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  • Billboard shader without distortion

    - by Nick Wiggill
    I use the standard approach to billboarding within Unity that is OK, but not ideal: transform.LookAt(camera). The problem is that this introduces distortion toward the edges of the viewport, especially as the field of view angle grows larger. This is unlike the perfect billboarding you'd see in eg. Doom when seeing an enemy from any angle and irrespective of where they are located in screen space. Obviously, there are ways to blit an image directly to the viewport, centred around a single vertex, but I'm not hot on shaders. Does anyone have any samples of this approach (GLSL if possible), or any suggestions as to why it isn't typically done this way (vs. the aforementioned quad transformation method)? EDIT: I was confused, thanks Nathan for the heads up. Of course, Causing the quads to look at the camera does not cause them to be parallel to the view plane -- which is what I need.

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  • Gawker Passwords

    - by Nick Harrison
    There has been much news about the hack of the Gawker web sites. There has even been an analysis of the common passwords found. This list is embarrassing in many ways. The most common password was "123456". The second most common password was "password". Much has also been written providing advice on how to create good passwords. This article provides some interesting advice, none of which should be taken. Anyone reading my blog, probably already knows the importance of strong passwords, so I am not going to reiterate the reasons here. My target audience is more the folks defining password complexity requirements. A user cannot come up with a strong password, if we have complexity requirements that don't make sense. With that in mind, here are a few guidelines:  Long Passwords Insist on long passwords. In some cases, you may need to change to allow a long password. I have seen many places that cap passwords at 8 characters. Passwords need to be at least 8 characters minimal. Consider how much stronger the passwords would be if you double the length. Passwords that are 15-20 characters will be that much harder to crack. There is no need to have limit passwords to 8 characters. Don't Require Special Characters Many complexity rules will require that your password include a capital letter, a lower case letter, a number, and one of the "special" characters, the shits above the number keys. The problem with such rules is that the resulting passwords are harder to remember. It also means that you will have a smaller set of characters in the resulting passwords. If you must include one of the 9 digits and one of the 9 "special" characters, then you have dramatically reduced the character set that will make up the final password. Two characters will be one of 10 possible values instead of one of 70. Two additional characters will be one of 26 possible characters instead of a 70 character potential character set. If you limit passwords to 8 characters, you are left with only 7 characters having the full set of 70 potential values. With these character restrictions in place, there are 1.6 x1012 possible passwords. Without these special character restrictions, but allowing numbers and special characters, you get a total of 5.76x1014 possible passwords. Even if you only allowed upper and lower case characters, you will still have 2.18X1014 passwords. You can do the math any number of ways, requiring special characters will always weaken passwords. Now imagine the number of passwords when you require more than 8 characters.  If you are responsible for defining complexity rules, I urge you to take these guidelines into account. What other guidelines do you follow?

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  • Is there something special about the number 65535?

    - by Nick Rosencrantz
    2¹6-1 & 25 = 25 (or? obviously ?) A developer asked me today what is bitwise 65535 & 32 i.e. 2¹6-1 & 25 = ? I thought at first spontaneously 32 but it seemed to easy whereupon I thought for several minutes and then answered 32. 32 seems to have been the correct answer but how? 65535=2¹6-1=1111111111111111 (but it doesn't seem right since this binary number all ones should be -1(?)), 32 = 100000 but I could not convert that in my head whereupon I anyway answered 32 since I had to answer something. Is the answer 32 in fact trivial? Is in the same way 2¹6-1 & 25-1 =31? Why did the developer ask me about exactly 65535? Binary what I was asked to evaluate was 1111111111111111 & 100000 but I don't understand why 1111111111111111 is not -1. Shouldn't it be -1? Is 65535 a number that gives overflow and how do I know that?

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  • MP3 player mpman TS300 not recognized

