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  • So are we ever getting the technological singularity

    - by jsoldi
    I´m still waiting for an AI robot that will pass the Turing test. I keep going back to http://www.a-i.com/ and nothing. I don´t know much about AI but, did anyone ever tried to make a genetic algorithm whose evolution algorithm itself evolves? Or how about one whose algorithm that makes the genetic algorithm evolve, evolves? Or one whose genetic algorithm that makes the genetic algorithm that makes the genetic algorithm evolve, evolves? Or how about an algorithm that abstracts all this into a potentially infinitely deep tree of genetic evolution algorithms? Aren´t we just failing as programmers? And I don´t think we can blame the processors speed. If you make and application that simulates consciousness you will get a Nobel prize no matter how many hours it takes to respond to your questions. But nobody did it. It almost reminds me to Randi´s $1000000 paranormal challenge. As I keep going back to AI chat bots, they keep getting better at changing the subject on a way that seems natural. But if I tell them something like "if 'x' is 2 then whats two times 'x'?" then they don't have a clue what I'm talking about. And I don't think they need a whole human brain simulation to be able to answer to something like that. They don't need feelings or perception. This is just language and logics. I don't think my perception of the color red gives me the ability to understand that if 'x' is 2 then two times 'x' is 4. I'm sure we are just missing some elemental principle we cannot grasp because it's probably stuck behind our eyes. What do you think?

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  • How should Code Review be Carried Out?

    - by Graviton
    My previous question has to do with how to advance code review among the developers. Here I am interested in how the code review session should be carried out, so that both the reviewer and reviewed are feeling comfortable about it. I have done some code review before, but the experience sucks big time. My previous manager would come to us-- on an ad hoc basis-- and tell us to explain our code to him. Since he wasn't very familiar with the code base, I spent a huge amount of times explaining just the most basic structure of my code to him. This took a long time and by the time we were done, we were both exhausted. Then he would raise issues with my code. Most issues he raised were cosmetic in nature ( e.g, don't use region for this code block, change the variable name from xxx to yyy even though the later makes even less sense, and so on). We did this a few rounds, and the review session didn't derive much benefits for us, and we stopped. What do you have to do, in order to make code review a natural, enjoyable, thought stimulating, bug-fixing and mutual-learning experience?

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  • Unit and Integration testing: How can it become a reflex

    - by LordOfThePigs
    All the programmers in my team are familiar with unit testing and integration testing. We have all worked with it. We have all written tests with it. Some of us even have felt an improved sense of trust in his/her own code. However, for some reason, writing unit/integration tests has not become a reflex for any of the members of the team. None of us actually feel bad when not writing unit tests at the same time as the actual code. As a result, our codebase is mostly uncovered by unit tests, and projects enter production untested. The problem with that, of course is that once your projects are in production and are already working well, it is virtually impossible to obtain time and/or budget to add unit/integration testing. The members of my team and myself are already familiar with the value of unit testing (1, 2) but it doesn't seem to help bringing unit testing into our natural workflow. In my experience making unit tests and/or a target coverage mandatory just results in poor quality tests and slows down team members simply because there is no self-generated motivation to produce these tests. Also as soon as pressure eases, unit tests are not written any more. My question is the following: Is there any methods that you have experimented with that helps build a dynamic/momentum inside the team, leading to people naturally wanting to create and maintain those tests?

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  • CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, November 02, 2013

    CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, November 02, 2013Popular ReleasesWsus Package Publisher: Release v1.3.1311.02: Add three new Actions in Custom Updates : Work with Files (Copy, Delete, Rename), Work with Folders (Add, Delete, Rename) and Work with Registry Keys (Add, Delete, Rename). Fix a bug, where after resigning an update, the display is not refresh. Modify the way WPP sort rows in 'Updates Detail Viewer' and 'COmputer List Viewer' so that dates are correctly sorted. Add a Tab in the settings form to set Proxy settings when WPP needs to go on Internet. Fix a bug where 'Manage Catalogs Subsc...uComponents: uComponents v6.0.0: This release of uComponents will compile against and support the new API in Umbraco v6.1.0. What's new in uComponents v6.0.0? New DataTypesImage Point XML DropDownList XPath Templatable List New features / Resolved issuesThe following workitems have been implemented and/or resolved: 14781 14805 14808 14818 14854 14827 14868 14859 14790 14853 14790 DataType Grid 14788 14810 14873 14833 14864 14855 / 14860 14816 14823 Drag & Drop support for rows Su...SmartStore.NET - Free ASP.NET MVC Ecommerce Shopping Cart Solution: SmartStore.NET 1.2.1: New FeaturesAdded option Limit to current basket subtotal to HadSpentAmount discount rule Items in product lists can be labelled as NEW for a configurable period of time Product templates can optionally display a discount sign when discounts were applied Added the ability to set multiple favicons depending on stores and/or themes Plugin management: multiple plugins can now be (un)installed in one go Added a field for the HTML body id to store entity (Developer) New property 'Extra...CodeGen Code Generator: CodeGen 4.3.2: Changes in this release include: Removed old tag tokens from several example templates. Fixed a bug which was causing the default author and company names not to be picked up from the registry under .NET. Added several additional tag loop expressions: <IF FIRST_TAG>, <IF LAST_TAG>, <IF MULTIPLE_TAGS> and<IF SINGLE_TAG>. Upgraded to Synergy/DE 10.1.1b, Visual Studio 2013 and Installshield Limited Edition 2013.Community Forums NNTP bridge: Community Forums NNTP Bridge V54 (LiveConnect): This is the first release which can be used with the new LiveConnect authentication. Fixes the problem that the authentication will not work after 1 hour. Also a logfile will now be stored in "%AppData%\Community\CommunityForumsNNTPServer". If you have any problems please feel free to sent me the file "LogFile.txt".Aricie - Friendlier Url Provider: Aricie - Friendlier Url Provider Version 2.5.3: This is mainly a maintenance release to stabilize the new Url Group paradigm. As usual, don't forget to install the Aricie - Shared extension first Highlights Fixed: UI bugs Min Requirements: .Net 3.5+ DotNetNuke 4.8.1+ Aricie - Shared 1.7.7+Aricie Shared: Aricie.Shared Version 1.7.7: This is mainly a maintenance version. Fixes in Property Editor: list import/export Min Requirements: DotNetNuke 4.8.1+ .Net 3.5+WPF Extended DataGrid: WPF Extended DataGrid 2.0.0.9 binaries: Fixed issue with ICollectionView containg null values (AutoFilter issue)Community TFS Build Extensions: October 2013: The October 2013 release contains Scripts - a new addition to our delivery. These are a growing library of PowerShell scripts to use with VS2013. See our documentation for more on scripting. VS2010 Activities(target .NET 4.0) VS2012 Activities (target .NET 4.5) VS2013 Activities (target .NET 4.5.1) Community TFS Build Manager VS2012 Community TFS Build Manager VS2013 The Community TFS Build Managers for VS2010, 2012 and 2013 can also be found in the Visual Studio Gallery where upda...SuperSocket, an extensible socket server framework: SuperSocket 1.6 stable: Changes included in this release: Process level isolation SuperSocket ServerManager (include server and client) Connect to client from server side initiatively Client certificate validation New configuration attributes "textEncoding", "defaultCulture", and "storeLocation" (certificate node) Many bug fixes http://docs.supersocket.net/v1-6/en-US/New-Features-and-Breaking-ChangesBarbaTunnel: BarbaTunnel 8.1: Check Version History for more information about this release.Mugen MVVM Toolkit: Mugen MVVM Toolkit 2.1: v 2.1 Added the 'Should' class instead of the 'Validate' class. The 'Validate' class is now obsolete. Added 'Toolkit.Annotations' to support the Mugen MVVM Toolkit ReSharper plugin. Updated JetBrains annotations within the project. Added the 'GlobalSettings.DefaultActivationPolicy' property to represent the default activation policy. Removed the 'GetSettings' method from the 'ViewModelBase' class. Instead of it, the 'GlobalSettings.DefaultViewModelSettings' property is used. Updated...NAudio: NAudio 1.7: full release notes available at http://mark-dot-net.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/naudio-17-release-notes.htmlDirectX Tool Kit: October 2013: October 28, 2013 Updated for Visual Studio 2013 and Windows 8.1 SDK RTM Added DGSLEffect, DGSLEffectFactory, VertexPositionNormalTangentColorTexture, and VertexPositionNormalTangentColorTextureSkinning Model loading and effect factories support loading skinned models MakeSpriteFont now has a smooth vs. sharp antialiasing option: /sharp Model loading from CMOs now handles UV transforms for texture coordinates A number of small fixes for EffectFactory Minor code and project cleanup ...ExtJS based ASP.NET Controls: FineUI v4.0beta1: +2013-10-28 v4.0 beta1 +?????Collapsed???????????????。 -????:window/group_panel.aspx??,???????,???????,?????????。 +??????SelectedNodeIDArray???????????????。 -????:tree/checkbox/tree_checkall.aspx??,?????,?????,????????????。 -??TimerPicker???????(????、????ing)。 -??????????????????????(???)。 -?????????????,??type=text/css(??~`)。 -MsgTarget???MessageTarget,???None。 -FormOffsetRight?????20px??5px。 -?Web.config?PageManager??FormLabelAlign???。 -ToolbarPosition??Left/Right。 -??Web.conf...CODE Framework: 4.0.31028.0: See change notes in the documentation section for details on what's new. Note: If you download the class reference help file with, you have to right-click the file, pick "Properties", and then unblock the file, as many browsers flag the file as blocked during download (for security reasons) and thus hides all content.VidCoder: 1.5.10 Beta: Broke out all the encoder-specific passthrough options into their own dropdown. This should make what they do a bit more clear and clean up the codec list a bit. Updated HandBrake core to SVN 5855.Indent Guides for Visual Studio: Indent Guides v14: ImportantThis release has a separate download for Visual Studio 2010. The first link is for VS 2012 and later. Version History Changed in v14 Improved performance when scrolling and editing Fixed potential crash when Resharper is installed Fixed highlight of guides split around pragmas in C++/C# Restored VS 2010 support as a separate download Changed in v13 Added page width guide lines Added guide highlighting options Fixed guides appearing over collapsed blocks Fixed guides not...ASP.net MVC Awesome - jQuery Ajax Helpers: 3.5.3 (mvc5): version 3.5.3 - support for mvc5 version 3.5.2 - fix for setting single value to multivalue controls - datepicker min max date offset fix - html encoding for keys fix - enable Column.ClientFormatFunc to be a function call that will return a function version 3.5.1 ========================== - fixed html attributes rendering - fixed loading animation rendering - css improvements version 3.5 ========================== - autosize for all popups ( can be turned off by calling in js...Media Companion: Media Companion MC3.585b: IMDB plot scraping Fixed. New* Movie - Rename Folder using Movie Set, option to move ignored articles to end of Movie Set, only for folder renaming. Fixed* Media Companion - Fixed if using profiles, config files would blown up in size due to some settings duplicating. * Ignore Article of An was cutting of last character of movie title. * If Rescraping title, sort title changed depending on 'Move article to end of Sort Title' setting. * Movie - If changing Poster source order, list would beco...New ProjectsCarTrade.dk: program that will help make it easier for cardealers to do trade cars amongst themselvesCMSPORTAL: Nothing CruxOMatic Contributions: Crux-O-Matic-Contrib is the contribution project where the Crux-O-Matic community can contribute Crux-O-Matic components and extenders.Dynamics CRM 2013 Easy Solution Importer: Dynamics CRM 2013 Easy Solution ImporterGlobal Excel Automation PowerShell Library: The goal of the library is to automate common infrastructure tasks.HappyBin AutoUpdater: HappyBin is an auto-updater for .NET apps. It is designed as an api, and can be used as a boot-strap or a passive updater. Every app deserves a HappyBin!HashTag WCF Membership and Role Provider: Membership provider for using WCF to connect to a hosted membership endpont. Also includes comprehensive tests for custom membership and role providers.Luwx-Mobile-Store: Xây d?ng trang web bán di?n tho?i trên MVC4Pokémon Bank Online: Pokémon Bank for PBO/POQuickMatch Game: CLI multiplayer game on a single console.seizyUtils: SQL Mapping For Windows Embedded Compact SharePoint 2013 Global Metadata Navigation: Deploy your SharePoint 2013 Managed Metadata navigation term set to an unlimited number of site collections using JQuery, SCOM, CSS, and a custom master page.Simple ASP.NET MVC 3: a simple blog - Guest: view posts and add comments. - Admin: view, edit, delete posts and delete comments. User must be log in.SPRepository: SPRepository aims to be a generic Repository Design Pattern implementation for accessing SharePoint objects (but is not inherently SP).WebSocket Security: WebSocket SecutrityWildfire Ttraining Server: Server for application that tracks Wildfire around the world??? ???? 2013: ??????? ? ?????? ????? ???????????? 2013

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  • How to facilitate code reviews in a small team for embedded software?

    - by Adam Lewis
    Short Question Does a cost-effective tool / workflow exist to facilitate code reviews in a small team? More specifically, a small team that relies on post-commit code reviews. Background Our team currently consists of 3 full time and 1 part time software engineers, with plans on hiring more in the near future. Due to our team size and volume of projects we all must juggle, the pre-commit workflow that major tools (such as Review Board and Code Collaborator) use is not obtainable for us right now. The best we can do at the moment is to perform post-commit reviews before major releases or as time permits. Nearly all of our projects are hosted on RepositoryHosting.com (which I highly recommend) and contain a mixture of SVN and GIT repositories. Current Thoughts Since I cannot find a tool that fits our needs right now, I am turning to TRAC that is built into our repository's site. At the moment we use TRAC to file tickets and track milestones, so to me this seems like a natural fit for code review results as well. The direction I am heading in right now is to use a spread sheet(s) to log all of the bugs and comments. Do some macro magic to get it in a format that I can use TRAC's import ticket method and use TRAC's ticketing system to create the action items / bug reports automatically. The auto ticket generation is darn near a must have, adding in bugs and comments one at a time from a web-gui is really painful. Secondary Question If this workflow makes sense, is there a good / standard template to use as a code review log?

