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  • What technologies to use for a particle system with enormous calculation demand?

    - by Amir Rezaei
    I have a particle system with X particles. Each particle tests for collision with other particles. This gives X*X = X^2 collision tests per frame. For 60f/s, this corresponds to 60*X^2 collision detection per second. What is the best technological approach for these intensive calculations? Should I use F#, C, C++ or C#, or something else? The following are constraints The code is written in C# with the latest XNA Multi-threaded may be considered No special algorithm that tests the collision with the nearest neighbors or that reduces the problem The last constraint may be strange, so let me explain. Regardless constraint 3, given a problem with enormous computational requirement what would be the best approach to solve the problem. An algorithm reduces the problem; still the same algorithm may behave different depending on technology. Consider pros and cons of CLR vs native C.

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  • Are memory leaks ever ok?

    - by Imbue
    Is it ever acceptable to have a memory leak in your C or C++ application? What if you allocate some memory and use it until the very last line of code in your application (for example, a global object's deconstructor)? As long as the memory consumption doesn't grow over time, is it OK to trust the OS to free your memory for you when your application terminates (on Windows, Mac, and Linux)? Would you even consider this a real memory leak if the memory was being used continuously until it was freed by the OS. What if a third party library forced this situation on you? Would refuse to use that third party library no matter how great it otherwise might be? I only see one practical disadvantage, and that is that these benign leaks will show up with memory leak detection tools as false positives.

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  • Detecting crosses in an image

    - by MrOrdinaire
    I am working on a program to detect the tips of a probing device and analyze the color change during probing. The input/output mechanisms are more or less in place. What I need now is the actual meat of the thing: detecting the tips. In the images below, the tips are at the center of the crosses. I thought of applying BFS to the images after some threshold'ing but was then stuck and didn't know how to proceed. I then turned to OpenCV after reading that it offers feature detection in images. However, I am overwhelmed by the vast amount of concepts and techniques utilized here and again, clueless about how to proceed. Am I looking at it the right way? Can you give me some pointers? Image extracted from short video Binary version with threshold set at 95

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  • C/C++ detect network type

    - by Gavimoss
    I need to write a win32 c/c++ application which will be able to determine whether the PC it's running on is connected to one of 2 networks. The first network is the company LAN (which has no internet connection) and the second network is a standalone switch with a single PC connected to it (the PC that the program is running on). I'm pretty new to network programming but so far I have tried testing to see if a network drive which is held on our LAN can be mapped. This works fine if the PC is connected to the LAN, the drive mapping succeeds so so LAN detection is successful. However, if the PC is connected to the switch, this results in a VERY long timeout which is not a suitable as it will delay the program so much as to make it unusable. Does anyone have any alternative suggestions? I'm using c/c++ in VS 6.0

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  • Attaching functions to elements in a loop

    - by user435377
    I have the following HTML and JavaScript it works for the first set of elements when I have a '1' in the selector but when I replace the '1' with an 'i' it doesn't attach itself to any of the elements. Any ideas as to why this might not be working? (the script is meant to add the first 3 columns of each row and display it in the fourth) <html> <head> <script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <script> $(document).ready(function(){ for (i = 2; i <= 14; i++) { $("#Q19_LND_"+i).keyup(function(){ $("#autoSumRow_"+i).val(Number($("#Q19_LND_"+i).val()) + Number($("#Q19_CE_"+i).val()) + Number($("#Q19_SOLSD_"+i).val())); }); $("#Q19_CE_"+i).keyup(function(){ $("#autoSumRow_"+i).val(Number($("#Q19_LND_"+i).val()) + Number($("#Q19_CE_"+i).val()) + Number($("#Q19_SOLSD_"+i).val())); }); $("#Q19_SOLSD_"+i).keyup(function(){ $("#autoSumRow_"+i).val(Number($("#Q19_LND_"+i).val()) + Number($("#Q19_CE_"+i).val()) + Number($("#Q19_SOLSD_"+i).val())); }); } }); </script> </head> <body> <table> <tr> <td><font face="arial" size="-1">Lap Roux-N-Y</font>&nbsp;</td> <td align="center"><input tabindex="1" type="text" name="Q19_LND_1" size="3" value="" id="Q19_LND_1"></td> <td align="center"><input tabindex="2" type="text" name="Q19_CE_1" size="3" value="" id="Q19_CE_1"></td> <td align="center"><input tabindex="3" type="text" name="Q19_SOLSD_1" size="3" value="" id="Q19_SOLSD_1"></td> <td align="center"><input tabindex="4" disabled type="text" name="autoSumRow_1" size="3" value="" id="autoSumRow_1"></td> </tr> <tr> <td nowrap width="1" bgcolor="#006699" colspan="9"><img src="/images/wi/nothing.gif" width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> <tr> <td><font face="arial" size="-1">Lap Esophagectomy</font>&nbsp;</td> <td align="center"><input tabindex="5" type="text" name="Q19_LND_2" size="3" value="" id="Q19_LND_2"></td> <td align="center"><input tabindex="6" type="text" name="Q19_CE_2" size="3" value="" id="Q19_CE_2"></td> <td align="center"><input tabindex="7" type="text" name="Q19_SOLSD_2" size="3" value="" id="Q19_SOLSD_2"></td> <td align="center"><input tabindex="8" disabled type="text" name="autoSumRow_2" size="3" value="" id="autoSumRow_2"></td> </tr> <tr> </table> </body> </html>

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  • Finding the longest road in a Settlers of Catan game algorithmically

    - by Jay
    I'm writing a Settlers of Catan clone for a class. One of the extra credit features is automatically determining which player has the longest road. I've thought about it, and it seems like some slight variation on depth-first search could work, but I'm having trouble figuring out what to do with cycle detection, how to handle the joining of a player's two initial road networks, and a few other minutiae. How could I do this algorithmically? For those unfamiliar with the game, I'll try to describe the problem concisely and abstractly: I need to find the longest possible path in an undirected cyclic graph.

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  • OPENGL Android getting the coordinates of my image

    - by Debopam
    I used the codes from the following the website. And it helped a lot to draw the required object on my screen. But the problem I am facing is getting the coordinates of my object. Let me explain. According to the code. You just need to add your graphic images in PNG format and refer it to the class here. What I am trying to achieve is a simple collision detection mechanism. I have added a maze (as PNG). And have a object (as PNG) to go through the blank path within the maze. In order to do this I need to know the blank spaces within the coordinates through which my object will move. Can any one tell me how to get the blank spaces as (x,y) coordinates through which I can take my object?

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  • Detecting inconsistent revisions of shared sources in SVN

    - by maxim1000
    I have an SVN repository containing several components: LibraryA LibraryB - depends on LibraryA Application - depends on LibraryB and LibraryA More detailed structure (branches and tags are not related to the problem): LibraryA LibraryA_code LibraryB LibraryB_code svn:externals to a fixed revision R1 of LibraryA_code Application Application_code svn:externals to a fixed revision R2 of LibraryA_code svn:externals to a fixed revision R3 of LibraryB_code The problem I'm trying to solve is automatic detection of situation when R2 differs from R1 (breaking expectations of LibraryB_code) and notification about this (e.g. build failure). I'll describe in an answer the only solution which I see for now, but I hope for something more elegant :) Environment: Windows, Visual Studio, SVN.

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  • Vim plugin only works when file is provided as arg to launch command

    - by nsfyn55
    I am using the plugin java_getset.vim. The issue is that the plugin's commands are only available when I launch vim with the file as an argument. user@machine~: vim myfile.java If launch vim and use command-t or NerdTree to open the file in a buffer the plugin's commands are not accessible. All the filetype detection stuff is configured and working(I have syntax highlighting and indentation). The plugin source appears to be written to the letter according the the vim docs for a filetype plugin. Can anyone help me understand what changes a can make so that I can use this plugin in conjunction with Command-t?