    - by Nick Lemaire
    I just received a mpman ts300 mp3 player for Christmas. But when I try to connect it to ubuntu (10.10) through usb it doesn't seem to be recognized. I searched for a linuxdriver but came up with nothing. I even tried installing mpman manager from the software center, but still the same problem... Has anybody got any ideas about how to fix this? Thank you edit: some additional information When I plug it in, it doesn't show up under /dev. And it is not listed in the result of 'lsusb' This is the output of 'dmesg' [19571.732541] usb 1-4: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2 [19571.889154] scsi7 : usb-storage 1-4:1.0 [19572.883155] scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access TS300 USB DISK 1.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 [19572.885856] sd 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0 [19572.887266] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] 7868416 512-byte logical blocks: (4.02 GB/3.75 GiB) [19573.012547] usb 1-4: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2 [19573.292550] usb 1-4: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2 [19573.572565] usb 1-4: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2 [19573.725019] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Test WP failed, assume Write Enabled [19573.725024] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through [19573.728521] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk [19575.333015] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] 7868416 512-byte logical blocks: (4.02 GB/3.75 GiB) [19575.452547] usb 1-4: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2 [19580.603253] usb 1-4: device descriptor read/all, error -110 [19580.722560] usb 1-4: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2 [19595.842579] usb 1-4: device descriptor read/64, error -110 [19611.072656] usb 1-4: device descriptor read/64, error -110 [19611.302540] usb 1-4: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2 [19616.332568] usb 1-4: device descriptor read/8, error -110 [19621.462692] usb 1-4: device descriptor read/8, error -110 [19621.692551] usb 1-4: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2 [19626.722567] usb 1-4: device descriptor read/8, error -110 [19631.852802] usb 1-4: device descriptor read/8, error -110 [19631.962587] usb 1-4: USB disconnect, address 2 [19631.962587] sd 7:0:0:0: Device offlined - not ready after error recovery [19631.962840] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through [19631.965104] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] READ CAPACITY failed [19631.965109] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Result: hostbyte=DID_NO_CONNECT driverbyte=DRIVER_OK [19631.965112] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Sense not available. [19631.965125] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through [19631.965130] sdb: detected capacity change from 4028628992 to 0 [19632.130042] usb 1-4: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 3 [19647.242550] usb 1-4: device descriptor read/64, error -110 [19662.472560] usb 1-4: device descriptor read/64, error -110 [19662.702566] usb 1-4: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 4 [19677.822587] usb 1-4: device descriptor read/64, error -110 [19693.052575] usb 1-4: device descriptor read/64, error -110 [19693.282582] usb 1-4: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 5 [19698.312600] usb 1-4: device descriptor read/8, error -110 [19703.442594] usb 1-4: device descriptor read/8, error -110 [19703.672548] usb 1-4: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 6 [19708.702581] usb 1-4: device descriptor read/8, error -110 [19713.840077] usb 1-4: device descriptor read/8, error -110 [19713.942555] hub 1-0:1.0: unable to enumerate USB device on port 4 [19714.262545] usb 4-2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2 [19729.382549] usb 4-2: device descriptor read/64, error -110 [19744.612534] usb 4-2: device descriptor read/64, error -110 [19744.842543] usb 4-2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 3 [19759.962714] usb 4-2: device descriptor read/64, error -110 [19775.200047] usb 4-2: device descriptor read/64, error -110 [19775.422630] usb 4-2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 4 [19780.444498] usb 4-2: device descriptor read/8, error -110 [19785.574491] usb 4-2: device descriptor read/8, error -110 [19785.802547] usb 4-2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 5 [19790.824490] usb 4-2: device descriptor read/8, error -110 [19795.961473] usb 4-2: device descriptor read/8, error -110 [19796.062556] hub 4-0:1.0: unable to enumerate USB device on port 2

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  • A Primer on Migrating Oracle Applications to a New Platform

    - by Nick Quarmby
    In Support we field a lot of questions about the migration of Oracle Applications to different platforms.  This article describes the techniques available for migrating an Oracle Applications environment to a new platform and discusses some of the common questions that arise during migration.  This subject has been frequently discussed in previous blog articles but there still seems to be a gap regarding the type of questions we are frequently asked in Service Requests. Some of the questions we see are quite abstract. Customers simply want to get a grip on understanding how they approach a migration. Others want to know if a particular architecture is viable. Other customers ask about mixing different platforms within a single Oracle Applications environment.    Just to clarify, throughout this article, the term 'platform' refers specifically to operating systems and not to the underlying hardware. For a clear definition of 'platform' in the context of Oracle Applications Support then Terri's very timely article:Oracle E-Business Suite Platform SmörgåsbordThe migration process is very similar for both 11i and R12 so this article only mentions specific differences where relevant.

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  • Having fun with Reflection