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  • NullPointerException when linking to Service that uses ContentProvider

    - by Danny Chia
    H.i everyone, this is my first post here! Anyways, I'm trying to write a "todo list" application. It stores the data in a ContentProvider, which is accessed via a Service. However, my app crashes at launch. My code is below: Manifest file: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" package="com.examples.todolist" android:versionCode="1" android:versionName="1.0"> <application android:icon="@drawable/icon" android:label="@string/app_name" android:debuggable="True"> <activity android:name=".ToDoList" android:label="@string/app_name" android:theme="@style/ToDoTheme"> <intent-filter> <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" /> <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" /> </intent-filter> </activity> <service android:name="TodoService"/> <provider android:name="TodoProvider" android:authorities="com.examples.provider.todolist" /> </application> <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="7" /> </manifest> ToDoList.java: package com.examples.todolist; import com.examples.todolist.TodoService.LocalBinder; import java.util.ArrayList; import java.util.Date; import android.app.Activity; import android.content.SharedPreferences; import android.database.Cursor; import android.os.AsyncTask; import android.os.Bundle; import android.view.ContextMenu; import android.content.ComponentName; import android.content.Context; import android.content.Intent; import android.content.ServiceConnection; import android.os.IBinder; import android.view.KeyEvent; import android.view.Menu; import android.view.MenuItem; import android.view.View; import android.view.View.OnKeyListener; import android.widget.AdapterView; import android.widget.EditText; import android.widget.ListView; import android.widget.Toast; public class ToDoList extends Activity { static final private int ADD_NEW_TODO = Menu.FIRST; static final private int REMOVE_TODO = Menu.FIRST + 1; private static final String TEXT_ENTRY_KEY = "TEXT_ENTRY_KEY"; private static final String ADDING_ITEM_KEY = "ADDING_ITEM_KEY"; private static final String SELECTED_INDEX_KEY = "SELECTED_INDEX_KEY"; private boolean addingNew = false; private ArrayList<ToDoItem> todoItems; private ListView myListView; private EditText myEditText; private ToDoItemAdapter aa; int entries = 0; int notifs = 0; //ToDoDBAdapter toDoDBAdapter; Cursor toDoListCursor; TodoService mService; boolean mBound = false; /** Called when the activity is first created. */ public void onCreate(Bundle icicle) { super.onCreate(icicle); setContentView(R.layout.main); myListView = (ListView)findViewById(R.id.myListView); myEditText = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.myEditText); todoItems = new ArrayList<ToDoItem>(); int resID = R.layout.todolist_item; aa = new ToDoItemAdapter(this, resID, todoItems); myListView.setAdapter(aa); myEditText.setOnKeyListener(new OnKeyListener() { public boolean onKey(View v, int keyCode, KeyEvent event) { if (event.getAction() == KeyEvent.ACTION_DOWN) if (keyCode == KeyEvent.KEYCODE_DPAD_CENTER) { ToDoItem newItem = new ToDoItem(myEditText.getText().toString(), 0); mService.insertTask(newItem); updateArray(); myEditText.setText(""); entries++; Toast.makeText(ToDoList.this, "Entry added", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show(); aa.notifyDataSetChanged(); cancelAdd(); return true; } return false; } }); registerForContextMenu(myListView); restoreUIState(); populateTodoList(); } private void populateTodoList() { // Get all the todo list items from the database. toDoListCursor = mService. getAllToDoItemsCursor(); startManagingCursor(toDoListCursor); // Update the array. updateArray(); Toast.makeText(this, "Todo list retrieved", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show(); } private void updateArray() { toDoListCursor.requery(); todoItems.clear(); if (toDoListCursor.moveToFirst()) do { String task = toDoListCursor.getString(toDoListCursor.getColumnIndex(ToDoDBAdapter.KEY_TASK)); long created = toDoListCursor.getLong(toDoListCursor.getColumnIndex(ToDoDBAdapter.KEY_CREATION_DATE)); int taskid = toDoListCursor.getInt(toDoListCursor.getColumnIndex(ToDoDBAdapter.KEY_ID)); ToDoItem newItem = new ToDoItem(task, new Date(created), taskid); todoItems.add(0, newItem); } while(toDoListCursor.moveToNext()); aa.notifyDataSetChanged(); } private void restoreUIState() { // Get the activity preferences object. SharedPreferences settings = getPreferences(0); // Read the UI state values, specifying default values. String text = settings.getString(TEXT_ENTRY_KEY, ""); Boolean adding = settings.getBoolean(ADDING_ITEM_KEY, false); // Restore the UI to the previous state. if (adding) { addNewItem(); myEditText.setText(text); } } @Override public void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState) { outState.putInt(SELECTED_INDEX_KEY, myListView.getSelectedItemPosition()); super.onSaveInstanceState(outState); } @Override public void onRestoreInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) { int pos = -1; if (savedInstanceState != null) if (savedInstanceState.containsKey(SELECTED_INDEX_KEY)) pos = savedInstanceState.getInt(SELECTED_INDEX_KEY, -1); myListView.setSelection(pos); } @Override protected void onPause() { super.onPause(); // Get the activity preferences object. SharedPreferences uiState = getPreferences(0); // Get the preferences editor. SharedPreferences.Editor editor = uiState.edit(); // Add the UI state preference values. editor.putString(TEXT_ENTRY_KEY, myEditText.getText().toString()); editor.putBoolean(ADDING_ITEM_KEY, addingNew); // Commit the preferences. editor.commit(); } @Override public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) { super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu); // Create and add new menu items. MenuItem itemAdd = menu.add(0, ADD_NEW_TODO, Menu.NONE, R.string.add_new); MenuItem itemRem = menu.add(0, REMOVE_TODO, Menu.NONE, R.string.remove); // Assign icons itemAdd.setIcon(R.drawable.add_new_item); itemRem.setIcon(R.drawable.remove_item); // Allocate shortcuts to each of them. itemAdd.setShortcut('0', 'a'); itemRem.setShortcut('1', 'r'); return true; } @Override public boolean onPrepareOptionsMenu(Menu menu) { super.onPrepareOptionsMenu(menu); int idx = myListView.getSelectedItemPosition(); String removeTitle = getString(addingNew ? R.string.cancel : R.string.remove); MenuItem removeItem = menu.findItem(REMOVE_TODO); removeItem.setTitle(removeTitle); removeItem.setVisible(addingNew || idx > -1); return true; } @Override public void onCreateContextMenu(ContextMenu menu, View v, ContextMenu.ContextMenuInfo menuInfo) { super.onCreateContextMenu(menu, v, menuInfo); menu.setHeaderTitle("Selected To Do Item"); menu.add(0, REMOVE_TODO, Menu.NONE, R.string.remove); } @Override public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) { super.onOptionsItemSelected(item); int index = myListView.getSelectedItemPosition(); switch (item.getItemId()) { case (REMOVE_TODO): { if (addingNew) { cancelAdd(); } else { removeItem(index); } return true; } case (ADD_NEW_TODO): { addNewItem(); return true; } } return false; } @Override public boolean onContextItemSelected(MenuItem item) { super.onContextItemSelected(item); switch (item.getItemId()) { case (REMOVE_TODO): { AdapterView.AdapterContextMenuInfo menuInfo; menuInfo =(AdapterView.AdapterContextMenuInfo)item.getMenuInfo(); int index = menuInfo.position; removeItem(index); return true; } } return false; } @Override public void onDestroy() { super.onDestroy(); } private void cancelAdd() { addingNew = false; myEditText.setVisibility(View.GONE); } private void addNewItem() { addingNew = true; myEditText.