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  • September 2011 Release of the Ajax Control Toolkit

    - by Stephen Walther
    I’m happy to announce the release of the September 2011 Ajax Control Toolkit. This release has several important new features including: Date ranges – When using the Calendar extender, you can specify a start and end date and a user can pick only those dates which fall within the specified range. This was the fourth top-voted feature request for the Ajax Control Toolkit at CodePlex. Twitter Control – You can use the new Twitter control to display recent tweets associated with a particular Twitter user or tweets which match a search query. Gravatar Control – You can use the new Gravatar control to display a unique image for each user of your website. Users can upload custom images to the Gravatar.com website or the Gravatar control can display a unique, auto-generated, image for a user. You can download this release this very minute by visiting CodePlex: http://AjaxControlToolkit.CodePlex.com Alternatively, you can execute the following command from the Visual Studio NuGet console: Improvements to the Ajax Control Toolkit Calendar Control The Ajax Control Toolkit Calendar extender control is one of the most heavily used controls from the Ajax Control Toolkit. The developers on the Superexpert team spent the last sprint focusing on improving this control. There are three important changes that we made to the Calendar control: we added support for date ranges, we added support for highlighting today’s date, and we made fixes to several bugs related to time zones and daylight savings. Using Calendar Date Ranges One of the top-voted feature requests for the Ajax Control Toolkit was a request to add support for date ranges to the Calendar control (this was the fourth most voted feature request at CodePlex). With the latest release of the Ajax Control Toolkit, the Calendar extender now supports date ranges. For example, the following page illustrates how you can create a popup calendar which allows a user only to pick dates between March 2, 2009 and May 16, 2009. <%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="CalendarDateRange.aspx.cs" Inherits="WebApplication1.CalendarDateRange" %> <%@ Register TagPrefix="asp" Namespace="AjaxControlToolkit" Assembly="AjaxControlToolkit" %> <html> <head runat="server"> <title>Calendar Date Range</title> </head> <body> <form id="form1" runat="server"> <asp:ToolkitScriptManager ID="tsm" runat="server" /> <asp:TextBox ID="txtHotelReservationDate" runat="server" /> <asp:CalendarExtender ID="Calendar1" TargetControlID="txtHotelReservationDate" StartDate="3/2/2009" EndDate="5/16/2009" SelectedDate="3/2/2009" runat="server" /> </form> </body> </html> This page contains three controls: an Ajax Control Toolkit ToolkitScriptManager control, a standard ASP.NET TextBox control, and an Ajax Control Toolkit CalendarExtender control. Notice that the Calendar control includes StartDate and EndDate properties which restrict the range of valid dates. The Calendar control shows days, months, and years outside of the valid range as struck out. You cannot select days, months, or years which fall outside of the range. The following video illustrates interacting with the new date range feature: If you want to experiment with a live version of the Ajax Control Toolkit Calendar extender control then you can visit the Calendar Sample Page at the Ajax Control Toolkit Sample Site. Highlighted Today’s Date Another highly requested feature for the Calendar control was support for highlighting today’s date. The Calendar control now highlights the user’s current date regardless of the user’s time zone. Fixes to Time Zone and Daylight Savings Time Bugs We fixed several significant Calendar extender bugs related to time zones and daylight savings time. For example, previously, when you set the Calendar control’s SelectedDate property to the value 1/1/2007 then the selected data would appear as 12/31/2006 or 1/1/2007 or 1/2/2007 depending on the server time zone. For example, if your server time zone was set to Samoa (UTC-11:00), then setting SelectedDate=”1/1/2007” would result in “12/31/2006” being selected in the Calendar. Users of the Calendar extender control found this behavior confusing. After careful consideration, we decided to change the Calendar extender so that it interprets all dates as UTC dates. In other words, if you set StartDate=”1/1/2007” then the Calendar extender parses the date as 1/1/2007 UTC instead of parsing the date according to the server time zone. By interpreting all dates as UTC dates, we avoid all of the reported issues with the SelectedDate property showing the wrong date. Furthermore, when you set the StartDate and EndDate properties, you know that the same StartDate and EndDate will be selected regardless of the time zone associated with the server or associated with the browser. The date 1/1/2007 will always be the date 1/1/2007. The New Twitter Control This release of the Ajax Control Toolkit introduces a new twitter control. You can use the Twitter control to display recent tweets associated with a particular twitter user. You also can use this control to show the results of a twitter search. The following page illustrates how you can use the Twitter control to display recent tweets made by Scott Hanselman: <%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="TwitterProfile.aspx.cs" Inherits="WebApplication1.TwitterProfile" %> <%@ Register TagPrefix="asp" Namespace="AjaxControlToolkit" Assembly="AjaxControlToolkit" %> <html > <head runat="server"> <title>Twitter Profile</title> </head> <body> <form id="form1" runat="server"> <asp:ToolkitScriptManager ID="tsm" runat="server" /> <asp:Twitter ID="Twitter1" ScreenName="shanselman" runat="server" /> </form> </body> </html> This page includes two Ajax Control Toolkit controls: the ToolkitScriptManager control and the Twitter control. The Twitter control is set to display tweets from Scott Hanselman (shanselman): You also can use the Twitter control to display the results of a search query. For example, the following page displays all recent tweets related to the Ajax Control Toolkit: Twitter limits the number of times that you can interact with their API in an hour. Twitter recommends that you cache results on the server (https://dev.twitter.com/docs/rate-limiting). By default, the Twitter control caches results on the server for a duration of 5 minutes. You can modify the cache duration by assigning a value (in seconds) to the Twitter control's CacheDuration property. The Twitter control wraps a standard ASP.NET ListView control. You can customize the appearance of the Twitter control by modifying its LayoutTemplate, StatusTemplate, AlternatingStatusTemplate, and EmptyDataTemplate. To learn more about the new Twitter control, visit the live Twitter Sample Page. The New Gravatar Control The September 2011 release of the Ajax Control Toolkit also includes a new Gravatar control. This control makes it easy to display a unique image for each user of your website. A Gravatar is associated with an email address. You can visit Gravatar.com and upload an image and associate the image with your email address. That way, every website which uses Gravatars (such as the www.ASP.NET website) will display your image next to your name. For example, I visited the Gravatar.com website and associated an image of a Koala Bear with the email address [email protected]. The following page illustrates how you can use the Gravatar control to display the Gravatar image associated with the [email protected] email address: <%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="GravatarDemo.aspx.cs" Inherits="WebApplication1.GravatarDemo" %> <%@ Register TagPrefix="asp" Namespace="AjaxControlToolkit" Assembly="AjaxControlToolkit" %> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head id="Head1" runat="server"> <title>Gravatar Demo</title> </head> <body> <form id="form1" runat="server"> <asp:ToolkitScriptManager ID="tsm" runat="server" /> <asp:Gravatar ID="Gravatar1" Email="[email protected]" runat="server" /> </form> </body> </html> The page above simply displays the Gravatar image associated with the [email protected] email address: If a user has not uploaded an image to Gravatar.com then you can auto-generate a unique image for the user from the user email address. The Gravatar control supports four types of auto-generated images: Identicon -- A different geometric pattern is generated for each unrecognized email. MonsterId -- A different image of a monster is generated for each unrecognized email. Wavatar -- A different image of a face is generated for each unrecognized email. Retro -- A different 8-bit arcade-style face is generated for each unrecognized email. For example, there is no Gravatar image associated with the email address [email protected]. The following page displays an auto-generated MonsterId for this email address: <%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="GravatarMonster.aspx.cs" Inherits="WebApplication1.GravatarMonster" %> <%@ Register TagPrefix="asp" Namespace="AjaxControlToolkit" Assembly="AjaxControlToolkit" %> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head id="Head1" runat="server"> <title>Gravatar Monster</title> </head> <body> <form id="form1" runat="server"> <asp:ToolkitScriptManager ID="tsm" runat="server" /> <asp:Gravatar ID="Gravatar1" Email="[email protected]" DefaultImageBehavior="MonsterId" runat="server" /> </form> </body> </html> The page above generates the following image automatically from the supplied email address: To learn more about the properties of the new Gravatar control, visit the live Gravatar Sample Page. ASP.NET Connections Talk on the Ajax Control Toolkit If you are interested in learning more about the changes that we are making to the Ajax Control Toolkit then please come to my talk on the Ajax Control Toolkit at the upcoming ASP.NET Connections conference. In the talk, I will present a summary of the changes that we have made to the Ajax Control Toolkit over the last several months and discuss our future plans. Do you have ideas for new Ajax Control Toolkit controls? Ideas for improving the toolkit? Come to my talk – I would love to hear from you. You can register for the ASP.NET Connections conference by visiting the following website: Register for ASP.NET Connections   Summary The previous release of the Ajax Control Toolkit – the July 2011 Release – has had over 100,000 downloads. That is a huge number of developers who are working with the Ajax Control Toolkit. We are really excited about the new features which we added to the Ajax Control Toolkit in the latest September sprint. We hope that you find the updated Calender control, the new Twitter control, and the new Gravatar control valuable when building your ASP.NET Web Forms applications.