    - by Nick Harrison
    I was once asked in a technical interview what I could tell them about Reflection.   My response, while a little tongue in cheek was that "I can tell you it is one of my favorite topics to talk about" I did get a laugh out of that and it was a great ice breaker.    Reflection may not be the answer for everything, but it often can be, or maybe even should be.     I have posted in the past about my favorite CopyTo method.   It can come in several forms and is often very useful.   I explain it further and expand on the basic idea here  The basic idea is to allow reflection to loop through the properties of two objects and synchronize the ones that are in common.   I love this approach for data binding and passing data across the layers in an application. Recently I have been working on a project leveraging Data Transfer Objects to pass data through WCF calls.   We won't go into how the architecture got this way, but in essence there is a partial duplicate inheritance hierarchy where there is a related Domain Object for each Data Transfer Object.     The matching objects do not share a common ancestor or common interface but they will have the same properties in common.    By passing the problems with this approach, let's talk about how Reflection and our friendly CopyTo could make the most of this bad situation without having to change too much. One of the problems is keeping the two sets of objects in synch.   For this particular project, the DO has all of the functionality and the DTO is used to simply transfer data back and forth.    Both sets of object have parallel hierarchies with the same properties being defined at the corresponding levels.   So we end with BaseDO,  BaseDTO, GenericDO, GenericDTO, ProcessAreaDO,  ProcessAreaDTO, SpecializedProcessAreaDO, SpecializedProcessAreaDTO, TableDo, TableDto. and so on. Without using Reflection and a CopyTo function, tremendous care and effort must be made to keep the corresponding objects in synch.    New properties can be added at any level in the inheritance and must be kept in synch at all subsequent layers.    For this project we have come up with a clever approach of calling a base GetDo or UpdateDto making sure that the same method at each level of inheritance is called.    Each level is responsible for updating the properties at that level. This is a lot of work and not keeping it in synch can create all manner of problems some of which are very difficult to track down.    The other problem is the type of code that this methods tend to wind up with. You end up with code like this: Transferable dto = new Transferable(); base.GetDto(dto); dto.OfficeCode = GetDtoNullSafe(officeCode); dto.AccessIndicator = GetDtoNullSafe(accessIndicator); dto.CaseStatus = GetDtoNullSafe(caseStatus); dto.CaseStatusReason = GetDtoNullSafe(caseStatusReason); dto.LevelOfService = GetDtoNullSafe(levelOfService); dto.ReferralComments = referralComments; dto.Designation = GetDtoNullSafe(designation); dto.IsGoodCauseClaimed = GetDtoNullSafe(isGoodCauseClaimed); dto.GoodCauseClaimDate = goodCauseClaimDate;       One obvious problem is that this is tedious code.   It is error prone code.    Adding helper functions like GetDtoNullSafe help out immensely, but there is still an easier way. We can bypass the tedious code, by pass the complex inheritance tricks, and reduce all of this to a single method in the base class. TransferObject dto = new TransferObject(); CopyTo (this, dto); return dto; In the case of this one project, such a change eliminated the need for 20% of the total code base and a whole class of unit test cases that made sure that all of the properties were in synch. The impact of such a change also needs to include the on going time savings and the improvements in quality that can arise from them.    Developers who are not worried about keeping the properties in synch across mirrored object hierarchies are freed to worry about more important things like implementing business requirements.

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  • Canon MX870 printer only shows "Processing" on the status LCD

    - by Nick
    I had my Canon MX870 installed perfectly fine in 11.10, but since upgrading to 12.04, it no longer works. The printer is recognized in print settings and when I attempt to print a test page, the printer LCD displays a "Processing" message, but then it disappears and nothing happens. Here are my logs (note that printing did not succeed despite the access logs showing success): # /var/log/cups/access_log localhost - - [22/May/2012:12:29:35 -0400] "POST /printers/Canon-MX870 HTTP/1.1" 200 412 Print-Job successful-ok - # /var/log/cups/error_log W [22/May/2012:12:25:51 -0400] failed to CreateProfile: org.freedesktop.ColorManager.AlreadyExists:profile id 'Canon-MX870-Gray..' already exists W [22/May/2012:12:25:51 -0400] failed to CreateProfile: org.freedesktop.ColorManager.AlreadyExists:profile id 'Canon-MX870-RGB..' already exists W [22/May/2012:12:25:51 -0400] failed to CreateDevice: org.freedesktop.ColorManager.AlreadyExists:device id 'cups-Canon-MX870' already exists W [22/May/2012:12:25:51 -0400] failed to CreateProfile: org.freedesktop.ColorManager.AlreadyExists:profile id 'Canon-MX870-Gray..' already exists W [22/May/2012:12:25:51 -0400] failed to CreateProfile: org.freedesktop.ColorManager.AlreadyExists:profile id 'Canon-MX870-RGB..' already exists W [22/May/2012:12:25:51 -0400] failed to CreateDevice: org.freedesktop.ColorManager.AlreadyExists:device id 'cups-Canon-MX870' already exists W [22/May/2012:12:25:51 -0400] failed to CreateProfile: org.freedesktop.ColorManager.AlreadyExists:profile id 'Canon-MX870-Gray..' already exists W [22/May/2012:12:25:51 -0400] failed to CreateProfile: org.freedesktop.ColorManager.AlreadyExists:profile id 'Canon-MX870-RGB..' already exists W [22/May/2012:12:25:51 -0400] failed to CreateDevice: org.freedesktop.ColorManager.AlreadyExists:device id 'cups-Canon-MX870' already exists W [22/May/2012:12:25:51 -0400] failed to CreateProfile: org.freedesktop.ColorManager.AlreadyExists:profile id 'Canon-MX870-Gray..' already exists W [22/May/2012:12:25:51 -0400] failed to CreateProfile: org.freedesktop.ColorManager.AlreadyExists:profile id 'Canon-MX870-RGB..' already exists W [22/May/2012:12:25:51 -0400] failed to CreateDevice: org.freedesktop.ColorManager.AlreadyExists:device id 'cups-Canon-MX870' already exists

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  • Pricing options at O’Reilly

    - by Nick Harrison
    I was browsing through the new options for books on O'Reilly and Associates and noticed something kind of cool    If you buy the print edition of a book, you can get the ebook for just a couple dollars more.  This is pure genius marketing. I may question whether or not I want the ebook at 20 or the print copy at 25, but to get them both for 28, well that's a no brainer.  This is actually a strategy examined at great depth in Predictably Rational In all honesty, $20 is probably over priced for the ebook, but $3 if you are already buying the print edition is actually a pretty good deal  .

