Search Results

Search found 5311 results on 213 pages for 'begin'.

Page 93/213 | < Previous Page | 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100  | Next Page >

  • Libgdx - 2D Mesh rendering overlap glitch

    - by user46858
    I am trying to render a 2D circle segment mesh (quarter circle)using Libgdx/Opengl ES 2.0 but I seem to be getting an overlapping issue as seen in the picture attached. I cant seem to find the cause of the problem but the overlapping disappears/reappears if I drag and resize the window to random sizes. The problem occurs on both pc and android. The strange thing is the first two segments atleast dont seem to be causing any overlapping only the third and/or forth segment.......even though they are all rendered using the same mesh object..... I have spent ages trying to find the cause of the problem before posting here for help so ANY help/advice in finding the cause of this problem would be really appreciated. public class MyGdxGame extends Game { private SpriteBatch batch; private Texture texture; private OrthographicCamera myCamera; private float w; private float h; private ShaderProgram circleSegShader; private Mesh circleScaleSegMesh; private Stage stage; private float TotalSegments; Vector3 virtualres; @Override public void create() { w = Gdx.graphics.getWidth(); h = Gdx.graphics.getHeight(); batch = new SpriteBatch(); ViewPortsize = new Vector2(); TotalSegments = 4.0f; virtualres = new Vector3(1280.0f, 720.0f, 0.0f); myCamera = new OrthographicCamera(); myCamera.setToOrtho(false, w, h); texture = new Texture(Gdx.files.internal("data/libgdx.png")); texture.setFilter(TextureFilter.Linear, TextureFilter.Linear); circleScaleSegMesh = createCircleMesh_V3(0.0f,0.0f,200.0f, 30.0f,3, (360.0f /TotalSegments) ); circleSegShader = loadShaderFromFile(new String("circleseg.vert"), new String("circleseg.frag")); shaderProgram.pedantic = false; stage = new Stage(); stage.setViewport(new ExtendViewport(w, h)); Gdx.input.setInputProcessor(stage); } @Override public void render() { .... //render renderInit(); renderCircleScaledSegment(); } @Override public void resize(int width, int height) { stage.getViewport().update(width, height, true); myCamera.position.set( virtualres.x/2.0f, virtualres.y/2.0f, 0.0f); myCamera.update(); } public void renderInit(){ Gdx.gl20.glClearColor(1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f); Gdx.gl20.glClear(GL20.GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL20.GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT); batch.setShader(null); batch.setProjectionMatrix(myCamera.combined); } public void renderCircleScaledSegment(){ Gdx.gl20.glEnable(GL20.GL_DEPTH_TEST); Gdx.gl20.glBlendFunc(GL20.GL_SRC_ALPHA, GL20.GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA); Gdx.gl20.glEnable(GL20.GL_BLEND); batch.begin(); circleSegShader.begin(); Matrix4 modelMatrix = new Matrix4(); Matrix4 cameraMatrix = new Matrix4(); Matrix4 cameraMatrix2 = new Matrix4(); Matrix4 cameraMatrix3 = new Matrix4(); Matrix4 cameraMatrix4 = new Matrix4(); cameraMatrix = myCamera.combined.cpy(); modelMatrix.idt().rotate(new Vector3(0.0f,0.0f,1.0f), 0.0f - ((360.0f /TotalSegments)/ 2.0f)).trn(virtualres.x/2.0f,virtualres.y/2.0f, 0.0f); cameraMatrix.mul(modelMatrix); cameraMatrix2 = myCamera.combined.cpy(); modelMatrix.idt().rotate(new Vector3(0.0f,0.0f,1.0f), 0.0f - ((360.0f /TotalSegments)/ 2.0f) +(360.0f /TotalSegments) ).trn(virtualres.x/2.0f,virtualres.y/2.0f, 0.0f); cameraMatrix2.mul(modelMatrix); cameraMatrix3 = myCamera.combined.cpy(); modelMatrix.idt().rotate(new Vector3(0.0f,0.0f,1.0f), 0.0f - ((360.0f /TotalSegments)/ 2.0f) +(2*(360.0f /TotalSegments))).trn(virtualres.x/2.0f,virtualres.y/2.0f, 0.0f); cameraMatrix3.mul(modelMatrix); cameraMatrix4 = myCamera.combined.cpy(); modelMatrix.idt().rotate(new Vector3(0.0f,0.0f,1.0f),0.0f - ((360.0f /TotalSegments)/ 2.0f) +(3*(360.0f /TotalSegments)) ).trn(virtualres.x/2.0f,virtualres.y/2.0f, 0.0f); cameraMatrix4.mul(modelMatrix); Vector3 box2dpos = new Vector3(0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f); circleSegShader.setUniformMatrix("u_projTrans", cameraMatrix); circleSegShader.setUniformf("u_box2dpos", box2dpos); circleSegShader.setUniformi("u_texture", 0); texture.bind(); circleScaleSegMesh.render(circleSegShader, GL20.GL_TRIANGLES); circleSegShader.setUniformMatrix("u_projTrans", cameraMatrix2); circleSegShader.setUniformf("u_box2dpos", box2dpos); circleSegShader.setUniformi("u_texture", 0); texture.bind(); circleScaleSegMesh.render(circleSegShader, GL20.GL_TRIANGLES); circleSegShader.setUniformMatrix("u_projTrans", cameraMatrix3); circleSegShader.setUniformf("u_box2dpos", box2dpos); circleSegShader.setUniformi("u_texture", 0); texture.bind(); circleScaleSegMesh.render(circleSegShader, GL20.GL_TRIANGLES); circleSegShader.setUniformMatrix("u_projTrans", cameraMatrix4); circleSegShader.setUniformf("u_box2dpos", box2dpos); circleSegShader.setUniformi("u_texture", 0); texture.bind(); circleScaleSegMesh.render(circleSegShader, GL20.GL_TRIANGLES); circleSegShader.end(); batch.flush(); batch.end(); Gdx.gl20.glDisable(GL20.GL_DEPTH_TEST); Gdx.gl20.glDisable(GL20.GL_BLEND); } public Mesh createCircleMesh_V3(float cx, float cy, float r_out, float r_in, int num_segments, float segmentSizeDegrees){ float theta = (float) (2.0f * MathUtils.PI / (num_segments * (360.0f / segmentSizeDegrees))); float c = MathUtils.cos(theta);//precalculate the sine and cosine float s = MathUtils.sin(theta); float t,t2; float x = r_out;//we start at angle = 0 float y = 0; float x2 = r_in;//we start at angle = 0 float y2 = 0; float[] meshCoords = new float[num_segments *2 *3 *7]; int arrayIndex = 0; //array for triangles without indices for(int ii = 0; ii < num_segments; ii++) { meshCoords[arrayIndex] = x2+cx; meshCoords[arrayIndex +1] = y2+cy; meshCoords[arrayIndex +2] = 0.0f; meshCoords[arrayIndex +3] = 63.0f/255.0f; meshCoords[arrayIndex +4] = 139.0f/255.0f; meshCoords[arrayIndex +5] = 217.0f/255.0f; meshCoords[arrayIndex +6] = 0.7f; arrayIndex = arrayIndex + 7; meshCoords[arrayIndex] = x+cx; meshCoords[arrayIndex +1] = y+cy; meshCoords[arrayIndex +2] = 0.0f; meshCoords[arrayIndex +3] = 63.0f/255.0f; meshCoords[arrayIndex +4] = 139.0f/255.0f; meshCoords[arrayIndex +5] = 217.0f/255.0f; meshCoords[arrayIndex +6] = 0.7f; arrayIndex = arrayIndex + 7; t = x; x = c * x - s * y; y = s * t + c * y; meshCoords[arrayIndex] = x+cx; meshCoords[arrayIndex +1] = y+cy; meshCoords[arrayIndex +2] = 0.0f; meshCoords[arrayIndex +3] = 63.0f/255.0f; meshCoords[arrayIndex +4] = 139.0f/255.0f; meshCoords[arrayIndex +5] = 217.0f/255.0f; meshCoords[arrayIndex +6] = 0.7f; arrayIndex = arrayIndex + 7; meshCoords[arrayIndex] = x2+cx; meshCoords[arrayIndex +1] = y2+cy; meshCoords[arrayIndex +2] = 0.0f; meshCoords[arrayIndex +3] = 63.0f/255.0f; meshCoords[arrayIndex +4] = 139.0f/255.0f; meshCoords[arrayIndex +5] = 217.0f/255.0f; meshCoords[arrayIndex +6] = 0.7f; arrayIndex = arrayIndex + 7; meshCoords[arrayIndex] = x+cx; meshCoords[arrayIndex +1] = y+cy; meshCoords[arrayIndex +2] = 0.0f; meshCoords[arrayIndex +3] = 63.0f/255.0f; meshCoords[arrayIndex +4] = 139.0f/255.0f; meshCoords[arrayIndex +5] = 217.0f/255.0f; meshCoords[arrayIndex +6] = 0.7f; arrayIndex = arrayIndex + 7; t2 = x2; x2 = c * x2 - s * y2; y2 = s * t2 + c * y2; meshCoords[arrayIndex] = x2+cx; meshCoords[arrayIndex +1] = y2+cy; meshCoords[arrayIndex +2] = 0.0f; meshCoords[arrayIndex +3] = 63.0f/255.0f; meshCoords[arrayIndex +4] = 139.0f/255.0f; meshCoords[arrayIndex +5] = 217.0f/255.0f; meshCoords[arrayIndex +6] = 0.7f; arrayIndex = arrayIndex + 7; } Mesh myMesh = new Mesh(VertexDataType.VertexArray, false, meshCoords.length, 0, new VertexAttribute(VertexAttributes.Usage.Position, 3, "a_position"), new VertexAttribute(VertexAttributes.Usage.Color, 4, "a_color")); myMesh.setVertices(meshCoords); return myMesh; } }