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  • SQL SERVER – Resolving SQL Server Connection Errors – SQL in Sixty Seconds #030 – Video

    - by pinaldave
    One of the most famous errors related to SQL Server is about connecting to SQL Server itself. Here is how it goes, most of the time developers have worked with SQL Server and knows pretty much every error which they face during development language. However, hardly they install fresh SQL Server. As the installation of the SQL Server is a rare occasion unless you are DBA who is responsible for such an instance – the error faced during installations are pretty rare as well. I have earlier written an article about this which describes how to resolve the errors which are related to SQL Server connection. Even though the step by step directions are pretty simple there are many first time IT Professional who are not able to figure out how to resolve this error. I have quickly built a video which is covering most of the solutions related to resolving the connection error. In the Fix SQL Server Connection Error article following workarounds are described: SQL Server Services TCP/IP Settings Firewall Settings Enable Remote Connection Browser Services Firewall exception of sqlbrowser.exe Recreating Alias Related Tips in SQL in Sixty Seconds: SQL SERVER – FIX : ERROR : (provider: Named Pipes Provider, error: 40 – Could not open a connection to SQL Server) (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: ) SQL SERVER – Could not connect to TCP error code 10061: No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it SQL SERVER – Connecting to Server Using Windows Authentication by SQLCMD SQL SERVER – Fix : Error: 15372 Failed to generate a ser instance od SQL Server due to a failure in starting the process for the user instance. The connection will be closed SQL SERVER – Dedicated Access Control for SQL Server Express Edition – An error occurred while obtaining the dedicated administrator connection (DAC) port. SQL SERVER – Fix : Error: 4064 – Cannot open user default database. Login failed. Login failed for user What would you like to see in the next SQL in Sixty Seconds video? Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Database, Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL in Sixty Seconds, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Server Management Studio, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology, Video Tagged: Excel

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  • Java Champion Stephen Chin on New Features and Functionality in JavaFX

    - by janice.heiss(at)oracle.com
    In an Oracle Technology Network interview, Java Champion Stephen Chin, Chief Agile Methodologist for GXS, and one of the most prolific and innovative JavaFX developers, provides an update on the rapidly developing changes in JavaFX.Chin expressed enthusiasm about recent JavaFX developments:"There is a lot to be excited about -- JavaFX has a new API face. All the JavaFX 2.0 APIs will be exposed via Java classes that will make it much easier to integrate Java server and client code. This also opens up some huge possibilities for JVM language integration with JavaFX." Chin also spoke about developments in Visage, the new language project created to fill the gap left by JavaFX Script:"It's a domain-specific language for writing user interfaces, which addresses the needs of UI developers. Visage takes over where JavaFX Script left off, providing a statically typed, declarative language with lots of features to make UI development a pleasure.""My favorite language features from Visage are the object literal syntax for quickly building scene graphs and the bind keyword for connecting your UI to the backend model. However, the language is built for UI development from the top down, including subtle details like null-safe dereferencing for exception-less code."Read the entire article.

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  • I have only two languages on my resume - how bad is this?

    - by Karl
    Hi there! I have a question that can be best answered here, given the vast experience some of you guys have! I am going to finish my bachelor's degree in CS and let's face it, I am just comfortable with C++ and Python. C++ - I have no experience to show for and I can't quote the C++ standard like some of the guys on SO do but yet I am comfortable with the language basics and the stuff that mostly matters. With Python, I have demonstrated work experience with a good company, so I can safely put that. I have never touched C, though I have been meaning to do it now. So I cannot write C on my resume because I have not done it ever. Sure I can finish K & R and get a sense of the language in a month, but I don't feel like writing it cause that would be being unfaithful to myself. So the big question is, are two languages on a a resume considered OK or that is usually a bad sign? Most resumes I have seen mention lots of languages and hence my question. Under the language section of my resume, I just mention: C++ and Python and that kinda looks empty! What are your views on this and what do you feel about such a situation? PS: I really don't want to write every single library or API I am familiar with. Or should I?