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  • assigning values to shader parameters in the XNA content pipeline

    - by Nick
    I have tried creating a simple content processor that assigns the custom effect I created to models instead of the default BasicEffect. [ContentProcessor(DisplayName = "Shadow Mapping Model")] public class ShadowMappingModelProcessor : ModelProcessor { protected override MaterialContent ConvertMaterial(MaterialContent material, ContentProcessorContext context) { EffectMaterialContent shadowMappingMaterial = new EffectMaterialContent(); shadowMappingMaterial.Effect = new ExternalReference<EffectContent>("Effects/MultipassShadowMapping.fx"); return context.Convert<MaterialContent, MaterialContent>(shadowMappingMaterial, typeof(MaterialProcessor).Name); } } This works, but when I go to draw a model in a game, the effect has no material properties assigned. How would I go about assigning, say, my DiffuseColor or SpecularColor shader parameter to white or (better) can I assign it to some value specified by the artist in the model? (I think this may have something to do with the OpaqueDataDictionary but I am confused on how to use it--the content pipeline has always been a black box to me.)

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  • Building websites, which is the better approach MVP or MVC?

    - by Nick
    I'm looking for feedback on MVP and MVC patterns used as basis to build a website. I've used both with a certain degrees of success and failure. Furthermore I've worked in places which have miserable implement MVP across the web, desktop and services layers. I've also seen a few terrible MVC implementations. One thing I've noticed is the MVP stuff-up appear terrible for maintenance or adding any new features compared to the MVC debacles.

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  • 3D collision detection with meshes using only raycasting?

    - by Nick
    I'm building a game using WebGL and Three.js, and so far I have a terrain with a guy walking on it. I simply cast a ray downwards to know the terrain height. How can I do this for other 3D objects, like the inside of a house? Is this possible by casting many rays in every direction of the player? If not, I would like to know how I can achieve the simplest collision detection possible for other meshes. Do you have to cast a ray to every triangle in every mesh nearby?

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  • Why is there never any controversy regarding the switch statement? [closed]

    - by Nick Rosencrantz
    We all know that the gotostatement should only be used on very rare occasions if at all. It has been discouraged to use the goto statement countless places countless times. But why it there never anything like that about the switch statement? I can understand the position that the switch statement should always be avoided since anything with switch can always be expressed by if...else... which is also more readable and the syntax of the switch statement if difficult to remember. Do you agree? What are the arguments in favor of keeping the 'switch` statement? It can also be difficult to use if what you're testing changes from say an integer to an object, then C++ or Java won't be able to perform the switch and neither C can perform switch on something like a struct or a union. And the technique of fall-through is so very rarely used that I wonder why it was never presented any regret of having switch at all? The only place I know where it is best practice is GUI code and even that switch is probably better coded in a more object-oriented way.

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  • Why use try … finally without a catch clause?

    - by Nick Rosencrantz
    The classical way to program is with try / catch but when is it appropriate to use try without catch? In Python the following appears legal and can make sense: try: #do work finally: #do something unconditional But we didn't catch anything. Similarly one could think in Java it would be try { //for example try to get a database connection } finally { //closeConnection(connection) } It looks good and suddenly I don't have to worry about exception types etc. But if this is good practice, when is it good practice? Or reasons why this is not good practice or not legal (I didn't compile the source I'm asking about and it could be a syntax error for Java but I checked that the Python surely compiles.) A related problem I've run into is that I continue writing the function / method and at the end I must return something and I'm in a place which should not be reached and it must be a return point so even if I handle the exceptions above I'm still returning null or an empty string at some point in the code which should not be reached, often the end of the method / function. I've always managed to restructure to code so that I don't have to return null since that absolutely appears to look like less than good practice.

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  • Rules and advice for logging?