    Read the article

  • Can I save & store a user's submission in a way that proves that the data has not been altered, and that the timestamp is accurate?

    - by jt0dd
    There are many situations where the validity of the timestamp attached to a certain post (submission of information) might be invaluable for the post owner's legal usage. I'm not looking for a service to achieve this, as requested in this great question, but rather a method for the achievement of such a service. For the legal (in most any law system) authentication of text content and its submission time, the owner of the content would need to prove: that the timestamp itself has not been altered and was accurate to begin with. that the text content linked to the timestamp had not been altered I'd like to know how to achieve this via programming (not a language-specific solution, but rather the methodology behind the solution). Can a timestamp be validated to being accurate to the time that the content was really submitted? Can data be stored in a form that it can be read, but not written to, in a proven way? In other words, can I save & store a user's submission in a way that proves that the data has not been altered, and that the timestamp is accurate? I can't think of any programming method that would make this possible, but I am not the most experienced programmer out there. Based on MidnightLightning's answer to the question I cited, this sort of thing is being done. Clarification: I'm looking for a method (hashing, encryption, etc) that would allow an average guy like me to achieve the desired effect through programming. I'm interested in this subject for the purpose of Defensive Publication. I'd like to learn a method that allows an every-day programmer to pick up his computer, write a program, pass information through it, and say: I created this text at this moment in time, and I can prove it. This means the information should be protected from the programmer who writes the code as well. Perhaps a 3rd party API would be required. I'm ok with that.

    Read the article

  • Workflow: Operate Zones

    - by Owen Allen
    The Operate Zones workflow is another of the workflow documents that we introduced recently. It follows naturally after the Deploy Oracle Solaris 11 Zones workflow that I talked about last week, so I thought I'd talk about it next. This workflow is less linear than the zone deployment workflow. It's built around this image: The left side shows you the prerequisites for zone operation: you have to deploy libraries and deploy either Oracle Solaris 10 or 11 zones - whichever type you want to manage using this workflow. Once you have the zones deployed, you can begin to operate them. If you want to associate resources with the global zone, the workflow directs you to the Exploring Your Server Pools how-to, which talks about adding global zones to server pools and associating libraries and network resources with them. Otherwise, it directs you to a set of how-tos about zone management: Managing the Configuration of a Zone, which explains how to add storage, edit zone attributes, and connect zones to networks; Lifecycle Management of Zones, which explains how to halt, shut down, boot, reboot, or delete a zone; and Migrating Zones, which explains how to move a zone to a new global zone in the same server pool. Finally, it directs you to the Update Oracle Solaris workflow when you want to update your zones, and to the Monitor and Manage Incidents workflow to learn more about monitoring your assets.

    Read the article

  • What is the correct way to deal with similar but independent features?

    - by Koviko
    Let's say we have a feature request come in and we begin work on it, which we'll call feature-1. It introduces some new logic to the application, which we'll call logic-A and logic-B. A programmer branches from the release branch and begins work on the feature. Soon after, we get another feature request, which we'll call feature-2. It will implement logic-A and logic-C into the application. The logic A being implemented by this feature is the same logic-A as was implemented in feature-1. Let's also say that given logic-B, logic-A might be implemented slightly differently than it would have been given logic-C, and also differently given both logic-B and logic-C (eg. with only one feature, the code would be less flexible than with both). How should this situation be handled? Concrete Example (to help with any confusion in my wording) feature-1 is a feed from programmers.stackexchange.com. feature-2 is a feed from gaming.stackexchange.com. logic-A is the implementation of a feed at all (assuming the application currently has no feeds), which links to the content as well and gives related information. logic-B is that the feed's source is from programmers.stackexchange.com. Adds to logic-A that the related programming language is displayed. logic-C is that the feed's source is from gaming.stackexchange.com. Adds to logic-A that the related game's name and box art is displayed.