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE); myEditText.requestFocus(); } private void removeItem(int _index) { // Items are added to the listview in reverse order, so invert the index. //toDoDBAdapter.removeTask(todoItems.size()-_index); ToDoItem item = todoItems.get(_index); final long selectedId = item.getTaskId(); mService.removeTask(selectedId); entries--; Toast.makeText(this, "Entry deleted", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show(); updateArray(); } @Override protected void onStart() { super.onStart(); Intent intent = new Intent(this, TodoService.class); bindService(intent, mConnection, Context.BIND_AUTO_CREATE); } @Override protected void onStop() { super.onStop(); // Unbind from the service if (mBound) { unbindService(mConnection); mBound = false; } } private ServiceConnection mConnection = new ServiceConnection() { public void onServiceConnected(ComponentName className, IBinder service) { LocalBinder binder = (LocalBinder) service; mService = binder.getService(); mBound = true; } public void onServiceDisconnected(ComponentName arg0) { mBound = false; } }; public class TimedToast extends AsyncTask<Long, Integer, Integer> { @Override protected Integer doInBackground(Long... arg0) { if (notifs < 15) { try { Toast.makeText(ToDoList.this, entries + " entries left", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show(); notifs++; Thread.sleep(20000); } catch (InterruptedException e) { } } return 0; } } } TodoService.java: package com.examples.todolist; import android.app.Service; import android.content.ContentResolver; import android.content.ContentValues; import android.content.Intent; import android.database.Cursor; import android.os.Binder; import android.os.IBinder; public class TodoService extends Service { private final IBinder mBinder = new LocalBinder(); @Override public IBinder onBind(Intent arg0) { return mBinder; } public class LocalBinder extends Binder { TodoService getService() { return TodoService.this; } } public void insertTask(ToDoItem _task) { ContentResolver cr = getContentResolver(); ContentValues values = new ContentValues(); values.put(TodoProvider.KEY_CREATION_DATE, _task.getCreated().getTime()); values.put(TodoProvider.KEY_TASK, _task.getTask()); cr.insert(TodoProvider.CONTENT_URI, values); } public void updateTask(ToDoItem _task) { long tid = _task.getTaskId(); ContentResolver cr = getContentResolver(); ContentValues values = new ContentValues(); values.put(TodoProvider.KEY_TASK, _task.getTask()); cr.update(TodoProvider.CONTENT_URI, values, TodoProvider.KEY_ID + "=" + tid, null); } public void removeTask(long tid) { ContentResolver cr = getContentResolver(); cr.delete(TodoProvider.CONTENT_URI, TodoProvider.KEY_ID + "=" + tid, null); } public Cursor getAllToDoItemsCursor() { ContentResolver cr = getContentResolver(); return cr.query(TodoProvider.CONTENT_URI, null, null, null, null); } } TodoProvider.java: package com.examples.todolist; import android.content.*; import android.database.Cursor; import android.database.SQLException; import android.database.sqlite.SQLiteOpenHelper; import android.database.sqlite.SQLiteDatabase; import android.database.sqlite.SQLiteQueryBuilder; import android.database.sqlite.SQLiteDatabase.CursorFactory; import android.net.Uri; import android.text.TextUtils; import android.util.Log; public class TodoProvider extends ContentProvider { public static final Uri CONTENT_URI = Uri.parse("content://com.examples.provider.todolist/todo"); @Override public boolean onCreate() { Context context = getContext(); todoHelper dbHelper = new todoHelper(context, DATABASE_NAME, null, DATABASE_VERSION); todoDB = dbHelper.getWritableDatabase(); return (todoDB == null) ? false : true; } @Override public Cursor query(Uri uri, String[] projection, String selection, String[] selectionArgs, String sort) { SQLiteQueryBuilder tb = new SQLiteQueryBuilder(); tb.setTables(TODO_TABLE); // If this is a row query, limit the result set to the passed in row. switch (uriMatcher.match(uri)) { case TASK_ID: tb.appendWhere(KEY_ID + "=" + uri.getPathSegments().get(1)); break; default: break; } // If no sort order is specified sort by date / time String orderBy; if (TextUtils.isEmpty(sort)) { orderBy = KEY_ID; } else { orderBy = sort; } // Apply the query to the underlying database. Cursor c = tb.query(todoDB, projection, selection, selectionArgs, null, null, orderBy); // Register the contexts ContentResolver to be notified if // the cursor result set changes. c.setNotificationUri(getContext().getContentResolver(), uri); // Return a cursor to the query result. return c; } @Override public Uri insert(Uri _uri, ContentValues _initialValues) { // Insert the new row, will return the row number if // successful. long rowID = todoDB.insert(TODO_TABLE, "task", _initialValues); // Return a URI to the newly inserted row on success. if (rowID > 0) { Uri uri = ContentUris.withAppendedId(CONTENT_URI, rowID); getContext().getContentResolver().notifyChange(uri, null); return uri; } throw new SQLException("Failed to insert row into " + _uri); } @Override public int delete(Uri uri, String where, String[] whereArgs) { int count; switch (uriMatcher.match(uri)) { case TASKS: count = todoDB.delete(TODO_TABLE, where, whereArgs); break; case TASK_ID: String segment = uri.getPathSegments().get(1); count = todoDB.delete(TODO_TABLE, KEY_ID + "=" + segment + (!TextUtils.isEmpty(where) ? " AND (" + where + ')' : ""), whereArgs); break; default: throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unsupported URI: " + uri); } getContext().getContentResolver().notifyChange(uri, null); return count; } @Override public int update(Uri uri, ContentValues values, String where, String[] whereArgs) { int count; switch (uriMatcher.match(uri)) { case TASKS: count = todoDB.update(TODO_TABLE, values, where, whereArgs); break; case TASK_ID: String segment = uri.getPathSegments().get(1); count = todoDB.update(TODO_TABLE, values, KEY_ID + "=" + segment + (!TextUtils.isEmpty(where) ? " AND (" + where + ')' : ""), whereArgs); break; default: throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unknown URI " + uri); } getContext().getContentResolver().notifyChange(uri, null); return count; } @Override public String getType(Uri uri) { switch (uriMatcher.match(uri)) { case TASKS: return "vnd.android.cursor.dir/vnd.examples.task"; case TASK_ID: return "vnd.android.cursor.item/vnd.examples.task"; default: throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unsupported URI: " + uri); } } // Create the constants used to differentiate between the different URI // requests. private static final int TASKS = 1; private static final int TASK_ID = 2; private static final UriMatcher uriMatcher; // Allocate the UriMatcher object, where a URI ending in 'tasks' will // correspond to a request for all tasks, and 'tasks' with a // trailing '/[rowID]' will represent a single task row. static { uriMatcher = new UriMatcher(UriMatcher.NO_MATCH); uriMatcher.addURI("com.examples.provider.Todolist", "tasks", TASKS); uriMatcher.addURI("com.examples.provider.Todolist", "tasks/#", TASK_ID); } //The underlying database private SQLiteDatabase todoDB; private static final String TAG = "TodoProvider"; private static final String DATABASE_NAME = "todolist.db"; private static final int DATABASE_VERSION = 1; private static final String TODO_TABLE = "todolist"; // Column Names public static final String KEY_ID = "_id"; public static final String KEY_TASK = "task"; public static final String KEY_CREATION_DATE = "date"; public long insertTask(ToDoItem _task) { // Create a new row of values to insert. ContentValues newTaskValues = new ContentValues(); // Assign values for each row. newTaskValues.put(KEY_TASK, _task.getTask()); newTaskValues.put(KEY_CREATION_DATE, _task.getCreated().getTime()); // Insert the row. return todoDB.insert(TODO_TABLE, null, newTaskValues); } public boolean updateTask(long _rowIndex, String _task) { ContentValues newValue = new ContentValues(); newValue.put(KEY_TASK, _task); return todoDB.update(TODO_TABLE, newValue, KEY_ID + "=" + _rowIndex, null) > 0; } public boolean removeTask(long _rowIndex) { return todoDB.delete(TODO_TABLE, KEY_ID + "=" + _rowIndex, null) > 0; } // Helper class for opening, creating, and managing database version control private static class todoHelper extends SQLiteOpenHelper { private static final String DATABASE_CREATE = "create table " + TODO_TABLE + " (" + KEY_ID + " integer primary key autoincrement, " + KEY_TASK + " TEXT, " + KEY_CREATION_DATE + " INTEGER);"; public todoHelper(Context cn, String name, CursorFactory cf, int ver) { super(cn, name, cf, ver); } @Override public void onCreate(SQLiteDatabase db) { db.execSQL(DATABASE_CREATE); } @Override public void onUpgrade(SQLiteDatabase db, int oldVersion, int newVersion) { Log.w(TAG, "Upgrading database from version " + oldVersion + " to " + newVersion + ", which will destroy all old data"); db.execSQL("DROP TABLE IF EXISTS " + TODO_TABLE); onCreate(db); } } } I've omitted the other files as I'm sure they are correct. When I run the program, LogCat shows that the NullPointerException occurs in populateTodoList(), at toDoListCursor = mService.getAllToDoItemsCursor(). mService is the Cursor object returned by TodoService. I've added the service to the Manifest file, but I still cannot find out why it's causing an exception. Thanks in advance.