    - by Nick Rosencrantz
    In my organization we've put together some rules / guildelines about logging that I would like to know if you can add to or comment. We use Java but you may comment in general about loggin - rules and advice Use the correct logging level ERROR: Something has gone very wrong and need fixing immediately WARNING: The process can continue without fixing. The application should tolerate this level but the warning should always get investigated. INFO: Information that an important process is finished DEBUG. Is only used during development Make sure that you know what you're logging. Avoid that the logging influences the behavior of the application The function of the logging should be to write messages in the log. Log messages should be descriptive, clear, short and concise. There is not much use of a nonsense message when troubleshooting. Put the right properties in log4j Put in that the right method and class is written automatically. Example: Datedfile -web log4j.rootLogger=ERROR, DATEDFILE log4j.logger.org.springframework=INFO log4j.logger.waffle=ERROR log4j.logger.se.prv=INFO log4j.logger.se.prv.common.mvc=INFO log4j.logger.se.prv.omklassning=DEBUG log4j.appender.DATEDFILE=biz.minaret.log4j.DatedFileAppender log4j.appender.DATEDFILE.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout log4j.appender.DATEDFILE.layout.ConversionPattern=%d{HH:mm:ss,SSS} %-5p [%C{1}.%M] - %m%n log4j.appender.DATEDFILE.Prefix=omklassning. log4j.appender.DATEDFILE.Suffix=.log log4j.appender.DATEDFILE.Directory=//localhost/WebSphereLog/omklassning/ Log value. Please log values from the application. Log prefix. State which part of the application it is that the logging is written from, preferably with something for the project agreed prefix e.g. PANDORA_DB The amount of text. Be careful so that there is not too much logging text. It can influence the performance of the app. Loggning format: -There are several variants and methods to use with log4j but we would like a uniform use of the following format, when we log at exceptions: logger.error("PANDORA_DB2: Fel vid hämtning av frist i TP210_RAPPORTFRIST", e); In the example above it is assumed that we have set log4j properties so that it automatically write the class and the method. Always use logger and not the following: System.out.println(), System.err.println(), e.printStackTrace() If the web app uses our framework you can get very detailed error information from EJB, if using try-catch in the handler and logging according to the model above: In our project we use this conversion pattern with which method and class names are written out automatically . Here we use two different pattents for console and for datedfileappender: log4j.appender.CONSOLE.layout.ConversionPattern=%d{ABSOLUTE} %5p %c{1}:%L - %m%n log4j.appender.DATEDFILE.layout.ConversionPattern=%d [%t] %-5p %c - %m%n In both the examples above method and class wioll be written out. In the console row number will also be written our. toString() Please have a toString() for every object. EX: @Override public String toString() { StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(); sb.append(" DwfInformation [ "); sb.append("cc: ").append(cc); sb.append("pn: ").append(pn); sb.append("kc: ").append(kc); sb.append("numberOfPages: ").append(numberOfPages); sb.append("publicationDate: ").append(publicationDate); sb.append("version: ").append(version); sb.append(" ]"); return sb.toString(); } instead of special method which make these outputs public void printAll() { logger.info("inbet: " + getInbetInput()); logger.info("betdat: " + betdat); logger.info("betid: " + betid); logger.info("send: " + send); logger.info("appr: " + appr); logger.info("rereg: " + rereg); logger.info("NY: " + ny); logger.info("CNT: " + cnt); } So is there anything you can add, comment or find questionable with these ways of using the logging? Feel free to answer or comment even if it is not related to Java, Java and log4j is just an implementation of how this is reasoned.

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  • Oscillating Sprite Movement in XNA

    - by Nick Van Hoogenstyn
    I'm working on a 2d game and am looking to make a sprite move horizontally across the screen in XNA while oscillating vertically (basically I want the movement to look like a sin wave). Currently for movement I'm using two vectors, one for speed and one for direction. My update function for sprites just contains this: Position += direction * speed * (float)t.ElapsedGameTime.TotalSeconds; How could I utilize this setup to create the desired movement? I'm assuming I'd call Math.Sin or Math.Cos, but I'm unsure of where to start to make this sort of thing happened. My attempt looked like this: public override void Update(GameTime t) { double msElapsed = t.TotalGameTime.Milliseconds; mDirection.Y = (float)Math.Sin(msElapsed); if (mDirection.Y >= 0) mSpeed.Y = moveSpeed; else mSpeed.Y = -moveSpeed; base.Update(t, mSpeed, mDirection); } moveSpeed is just some constant positive integer. With this, the sprite simply just continuously moves downward until it's off screen. Can anyone give me some info on what I'm doing wrong here? I've never tried something like this so if I'm doing things completely wrong, let me know!

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  • Visualization tools for physical simulations

    - by Nick
    I'm interested in starting some physics simulations and I'm getting hung up on the visualization side of things. I have lots of resources for reading how to implement the simulation itself but I'd rather not learn two things at once - the simulation part and a new complex visualization API. Are there any high-level visualization tools that are language independent? I understand that I'll have to learn some new code for visualization but I'd like to start at a high level, OpenGL is my long-term goal and not my prototype goal.

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  • Red Gate in the Community