    Read the article

  • Libgdx detect when player is outside of screen

    - by Rockyy
    Im trying to learn libGDX (coming from XNA/MonoDevelop), and I'm making a super simple test game to get to know it better. I was wondering how to detect if the player sprite is outside of the screen and make it so it is impossible to go outside of the screen edges. In XNA you could do something like this: // Prevent player from moving off the left edge of the screen if (player.Position.X < 0) player.Position = new Vector2(0, player.Position.Y); How is this achieved in libgdx? I think it's the Stage that handles the 2D viewport in libgdx? This is my code so far: private Texture texture; private SpriteBatch batch; private Sprite sprite; @Override public void create () { float w = Gdx.graphics.getWidth(); float h = Gdx.graphics.getHeight(); batch = new SpriteBatch(); texture = new Texture(Gdx.files.internal("player.png")); sprite = new Sprite(texture); sprite.setPosition(w/2 -sprite.getWidth()/2, h/2 - sprite.getHeight()/2); } @Override public void render () { Gdx.gl.glClearColor(1, 1, 1, 1); Gdx.gl.glClear(GL20.GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT); if(Gdx.input.isKeyPressed(Input.Keys.LEFT)){ if(Gdx.input.isKeyPressed(Input.Keys.CONTROL_LEFT)) sprite.translateX(-1f); else sprite.translateX(-10.0f); } if(Gdx.input.isKeyPressed(Input.Keys.RIGHT)){ if(Gdx.input.isKeyPressed(Input.Keys.CONTROL_LEFT)) sprite.translateX(1f); else sprite.translateX(10f); } batch.begin(); sprite.draw(batch); batch.end(); }

    Read the article

  • SQLAuthority News – SQL Server Interview Questions And Answers Book Summary

    - by pinaldave
    Today we are using computers for various activities, motor vehicles for traveling to places, and mobile phones for conversation. How many of us can claim the invention of micro-processor, a basic wheel, or the telegraph? Similarly, this book was not written overnight. The journey of this book goes many years back with many individuals to be thanked for. To begin with, we want to thank all those interviewers who reject interviewees by saying they need to know ‘the key things’ regardless of having high grades in class. The whole concept of interview questions and answers revolves around knowing those ‘key things’. The core concept of this book will continue to evolve over time. I am sure many of you will come along with us on this journey and submit your suggestions to us to make this book a key reference for anybody who wants to start with SQL Server. Today we want to acknowledge the fact that you will help us keep this book alive forever with the latest updates. We want to thank everyone who participates in this journey with us. Though each of these chapters are geared towards convenience we highly recommend reading each of the sections irrespective of the roles you might be doing since each of the sections have some interesting trivia about working with SQL Server. In the industry the role of accidental DBA’s (especially with SQL Server) is very common. Hence if you have performed the role of DBA for a short stint and want to brush-up your fundamentals then the upcoming sections will be a great review. Table Of Contents Database Concepts With Sql Server Common Generic Questions & Answers Common Developer Questions Common Tricky Questions Miscellaneous Questions On Sql Server 2008 Dba Skills Related Questions Data Warehousing Interview Questions & Answers General Best Practices [Amazon] | [Flipkart] Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Best Practices, Database, Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Interview Questions and Answers, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology

    Read the article

  • Partner Webcast - Oracle SOA Suite 12c: Connect 4 Cloud, Mobile, IoT with On-premise

    - by Thanos Terentes Printzios
    The pace of new business projects continues to grow from increasing customer self-service to seamlessly connecting all your back office and in-the-field applications. At the same time increased integration complexity may seem inevitable as organizations are suddenly faced with the requirement to support three new integration challenges:  » Cloud Integration - integrate with the cloud, rapidly integrate a growing list of cloud applications with existing applications » Mobile Integration - the urgency to mobile-enable existing applications » IoT Integration - begin development on the latest trend of connecting Internet of Things (IoT) devices to your existing infrastructure. Oracle SOA Suite 12c, the latest version of the industry’s most complete and unified application integration and SOA solution, aims to simplify, accelerate and optimize integrations. Oracle SOA Suite 12c and its associated products, Oracle Managed File Transfer, Oracle Cloud and Application Adapters, B2B and healthcare integration, offer the industry’s most highly integrated platform for solving the increased integration challenges. Oracle SOA Suite 12c is a complete, integrated and best-of-breed platform. It enables next generation integration capabilities through: · A unified toolset for the development of services and composite applications.· A standards-based platform that is service enabled and easily consumable by modern web applications, allowing enterprises to quickly and easily adapt to changes in their business and IT environments.· Greater visibility, controls and analytics to govern how services and processes are deployed, reused and changed across their entire lifecycle. Join us to find out more about the new features of Oracle SOA Suite 12c and how it enables you to reduce time to market for new project integration and to reduce integration cost and complexity. Oracle SOA Suite is the ability to simplify by integrating the disparate requirements of cloud, mobile, and IoT devices with existing on-premise applications. Agenda: Oracle SOA Suite 12c new Features Cloud Integration Mobile Enablement Internet of Things (IoT) Summary - Q&A Delivery Format This FREE online LIVE eSeminar will be delivered over the Web. Registrations received less than 24hours prior to start time may not receive confirmation to attend. Presenter: Heba Fouad – FMW Specialist, Technology Adoption, ECEMEA Partner Business Development Date: Thursday, August 28th, 10pm CEST (8am UTC/11am EEST)Duration: 1 hour Register Here For any questions please contact us at partner.imc-AT-beehiveonline.oracle-DOT-com

    Read the article

  • SQL SERVER – Get Free Books on While Learning SQL Server 2012 Error Handling

    - by pinaldave
    Fans of this blog are aware that I have recently released my new books SQL Server Functions and SQL Server 2012 Queries. The books are available in market in limited edition but you can avail them for free on Wednesday Nov 14, 2012. Not only they are free but you can additionally learn SQL Server 2012 Error Handling as well. My book’s co-author Rick Morelan is presenting a webinar tomorrow on SQL Server 2012 Error Handling. Here is the brief abstract of the webinar: People are often shocked when they see the demo in this talk where the first statement fails and all other statements still commit. For example, did you know that BEGIN TRAN…COMMIT TRAN is not enough to make everything work together? These mistakes can still happen to you in SQL Server 2012 if you are not aware of the options. Rick Morelan, creator of Joes2Pros, will teach you how to predict the Error Action and control it with & without structured error handling. Register for the webinar now to learn: How to predict the Error Action and control it Nuances between successful and failing SQL statements Essential SQL Server 2012 configuration options Register for the Webinar and be present during the webinar. My co-author will announce a winner (may be more than 1 winner) during the session. If you are present during the session – you are eligible to win the book. The webinar is scheduled for 2 different times to accommodate various time zones. 1) 10am ET/7am PT 2) 1pm ET/11am PT. Each webinar will have their own winner. You can increase your chances by attending both the webinars. Do not miss this opportunity and register for the webinar right now. The recordings of the webinar may not be available. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Joes 2 Pros, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology

    Read the article

  • SQL SERVER – Function to Round Up Time to Nearest Minutes Interval

    - by pinaldave
    Though I have written more than 2300 blog posts, I always find things which I have not covered earlier in this blog post. Recently I was asked if I have written a function which rounds up or down the time based on the minute interval passed to it. Well, not earlier but it is here today. Here is a very simple example of how one can do the same. ALTER FUNCTION [dbo].[RoundTime] (@Time DATETIME, @RoundToMin INT) RETURNS DATETIME AS BEGIN RETURN ROUND(CAST(CAST(CONVERT(VARCHAR,@Time,121) AS DATETIME) AS FLOAT) * (1440/@RoundToMin),0)/(1440/@RoundToMin) END GO Above function needs two values. 1) The time which needs to be rounded up or down. 2) Time in minutes (the value passed here should be between 0 and 60 – if the value is incorrect the results will be incorrect.) Above function can be enhanced by adding functionalities like a) Validation of the parameters passed b) Accepting values like Quarter Hour, Half Hour etc. Here are few sample examples. SELECT dbo.roundtime1('17:29',30) SELECT dbo.roundtime1(GETDATE(),5) SELECT dbo.roundtime1('2012-11-02 07:27:07.000',15) When you run above code, it will return following results. Well, do you have any other way to achieve the same result? If yes, do share it here and I will be glad to share it on blog with due credit. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL DateTime, SQL Function, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

    Read the article

  • How to start a s3ql script automatically on boot?