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  • Purpose of "new" keyword

    - by Channel72
    The new keyword in languages like Java, Javascript, and C# creates a new instance of a class. This syntax seems to have been inherited from C++, where new is used specifically to allocate a new instance of a class on the heap, and return a pointer to the new instance. In C++, this is not the only way to construct an object. You can also construct an object on the stack, without using new - and in fact, this way of constructing objects is much more common in C++. So, coming from a C++ background, the new keyword in languages like Java, Javascript, and C# seemed natural and obvious to me. Then I started to learn Python, which doesn't have the new keyword. In Python, an instance is constructed simply by calling the constructor, like: f = Foo() At first, this seemed a bit off to me, until it occurred to me that there's no reason for Python to have new, because everything is an object so there's no need to disambiguate between various constructor syntaxes. But then I thought - what's really the point of new in Java? Why should we say Object o = new Object();? Why not just Object o = Object();? In C++ there's definitely a need for new, since we need to distinguish between allocating on the heap and allocating on the stack, but in Java all objects are constructed on the heap, so why even have the new keyword? The same question could be asked for Javascript. In C#, which I'm much less familiar with, I think new may have some purpose in terms of distinguishing between object types and value types, but I'm not sure. Regardless, it seems to me that many languages which came after C++ simply "inherited" the new keyword - without really needing it. It's almost like a vestigial keyword. We don't seem to need it for any reason, and yet it's there. Question: Am I correct about this? Or is there some compelling reason that new needs to be in C++-inspired memory-managed languages like Java, Javascript and C#?

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  • Spirent Communications Improves Customer Experience with Knowledge Management

    - by Tony Berk
    Spirent Communications plc is a global leader in test and measurement inspiring innovation within development labs, communication networks and IT organizations. The world’s leading communications companies rely on Spirent to help design, develop, validate, and deliver world-class network, devices, and services. Spirent’s customers require high levels of support for a diverse and complex product portfolio, and the company is committed to delivering on this requirement. Spirent needed a solution to help its customers get the information they need quickly and at their convenience through its Web site. After evaluating several solutions, Spirent selected and deployed Oracle Knowledge for Web Self Service Enterprise Edition. Oracle Knowledge Management uses natural language processing to understand the true intent of each inquiry logged via the support portal’s search function. The Spirent Knowledge Base on the company’s Customer Support Center (CSC) finds the best possible answer using search enhancement features?such as communications industry-specific libraries and federation to search external sources. Spirent has reduced contact center call volume while better serving its customers. Each time a customer uses the knowledge base, they find answers faster than by calling, and it saves Spirent an average of US$210 per call?which is significant when multiplied across the thousands of calls received monthly. Oracle Knowledge also helps support engineers find answers more quickly, enabling the company to scale without adding additional support engineers. Oracle Knowledge is integrated with Spirent's Siebel Contact Center implementation to provide an integrated desktop for CRM and agent intelligence, avoiding the need for contact center personnel to toggle between various screens to address customer inquiries, thereby accelerating customer service. Click here to learn more about Sprient's use of Siebel CRM and Oracle Knowledge Management.

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  • What is the best way to design a table with an arbitrary id?

    - by P.Brian.Mackey
    I have the need to create a table with a unique id as the PK. The ID is a surrogate key. Originally, I had a natural key, but requirement changes have undermined this idea. Then, I considered adding an auto incrementing identity. But, this presents problems. A. I can't specify my own ID. B. The ID's are difficult to reset. Both of these together make it difficult to copy over this table with new data or move the table across domains, e.g. Dev to QA. I need to refer to these ID's from the front end, JavaScript...so they must not change. So, the only way I am aware of to meet all these challenges is to make a GUID ID. This way, I can overwrite the ID's when I need to or I can generate a new one without concern for order (E.G. an int based id would require I know the last inserted ID). Is a GUID the best way to accomplish my goals? Considering that a GUID is a string and joining on a string is an expensive task, is there a better way?