    - by Nick Harrison
    Much has been said recently about Red Gate's community involvement and commitment to the DotNet community. Much of this has been unduly negative. Before you start throwing stones and spewing obscenities, consider some additional facts: Red Gate's software is actually very good. I have worked on many projects where Red Gate's software was instrumental in finishing successfully. Red Gate is VERY good to the community. I have spoken at many user groups and code camps where Red Gate has been a sponsor. Red Gate consistently offers up money to pay for the venue or food, and they will often give away licenses as door prizes. There are many such community events that would not take place without Red Gate's support. All I have ever seen them ask for is to have their products mentioned or be listed as a sponsor. They don't insist on anyone following a specific script. They don't monitor how their products are showcased. They let their products speak for themselves. Red Gate sponsors the Simple Talk web site. I publish there regularly. Red Gate has never exerted editorial pressure on me. No one has ever told me we can't publish this unless you mention Red Gate products. No one has ever said, you need to say nice things about Red Gate products in order to be published. They have told me, "you need to make this less academic, so you don't alienate too many readers. "You need to actually write an introduction so people will know what you are talking about". "You need to write this so that someone who isn't a reflection nut will follow what you are trying to say." In short, they have been good editors worried about the quality of the content and what the readers are likely to be interested in. For me personally, Red Gate and Simple Talk have both been excellent to work with. As for the developer outrage… I am a little embarrassed by so much of the response that I am seeing. So much of the complaints remind me of little children whining "but you promised" Semantics aside. A promise is just a promise. It's not like they "pinky sweared". Sadly no amount name calling or "double dog daring" will change the economics of the situation. Red Gate is not a multibillion dollar corporation. They are a mid size company doing the best they can. Without a doubt, their pockets are not as deep as Microsoft's. I honestly believe that they did try to make the "freemium" model work. Sadly it did not. I have no doubt that they intended for it to work and that they tried to make it work. I also have no doubt that they labored over making this decision. This could not have been an easy decision to make. Many people are gleefully proclaiming a massive backlash against Red Gate swearing off their wonderful products and promising to bash them at every opportunity from now on. This is childish behavior that does not represent professionals. This type of behavior is more in line with bullies in the school yard than professionals in a professional community. Now for my own prediction… This back lash against Red Gate is not likely to last very long. We will all realize that we still need their products. We may look around for alternatives, but realize that they really do have the best in class for every product that they produce, and that they really are not exorbitantly priced. We will see them sponsoring Code Camps and User Groups and be reminded, "hey this isn't such a bad company". On the other hand, software shops like Red Gate, will remember this back lash and give a second thought to supporting open source projects. They will worry about getting involved when an individual wants to turn over control for a product that they developed but can no longer support alone. Who wants to run the risk of not being able to follow through on their best intentions. In the end we may all suffer, even the toddlers among us throwing the temper tantrum, "BUT YOU PROMISED!" Disclaimer Before anyone asks or jumps to conclusions, I do not get paid by Red Gate to say any of this. I have often written about their products, and I have long thought that they are a wonderful company with amazing products. If they ever open an office in the SE United States, I will be one of the first to apply.

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  • HTML favicon wont show on google chrome

    - by Nick
    I am making a HTML page that is unpublished and that I just started. The first thing I wanted to do was add a favicon to appear next to the tile. I'm using google chrome an I noticed that other websites have favicons that appear next to the tile in the browser, but mine wont show up. I'm new to favicons. the site in in a folder on my desktop named site. This is the code: <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <title></title> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico" /> </head> <body> </body> </html>

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  • It's intellisense for SQL Server

    - by Nick Harrison
    It's intellisense for SQL Server Anyone who has ever worked with me, heard me speak, or read any of writings knows that I am a HUGE fan of Reflector.    By extension,  I am a big fan of Red - Gate   I have recently begun exploring some of their other offerings and came across this jewel. SQL Prompt is a plug in for Visual Studio and SQL Server Management Studio.    It provides several tools to make dealing with SQL a little easier for your friendly neighborhood developer. When you a query window in a database, the plugin kicks in and gathers the metadata for the database that you are in.    As you type a query, you get handy feedback like a list of tables after you type select.    You can select one of the tables, specify * and then tab to expand the select clause to include all of the columns from the selected table.    As you are building up the where clause, you are prompted by the names of columns in the selected tables. If you spend any time writing ad hoc queries or building stored procedures by hand, this can save you substantial time. If you are learning a new data model, this can greatly cut down on your frustration level. The other really cool thing here is Format SQL.   I have searched all over the place for a really good SQL formatter.    Badly formatted  SQL is so much harder to read than well formatted SQL.   Unfortunately, management studio offers no support for keeping your SQL well formatted.    There are many tools available to format your SQL.   Some work better than others.    Some don't work that well at all.   Most will give you some measure of control over how the formatted SQL looks.    SQL Prompt produces good results and is easy to configure. Sadly no tool is perfect, and what would we be without a wish list.    There are some features that I would like to see: Make it easier to paste SQL in and out of code.    Strip off string builder, etc Automate replacing hard coded values with bind variables or parameters In addition to reformatting SQL, which is a huge refactor, support for other SQL refactors would be nice.    Convert join to sub query and vice versa come to mind Wish list a side, this is a wonderful tool that easily saves me an hour or more on most weeks.

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  • How to get Magento to update order status when PayPal returns IPN message?

    - by Nick
    When someone checks out in Magento with PayPal, and PayPal flags their payment for review, Magento correctly sets the order status to "Payment Review". However, if after a day or two PayPal decides the order is OK, it sends an IPN message to Magento with the proper payment status of "Pending" and pending reason of "authorization". I can see this IPN message in Magento's paypal logs (and can simulate it with the sandbox), however, when Magento receives this message it does not update its order status. Why not and how can this be fixed? I am using Magento 1.5.1.0.