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  • Messing with the Team

    - by Robert May
    Good Product Owners will help the team be the best that they can be.  Bad product owners will mess with the team and won’t care about the team.  If you’re a product owner, seek to do good and avoid bad behavior at all costs.  Remember, this is for YOUR benefit and you have much power given to you.  Use that power wisely. Scope Creep The product owner has several tools at his disposal to inject scope into an iteration.  First, the product owner can use defects to inject scope.  To do this, they’ll tell the team what functionality that they want to see in a feature.  Then, after the feature is developed, the Product Owner will decide that they don’t really like how the functionality behaves.  To change it, rather than creating a new story, they’ll add a defect.  The functionality is correct, as designed, but the Product Owner doesn’t like it.  By creating the defect, the Product Owner destroys the trust that the team has of the product owner.  They may not be able to count the story, because the Product Owner changed the story in the iteration, and the team then ends up looking like they have low velocity for something over which they have no control.  This is bad.  One way to deal with this is to add “Product Owner Time” to the iteration.  This will slow the velocity, but then the ScrumMaster can tell stake holders that this time is strictly in place to deal with bad behavior of the Product Owner. Another mechanism often used to inject Scope is the concept of directed development.  Outside of planning, stand-ups, or any other meeting, the Product Owner will take a developer aside and ask them to complete a task for them.  This is bad!  The team should be allocating all of their time to development.  If the Product Owner asks for a favor, then time that would normally be used for development will be used for a pet project of the Product Owner and the team will not get credit for this work.  Selfish product owners do this, and I typically see people who were “managers” do this behavior.  Authoritarian command and control development environments also see this happen.  The best thing that can happen is for the team member to report the issue to the ScrumMaster and the ScrumMaster to get very aggressive with management and the Product Owner to try and stop the behavior.  This may result in the ScrumMaster being fired, but if the behavior continues, Scrum is doomed.  This problem is especially bad in cases where the team member’s direct supervisor is the Product Owner.  I don’t recommend that the Product Owner or ScrumMaster have a direct report relationship with team members, since team members need the ability to say no.  To work around this issue, team members need to say no.  If that fails, team members need to add extra time to the iteration to deal with the scope creep injection and accept the lower velocity. As discussed above, another mechanism for injecting scope is by changing acceptance tests after the work is complete.  This is similar to adding defects to change scope and is bad.  To get around, add time for Product Owner uncertainty to the iteration and make sure that stakeholders are aware of the need to add this time because of the Product Owner. Refusing to Prioritize Refusing to prioritize causes chaos for the team.  From the team’s perspective, things that are not important will be worked on while things that the team knows are vital will be ignored.  A poor Product Owner will often pick the stories for the iteration on a whim.  This leads to the team working on many different aspects of the product and results in a lower velocity, since each iteration the team must switch context to the new area of development. The team will also experience confusion about priorities.  In one iteration, Feature X was the highest priority and had to be done.  Then, the following iteration, even though parts of Feature X still need to be completed, no stories to address them will be in the iteration.  However, three iterations later, Feature X will again become high priority. This will cause the team to not trust the Product Owner, and eventually, they’ll stop caring about the features they implement.  They won’t know what is important, so to insulate themselves from the ever changing chaos, they’ll become apathetic to all features.  Team members are some of the most creative people in a company.  By losing their engagement, the company is going to have a substandard product because the passion for the product won’t be in the team. Other signs that the Product Owner refuses to prioritize is that no one outside of the product owner will be consulted on priorities.  Additionally, the product, release, and iteration backlogs will be weak or non-existent. Dealing with this issue is not easy.  This really isn’t something the team can fix, short of taking over the role of Product Owner themselves.  An appeal to the stake holders might work, but only if the Product Owner isn’t a “manager” themselves.  The ScrumMaster needs to protect the team and do what they can to either get the Product Owner to prioritize or have the Product Owner replaced. Managing the Team A Product Owner that is also the “boss” of team members is a Scrum team that is waiting to fail.  If your boss tells you to do something, failing to do that something can cause you to be fired.  The team needs the ability to tell the Product Owner NO.  If the product owner introduces scope creep, the team has a responsibility to tell the Product Owner no.  If the Product Owner tries to get the team to commit to more than they can accomplish in an iteration, the team needs the ability to tell the Product Owner no. If the Product Owner is your boss and determines your pay increases, you’re probably not going to ever tell them no, and Scrum will likely fail.  The team can’t do much in this situation. Another aspect of “managing the team” that often happens is the Product Owner tries to tell the team how to develop the stories that are in the iteration.  This is one reason why I recommend that Product Owners are NOT technical people.  That way, the team can come up with the tasks that are needed to accomplish the stories and the Product Owner won’t know better.  If the Product Owner is technical, the ScrumMaster will need to take great care to protect the team from the ScrumMaster changing how the team thinks they need to implement the stories. Product Owners can also try to manage the team by their body language.  If the team says a task is going to take 6 hours to complete, and the Product Owner disagrees, they will use some kind of sour body language to indicate this disagreement.  In weak teams, this may cause the team to revise their estimate down, which will result in them taking longer than estimated and may result in them missing the iteration.  The ScrumMaster will need to make sure that the Product Owner doesn’t send such messages and that the team ignores them and estimates what they REALLY think it will take to complete the tasks.  Forcing the team to deal with such items in the retrospective can be helpful. Absenteeism The team is completely dependent upon the Product Owner to develop features for the customer.  The Product Owner IS the voice of the customer and without them, the team will lack direction.  Being the Product Owner is a full time job!  If the Product Owner cannot dedicate daily time with the team, a different product owner should be found. The Product Owner needs to attend every stand-up, planning meeting, showcase, and retrospective that the team has.  The team also must be able to have instant communication with the product owner.  They must not be required to schedule meetings to speak with their product owner.  The team must be the highest priority task that the Product Owner has. The best way to work around an absent Product Owner is to appoint a new Product Owner in the team.  This person will be responsible for making the decisions that the Product Owner should be making and to act as the liaison to the absent Product Owner.  If the delegate Product Owner doesn’t have authority to make decisions for the team, Scrum will fail.  If the Product Owner is absent, the ScrumMaster should seek to have that Product Owner replaced by someone who has the time and ability to be a real Product Owner. Making it Personal Too often Product Owners will become convinced that their ideas are the ones that matter and that anyone who disagrees is making a personal attack on them.  Remember that Product Owners will inherently be at odds with many people, simply because they have the need to prioritize.  Others will frequently question prioritization because they only see part of the picture that Product Owners face. Product Owners must have a thick skin and think egos.  If they don’t, they tend to make things personal, which causes them to become emotional and causes them to take actions that can destroy the trust that team members have in the Product Owner. If a Product Owner is making things person, the best thing that team members can do is reassure them that its not personal, but be firm about doing what is best for the Company and for the users.  The ScrumMaster should also spend significant time coaching the Product Owner on how to not react emotionally and how to accept criticism without becoming defensive. Conclusion I’m sure there are other ways that a Product Owner can mess with the team, but these are the most common that I’ve seen.  I would encourage all Product Owners to seek to be a good Product Owner.  If you find yourself behaving in any of the bad product owner ways, change your behavior today!  Your team will thank you. Remember, being Product Owner is very difficult!  Product Owner is one of the most difficult roles in Scrum.  However, it can also be one of the most rewarding roles in Scrum, since Product Owners literally see their ideas brought to life on the computer screen.  Product Owners need to be very patient, even in the face of criticism and need to be willing to make tough decisions on priority, but then not become offended when others disagree with those decisions.  Companies should spend the time needed to find the right product owners for their teams.  Doing so will only help the company to write better software. Technorati Tags: Scrum,Product Owner

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  • Exam 70-480 Study Material: Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3