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  • How can I strip down Ubuntu?

    - by Thomas Owens
    I'm trying to fix what I consider a bloated install of Ubuntu. When I install Ubuntu on a machine, I get things that I don't want - web browsers, office applications, media players, accessibility utilities, Ubuntu One, and so on. My goal is to create a way that I can have an install of Ubuntu that contains only the most minimal packages - the administrative tools and package manager, a GUI (my preference would be GNOME), a text editor, core drivers (video cards, network cards - wired and wireless, input devices), and anything else that I have to have to run a stable distribution. From there, I would like to pick and choose which packages I install to create my own customized system. After playing around with other distros like Arch and Slackware, like how they provide a barebones install by default. However, I get trapped in a "configuration hell" - right now, I tried moving away from Ubuntu and to Arch, but after spending 6 hours with it, I still don't have a usable system. It's half configured and I don't have any usable software packages to enable me to work. Is anything that can help me available? Either something like the OpenSUSE builder that lets you choose applications and packages for the CD, an advanced installation mode where I can choose the packages to install and which to ignore, or a guide on how to strip Ubuntu down to its bare bones? And I suppose a natural follow up to this is once I have a stripped down Ubuntu, will this affect updating at all? When Canonical releases the next version of Ubuntu, I don't want any bloatware reinstalled. And yes, most of the applications that come with Ubuntu, I simply don't use. Ever.

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  • Examples of 2D side-scrollers that achieve open non-linear feel?

    - by Milosz Falinski
    I'm working on a 2.5D platformer prototype that aims for an open feel while maintaining familiar core mechanics. Now, there's some obvious challenges with creating a non constricted feel in a spatially constricted environment. What I'm interested in, is examples of how game designers deal with the "here's a level, beat the bad guys/puzzles to get to the next level" design that seems so natural to most platformers (eg. Mario/Braid/Pid/Meat Boy to name a few). Some ideas for achieving openness I've come across include: One obvious successful example is Terraria, which achieves openness simply through complexity and flexibility of the game-system Another example that comes to mind is Cave Story. Game is non-linear, offers multiple choices and side-stories Mario, Rayman and some other 'classics' with a top-down level selection. I actually really dislike this as it never did anything for me emotionally and just seems like a bit of a lazy way to do things. Note: I've not actually had much experience with most of the 'classical' console platformers, apart from the obvious Marios/Zeldas/Metroids, since I've grown up on adventure games. By that I mean, it's entirely possible that I simply missed some games that solve the problem really well and are by some considered obvious 'classics'.

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  • Dealing with the customer / developer culture mismatch on an agile project

    - by Eric Smith
    One of the tenets of agile is ... Customer collaboration over contract negotiation ... another one is ... Individuals and interactions over processes and tools But the way I see it, at least when it comes to interaction with the customer, there is a fundamental problem: How the customer thinks is fundamentally different to how a software engineer thinks That may be a bit of a generalisation, yes. Arguably, there are business domains where this is not necessarily true---these are few and far between though. In many domains though, the typical customer is: Interested in daily operational concerns--short-range tactics ... not strategy; Only concerned with the immediate solution; Generally one-dimensional, non-abstract thinkers; Primarily interested in "getting the job done" as opposed to coming up with a lasting, quality solution. On the other hand, software engineers who practice agile are: Professionals who value quality; Individuals who understand the notion of "more haste less speed" i.e., spending a little more time to do things properly will save lots of time down the road; Generally, very experienced analytical thinkers. So very clearly, there is a natural culture discrepancy that tends to inhibit "customer collaboration". What's the best way to address this?

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  • unit/integration testing web service proxy client

    - by cori
    I'm rewriting a PHP client/proxy library that provides an interface to a SOAP-based .Net webservice, and in the process I want to add some unit and integration tests so future modifications are less risky. The work the library I'm working on performs is to marshall the calls to the web service and do a little reorganizing of the responses to present a slightly more -object-oriented interface to the underlying service. Since this library is little else than a thin layer on top of web service calls, my basic assumption is that I'll really be writing integration tests more than unit tests - for example, I don't see any reason to mock away the web service - the work that's performed by the code I'm working on is very light; it's almost passing the response from the service right back to its consumer. Most of the calls are basic CRUD operations: CreateRole(), CreateUser(), DeleteUser(), FindUser(), &ct. I'll be starting from a known database state - the system I'm using for these tests is isolated for testing purposes, so the results will be more or less predictable. My question is this: is it natural to use web service calls to confirm the results of operations within the tests and to reset the state of the application within the scope of each test? Here's an example: One test might be createUserReturnsValidUserId() and might go like this: public function createUserReturnsValidUserId() { // we're assuming a global connection to the service $newUserId = $client->CreateUser("user1"); assertNotNull($newUserId); assertNotNull($client->FindUser($newUserId); $client->deleteUser($newUserId); } So I'm creating a user, making sure I get an ID back and that it represents a user in the system, and then cleaning up after myself (so that later tests don't rely on the success or failure of this test w/r/t the number of users in the system, for example). However this still seems pretty fragile - lots of dependencies and opportunities for tests to fail and effect the results of later tests, which I definitely want to avoid. Am I missing some options of ways to decouple these tests from the system under test, or is this really the best I can do? I think this is a fairly general unit/integration testing question, but if it matters I'm using PHPUnit for the testing framework.

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  • An unexpected pleasure from Windows 8

    - by eddraper
    This post is certainly on the more nuanced side of all the goodness that is Windows 8, but it’s about something that’s really changed my PC usage experience for the better. Besides being a geek and the enjoying all the techno-thrills and chills that go along with sitting in front of a keyboard all day, I really love the forest.  Trees have always been special to me.  The feeling of being in the forest with all the sounds and ambiance, the broken light, the fragrance of the air… it’s paradise to me. As I can’t get there often, due to work, and quite often the heat here in Texas, I’ve found something that can at least partially fill the gap…  When you install Windows 8, you’ll have an app called “Naturespace” from http://www.naturespace.com/ .  It boasts a number of predefined loops in what they call “holographic audio.”  They’re essentially high-tech 3D sound fields recorded in natural environments. After checking them out, I really liked the sound of the “Daybreak” selection: A great benefit is that you don’t have to be in Metro/Modern/Windows App Store mode, in order to keep the sound playing.  To start the day, I click on Daybreak, start it, then go back to the desktop and fire up VS, Chrome, etc. As I work and play, I’m surrounded by this delightful background ambiance which relaxes me and puts my mind at ease. Give it a try.  I think you’ll like it.  And no, you don’t need ear buds or headphones to get the benefit.