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  • Changing CSS classes when different strings are displayed in a text element with jQuery

    - by Nick Maddren
    I'm just wondering if this method would be possible using jQuery HTML and PHP. Basically I have a filtering system were products are listed, some have different attribute values such as Hatchback for example. The text element that holds these PHP echo's also have a css class that implements an icon. I'm just wondering can I alter class's that are added to a html element just by looking at the string? So for example if the string displays "Pick-up" then jQuery alters the class and adds the one associated with the "Pick-up" string? Thanks sorry if this is a little confusing, I can explain more if needed.

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  • Game engine help

    - by Nick
    So, I am looking to start designing a video game. My biggest problem right now is choosing the right game engine. I am hiring a programmer, so the language doesn't really matter as much. What I need is an engine with these features, for very, very cheap: -Ability to create very realistic AI -Ability to display, hundreds, possibly thousands of characters Also, if anyone has any experience with Darkbasic Pro, if they could give me a basic run-through and review of it. Thanks a lot!

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  • Small adventure game

    - by Nick Rosencrantz
    I'm making a small adventure game where the player can walk through Dungeons and meet scary characters: The whole thing is 20 java classes and I'm making this a standalone frame while it could very well be an applet I don't want to make another applet since I might want to recode this in C/C++ if the game or game engine turns out a success. The engine is the most interesting part of the game, it controls players and computer-controlled characters such as Zombies, Reptile Warriors, Trolls, Necromancers, and other Persons. These persons can sleep or walk around in the game and also pick up and move things. I didn't add many things so I suppose that is the next thing to do is to add things that can get used now that I already added many different types of walking persons. What do you think I should add and do with things in the game? The things I have so far is: package adventure; /** * The data type for things. Subclasses will be create that takes part of the story */ public class Thing { /** * The name of the Thing. */ public String name; /** * @param name The name of the Thing. */ Thing( String name ) { this.name = name; } } public class Scroll extends Thing { Scroll (String name) { super(name); } } class Key extends Thing { Key (String name) { super(name); } } The key is the way to win the game if you figure our that you should give it to a certain person and the scroll can protect you from necromancers and trolls. If I make this game more Dungeons and Dragons-inspired, do you think will be any good? Any other ideas that you think I could use here? The Threadwhich steps time forward and wakes up persons is called simulation. Do you think I could do something more advanced with this class? package adventure; class Simulation extends Thread { private PriorityQueue Eventqueue; Simulation() { Eventqueue = new PriorityQueue(); start(); } public void wakeMeAfter(Wakeable SleepingObject, double time) { Eventqueue.enqueue(SleepingObject, System.currentTimeMillis()+time); } public void run() { while(true) { try { sleep(5); //Sov i en halv sekund if (Eventqueue.getFirstTime() <= System.currentTimeMillis()) { ((Wakeable)Eventqueue.getFirst()).wakeup(); Eventqueue.dequeue(); } } catch (InterruptedException e ) { } } } } And here is the class that makes up the actual world: package adventure; import java.awt.*; import java.net.URL; /** * Subklass to World that builds up the Dungeon World. */ public class DungeonWorld extends World { /** * * @param a Reference to adventure game. * */ public DungeonWorld(Adventure a) { super ( a ); // Create all places createPlace( "Himlen" ); createPlace( "Stairs3" ); createPlace( "IPLab" ); createPlace( "Dungeon3" ); createPlace( "Stairs5" ); createPlace( "C2M2" ); createPlace( "SANS" ); createPlace( "Macsal" ); createPlace( "Stairs4" ); createPlace( "Dungeon2" ); createPlace( "Datorsalen" ); createPlace( "Dungeon");//, "Ljushallen.gif" ); createPlace( "Cola-automaten", "ColaAutomat.gif" ); createPlace( "Stairs2" ); createPlace( "Fable1" ); createPlace( "Dungeon1" ); createPlace( "Kulverten" ); // Create all connections between places connect( "Stairs3", "Stairs5", "Down", "Up" ); connect( "Dungeon3", "SANS", "Down", "Up" ); connect( "Dungeon3", "IPLab", "West", "East" ); connect( "IPLab", "Stairs3", "West", "East" ); connect( "Stairs5", "Stairs4", "Down", "Up" ); connect( "Macsal", "Stairs5", "South", "Norr" ); connect( "C2M2", "Stairs5", "West", "East" ); connect( "SANS", "C2M2", "West", "East" ); connect( "Stairs4", "Dungeon", "Down", "Up" ); connect( "Datorsalen", "Stairs4", "South", "Noth" ); connect( "Dungeon2", "Stairs4", "West", "East" ); connect( "Dungeon", "Stairs2", "Down", "Up" ); connect( "Dungeon", "Cola-automaten", "South", "North" ); connect( "Stairs2", "Kulverten", "Down", "Up" ); connect( "Stairs2", "Fable1", "East", "West" ); connect( "Fable1", "Dungeon1", "South", "North" ); // Add things // --- Add new things here --- getPlace("Cola-automaten").addThing(new CocaCola("Ljummen cola")); getPlace("Cola-automaten").addThing(new CocaCola("Avslagen Cola")); getPlace("Cola-automaten").addThing(new CocaCola("Iskall Cola")); getPlace("Cola-automaten").addThing(new CocaCola("Cola Light")); getPlace("Cola-automaten").addThing(new CocaCola("Cuba Cola")); getPlace("Stairs4").addThing(new Scroll("Scroll")); getPlace("Dungeon3").addThing(new Key("Key")); Simulation sim = new Simulation(); // Load images to be used as appearance-parameter for persons Image studAppearance = owner.loadPicture( "Person.gif" ); Image asseAppearance = owner.loadPicture( "Asse.gif" ); Image trollAppearance = owner.loadPicture( "Loke.gif" ); Image necromancerAppearance = owner.loadPicture( "Necromancer.gif" ); Image skeletonAppearance = owner.loadPicture( "Reptilewarrior.gif" ); Image reptileAppearance = owner.loadPicture( "Skeleton.gif" ); Image zombieAppearance = owner.loadPicture( "Zombie.gif" ); // --- Add new persons here --- new WalkingPerson(sim, this, "Peter", studAppearance); new WalkingPerson(sim, this, "Zombie", zombieAppearance ); new WalkingPerson(sim, this, "Zombie", zombieAppearance ); new WalkingPerson(sim, this, "Skeleton", skeletonAppearance ); new WalkingPerson(sim, this, "John", studAppearance ); new WalkingPerson(sim, this, "Skeleton", skeletonAppearance ); new WalkingPerson(sim, this, "Skeleton", skeletonAppearance ); new WalkingPerson(sim, this, "Skeleton", skeletonAppearance ); new WalkingPerson(sim, this, "Sean", studAppearance ); new WalkingPerson(sim, this, "Reptile", reptileAppearance ); new LabAssistant(sim, this, "Kate", asseAppearance); new LabAssistant(sim, this, "Jenna", asseAppearance); new Troll(sim, this, "Troll", trollAppearance); new Necromancer(sim, this, "Necromancer", necromancerAppearance); } /** * * The place where persons are placed by default * *@return The default place. * */ public Place defaultPlace() { return getPlace( "Datorsalen" ); } private void connect( String p1, String p2, String door1, String door2) { Place place1 = getPlace( p1 ); Place place2 = getPlace( p2 ); place1.addExit( door1, place2 ); place2.addExit( door2, place1 ); } } Thanks