    - by Stacy Vicknair
    Here’s a list of sources of information for the different elements that comprise the 70-480 exam: General Resources http://www.w3schools.com (As pointed out in David Pallmann’s blog some of this content is unverified, but it is a decent source of information. For more about when it isn’t decent, see http://www.w3fools.com ) http://www.bloggedbychris.com/2012/09/19/microsoft-exam-70-480-study-guide/ (A guy who did a lot of what I did already, sadly I found this halfway through finishing my resources list. This list is expertly put together so I would recommend checking it out.) http://davidpallmann.blogspot.com/2012/08/microsoft-certification-exam-70-480.html http://pluralsight.com/training/Courses (Yes, this isn’t free, but if you look at the course listing there is an entire section on HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript. You can always try the trial!)   Some of the links I put below will overlap with the other resources above, but I tried to find explanations that looked beneficial to me on links outside those already mentioned.   Test Breakdown Implement and Manipulate Document Structures and Objects (24%) Create the document structure. o This objective may include but is not limited to: structure the UI by using semantic markup, including for search engines and screen readers (Section, Article, Nav, Header, Footer, and Aside); create a layout container in HTML http://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_new_elements.asp   Write code that interacts with UI controls. o This objective may include but is not limited to: programmatically add and modify HTML elements; implement media controls; implement HTML5 canvas and SVG graphics http://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_canvas.asp http://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_svg.asp   Apply styling to HTML elements programmatically. o This objective may include but is not limited to: change the location of an element; apply a transform; show and hide elements   Implement HTML5 APIs. o This objective may include but is not limited to: implement storage APIs, AppCache API, and Geolocation API http://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_geolocation.asp http://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_webstorage.asp http://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_app_cache.asp   Establish the scope of objects and variables. o This objective may include but is not limited to: define the lifetime of variables; keep objects out of the global namespace; use the “this” keyword to reference an object that fired an event; scope variables locally and globally http://robertnyman.com/2008/10/09/explaining-javascript-scope-and-closures/ http://www.quirksmode.org/js/this.html   Create and implement objects and methods. o This objective may include but is not limited to: implement native objects; create custom objects and custom properties for native objects using prototypes and functions; inherit from an object; implement native methods and create custom methods http://www.javascriptkit.com/javatutors/object.shtml http://www.crockford.com/javascript/inheritance.html http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1635116/javascript-class-method-vs-class-prototype-method http://www.javascriptkit.com/javatutors/proto.shtml     Implement Program Flow (25%) Implement program flow. o This objective may include but is not limited to: iterate across collections and array items; manage program decisions by using switch statements, if/then, and operators; evaluate expressions http://www.javascriptkit.com/jsref/looping.shtml http://www.javascriptkit.com/javatutors/varshort.shtml http://www.javascriptkit.com/javatutors/switch.shtml   Raise and handle an event. o This objective may include but is not limited to: handle common events exposed by DOM (OnBlur, OnFocus, OnClick); declare and handle bubbled events; handle an event by using an anonymous function http://dev.w3.org/2006/webapi/DOM-Level-3-Events/html/DOM3-Events.html http://javascript.info/tutorial/bubbling-and-capturing   Implement exception handling. o This objective may include but is not limited to: set and respond to error codes; throw an exception; request for null checks; implement try-catch-finally blocks http://www.javascriptkit.com/javatutors/trycatch.shtml   Implement a callback. o This objective may include but is not limited to: receive messages from the HTML5 WebSocket API; use jQuery to make an AJAX call; wire up an event; implement a callback by using anonymous functions; handle the “this” pointer http://www.w3.org/TR/2011/WD-websockets-20110419/ http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/websockets/basics/ http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.ajax/   Create a web worker process. o This objective may include but is not limited to: start and stop a web worker; pass data to a web worker; configure timeouts and intervals on the web worker; register an event listener for the web worker; limitations of a web worker https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/DOM/Using_web_workers http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/workers/basics/   Access and Secure Data (26%) Validate user input by using HTML5 elements. o This objective may include but is not limited to: choose the appropriate controls based on requirements; implement HTML input types and content attributes (for example, required) to collect user input http://diveintohtml5.info/forms.html   Validate user input by using JavaScript. o This objective may include but is not limited to: evaluate a regular expression to validate the input format; validate that you are getting the right kind of data type by using built-in functions; prevent code injection http://www.regular-expressions.info/javascript.html http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/66ztdbe6(v=vs.94).aspx https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/JavaScript/Reference/Operators/typeof http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2008/06/safe-html-and-xss/ http://stackoverflow.com/questions/942011/how-to-prevent-javascript-injection-attacks-within-user-generated-html   Consume data. o This objective may include but is not limited to: consume JSON and XML data; retrieve data by using web services; load data or get data from other sources by using XMLHTTPRequest http://www.erichynds.com/jquery/working-with-xml-jquery-and-javascript/ http://www.webdevstuff.com/86/javascript-xmlhttprequest-object.html http://www.json.org/ http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4935632/how-to-parse-json-in-javascript   Serialize, deserialize, and transmit data. o This objective may include but is not limited to: binary data; text data (JSON, XML); implement the jQuery serialize method; Form.Submit; parse data; send data by using XMLHTTPRequest; sanitize input by using URI/form encoding http://api.jquery.com/serialize/ http://www.javascript-coder.com/javascript-form/javascript-form-submit.phtml http://stackoverflow.com/questions/327685/is-there-a-way-to-read-binary-data-into-javascript https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/encodeURI     Use CSS3 in Applications (25%) Style HTML text properties. o This objective may include but is not limited to: apply styles to text appearance (color, bold, italics); apply styles to text font (WOFF and @font-face, size); apply styles to text alignment, spacing, and indentation; apply styles to text hyphenation; apply styles for a text drop shadow http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_text.asp http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_font.asp http://nicewebtype.com/notes/2009/10/30/how-to-use-css-font-face/ http://webdesign.about.com/od/beginningcss/p/aacss5text.htm http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-text/ http://www.css3.info/preview/box-shadow/   Style HTML box properties. o This objective may include but is not limited to: apply styles to alter appearance attributes (size, border and rounding border corners, outline, padding, margin); apply styles to alter graphic effects (transparency, opacity, background image, gradients, shadow, clipping); apply styles to establish and change an element’s position (static, relative, absolute, fixed) http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/html-css-techniques/10-css3-properties-you-need-to-be-familiar-with/ http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_image_transparency.asp http://www.w3schools.com/cssref/pr_background-image.asp http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/graphics/cssgradientbackgroundmaker/default.html http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/visufx.html http://www.barelyfitz.com/screencast/html-training/css/positioning/ http://davidwalsh.name/css-fixed-position   Create a flexible content layout. o This objective may include but is not limited to: implement a layout using a flexible box model; implement a layout using multi-column; implement a layout using position floating and exclusions; implement a layout using grid alignment; implement a layout using regions, grouping, and nesting http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/flexbox/quick/ http://www.css3.info/preview/multi-column-layout/ http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ie/hh673558(v=vs.85).aspx http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css3-grid-layout/ http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css3-regions/   Create an animated and adaptive UI. o This objective may include but is not limited to: animate objects by applying CSS transitions; apply 3-D and 2-D transformations; adjust UI based on media queries (device adaptations for output formats, displays, and representations); hide or disable controls http://www.bloggedbychris.com/2012/09/19/microsoft-exam-70-480-study-guide/   Find elements by using CSS selectors and jQuery. o This objective may include but is not limited to: choose the correct selector to reference an element; define element, style, and attribute selectors; find elements by using pseudo-elements and pseudo-classes (for example, :before, :first-line, :first-letter, :target, :lang, :checked, :first-child) http://www.bloggedbychris.com/2012/09/19/microsoft-exam-70-480-study-guide/   Structure a CSS file by using CSS selectors. o This objective may include but is not limited to: reference elements correctly; implement inheritance; override inheritance by using !important; style an element based on pseudo-elements and pseudo-classes (for example, :before, :first-line, :first-letter, :target, :lang, :checked, :first-child) http://www.bloggedbychris.com/2012/09/19/microsoft-exam-70-480-study-guide/   Technorati Tags: 70-480,CSS3,HTML5,HTML,CSS,JavaScript,Certification

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  • Stop Believing TV’s Lies: The Real Truth About "Enhancing" Images

    - by Eric Z Goodnight
    You’ve seen it over and over. The FBI uses their advanced technology to “enhance” a blurry image, and find a villain’s face in the worst possible footage. Well, How-To Geek is calling their bluff. Read on to see why. It’s one of the most common tropes in television and movies, but is there any possibility a government agency could really have the technology to find faces where there are only blurry pixels? We’ll make the argument that not only is it impossible with current technology, but it is very unlikely to ever be a technology we’ll ever see. Stick around to see us put this trope under the lenses of science and technology, and prove it wrong once and for all Latest Features How-To Geek ETC Stop Believing TV’s Lies: The Real Truth About "Enhancing" Images The How-To Geek Valentine’s Day Gift Guide Inspire Geek Love with These Hilarious Geek Valentines RGB? CMYK? Alpha? What Are Image Channels and What Do They Mean? How to Recover that Photo, Picture or File You Deleted Accidentally How To Colorize Black and White Vintage Photographs in Photoshop A History of Vintage Transformers: Decepticons Edition [Infographic] How to Determine What Kind of Comment to Leave on Facebook [Humorous Flow Chart] View the Cars of Tomorrow Through the Eyes of the Past [Historical Video] Add Romance to Your Desktop with These Two Valentine’s Day Themes for Windows 7 Gmail’s Priority Inbox Now Available for Mobile Web Browsers Touchpad Blocker Locks Down Your Touchpad While Typing

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  • NINE Questions with Michelle Juett