    - by ks78
    I've been experimenting with s3ql on Ubuntu 10.04, using it to mount Amazon S3 buckets. However, I'd really like it to mount them automatically. Does anyone know how to do that? I've been working on a script, which works when its run from from the commandline, but for some reason I can't get it to run automatically on boot. Does anyone have any ideas? Here's my script: #! /bin/sh # /etc/init.d/s3ql # ### BEGIN INIT INFO # Provides: s3ql # Required-Start: $remote_fs $syslog # Required-Stop: $remote_fs $syslog # Default-Start: 2 3 4 5 # Default-Stop: 0 1 6 # Short-Description: Start daemon at boot time # Description: Enable service provided by daemon. ### END INIT INFO case "$1" in start) # Redirect stdout and stderr into the system log DIR=$(mktemp -d) mkfifo "$DIR/LOG_FIFO" logger -t s3ql -p local0.info < "$DIR/LOG_FIFO" & exec > "$DIR/LOG_FIFO" exec 2>&1 rm -rf "$DIR" modprobe fuse fsck.s3ql --batch s3://mybucket exec mount.s3ql --allow-other s3://mybucket /mnt/s3fs ;; stop) umount.s3ql /mnt/s3fs ;; *) echo "Usage: /etc/init.d/s3ql{start|stop}" exit 1 ;; esac exit 0

    Read the article

  • How To Make Hundreds of Complex Photo Edits in Seconds With Photoshop Actions

    - by Eric Z Goodnight
    Have a huge folder of images needing tweaks? A few hundred adjustments may seem like a big, time consuming job—but read one to see how Photoshop can do repetitive tasks automatically, even if you don’t know how to program! Photoshop Actions are a simple way to program simple routines in Photoshop, and are a great time saver, allowing you to re-perform tasks over and over, saving you minutes or hours, depending on the job you have to work on. See how any bunch of images and even some fairly complicated photo tweaking can be done automatically to even hundreds of images at once. When Can I use Photoshop Actions? Photoshop actions are a way of recording the tools, menus, and keys pressed while using the program. Each time you use a tool, adjust a color, or use the brush, it can be recorded and played back over any file Photoshop can open. While it isn’t perfect and can get very confused if not set up correctly, it can automate editing hundreds of images, saving you hours and hours if you have big jobs with complex edits. The image illustrated above is a template for a polaroid-style picture frame. If you had several hundred images, it would actually be a simple matter to use Photoshop Actions to create hundreds of new images inside the frame in almost no time at all. Let’s take a look at how a simple folder of images and some Image editing automation can turn lots of work into a simple and easy job. Creating a New Action Actions is a default part of the “Essentials” panel set Photoshop begins with as a default. If you can’t see the panel button under the “History” button, you can find Actions by going to Window > Actions or pressing Alt + F9. Click the in the Actions Panel, pictured in the previous illustration on the left. Choose to create a “New Set” in order to begin creating your own custom Actions. Name your action set whatever you want. Names are not relevant, you’ll simply want to make it obvious that you have created it. Click OK. Look back in the layers panel. You’ll see your new Set of actions has been added to the list. Click it to highlight it before going on. Click the again to create a “New Action” in your new set. If you care to name your action, go ahead. Name it after whatever it is you’re hoping to do—change the canvas size, tint all your pictures blue, send your image to the printer in high quality, or run multiple filters on images. The name is for your own usage, so do what suits you best. Note that you can simplify your process by creating shortcut keys for your actions. If you plan to do hundreds of edits with your actions, this might be a good idea. If you plan to record an action to use every time you use Photoshop, this might even be an invaluable step. When you create a new Action, Photoshop automatically begins recording everything you do. It does not record the time in between steps, but rather only the data from each step. So take your time when recording and make sure you create your actions the way you want them. The square button stops recording, and the circle button starts recording again. With these basics ready, we can take a look at a sample Action. Recording a Sample Action Photoshop will remember everything you input into it when it is recording, even specific photographs you open. So begin recording your action when your first photo is already open. Once your first image is open, click the record button. If you’re already recording, continue on. Using the File > Place command to insert the polaroid image can be easier for Actions to deal with. Photoshop can record with multiple open files, but it often gets confused when you try it. Keep your recordings as simple as possible to ensure your success. When the image is placed in, simply press enter to render it. Select your background layer in your layers panel. Your recording should be following along with no trouble. Double click this layer. Double clicking your background layer will create a new layer from it. Allow it to be renamed “Layer 0” and press OK. Move the “polaroid” layer to the bottom by selecting it and dragging it down below “Layer 0” in the layers panel. Right click “Layer 0” and select “Create Clipping Mask.” The JPG image is cropped to the layer below it. Coincidentally, all actions described here are being recorded perfectly, and are reproducible. Cursor actions, like the eraser, brush, or bucket fill don’t record well, because the computer uses your mouse movements and coordinates, which may need to change from photo to photo. Click the to set your Photograph layer to a “Screen” blending mode. This will make the image disappear when it runs over the white parts of the polaroid image. With your image layer (Layer 0) still selected, navigate to Edit > Transform > Scale. You can use the mouse to resize your Layer 0, but Actions work better with absolute numbers. Visit the Width and Height adjustments in the top options panel. Click the chain icon to link them together, and adjust them numerically. Depending on your needs, you may need to use more or less than 30%. Your image will resize to your specifications. Press enter to render, or click the check box in the top right of your application. + Click on your bottom layer, or “polaroid” in this case. This creates a selection of the bottom layer. Navigate to Image > Crop in order to crop down to your bottom layer selection Your image is now resized to your bottommost layer, and Photoshop is still recording to that effect. For additional effect, we can navigate to Image > Image Rotation > Arbitrary to rotate our image by a small tilt. Choosing 3 degrees clockwise , we click OK to render our choice. Our image is rotated, and this step is recorded. Photoshop will even record when you save your files. With your recording still going, find File > Save As. You can easily tell Photoshop to save in a new folder, other than the one you have been working in, so that your files aren’t overwritten. Navigate to any folder you wish, but do not change the filename. If you change the filename, Photoshop will record that name, and save all your images under whatever you type. However, you can change your filetype without recording an absolute filename. Use the pulldown tab and select a different filetype—in this instance, PNG. Simply click “Save” to create a new PNG based on your actions. Photoshop will record the destination and the change in filetype. If you didn’t edit the name of your file, it will always use the variable filename of any image you open. (This is very important if you want to edit hundreds of images at once!) Click File > Close or the red “X” in the corner to close your filetype. Photoshop can record that as well. Since we have already saved our image as a JPG, click “NO” to not overwrite your original image. Photoshop will also record your choice of “NO” for subsequent images. In your Actions panel, click the stop button to complete your action. You can always click the record button to add more steps later, if you want. This is how your new action looks with its steps expanded. Curious how to put it into effect? Read on to see how simple it is to use that recording you just made. Editing Lots of Images with Your New Action Open a large number of images—as many as you care to work with. Your action should work immediately with every image on screen, although you may have to test and re-record, depending on how you did. Actions don’t require any programming knowledge, but often can get confused or work in a counter-intuitive way. Record your action until it is perfect. If it works once without errors, it’s likely to work again and again! Find the “Play” button in your Actions Panel. With your custom action selected, click “Play” and your routine will edit, save, and close each file for you. Keep bashing “Play” for each open file, and it will keep saving and creating new files until you run out of work you need to do. And in mere moments, a complicated stack of work is done. Photoshop actions can be very complicated, far beyond what is illustrated here, and can even be combined with scripts and other actions, creating automated creation of potentially very complex files, or applying filters to an entire portfolio of digital photos. Have questions or comments concerning Graphics, Photos, Filetypes, or Photoshop? Send your questions to [email protected], and they may be featured in a future How-To Geek Graphics article. Image Credits: All images copyright Stephanie Pragnell and author Eric Z Goodnight, protected under Creative Commons. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC How To Make Hundreds of Complex Photo Edits in Seconds With Photoshop Actions How to Enable User-Specific Wireless Networks in Windows 7 How to Use Google Chrome as Your Default PDF Reader (the Easy Way) How To Remove People and Objects From Photographs In Photoshop Ask How-To Geek: How Can I Monitor My Bandwidth Usage? Internet Explorer 9 RC Now Available: Here’s the Most Interesting New Stuff Smart Taskbar Is a Thumb Friendly Android Task Launcher Comix is an Awesome Comics Archive Viewer for Linux Get the MakeUseOf eBook Guide to Speeding Up Windows for Free Need Tech Support? Call the Star Wars Help Desk! [Video Classic] Reclaim Vertical UI Space by Adding a Toolbar to the Left or Right Side of Firefox Androidify Turns You into an Android-style Avatar