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  • Gödel, Escher, Bach - Gödel's string

    - by Brad Urani
    In the book Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter, the author gives us a representation of the precursor to Gödel's string (Gödel's string's uncle) as: ~Ea,a': (I don't have the book in front of me but I think that's right). All that remains to get Gödel's string is to plug the Gödel number for this string into the free variable a''. What I don't understand is how to get the Gödel number for the functions PROOF-PAIR and ARITHMOQUINE. I understand how to write these functions in a programming language like FlooP (from the book) and could even write them myself in C# or Java, but the scheme that Hofstadter defines for Gödel numbering only applies to TNT (which is just his own syntax for natural number theory) and I don't see any way to write a procedure in TNT since it doesn't have any loops, variable assignments etc. Am I missing the point? Perhaps Gödel's string is not something that can actually be printed, but rather a theoretical string that need not actually be defined? I thought it would be neat to write a computer program that actually prints Gödel's string, or Gödel's string encoded by Gödel numbering (yes, I realize it would have a gazillion digits) but it seems like doing so requires some kind of procedural language and a Gödel numbering system for that procedural language that isn't included in the book. Of course once you had that, you could write a program that plugs random numbers into variable "a" and run procedure PROOF-PAIR on it to test for theoromhood of Gödel's string. If you let it run for a trillion years you might find a derivation that proves Gödel's string.

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  • DIA2012

    - by Chris Kawalek
    If you've read this blog before, you probably know that Oracle desktop virtualization is used to demonstrate Oracle Applications at many different trade shows. This week, the Oracle desktop team is at DIA2012 in Philadelphia, PA. The DIA conference is a large event, hosting about 7,000 professionals in the pharmaceutical, bio technology, and medical device fields. Healthcare and associated fields are leveraging desktop virtualization because the model is a natural fit due to their high security requirements. Keeping all the data on the server and not distributing it on laptops or PCs that could be stolen makes a lot of sense when you're talking about patient records and other sensitive information. We're proud to be supporting the Oracle Health Sciences team at DIA2012 by hosting all of the Oracle healthcare related demos on a central server, and providing simple, smart card based access using our Sun Ray Clients. And remember that you're not limited to using just Sun Ray Clients--you can also use the Oracle Virtual Desktop Client and freely move your session from your iPad, your Windows or Linux PC, your Mac, or Sun Ray Clients. It's a truly mobile solution for an industry that requires mobile, secure access in order to remain compliant. Here are some pics from the show: We also have an informative PDF on Oracle desktop virtualization and Oracle healthcare that you can have a look at.  (Many thanks to Adam Workman for the pics!) -Chris  For more information, please go to the Oracle Virtualization web page, or  follow us at :  Twitter   Facebook YouTube Newsletter

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  • Breadcrumbs in a modern web application, make sense? [on hold]

    - by Xtreme Biker
    I'm currently beginning with the development of a new web application. The whole web application is going to be bookmarkable and all the pages accesible via GET requests and url parameters. Having said that, let's suppose I've got three entities in my application, Customer, Team and City. Each Customer and Team belong to a city and I've got a city-detail page which displays the detail for a concrete city. So next navigation cases are possible: Customers - Customer detail (id=2) - City detail (id=3) Football teams - Team detail (id=5) - City detail (id=3) Cities - City detail (id=3) There are three possible ways of ending up in a city detail view. My question is, does it make sense to implement a breadcrumb to show such a history, having it available in the browser itself? Would it be more appropiate to show a breadcrumb with the last case, no matter where we're coming from (hierarchical breadcrumb)? That's what Jakob Nielsen points out here: Offering users a Hansel-and-Gretel-style history trail is basically useless, because it simply duplicates functionality offered by the Back button, which is the Web’s second-most-used feature. A history trail can also be confusing: users often wander in circles or go to the wrong site sections. Having each point in a confused progression at the top of the current page doesn’t offer much help. Finally, a history trail is useless for users who arrive directly at a page deep within the site. Also, even if the history trail seems the most natural way to implement it, it requires an extra effort to keep the whole track being HTTP a stateless mean.

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  • Can inbound links through template-based layouts result in penalties?

    - by Liam Sorsby
    So obviously link building is encouraged as long as it is natural, organic and has meaningful links with content relevant to your site. Obviously with the constant release of new updates to algorithms, Google is flagging sites for unnatural links to their sites. My Question is: Can this be caused by templating systems? With WordPress for example, where you can add a link on the footer and it is repeated throughout the entire website generating thousands of links? If we don't add any links, Good Content will be re-posted and linked to, surely if your content is constantly linked to this will flag your site for "unnatural" content as it's difficult to see if someone has been paid to write an article on your content. Or does Google just simply want us to audit some of the links to show we are making an effort? As you can tell we have had a Manual action for: Unnatural links to your site—impacts links. However, this seems to impact our website as well. Edit: To clarify the question: Can you get penalised for paying for advertising on a site that uses a templated sidebar. So when they create a new blog/page ect your link is also added onto the page hence resulting in 1000's of links to one page on our site. I know that one effect maybe a 0 pagerank web page linking to your page dilutes the PR of our page. However the links are only inbound not reciprocal

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  • Intellectual-Property Question

    - by Roger J. J.
    Like almost everyone here, I have a handfull of scripts and software that I have developed and am enthused about. I will be looking for my first job as a software designer / coder. It seems natural that I will be eager to please my employer and use scripts or similar methods that I have developed and worked for me in the past to please my employer. It seems certain that many things that I code will look very similar to things I have coded in the past. I don't understand how to document and articulate to an employer that this code base was mine before I got here and this will continue to be mine when I leave. Surely, this is a common issue, but none of the various searches I've done on the net have produced an answer to this question. How is this situation commonly dealt with in the industry? I feel like there should be a digital version of sending myself a 'certified letter' with my code/software/scripts contained. I'm not trying to protect my code from others using it; I am trying to protect my right to continue using my code base that I have developed prior to to gaining employment with an employer.

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  • Self-referencing anonymous closures: is JavaScript incomplete?

    - by Tom Auger
    Does the fact that anonymous self-referencing function closures are so prevelant in JavaScript suggest that JavaScript is an incomplete specification? We see so much of this: (function () { /* do cool stuff */ })(); and I suppose everything is a matter of taste, but does this not look like a kludge, when all you want is a private namespace? Couldn't JavaScript implement packages and proper classes? Compare to ActionScript 3, also based on EMACScript, where you get package com.tomauger { import bar; class Foo { public function Foo(){ // etc... } public function show(){ // show stuff } public function hide(){ // hide stuff } // etc... } } Contrast to the convolutions we perform in JavaScript (this, from the jQuery plugin authoring documentation): (function( $ ){ var methods = { init : function( options ) { // THIS }, show : function( ) { // IS }, hide : function( ) { // GOOD }, update : function( content ) { // !!! } }; $.fn.tooltip = function( method ) { // Method calling logic if ( methods[method] ) { return methods[ method ].apply( this, Array.prototype.slice.call( arguments, 1 )); } else if ( typeof method === 'object' || ! method ) { return methods.init.apply( this, arguments ); } else { $.error( 'Method ' + method + ' does not exist on jQuery.tooltip' ); } }; })( jQuery ); I appreciate that this question could easily degenerate into a rant about preferences and programming styles, but I'm actually very curious to hear how you seasoned programmers feel about this and whether it feels natural, like learning different idiosyncrasies of a new language, or kludgy, like a workaround to some basic programming language components that are just not implemented?