    - by NINEQuestions
    Michelle Juett is one of the more interesting people I know, even though we’ve never met face to face. She’s part artist, part techie and all cool. We “met” via my good buddy George Clingerman and have plotting to take over the world, errr… I mean “collaborating” ever since. If you happen to live in the Seattle area, you can catch her and her work at Sakura Con on April 2-4, 2010 and various other gamer and art cons throughout the year. You can also find her on Twitter as @Shelldragon. Now that you know a little bit, I’ll let her tell you the rest of the story in these NINE Questions: 1. Where are you from? I was born in Clearwater, Florida. I like to tell people I'm from the Bermuda Triangle, it just makes explaining myself so much easier. My family moved to Washington when I was 5 and I've been in the Pacific Northwest ever since. We like to QQ about the rain but we really love the green trees and clean water. 2. What do you do? I fight evil by moonlight and win love by daylight.. or something like that.  I’ve been in quality assurance for games during the day since January 2008 and an artist for life. I currently work in QA for a really awesome game company in Bellevue.  At home, I work on personal digital art, making game assets as well as other random freelance projects as they pop up. 3. How did you get to where you are now? I'm still not where I want to be but I'm getting closer. The biggest piece of advice I can give is to work hard and never settle for the minimum required. I tend to overwork myself but I've never regretted it. You can want something really bad but if you aren't willing to work for it, then you can't expect it to just happen. I've always drawn and had an unhealthy love for video games that I was told I’d grow out of.  I knew I would not ‘grow out’ of games and that real adults make them and I could too. After I graduated, in searching for jobs, I discovered game testing. I figured this would be a good way to get my foot in the door and start networking. I’ve worked with consoles, websites and now, PC games.  I stuck with my journey, although it has been a rocky one, daylighting as a tester and moonlighting as an artist. I'm still on that journey but I wouldn't have it any other way. Test has given me a perspective that is difficult, if not impossible, to obtain any other way. It gives an unconditional respect for other hard working testers and an insight into creative problem solving. 4. So video game testing probably sounds WAY cooler than the reality. What's it like? What's a given day for you? Game testers don't get a lot of respect because of their stigmas and the fact most people don't actually know what we do.  People hear about the opening and closing disc trays all day. Many places do treat their testers like numbers. It all depends on where you work and how awesome your company is. I've had to deal with a lot of bad work situations to get to a really good one. QA exists to ensure the game is as flawless and enjoyable as it can be by the time it has to leave the nest and go out into the world. This includes everything obvious: “can I beat the level and save the princess?” to the more obscure: ‘What happens when I lose internet connection while trying to save right before falling into a pit to my death while holding the jump key then my cat pulls out my memory card and hides it in her litter box?” On the dev side, for developers, testers can be very scary people. Especially when the test team is not in house and you can’t see each other’s faces.  I've seen both sides. We don't mean to hurt your feelings. We really DO love you and want your game to be the best it can be! It can be some serious tough love. 5. You are also an accomplished artist. Got any major projects right now you'd like to talk about? LOL, I don't know if I’d say I'm an accomplished artist just yet. I’m still a long way from where I want to be. I figure that’s what makes you grow though: the desire to never stop improving. I like QA but I want to be a full time artist. I was lucky enough to register for a table at Sakura Con in the 11 second window that the tables sold out. As such, I’ll be selling my wares in the Artist Alley April 2-4th. Part of preparing for this is actually making the art to be sold there. Anime is a fun pass time but I don’t draw a whole lot of it so I’m making up for lost time. As I seem to enjoy burying myself in work, I’m an art lead for a secret project that’s so secret I might be killed tonight for even mentioning it. I also take on various freelance projects and do what I can to help out indie games. I discovered the XNA community a year and a half ago and developed a love for Indies when I was writing a weekly newsletter on XBLA news. I’m a little late to the party but I find myself in a unique position where I am an artist and also have technical skills in games. While not programmer myself, I have a lot of game sense and experience. I hope to make some awesome happen. Lastly, I have an ongoing web comic Shell’s Angels) that tends to get neglected when I get busy. I still love drawing comics and keep a little book with me to sketch down ideas as they pop into my head. I may pick it back up again as a larger project sometime in the future. 6. Can you talk about any of the other freelance projects you're doing or are you sworn to secrecy on those too? We wouldn't want a team of game developer ninjas to take you out or anything. All my projects are currently 2d. I have personal projects such as the ongoing comic as well as a graphic novel I've been picking at here and there. My main focus until April is Sakura Con, Sakura Con, Sakura Con.  I see it as a great way to get exposure and convention experience. I found out I love conventions a couple years ago and I want to get more involved in them. 7. As an artist, what is your weapon of choice? What do you use to get most of your stuff done? I am a Photoshop Hero and I have the hoodie to prove it. (http://www.pennyarcademerch.com/pah090011.html) I've dabbled in other paint programs but I always gravitate back to Photoshop. She is my one true love. I'd like to learn programs like Flash or Anime Studio when I get a bit more time because of their animation abilities. I've worked on frame by frame animation forever but I would love to learn 2d rigging. Still, nothing can compare to a simple sketchpad and a pencil. I always have one on me in case I come across or think of something interesting and can't get to a computer. If the Courier ever comes to exist it will be an ideal weapon for me. 8. You did some videos too, depicting the art creation process. What was the motivation behind those? The creative process is just as important as the final product, if not more so.  I've always loved watching speed paint videos and wanted to try it out myself. Turns out it's a lot of work and time but it's definitely fun to go back and rewatch them. Art isn't always the end result and is more often the process itself. 9. Got any interesting tattoos? Designed any for yourself or other people? Not yet, but not for lack of desire. I've toiled over what and where for years. Last year, I finally decided the back of my shoulders would be the place. Like anything permanent, I want it to have meaning. I thought of somehow incorporating games but I couldn't find something I felt would stand the test of time even with all the classic sprite games. I'm very picky so we'll see if I can get something solid decided. Come see me at Sakura Con April 2 -4!!!

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  • Should i scrap my own leader board and go for the Facebook built in one?

    - by Magnus Johansson
    Currently I'm rolling my own score and leader board functionality in my FB canvas game. In my game, users can see what score they have, in addition I have a public leader board where everybody can see all scores from all other users.(I also have possibility for each user to set themselves as anonymous in the leader board, if desired) But now I started thinking; why do I have my own leader board system? Facebook has this scores API and I started play around with it. It, of course, integrates well with Facebook, scores and achievement showing up in the ticker and what not. But it seems that I can't let each user see a public leader board in much the same way I currently have it. But it do let the users see their friends score. Let's face it, this is all what FB is all about, right? Friends. So the question is; should i scrap my own leader board and go for the Facebook built in one (and skip the public part of it)? My gut feeling says yes, but I wanted to hear what other thinks.

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  • Profile of Scott L Newman

    - by Ratman21
    To:       Whom It May Concern From: Scott L Newman Date:   4/23/2010 Re:      Profile Who is he, what can he do? Two very good questions. #1. I am a 20 + years experience Information Technology Professional (hold on don’t hit delete yet!). Who is not over the hill (I am on top of it) and still knows how to do (and can still do) that thing call work! #2. A can do attitude, that does not allow problems to sit unfixed. I have a broad range of skills, including: Certified CompTIA A+, Security+ and Network+ Technician §         2.5 years (NOC) Network experience on large Cisco based Wan – UK to Austria §         20 years experience MIS/DP – Yes I can do IBM mainframes and Tandem non-stops too §         18 years experience as technical Help Desk support – panicking users, no problem §         18 years experience with PC/Server based system, intranet and internet systems §         10+ years experienced on: Microsoft Office, Windows XP and Data Network Fundamentals (YES I do windows) §         Strong trouble shooting skills for software, hard ware and circuit issues (and I can tell you what kind of horrors I had to face on all of them). §         Very experienced on working with customers on problems – again panicking users, no problem §         Working experience with Remote Access (VPN/SecurID) – I didn’t just study them I worked on/with them §         Skilled in getting info for and creating documentation for Operation procedures (I do not just wait for them to give it to me I go out and get it. Waiting for info on working applications is, well dumb) Multiple software languages (Hey I have done some programming) And much more experiences in “IT” (Mortgage, stocks and financial information systems experience and have worked “IT” in a hospital) Can multitask, also have ability to adapt to change and learn quickly. (once was put in charge of a system that I had not worked with for over two years. Talk about having to relearn and adapt to changes fast. But I did it.)   The summarization is that I know what do, know keep things going and how to fix it when it breaks.   Scott L. Newman Confidential