    Read the article

  • MCSE and MCSA makes a return to the world of certification..... but not as you know it.

    - by Testas
    Quick announcementMicrosoft Learning today announced the certification tracks for the upcoming SQL Server 2012 exams.You begin by acheiving the MCSA - Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (Not to be confused by the old Microsoft Certified System Administrator)If you are starting out this includes taking the following three exams:Exam 70-461: Querying Microsoft SQL Server 2012Exam 70-462: Administering Microsoft SQL Server 2012 DatabasesExam 70-463: Implementing a Data Warehouse with Microsoft SQL Server 2012If you have an MCTS in SQL Server 2008 already you can take the following pathA pass in a SQL Server 2008 (MCTS) Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist examExam 70-457: transisitioning your MCTS on SQL Server 2008 to MCSA on SQL Server 2012 part 1Exam 70-458: transisitioning your MCTS on SQL Server 2008 to MCSA on SQL Server 2012 part 2Once you have achieved you MCSA status you can then start for your MCSE - Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert certificationYou have a choice, to do the MCSE: SQL Server 2012 Data Platform, MCSE: SQL Server 2012 Business Intelligence or you could do bothMCSE: SQL Server 2012 Data Platform involvesObtain your SQL Server 2012 MCSAExam 70-464: Developing Microsoft SQL Server 2012 DatabasesExam 70-465: Designing Database Solutions for Microsoft SQL Server 2012There is also an upgrade pathA pass in a SQL Server 2008 (MCITP) Microsoft Certified IT Professional Database Administrator or Database Developer CertificationExam 70-457: transisitioning your MCTS on SQL Server 2008 to MCSA on SQL Server 2012 part 1Exam 70-458: transisitioning your MCTS on SQL Server 2008 to MCSA on SQL Server 2012 part 2Exam 70-459: transisitioning your MCITP on SQL Server 2008 Database Administrator or Database Developer to MCSE:Data PlatformMCSE: SQL Server 2012 Business Intelligence involvesObtain your SQL Server 2012 MCSAExam 70-466: Implementing Data Models and Reports with Microsoft SQL Server 2012Exam 70-467: Designing Business Intelligence Solutions with Microsoft SQL Server 2012The upgrade path involves:A pass in a SQL Server 2008 (MCITP) Microsoft Certified IT Professional Business Intelligence CertificationExam 70-457: transisitioning your MCTS on SQL Server 2008 to MCSA on SQL Server 2012 part 1Exam 70-458: transisitioning your MCTS on SQL Server 2008 to MCSA on SQL Server 2012 part 2Exam 70-460: transisitioning your MCITP on SQL Server 2008 Business Intelligence Developer to MCSE:Business IntelligenceAs a result if you want to achieve the MCSE in either Data Platform or Business Intelligence and you are starting from scratch there will be 5 exams to takeIf you have the ability to upgrade your certification because you have an MCITP already then it will be three examsFull details and questions can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/cert-sql-server.aspxThanksChris

    Read the article

  • Design pattern for animation sequence in LibGDX

    - by kevinyu
    What design pattern to use for sequence of animation that involve different actor in libGDX. For example I am making a game to choose a wolf from a group of sheeps. The first animation played when the game begin is the wolf enter the field that is filled with two sheeps.Then the wolf disguise as a sheep and goes to the center of the screen. Then the game will shuffle the sheeps. After it finished it will ask the player where is the wolf. The game wait for player input. After that the game will show animation to show the player whether their answer is right or wrong. I am currently using State design pattern. There are four states wolfEnterState,DisguiseState,ShuffleState,UserInputState, and answerAnimationState. I feel that my code is messy. I use addAction with action sequence and action completion(new Runnable()) a lot. I feel that the action sequence is getting long. Is there a better solution for this kind of problem

    Read the article

  • Order of operations to render VBO to FBO texture and then rendering FBO texture full quad

