and would be a particularly good match for engaging him mentally while supporting his disability? One of his expressed interests is in stock investing, but that not might be a good starting point for a brand-new programmer. There are a lot of environments (Flash, JavaScript, etc) that are not particularly friendly to people with accessibility challenges. I vaguely remember (but cannot find) a research project that basically created an overlay system on top of a screen environment and then allowed macro command construction on top of the screen image. If we can get/train this system, we may be able to remove many hurdles to using the net. I am particularly interested in finding open source Python-based robotics and robotic prostheses projects so that he can simultaneously learn advanced programming concepts while learning to solve some of his own immediate problems. I've done a ton of googling on this, but I know there things I'm missing. I'm asking the SO community to step up to the plate here. I know this group has the answers, so let me hear them! Overwhelm me with the opportunities that any of us might have/need to still program after such a life-changing event.

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• Scheme Formatting Help

  - by Logan

  I've been working on a project for school that takes functions from a class file and turns them into object/classes. The assignment is all about object oriented programming in scheme. My problem however is that my code doesn't format right. The output it gives me whenever I give it a file to pass in wraps the methods of the class in a list, making it so that the class never really gets declared. I can't for the life of me figure out how to get the parenthesis wrapping the method list to remove. I would really appreciate any help. Below is the code and the class file. ;;;; PART1 --- A super-easy set of classes. Just models points and lines. Tests all of the ;; basics of class behavior without touching on anything particularly complex. (class pointInstance (parent:) (constructor_args:) (ivars: (myx 1) (myy 2)) (methods: (getx () myx) (gety () myy) (setx (x) (set! myx x)) (show () (begin (display "[") (display myx) (display ",") (display myy) (display "]"))) )) (require (lib "trace.ss")) ;; Continue reading until you hit the end of the file, all the while ;; building a list with the contents (define load-file (lambda (port) (let ((rec (read port))) (if (eof-object? rec) '() (cons rec (load-file port)))))) ;; Open a port based on a file name using open-input-file (define (load fname) (let ((fport (open-input-file fname))) (load-file fport))) ;(define lis (load "C:\\Users\\Logan\\Desktop\\simpletest.txt")) ;(define lis (load "C:\\Users\\Logan\\Desktop\\complextest.txt")) (define lis (load "C:\\Users\\Logan\\Desktop\\pointinstance.txt")) ;(display (cdaddr (cdddar lis))) (define makeMethodList (lambda (listToMake retList) ;(display listToMake) (cond [(null? listToMake) retList ;(display "The list passed in to parse was null") ] [else (makeMethodList (cdr listToMake) (append retList (list (getMethodLine listToMake)))) ] ) )) ;(trace makeMethodList) ;this works provided you just pass in the function line (define getMethodLine (lambda (functionList) `((eq? (car msg) ,(caar functionList)) ,(caddar functionList)))) (define load-classes (lambda paramList (cond [(null? paramList) (display "Your parameters are null, man.")] [(null? (car paramList))(display "Done creating class definitions.")] [(not (null? (car paramList))) (begin (let* ((className (cadaar paramList)) (classInstanceVars (cdaddr (cddaar paramList))) (classMethodList (cdr (cadddr (cddaar paramList)))) (desiredMethodList (makeMethodList classMethodList '())) ) ;(display "Classname: ") ;(display className) ;(newline)(newline) ;(display "Class Instance Vars: ") ;(display classInstanceVars) ;(newline)(newline) ;(display "Class Method List: ") ;(display classMethodList) ;(newline) ;(display "Desired Method List: ") ;(display desiredMethodList)) ;(newline)(newline) ;---------------------------------------------------- ;do not delete the below code!` `(define ,className (let ,classInstanceVars (lambda msg ;return the function list here (cond ,(makeMethodList classMethodList '()))) )) ;--------------------------------------------------- ))] ) )) (load-classes lis) ;(load-classes lis) ;(load-classes-helper lis) ;(load-classes "simpletest.txt") ;(load-classes "complextest.txt") ;method list ;(display (cdr (cadddr (cddaar <class>))))

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• Classic ASP vs. ASP.NET encryption options