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  • 30 in 60 Contest | Standings Update

    - by Staff of Geeks
    The contest has definitely ended the first week with a clear leader.  One of our new bloggers, Enrique Lima, has posted 20 times since the beginning of the contest with some great content on Team Foundation Server.  Another noticeable face we see on the leader board is Chris Williams who is making headway.  Chris, are you going to challenge up D’Arcy Lussier for the lead position on GWB again, notice who isn’t on this list :D.  Also, Chris House who is a new blogger is making some strong strides.  And finally, let us not forget Dave Campbell who writes Silverlight Cream who always has great content for us.  We hope to see more names joining this list soon, what else could be better than a world full of Geekswithblogs.net custom shirts?   Current Leader Board: Enrique Lima (20 posts) - http://geekswithblogs.net/enriquelima Eric Nelson (7 posts) - http://geekswithblogs.net/iupdateable Christopher House (7 posts) - http://geekswithblogs.net/13DaysaWeek StuartBrierley (7 posts) - http://geekswithblogs.net/StuartBrierley Dave Campbell (6 posts) - http://geekswithblogs.net/WynApseTechnicalMusings Chris Williams (5 posts) - http://geekswithblogs.net/cwilliams Frez (4 posts) - http://geekswithblogs.net/Frez MarkPearl (4 posts) - http://geekswithblogs.net/MarkPearl mbcrump (4 posts) - http://geekswithblogs.net/mbcrump Rajesh Charagandla (3 posts) - http://geekswithblogs.net/crajesh Technorati Tags: 30 in 60,Geekswithblogs,Standings

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  • SQL SERVER – Demo Script – Keeping CPU Busy

    - by pinaldave
    Recently face very interesting situation, during presentations at event, I was asked very famous questions: “My CPU is very high all the time, how can I reduce it?” This is very interesting question and there are many answers and a single blog post is not good enough to justify this subject. I presented few situation to the person who asked the question. The member of the audience who asked question came to me afterwords and asked me few detailed questions. To answer him, I quickly wrote query which simulate high CPU. Here is the script which I wrote which increased CPU from 10% to 80%. I was wondering if there is any similar script which can simulate high CPU usage. If you have share with me and I will publish with due credit. Here is my script for the same: USE AdventureWorks GO DECLARE @Flag INT SET @Flag = 1 WHILE(@Flag < 1000) BEGIN ALTER INDEX [PK_SalesOrderDetail_SalesOrderID_SalesOrderDetailID] ON [Sales].[SalesOrderDetail] REBUILD SET @Flag = @Flag + 1 END GO   Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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  • SQL SERVER – Fix: Error: Compatibility Level Drop Down is Empty

    - by Pinal Dave
    I currently have SQL Server 2012 and SQL Server 2014 both installed on the same machine. My job requires me to travel a lot and I like to travel light. Hence, I have only one computer with all the software installed in it. I can install Virtual Machines but as I was able to install SQL Server 2012 and SQL Server 2014 side by side, I just went ahead with that option. Now one day when I opened up my SQL Server 2014 and went to the properties of the my database, I realized that the dropdown box for Compatibility level is empty. I just can’t select anything there or see what is the current Compatibility level of the database. This was the first time for me so I was bit confused and I tried to search online. Upon searching online I realize that if I was not the first, there are very few questions on this subject on various forums as well as there is no convincing answer to this problem online. That means, I was pretty much first one to face this error. See the image of the situation I was facing. Now I decided to resolve this issue as soon as I can. I spent a few minutes here and there and realize my mistake. I had connected to SQL Server 2014 instance from SQL Server 2012 Management Studio. Hence, I was not able to see any compatibility related settings. Once I connected to SQL Server 2014 instance with SQL Server 2014 Management Studio – this issue was resolved. Well, simple things sometimes keep us very busy. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Error Messages, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL