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  • How advanced are author-recognition methods?

    - by Nick Rtz
    From a written text by an author if a computer program analyses the text, how much can a computer program tell today about the author of some (long enough to be statistically significant) texts? Can the computer program even tell with "certainty" whether a man or a woman wrote this text based solely on the contents of the text and not an investigation such as ip numbers etc? I'm interested to know if there are algorithms in use for instance to automatically know whether an author was male or female or similar characteristics of an author that a computer program can decide based on analyses of the written text by an author. It could be useful to know before you read a message what a computer analyses says about the author, do you agree? If I for instance get a longer message from my wife that she has had an accident in Nigeria and the computer program says that with 99 % probability the message was written by a male author in his sixties of non-caucasian origin or likewise, or by somebody who is not my wife, then the computer program could help me investigate why a certain message differs in characteristics. There can also be other uses for instance just detecting outliers in a geographically or demographically bounded larger data set. Scam detection is the obvious use I'm thinking of but there could also be other uses. Are there already such programs that analyse a written text to tell something about the author based on word choice, use of pronouns, unusual language usage, or likewise?

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  • Suitability of ground fog using layered alpha quads?

    - by Nick Wiggill
    A layered approach would use a series of massive alpha-textured quads arranged parallel to the ground, intersecting all intervening terrain geometry, to provide the illusion of ground fog quite effectively from high up, looking down, and somewhat less effectively when inside the fog and looking toward the horizon (see image below). Alternatively, a shader-heavy approach would instead calculate density as function of view distance into the ground fog substrate, and output the fragment value based on that. Without having to performance-test each approach myself, I would like first to hear others' experiences (not speculation!) on what sort of performance impact the layered alpha texture approach is likely to have. I ask specifically due to the oft-cited impacts of overdraw (not sure how fill-rate bound your average desktop system is). A list of games using this approach, particularly older games, would be immensely useful: if this was viable on pre DX9/OpenGL2 hardware, it is likely to work fine for me. One big question is in regards to this sort of effect: (Image credit goes to Lume of lume.com) Notice how the vertical fog gradation is continuous / smooth. OTOH, using textured quad layers, I can only assume that layers would be mighty obvious when walking through them -- the more sparse they were, the more obvious this would be. This is in contrast to where fog planes are aligned to face the player every frame, where this coarseness would be much less obvious.

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