  - by harrije

  I'm working on a web site where the new pages are ASP.NET and the legacy pages are Classic ASP. Being new to development in the Windows env, I've been studying the latest technology, i.e. .NET and I become like a deer in headlights when ever legacy issues come up regarding COM objects. Security on the website is an abomination, but I've easily encrypted the connectionStrings in the web.config file per http://www.4guysfromrolla.com/articles/021506-1.aspx based on DPAPI machine mode. I understand this approach is not the most secure, but it's better than nothing which is what it was for the ASP.NET pages. Now, I question how to do similar encryption for the connection strings used by the Classic ASP pages. A complicating factor is that the web sited is hosted where I do not have admin permissions or even command line access, just FTP. Moreover I want to avoid managing the key. My research has found: DPAPI with COM interop. Seems like this should already be available, but the only thing I could find discussing this is CyptoUtility (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc163884.aspx) which is not installed on the hosting server. There are plenty of other third party COM objects, e.g. Crypto from Dalun Software http://www.dalun.com, but these aren't on the hosted server either, and they look to me to require you to do some kind of key management. There is CAPICOM on the hosted server, but M$ has deprecated it and many report it is not the easiest to use. It is not clear to me whether I can avoid key management with CAPICOM similar to using DPAPI for ASP.NET. If anyone happens to know, please clue me in. I could write an web service in ASP.NET and have the classic ASP pages use it to get the decrypted connection strings and then store those in an application variable. I would not need to use SSL since I could use localhost and nothing would be sent over the internet. In the simpliest form I could implement what someone termed a poor man's version based on a simple XML stream, however, I really was looking to avoid any development since I find it hard to believe there is not a simple solution for Classic ASP like there is for ASP.NET. Maybe I'm missing some options... Recommendations are requested...

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• Using commit monitors as a form of code review

  - by Jeff Dege

  I'm working in a small company - four developers, working on a variety of projects. We've been looking at what we can do as cost-effective methods of process improvement, and an idea came up. Given what we do, we often have single developers working on parts of a system, independently of the other developers. This can have a number of negative affects: A developer might not be fully aware of the context in which a change is being implemented, and make the change in a way that will meet the current customer's needs, but will break functionality that other customers depend on. A developer might make a change that breaks the current architectural design, introducing a dependency that will cause problems in future development. Other developers might not be aware of how the system has changed, in areas that they have not worked on. We've talked about doing code reviews, as a way of dealing with these issues. But we've not had much success when we tried. It takes a lot of time to prepare a change for a code review, and it takes everybody out of production while the review is being performed. And the benefits of any review we've tried has been minimal. We're using Subversion (with TortioseSVN) as our VCS. I've been looking at the SubVersion CommitMonitor tool, and wondering whether it might work as a sort of poor-man's code review. It lists every commit made on the repository, allowing someone to see the changes that have been made, the log messages made for that change, the files that were included in the change, and the specific lines in each file that were changed. Rather than scheduling a meeting, trying to get everybody together to review every change, we could just have every developer review every other developer's commits, at whatever time was convenient. This would keep every developer abreast of what changes were being made elsewhere in the system, and would have every change reviewed for customer conflicts and design consistency, at a fairly low cost. If someone saw a problem with the code that was being checked in, he could discuss it with the developer who did the commit, or more likely, schedule a meeting to discuss how the new feature could be implemented in a way that would not impact other users or screw up the architecture. Anyone else doing anything like this, using commit monitors for such a purpose?

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• Executing procedural queries in perl