    - by cyberdemon
    I've just started using OpenGL with C# via the OpenTK library. I've managed to successfully render my game world using VBOs. I now want to create a pixellated affect by rendering the frame to an offscreen FBO with a size half of my GameWindow size and then render that FBO to a full screen quad. I've been looking at the OpenTK example here: http://www.opentk.com/doc/graphics/frame-buffer-objects ...but the result is a black form. I'm not sure which parts of the example code belongs in the OnLoad event and OnRenderFrame. Can someone please tell me if the below code shows the correct order of operations? OnLoad { // VBO. // DataArrayBuffer GenBuffers/BindBuffer/BufferData // ElementArrayBuffer GenBuffers/BindBuffer/BufferData // ColourArrayBuffer GenBuffers/BindBuffer/BufferData // FBO. // ColourTexture GenTextures/BindTexture/TexParameterx4/TexImage2D // Create FBO. // Textures Ext.GenFramebuffers/Ext.BindFramebuffer/Ext.FramebufferTexture2D/Ext.FramebufferRenderbuffer } OnRenderFrame { // Use FBO buffer. Ext.BindFramebuffer(FBO) GL.Clear // Set viewport to FBO dimensions. GL.DrawBuffer((DrawBufferMode)FramebufferAttachment.ColorAttachment0Ext) // Bind VBO arrays. GL.BindBuffer(ColourArrayBuffer) GL.ColorPointer GL.EnableClientState(ColorArray) GL.BindBuffer(DataArrayBuffer) // If world changed GL.BufferData(DataArrayBuffer) GL.VertexPointer GL.EnableClientState(VertexArray) GL.BindBuffer(ElementArrayBuffer) // Render VBO. GL.DrawElements // Bind visible buffer. GL.Ext.BindFramebuffer(0) GL.DrawBuffer(Back) GL.Clear // Set camera to view texture. GL.BindTexture(ColourTexture) // Render FBO texture GL.Begin(Quads) // Draw texture on quad // TexCoord2/Vertex2 GL.End SwapBuffers }

    Read the article

  • Referral traffic not appearing properly in Google Analytics

    - by Crashalot
    We have a partnership arrangement with another site where we pay them for users sent to us. However, they claim our referral numbers for them are lower than theirs by 50%. They are tracking clicks in Google Analytics (using events) while we are using visits in Google Analytics. Are we doing something wrong with our Google Analytics installation? <!-- Google Analytics BEGIN --> <script type="text/javascript"> var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-12345678-1']); _gaq.push(['_setDomainName', 'example.com']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); </script> <!-- Google Analytics END -->

    Read the article

  • Oracle OpenWorld Preview: Oracle Social Network Developer Challenge

    - by kellsey.ruppel
    Originally posted by Jake Kuramoto on The Apps Lab blog. Noel (@noelportugal) and I have been working on something new for OpenWorld (@oracleopenworld) for quite some time, and today, I got the final approvals to go ahead with the Oracle Social Network Developer Challenge. The skinny. The Challenge is a modified hackathon, designed to run during OpenWorld and JavaOne (@javaoneconf), and attendees of both conferences are welcome to join and compete for the single prize of $500 in Amazon gift cards. There’s only one prize, so bring your A-game. The Challenge begins Sunday, September 30 at 7 PM and ends Wednesday, October 3 at 4 PM. You can and should register now, but we won’t begin approving  registrations until Sunday at 7 PM. For legal reasons, you’ll need to register with a corporate email address, not a free webmail one, e.g. Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook, Yahoo Mail, ISP-provided mail, etc. If you work for a competitor of Oracle, sorry but you’re not eligible. Everything you need is in the cloud, including support, but if you need help or have questions, visit office hours in the OTN Lounge in the Howard Street tent Monday, October 1 and Tuesday, October 2 4-8 PM to get help from the product team. The judging begins Wednesday, October 3 at 4 PM. To be considered for the prize, you’ll need to attend to demo your working code to the judges. Attendees with badges from either OpenWorld or JavaOne are welcome in the OTN Lounge, so you’ll need one of those too. Did I mention, register now? Be sure to check out Jake's original post for the long-winded explanations.

    Read the article

  • #TechEd 2010

    - by T
    It has been another fantastic year for TechEd North America.  I always love my time here.  First, I have to give a huge thank you to Ineta for giving me the opportunity to work the Ineta booth and BOF’s (birds of a feather).   I can not even begin to list how many fantastic leaders in the .Net space and Developers from all over I have met through Ineta at this event.  It has been truly amazing and great fun!! New Orlean’s has been awesome.  The night life is hoppin’.  In addition to enjoying a few (too many??) of the local hurricanes in New Orleans, I have hung out with some of the coolest people  Deepesh Mohnani, David Poll, Viresh, Alan Stephens, Shawn Wildermuth, Greg Leonardo, Doug Seven, Chris Willams, David Carley and some of our southcentral hero’s Jeffery Palermo, Todd Anglin, Shawn Weisfeld, Randy Walker, The midnight DBA’s, Zeeshan Hirani, Dennis Bottjer just to name a few. A big thanks to Microsoft and everyone that has helped to put TechEd together.  I have loved hanging out with people from the Silverlight and Expression Teams and have learned a ton.  I am ramped up and ready to take all that knowledge back to my co-workers and my community. I can not wait to see you all again next year in Atlanta!!! Here are video links to some of my fav sessions: Using MVVM Design Pattern with VS 2010 XAML Designer – Rockford Lhotka Effective RIA: Tips and Tricks for Building Effective Rich Internet Applications – Deepesh Mohani Taking Microsoft Silverlight 4 Applications Beyond the Browser – David Poll Jump into Silvelright! and become immediately effective – Tim Huckaby Prototyping Rich Microsoft Silverlight 4 Applications with MS Expression Blend + SketchFlow – David Carley Tales from the Trenches: Building a Real-World Microsoft Silvelright Line-of-Business Application – Dan Wahlin