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  • That Escalated Quickly

    - by Jesse Taber
    Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/GruffCode/archive/2014/05/17/that-escalated-quickly.aspxI have been working remotely out of my home for over 4 years now. All of my coworkers during that time have also worked remotely. Lots of folks have written about the challenges inherent in facilitating communication on remote teams and strategies for overcoming them. A popular theme around this topic is the notion of “escalating communication”. In this context “escalating” means taking a conversation from one mode of communication to a different, higher fidelity mode of communication. Here are the five modes of communication I use at work in order of increasing fidelity: Email – This is the “lowest fidelity” mode of communication that I use. I usually only check it a few times a day (and I’m trying to check it even less frequently than that) and I only keep items in my inbox if they represent an item I need to take action on that I haven’t tracked anywhere else. Forums / Message boards – Being a developer, I’ve gotten into the habit of having other people look over my code before it becomes part of the product I’m working on. These code reviews often happen in “real time” via screen sharing, but I also always have someone else give all of the changes another look using pull requests. A pull request takes my code and lets someone else see the changes I’ve made side-by-side with the existing code so they can see if I did anything dumb. Pull requests can facilitate a conversation about the code changes in an online-forum like style. Some teams I’ve worked on also liked using tools like Trello or Google Groups to have on-going conversations about a topic or task that was being worked on. Chat & Instant Messaging  - Chat and instant messaging are the real workhorses for communication on the remote teams I’ve been a part of. I know some teams that are co-located that also use it pretty extensively for quick messages that don’t warrant walking across the office to talk with someone but reqire more immediacy than an e-mail. For the purposes of this post I think it’s important to note that the terms “chat” and “instant messaging” might insinuate that the conversation is happening in real time, but that’s not always true. Modern chat and IM applications maintain a searchable history so people can easily see what might have been discussed while they were away from their computers. Voice, Video and Screen sharing – Everyone’s got a camera and microphone on their computers now, and there are an abundance of services that will let you use them to talk to other people who have cameras and microphones on their computers. I’m including screen sharing here as well because, in my experience, these discussions typically involve one or more people showing the other participants something that’s happening on their screen. Obviously, this mode of communication is much higher-fidelity than any of the ones listed above. Scheduled meetings are typically conducted using this mode of communication. In Person – No matter how great communication tools become, there’s no substitute for meeting with someone face-to-face. However, opportunities for this kind of communcation are few and far between when you work on a remote team. When a conversation gets escalated that usually means it moves up one or more positions on this list. A lot of people advocate jumping to #4 sooner than later. Like them, I used to believe that, if it was possible, organizing a call with voice and video was automatically better than any kind of text-based communication could be. Lately, however, I’m becoming less convinced that escalating is always the right move. Working Asynchronously Last year I attended a talk at our local code camp given by Drew Miller. Drew works at GitHub and was talking about how they use GitHub internally. Many of the folks at GitHub work remotely, so communication was one of the main themes in Drew’s talk. During the talk Drew used the phrase, “asynchronous communication” to describe their use of chat and pull request comments. That phrase stuck in my head because I hadn’t heard it before but I think it perfectly describes the way in which remote teams often need to communicate. You don’t always know when your co-workers are at their computers or what hours (if any) they are working that day. In order to work this way you need to assume that the person you’re talking to might not respond right away. You can’t always afford to wait until everyone required is online and available to join a voice call, so you need to use text-based, persistent forms of communication so that people can receive and respond to messages when they are available. Going back to my list from the beginning of this post for a second, I characterize items #1-3 as being “asynchronous” modes of communication while we could call items #4 and #5 “synchronous”. When communication gets escalated it’s almost always moving from an asynchronous mode of communication to a synchronous one. Now, to the point of this post: I’ve become increasingly reluctant to escalate from asynchronous to synchronous communication for two primary reasons: 1 – You can often find a higher fidelity way to convey your message without holding a synchronous conversation 2 - Asynchronous modes of communication are (usually) persistent and searchable. You Don’t Have to Broadcast Live Let’s start with the first reason I’ve listed. A lot of times you feel like you need to escalate to synchronous communication because you’re having difficulty describing something that you’re seeing in words. You want to provide the people you’re conversing with some audio-visual aids to help them understand the point that you’re trying to make and you think that getting on Skype and sharing your screen with them is the best way to do that. Firing up a screen sharing session does work well, but you can usually accomplish the same thing in an asynchronous manner. For example, you could take a screenshot and annotate it with some text and drawings to illustrate what it is you’re seeing. If a screenshot won’t work, taking a short screen recording while your narrate over it and posting the video to your forum or chat system along with a text-based description of what’s in the recording that can be searched for later can be a great way to effectively communicate with your team asynchronously. I Said What?!? Now for the second reason I listed: most asynchronous modes of communication provide a transcript of what was said and what decisions might have been made during the conversation. There have been many occasions where I’ve used the search feature of my team’s chat application to find a conversation that happened several weeks or months ago to remember what was decided. Unfortunately, I think the benefits associated with the persistence of communicating asynchronously often get overlooked when people decide to escalate to a in-person meeting or voice/video call. I’m becoming much more reluctant to suggest a voice or video call if I suspect that it might lead to codifying some kind of design decision because everyone involved is going to hang up the call and immediately forget what was decided. I recognize that you can record and archive these types of interactions, but without being able to search them the recordings aren’t terribly useful. When and How To Escalate I don’t mean to imply that communicating via voice/video or in person is never a good idea. I probably jump on a Skype call with a co-worker at least once a day to quickly hash something out or show them a bit of code that I’m working on. Also, meeting in person periodically is really important for remote teams. There’s no way around the fact that sometimes it’s easier to jump on a call and show someone my screen so they can see what I’m seeing. So when is it right to escalate? I think the simplest way to answer that is when the communication starts to feel painful. Everyone’s tolerance for that pain is different, but I think you need to let it hurt a little bit before jumping to synchronous communication. When you do escalate from asynchronous to synchronous communication, there are a couple of things you can do to maximize the effectiveness of the communication: Takes notes – This is huge and yet I’ve found that a lot of teams don’t do this. If you’re holding a meeting with  > 2 people you should have someone taking notes. Taking notes while participating in a meeting can be difficult but there are a few strategies to deal with this challenge that probably deserve a short post of their own. After the meeting, make sure the notes are posted to a place where all concerned parties (including those that might not have attended the meeting) can review and search them. Persist decisions made ASAP – If any decisions were made during the meeting, persist those decisions to a searchable medium as soon as possible following the conversation. All the teams I’ve worked on used a web-based system for tracking the on-going work and a backlog of work to be done in the future. I always try to make sure that all of the cards/stories/tasks/whatever in these systems always reflect the latest decisions that were made as the work was being planned and executed. If held a quick call with your team lead and decided that it wasn’t worth the effort to build real-time validation into that new UI you were working on, go and codify that decision in the story associated with that work immediately after you hang up. Even better, write it up in the story while you are both still on the phone. That way when the folks from your QA team pick up the story to test a few days later they’ll know why the real-time validation isn’t there without having to invoke yet another conversation about the work. Communicating Well is Hard At this point you might be thinking that communicating asynchronously is more difficult than having a live conversation. You’re right: it is more difficult. In order to communicate effectively this way you need to very carefully think about the message that you’re trying to convey and craft it in a way that’s easy for your audience to understand. This is almost always harder than just talking through a problem in real time with someone; this is why escalating communication is such a popular idea. Why wouldn’t we want to do the thing that’s easier? Easier isn’t always better. If you and your team can get in the habit of communicating effectively in an asynchronous manner you’ll find that, over time, all of your communications get less painful because you don’t need to re-iterate previously made points over and over again. If you communicate right the first time, you often don’t need to rehash old conversations because you can go back and find the decisions that were made laid out in plain language. You’ll also find that you get better at doing things like writing useful comments in your code, creating written documentation about how the feature that you just built works, or persuading your team to do things in a certain way.

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  • ArchBeat Link-o-Rama for 2012-03-16

    - by Bob Rhubart
    Applications Architecture | Roy Hunter and Brian Rasmussen www.oracle.com Roy Hunter and Brian Rasmussen examine the strategies three organizations applied to modernize their application architectures. Part of the Oracle Experiences in Enterprise Architecture article series. Public Sector Architecture | Jeremy Foreman and Hamza Jahangir www.oracle.com Jeremy Foreman and Hamza Jahangir examine the strategies used by two different organizations in deploying their respective future-state architectures. Part of the Oracle Experiences in Enterprise Architecture article series. XMLA vs BAPI | Sunil S. Ranka sranka.wordpress.com Oracle ACE Sunil Ranka's brief primer on the XMLA and BAPI standards. The Java EE 6 Example - Running Galleria on WebLogic 12 - Part 3 | Markus Eisele blog.eisele.net Oracle ACE Director Markus Eisele continues his series on working with Galleria. Oracle Linux Online Forum - March 27 event.on24.com Date: Tuesday, March 27, 2012 Time: 9:30 AM PT / 12:30 PM ET Hosts: Oracle Executives Edward Screven and Wim Coekaerts. Customer Presentation: How Oracle Helps Reduce Cost and Improve Performance of Database Applications at Progressive Insurance Speaker: John Dome What's New in Oracle Linux Speakers: Waseem Daher, Chris Mason, Elena Zannoni, Lenz Grimmer Get More Value from your Linux Vendor Speakers: Sergio Leunissen, Chris Mason, Monica Kumar JavaOne 2012 Call for Papers www.oracle.com Don't keep all that Java skill locked up in your overstuffed cranium. Submit your proposal for that killer paper now to share your experience at this year’s JavaOne. Running applications in the cloud are not designed for the cloud | Tom Laszewski blogs.oracle.com "The issue you face with moving client/server applications to the cloud via rehosting is 'where will the applications run?'" says Tom Laszewski. GlassFish 3.1.2 - Which Platform(s)? | The Aquarium blogs.oracle.com The Aquarium shares a list of GlassFish 3.1.2-supported operating systems and JVMs. IT Strategies from Oracle; Three Recipes for Oracle Service Bus 11g ; Stir Up Some SOA www.oracle.com Featured this week on the OTN Architect Portal, along with the latest events, product downloads, community social resources, articles on hot topics, and a whole lot more. Thought for the Day "No matter what the problem is, it's always a people problem." — Gerald M. Weinberg

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  • Are there any font rendering libraries for games development that support hinting?

    - by Richard Fabian
    I've used angel code's bitmap font generator quite a bit and though it's very good, I wondered if there would be a way of using the hinting information to provide a better readable result by using hinting to provide differing thickness based on size/pixel coverage. I imagine any solution would have to use the distance field tech presented in the valve paper on smoothing fonts while maintaining or reducing asset size. (http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=494612) but I haven't found any demos of it being used with hinting information turned on or included in the field gradients in any way. Another way of looking at this is whether there are any font bitmap generators that will output mipmaps that still maintain their readability in the face of pixel size. I think the lower mip levels would try to guarantee fill and space where it is necessary to maintain readability/topology over maintaining style/form (the point of hinting). In response to "Is there a reason you can't just render the size you want", the problem lies in the fact that font rasterisers currently don't render in 3D, and hinting information would be important in different amounts due to the pixel density being different along different axes, even differing in importance along the length of a string due to the size reducing over distance. For example, I only want horizontal hinting in a texture that is viewed from the side, and only really want vertical hinting in a font that is viewed from below or above. This isn't meant to be a renderer that tries to render a perfect outline as accurately as possible, as hinting distorts the reality of the font, instead this is meant to be a rendering solution for quite static scenes, but scenes that have 3D transformed and warped text layout. In this case the legibility is important, more important than the accuracy of representation of the polygon shape.

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