  - by KalpaG

  I have a query like this set @valid_total:=0; set @invalid_total:=0; select week as weekno, measured_week,project_id as project, role_category_id as role_category, valid_count,valid_tickets, (@valid_total := @valid_total + valid_count) as valid_total, invalid_count,invalid_tickets, (@invalid_total := @invalid_total + invalid_count) as invalid_total from metric_fault_bug_project where measured_week = yearweek(curdate()) and role_category_id = 1 and project_id = 11; it executes fine in heidi (MySQL client) but when it comes to perl, it gives me this error DBD::mysql::st execute failed: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the m anual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near ':=0; set :=0; select week as weekno, measured_week,project_id as project' at line 1 at D:\Mx\scripts\test.pl line 35. Can't execute SQL statement: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the man ual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use ne ar ':=0; set :=0; select week as weekno, measured_week,project_id as project' at line 1 The problem seem to be in the set @valid_total := 0; line. I am fairly new to Perl. Can anyone help? this is the complete perl code #!/usr/bin/perl #use lib '/x01/home/kalpag/libs'; use DBI; use strict; use warnings; my $sid = 'issues'; my $user = 'root'; my $passwd = 'kalpa'; my $connection = "DBI:mysql:database=$sid;host=localhost"; my $dbhh = DBI->connect( $connection, $user, $passwd) || die "Database connection not made: $DBI::errstr"; my $sql_query = 'set @valid_total:=0; set @invalid_total:=0; select week as weekno, measured_week,project_id, role_category_id as role_category, valid_count,valid_tickets, (@valid_total := @valid_total + valid_count) as valid_total, invalid_count,invalid_tickets, (@invalid_total := @invalid_total + invalid_count) as invalid_total from metric_fault_bug_project where measured_week = yearweek(curdate()) and role_category_id = 1 and project_id = 11'; my $sth = $dbhh->prepare($sql_query) or die "Can't prepare SQL statement: $DBI::errstr\n"; $sth->execute() or die "Can't execute SQL statement: $DBI::errstr\n"; while ( my @memory = $sth->fetchrow() ) { print "@memory \n"; }

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• Trouble cross-referencing two XML child nodes in AS3

  - by Dwayne

  I am building a mini language translator out of XML nodes and Actionscript 3. I have my XML ready. It contains a series of nodes with two children in them. Here is a sample: <translations> <entry> <english>man</english> <cockney>geeza</cockney> </entry> <entry> <english>woman</english> <cockney>lily</cockney> </entry> </translations> The AS3 part consist of one input box named "textfield_txt" where the English word will be typed in. An output text field for the translation called "cockney_txt". Finally, one button to execute the translation called "generate_mc". The idea is to have actionscript look through the XML for key English words after the user types it in the "textfield", cross-freferences the children then returns the Cockney translation as a value. The trouble is, when I test it I get no response or error messages- it's completely silent. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. At present, I have setup a conditional statement to tell me whether the function works or not. The result is, no it's not! Here's the code below. I hope someone can help. Cheers! generate_mc.buttonMode=true; var English:String; var myXML:XML; var myLoader:URLLoader = new URLLoader(); myLoader.load(new URLRequest("Language.xml")); myLoader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, processXML); function processXML(e:Event):void { myXML = new XML(e.target.data); } generate_mc.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, onClick); function onClick(event:MouseEvent) { English = textfield.text; cockney_txt.text = myXML.translations.entry.cockney; if(textfield.text.toLowerCase() == myXML.translations.entry.english.toLowerCase){ //return myXML.translations.entry.cockney; trace("success"); }else{ trace("try again!"); // ***I get this as a result } }

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• Display label character by character using javascript

  - by Muhammad Sajid

  Hi, I am creating Hang a Man using PHP, MySQL & Javascript. Every thing is going perfect, I get a word randomly from DB show it as a label apply it a class where display = none. Now when I click on a Character that character become disable fine which i actually want but the label-character does not show. My code is: <link href="style.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" /> <?php include( 'config.php' ); $question = questions(); // Get question. $alpha = alphabats(); // Get alphabets. ?> <script language="javascript"> function clickMe( name ){ var question = '<?php echo $question; ?>'; var questionLen = <?php echo strlen($question); ?>; for ( var i = 0; i < questionLen; i++ ){ if ( question[i] == name ){ var link = document.getElementById( name ); link.style.display = 'none'; var label = document.getElementById( 'questionLabel' + i ); label.style.display = 'block'; } } } </script> <div> <table align="center" style="border:solid 1px"> <tr> <?php for ( $i = 0; $i < 26; $i++ ) { echo "<td><a href='#' id=$alpha[$i] name=$alpha[$i] onclick=clickMe('$alpha[$i]');>". $alpha[$i] ."</a>&nbsp;</td>"; } ?> </tr> </table> <br/> <table align="center" style="border:solid 1px"> <tr> <?php for ( $i = 0; $i < strlen($question); $i++ ) { echo "<td class='question'><label id=questionLabel$i >". $question[$i] ."</label></td>"; } ?> </tr> </table> </div>

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