    Read the article

  • Day 6 - Game Menuing Woes and Future Screen Sneak Peeks

    - by dapostolov
    So, after my last post on Day 5 I dabbled with my game class design. I took the approach where each game objects is tightly coupled with a graphic. The good news is I got the menu working but not without some hard knocks and game growing pains. I'll explain later, but for now...here is a class diagram of my first stab at my class structure and some code...   Ok, there are few mistakes, however, I'm going to leave it as is for now... As you can see I created an inital abstract base class called GameSprite. This class when inherited will provide a simple virtual default draw method:        public virtual void DrawSprite(SpriteBatch spriteBatch)         {             spriteBatch.Draw(Sprite, Position, Color.White);         } The benefits of coding it this way allows me to inherit the class and utilise the method in the screen draw method...So regardless of what the graphic object type is it will now have the ability to render a static image on the screen. Example: public class MyStaticTreasureChest : GameSprite {} If you remember the window draw method from Day 3's post, we could use the above code as follows...         protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime)         {             GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.CornflowerBlue);             spriteBatch.Begin(SpriteBlendMode.AlphaBlend);             foreach(var gameSprite in ListOfGameObjects)            {                 gameSprite.DrawSprite(spriteBatch);            }             spriteBatch.End();             base.Draw(gameTime);         } I have to admit the GameSprite object is pretty plain as with its DrawSprite method... But ... we now have the ability to render 3 static menu items on the screen ... BORING! I want those menu items to do something exciting, which of course involves animation... So, let's have a peek at AnimatedGameSprite in the above game diagram. The idea with the AnimatedGameSprite is that it has an image to animate...such as ... characters, fireballs, and... menus! So after inheriting from GameSprite class, I added a few more options such as UpdateSprite...         public virtual void UpdateSprite(float elapsed)         {             _totalElapsed += elapsed;             if (_totalElapsed > _timePerFrame)             {                 _frame++;                 _frame = _frame % _framecount;                 _totalElapsed -= _timePerFrame;             }         }  And an overidden DrawSprite...         public override void DrawSprite(SpriteBatch spriteBatch)         {             int FrameWidth = Sprite.Width / _framecount;             Rectangle sourcerect = new Rectangle(FrameWidth * _frame, 0, FrameWidth, Sprite.Height);             spriteBatch.Draw(Sprite, Position, sourcerect, Color.White, _rotation, _origin, _scale, SpriteEffects.None, _depth);         } With these two methods...I can animate and image, all I had to do was add a few more lines to the screens Update Method (From Day 3), like such:             float elapsed = (float) gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalSeconds;             foreach (var item in ListOfAnimatedGameObjects)             {                 item.UpdateSprite(elapsed);             } And voila! My images begin to animate in one spot, on the screen... Hmm, but how do I interact with the menu items using a mouse...well the mouse cursor was easy enough... this.IsMouseVisible = true; But, to have it "interact" with an image was a bit more tricky...I had to perform collision detection!             mouseStateCurrent = Mouse.GetState();             var uiEnabledSprites = (from s in menuItems                                    where s.IsEnabled                                    select s).ToList();             foreach (var item in uiEnabledSprites)             {                 var r = new Rectangle((int)item.Position.X, (int)item.Position.Y, item.Sprite.Width, item.Sprite.Height);                 item.MenuState = MenuState.Normal;                 if (r.Intersects(new Rectangle(mouseStateCurrent.X, mouseStateCurrent.Y, 0, 0)))                 {                     item.MenuState = MenuState.Hover;                     if (mouseStatePrevious.LeftButton == ButtonState.Pressed                         && mouseStateCurrent.LeftButton == ButtonState.Released)                     {                         item.MenuState = MenuState.Pressed;                     }                 }             }             mouseStatePrevious = mouseStateCurrent; So, basically, what it is doing above is iterating through all my interactive objects and detecting a rectangle collision and the object , plays the state animation (or static image).  Lessons Learned, Time Burned... So, I think I did well to start, but after I hammered out my prototype...well...things got sloppy and I began to realise some design flaws... At the time: I couldn't seem to figure out how to open another window, such as the character creation screen Input was not event based and it was bugging me My menu design relied heavily on mouse input and I couldn't use keyboard. Mouse input, is tightly bound with graphic rendering / positioning, so its logic will have to be in each scene. Menu animations would stop mid frame, then continue when the action occured again. This is bad, because...what if I had a sword sliding onthe screen? Then it would slide a quarter of the way, then stop due to another action, then render again mid-slide... it just looked sloppy. Menu, Solved!? To solve the above problems I did a little research and I found some great code in the XNA forums. The one worth mentioning was the GameStateManagementSample. With this sample, you can create a basic "text based" menu system which allows you to swap screens, popup screens, play the game, and quit....basic game state management... In my next post I'm going to dwelve a bit more into this code and adapt it with my code from this prototype. Text based menus just won't cut it for me, for now...however, I'm still going to stick with my animated menu item idea. A sneak peek using the Game State Management Sample...with no changes made... Cool Things to Mention: At work ... I tend to break out in random conversations every-so-often and I get talking about some of my challenges with this game (or some stupid observation about something... stupid) During one conversation I was discussing how I should animate my images; I explained that I knew I had to use the Update method provided, but I didn't know how (at the time) to render an image at an appropriate "pace" and how many frames to use, etc.. I also got thinking that if a machine rendered my images faster / slower, that was surely going to f-up my animations. To which a friend, Sheldon,  answered, surely the Draw method is like a camera taking a snapshot of a scene in time. Then it clicked...I understood the big picture of the game engine... After some research I discovered that the Draw method attempts to keep a framerate of 60 fps. From what I understand, the game engine will even leave out a few calls to the draw method if it begins to slow down. This is why we want to put our sprite updates in the update method. Then using a game timer (provided by the engine), we want to render the scene based on real time passed, not framerate. So even the engine renders at 20 fps, the animations will still animate at the same real time speed! Which brings up another point. Why 60 fps? I'm speculating that Microsoft capped it because LCD's dont' refresh faster than 60 fps? On another note, If the game engine knows its falling behind in rendering...then surely we can harness this to speed up our games. Maybe I can find some flag which tell me if the game is lagging, and what the current framerate is, etc...(instead of coding it like I did last time) Sheldon, suggested maybe I can render like WoW does, in prioritised layers...I think he's onto something, however I don't think I'll have that many graphics to worry about such a problem of graphic latency. We'll see. People to Mention: Well,as you are aware I hadn't posted in a couple days and I was surprised to see a few emails and messenger queries about my game progress (and some concern as to why I stopped). I want to thank everyone for their kind words of support and put everyone at ease by stating that I do intend on completing this project. Granted I only have a few hours each night, but, I'll do it. Thank you to Garth for mailing in my next screen! That was a nice surprise! The Sneek Peek you've been waiting for... Garth has also volunteered to render me some wizard images. He was a bit shocked when I asked for them in 2D animated strips. He said I was going backward (and that I have really bad Game Development Lingo). But, I advised Garth that I will use 3D images later...for now...2D images. Garth also had some great game design ideas to add on. I advised him that I will save his ideas and include them in the future design document (for the 3d version?). Lastly, my best friend Alek, is going to join me in developing this game. This was a project we started eons ago but never completed because of our careers. Now, priorities change and we have some spare time on our hands. Let's see what trouble Alek and I can get into! Tonight I'll be uploading my prototypes and base game to a source control for both of us to work off of. D.

    Read the article

  • MySQL – How to Write Loop in MySQL

    - by Pinal Dave
    Since, I have written courses on MySQL, I quite often get emails about MySQL courses. Here is the question, which I have received quite often. “How do I loop queries in MySQL?” Well, currently MySQL does not allow to write loops with the help of ad-hoc SQL. You have to write stored procedure (routine) for the same. Here is the example, how we can create a procedure in MySQL which will look over the code. In this example I have used SELECT 1 statement and looped over it. In reality you can put there any code and loop over it. This procedure accepts one parameter which is the number of the count the loop will iterate itself. delimiter // CREATE PROCEDURE doiterate(p1 INT) BEGIN label1: LOOP SET p1 = p1 - 1; IF p1 > 0 THEN SELECT 1; ITERATE label1; END IF; LEAVE label1; END LOOP label1; END// delimiter ; CALL doiterate(100); You can also use WHILE to loop as well, we will see that in future blog posts. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)Filed under: MySQL, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL

    Read the article

  • FoxTales: Behind the Scenes at Fox Software by Kerry Nietz

    Flash backs from the past! It's truly amazing to discover that software development from freshman to senior level as well as project management hasn't changed that much. Kerry Nietz describes his memoir from his final year at college to his first job at Fox Software to 'an early retirement' at Microsoft. This title also brought his other fictional novels to my attention. Once again here is the review I published on Amazon: Built to last! I have been around in software development for more than a decade now but honestly I have to admit it is only now that I took the opportunity to read about the history of my used to be primary programming language. In fact, I started with Visual FoxPro 6 back in 1999 and went only down to FoxPro for Windows 2.6 during migration projects - long after the stories described in this title. It is really interesting to see how they actually managed to create a great product with such a small team of developers. "Create the best Report Writer in the world, out of only sawdust, bubblegum, and dreams." - That's the best sentence I'm going to quote from this title in the future. An inspiration to achieve the impossible, only by taking small steps. Just begin the journey - one step after the next one. If you fall, stand up and continue to walk. Kerry takes the reader on an amazing trip through almost 4 years working at a small software company in Perrysburg, Ohio. That went from a another 'look-alike' of the mighty Ashton-Tate dBase to the leading force in database development, long before Microsoft Access (project name: Cirrus) was even finished. It survived Borland Paradox and even nowadays Visual FoxPro is still in daily use in thousands of companies world-wide. Actually, I'm glad that I had the chance to foster my programming knowledge with Visual FoxPro. After his excellent work in software development, Kerry went for a second career as a writer. I'm looking forward to read his other titles soon:

    Read the article

  • Numbered list with subclauses

    - by Barry Clearwater
    I'm trying to create a legal document with decimal numbered subclauses, then alpha and roman subsub and subsubsub clauses. (whew!) `1. MAIN HEADING 1.1 This is an example of a sub-clause and you can see that even though the words continue on to the right, it would be best if it wrapped around and formed a block to the right of the decimal number 1.2 In doing so the normal second clause should also wrap around but the second subsequent clause should hang in from the left and be in a block. See below for the remaining clauses (a) this list is completely for demonstration and should not be construed as legal language in any way, nor should make sense in that (b) should the indentation take more than: i) this many lines it would be overly big 11) legal numbering continues in the sub-sub clauses with the use of lower roman lettering and should flow below in a block iii) and continue the formatting on to the next line but be underneath the body of the the text and not begin directly below the number itself. In this example the text carries out to the right but I need it to wrap around underneath. Sorry its so wordy, need this to show the example. 2. Second Clause Heading 2.1 and so it continues thus I've found the examples for decimal numbering but they do not create a block out to the right of the number, and they carry on with multiple decimals rather than alpha and roman sub clauses.

    Read the article

  • pdflatex reads .eps files saved in OS/X, but not in Ubuntu

    - by David B Borenstein
    Sorry if this is a stupid question; I'm a newbie. I am preparing a manuscript in LaTeX. The journal (Physical Biology, an IOP publication) requires that figures be saved in .eps format, so I am trying to do that. However, I cannot get my LaTeX file to build when I have generated the .eps files on my Ubuntu computer. If I save the images on my Mac, the file build just fine. So far, I have tried saving images in ImageJ, FIJI and Inkscape. The same problem occurs in all three. When using kile, I get the following error: /usr/share/texmf-texlive/tex/latex/oberdiek/epstopdf-base.sty:0: Shell escape feature is not enabled. In TexWorks, the error is different, but still there: Package pdftex.def Error: File `./figures4/figure4a-eps-converted-to.pdf' not found. Now, if I fire up Inkscape, FIJI or ImageJ on OS/X, everything works fine. The Mac also can't build with the Ubuntu-saved images. The images generated on the Ubuntu machine open fine using Document Viewer. I am building the same LaTeX file on both computers, with the exact same results. The header of my LaTeX file is: \documentclass[12pt]{iopart} \usepackage{graphicx} \usepackage{epstopdf} \usepackage{parskip} \usepackage{color} \usepackage{iopams} And then the code for the figure is: \begin{figure} \center{\includegraphics[width=4in] {./figures4/figure4a.eps}} \footnotesize{\caption{ \label{fig:4a} (4a) lorem ipsum dolor sic amet.}} \end{figure} I'd be happy to send an example of both .eps files. Again, sorry if this is a dumb question. I tried everything I could think of before posting here. Thanks, David

    Read the article

  • Automated Error Reporting in .NET Reflector - harnessing the most powerful test rig in existence

    - by Alex.Davies
    I know a testing system that will find more bugs than all the unit testing, integration testing, and QA you could possibly do. And the chances are you're not using it. It's called your users. It's a cliché that you should test so that you find your bugs rather than your users. Of course you should. But it's also a cliché that no software is ever shipped bug-free. Lost cause? No, opportunity! I think .NET Reflector 6 is pretty stable. In fact I know exactly how stable it is, because some (surprisingly high) proportion of its users tell me every time it crashes: If they press "Send Error Report", I get: And then I fix it. As a rough guess, while a standard stack trace is enough to fix a problem 30% of the time, having all those local variables in the stack trace means I can fix it about 80% of the time. How does this all happen? Did it take ages to code this swish system? Nope, it was one checkbox in SmartAssembly. It adds some clever code to your assembly to capture local variables every time an exception is thrown, and to ask your user to report it to you, with a variety of other useful information. Of course not all bugs show up as exceptions. But if you get used to knowing that SmartAssembly will tell you when an exception happens, you begin to change your coding style. Now, as long as an exception gets thrown in any situation you don't expect, you'll fix it if it ever happens. You'll start throwing exceptions liberally, and stop having to think about whether tiny edge cases are possible, as long as they throw an exception if they happen.

    Read the article

  • Releasing an open source project without getting embarrassed

    - by Hopeful
    I've been working by myself on a fairly large open source project for quite a while and it's nearing the point where I'd like to release it. However, I'm self-taught and I don't really know anyone who could adequately review my project. A few years ago, I had released a small bit of code which pretty much got ripped apart (in a critical sense) on the forum where I released it. Even though the code worked, the criticism was accurate but brutal. It prompted me to begin searching for best practices for everything and in the end I feel that it made me a much better developer. I've gone over everything in my project so many times trying to make it perfect that I've lost count. I believe in my project and think it has the potential to help a lot of people and I feel like I've done some cool things in interesting ways with it. Still, because I'm self-taught, I can't help but wonder what gaps exist in my self-education. The way my code was ripped apart last time isn't something I'd like to repeat. I think my two biggest fears with releasing my project that I've poured countless hours into are being absolutely embarrassed because I missed some patently obvious things because of my self-education or, worse, releasing it to the sound of crickets. Is there anyone who has been in a similar situation? I'm not afraid of constructive criticism, so long as it is constructive and not just a rant on how I screwed up. I know there is a code review site on StackExchange, but it's not really set up for large projects and I didn't feel like the community there is large enough yet to get good feedback if I were to post parts of my project piecemeal (I tried with one file). What can I do to give my project at least some measure of success without getting embarrassed or devestated in the process?

    Read the article

  • Variable naming conventions?

    - by Ziv
    I've just started using ReSharper (for C#) and I kind of like its code smells finder, it shows me some things about my writing that I meant to fix a long time ago (mainly variable naming conventions). It caused me to reconsider some of my naming conventions for methods and instance variables. ReSharper suggests that instance variable be lower camel case and begin with an underscore. For a while I meant to make all my local variables lower camel case but is the underscore necessary? Do you find it comfortable? I don't like this convention but I also haven't tried it yet, what is you opinion of it? The second thing it prompted me to re-evaluate is my naming conventions for GUI event handlers. I usually use the VS standard of ControlName_Action and my controls usually use hungarian notation (as a suffix, to help clarify in code what is visible to the user and what isn't when dealing with similarly named variable) so I end up with OK_btn_Click(), what is your opinion of that? Should I succumb to the ReSharper convention or there are other equally valid options?

    Read the article

< Previous Page | 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100  | Next Page >