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  • Desktop Fun: Snow Covered Trees Wallpaper Collection

    - by Asian Angel
    Trees can become beautiful works of natural art when snow accumulates on them and make you feel as if you have stepped into another world when walking through them. So grab your jacket, gloves, and snowboots for a journey through this frosty scenery with our Snow Covered Trees Wallpaper Collection. Note: Click on the picture to see the full-size image—these wallpapers vary in size so you may need to crop, stretch, or place them on a colored background in order to best match them to your screen’s resolution. For more wallpapers be certain to see our great collections in the Desktop Fun section. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC HTG Projects: How to Create Your Own Custom Papercraft Toy How to Combine Rescue Disks to Create the Ultimate Windows Repair Disk What is Camera Raw, and Why Would a Professional Prefer it to JPG? The How-To Geek Guide to Audio Editing: The Basics How To Boot 10 Different Live CDs From 1 USB Flash Drive The 20 Best How-To Geek Linux Articles of 2010 Arctic Theme for Windows 7 Gives Your Desktop an Icy Touch Install LibreOffice via PPA and Receive Auto-Updates in Ubuntu Creative Portraits Peek Inside the Guts of Modern Electronics Scenic Winter Lane Wallpaper to Create a Relaxing Mood Access Your Web Apps Directly Using the Context Menu in Chrome The Deep – Awesome Use of Metal Objects as Deep Sea Creatures [Video]

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  • Spam bot constantly hitting our site 800-1,000 times a day. Causing loss in sales

    - by akaDanPaul
    For the past 5 months our site has been receiving hits from these 4 sites below; sheratonbd.com newsheraton.com newsheration.com newsheratonltd.com Typically the exact url they come from looks something like this; http://www.newsheraton.com/ClickEarnArea.aspx?loginsession_expiredlogin=85 The spam bot goes to our homepage and stays there for about 1 min and then exist. Luckily we have some pretty beefy servers so it hasn't even come close to overloading our servers yet. Last month I started blocking the IP address's of the spam bots but they seem to keep getting new ones everyday. So far I have blocked over 200 IP address's, below are a few of the ones I have blocked. They all come from Bangladesh. 58.97.238.214 58.97.149.132 180.234.109.108 180.149.31.221 117.18.231.5 117.18.231.12 Since this has been going on for the past 5 months our real site traffic has started to drop, and everyday our orders get lower and lower. Also since these spam bots simply go to our homepage and then leave our bounce rate in analytics has sky rocketed. My questions are; Is it possible that these spam bots are affecting our SEO? 60% of our orders come from natural search, and since this whole thing has started orders have slowly been dropping. What would be the reason someone would want to waste resources in doing this to our site? IP's aren't free and either are domain names, what would be the goal in doing this to us? We have google adwords but don't advertise on extended networks nor advertise in Bangladesh since we don't ship there so they are not making money on adsense. Has anyone experienced anything similar to this? What did you do and what was the final out come?

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  • What's the best way to learn/increase problem-solving skills?

    - by tucaz
    Hi all! I'm not sure this is the right place to ask this question, neither if this is the right way to ask this question but I hope you help me if it is not. I work as a programmer since I was 15 (will be 24 next week) so learning programming logic was somehow natural during the course of my career and I think that it helped me to get pretty good problem-solving. One thing none of us (programmers) can deny is that programming logic helps us in a lot of fields outside computer programming. So I'd say it is a very valuable resource that one should learn. My girlfriend is not a programmer and graduated in college on a non related course (Foreign Relations) because she didn't know what to study back then. As the years passed she discovered that she liked Logistics and started to work with it almost two years ago. However, since she does not have a technical background (not even basic Math) she is really having a hard time with it. She is already trying to catch up with Math, but even simple questions/brain-teasers are hard to her. For example, trying to find the missing numbers of this sequence: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, _, _, 34 and so on. We know that this is Fibonacci but if we didn't we would probably be able to get to the correct answer just by "guessing" (using our acquired problem-solving skills). I'm not sure if problem-solving skills or logic are the correct name for it, but this is what I mean: quick solve problems, brain-teasers, find patterns, have a "sharp" mind. So, the question is: what is the best way for someone to learn this kind of skills without being a programmer (or studying algorithms and such)? If you say it is a book, could you please recommend one? Thanks a lot!

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  • Obstacle Avoidance steering behavior: how can an entity avoid an obstacle while other forces are acting on the entity?

    - by Prog
    I'm trying to implement the Obstacle Avoidance steering behavior in my 2D game. Currently my approach is to apply a force on the entity, in the direction of the normal of the heading, scaled by a number that gets bigger the closer we are to the obstacle. This is supposed to push the entity to the side and avoid the obstacle that blocks it's way. However, in the same time that my entity tries to avoid an obstacle, it Seeks to a point more or less behind the obstacle (which is the reason it needs to avoid the obstacle in the first place). The Seek algorithm constantly applies a force on the entity that pushes it (more or less) in the direction of the obstacle, while the Obstacle Avoidance algorithm constantly applies a force that pushes the entity away (more accurately, to the side) of the obstacle. The result is that sometimes the entity succesfully avoids the obstacle, and sometimes it collides with it, depending on the strength of the avoidance force I'm applying. How can I make sure that a force will succeed in steering the entity in some direction, while other forces are currently acting on the entity? (And while still looking natural). I can't allow entities to collide with obstacles when realistically they should be able to easily avoid them, doesn't matter what they're currently doing. Also, the Obstacle Avoidance algorithm is made exactly for the case where another force is acting on the entity. Otherwise it wouldn't be moving and there would be no need to avoid anything. So maybe I'm missing something. Thanks

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  • Non-Obvious Topics to Learn for Game Development

    - by ashes999
    I've been writing games for around 10 years now (from QBasic to C# and everything in-between). I need to start stretching my skills into different areas. What are other, surprising topics I should read up on? Expected topics would include the usual suspects: Programming language of your choice Scripting language Source control Project management (or Agile) Graphics API Maybe some AI (A* path-finding?) Physics (projectile physics) Unit testing (automated testing) I'm looking for more esoteric topics; things that you don't expect to need to know, but if you do know them, they make a difference. This could include things like: Art skills (drawing, lighting, colouring, layout, etc.) Natural language processing The physics of sound (sound-waves, doppler effect, etc.) Personally, I feel that having technical art skills (eg. can make decent art-work if you can only come up with ideas; or, following Photoshop/GIMP tutorials) was the most beneficial for me. This is not intended to be an open-ended question; I'm looking for specific skills that helped you and you expect will continue to benefit you in the short- and long-term.

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