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  • Did Microsoft designers got their butts kicked 3 years ago?

    - by John Conwell
    This is something I've been wondering about for about a year now.  Microsoft has a history of creating very useful products, with lots of useful features.  But useful does not mean usable.  A lot of stuff coming out of Redmond the past 10 years don't really seem to have been well thought out from a user design point of view.  Lots of extra steps, lots of popup windows...very little innovative thinking going on about the user experience of these products.But about a year ago I started seeing changes in the new products coming out of Microsoft.  Windows 7 is a good example of a big change.  They really got their asses handed to them on Vista, so they had to make a change.  But it looks like this change in philosophy has bled over to other areas.  The new Office (2010) lineup has a lot of changes in it to make it way more usable. Given that big changes like this take about 3 years to go from start to actually shipping product, I'm curious what happened internally at Microsoft that really drove this change in product design.  I think that Microsoft got so focused on just adding new functionality for so long, they forgot about the little things that can really make or break a product.  Office 2010 is full of these little things that make it much nicer to use.  I just hope its not too late for them.

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  • How Can I Generate Equivalent Output Using the CryptoAPI and the .NET Encryption (TripleDESCryptoSer

    - by S. Butts
    I have some C#/.NET code that encrypts and decrypts data using TripleDES encryption. It sticks to the sample code provided at MSDN pretty closely. The encryption piece looks like the following: TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider _desProvider = new TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider(); //bytes for key and initialization vector //keyBytes is 24 bytes of stuff, vectorBytes is 8 bytes of stuff byte[] keyBytes; byte[] vectorBytes; FileStream fStream = File.Open(locationOfFile, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write); CryptoStream cStream = new CryptoStream(fStream, _desProvider.CreateEncryptor(keyBytes, vectorBytes), CryptoStreamMode.Write); BinaryWriter bWriter = new BinaryWriter(cStream); //write out encrypted data //raw data is a few bytes of binary information byte[] rawData; bWriter.Write(rawData); With encrypting and decrypting in C#, this all works like a charm. The problem is I need to write a small Win32 utility that will duplicate the encryption above. I have tried several methods using the CryptoAPI, and I simply do not get output that the .NET piece can decrypt, no matter what I do. Can someone please tell me what the equivalent C++ code is that will produce the same output? I am not certain just what methods of the CryptoAPI the .NET functions use to encrypt the data. What options are used, and what method of generating the key is used? Before someone suggests that I just write it in C# anyway, or create some common library bridge for them, those options are unfortunately off the table. It really has to work in Win32 with .NET and without using a DLL. I have some leeway in changing the C# code. I apologize in advance if this is bone-headed, as I am new to encryption.

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  • genetic algorithm for leveling/build test

    - by Renan Malke Stigliani
    I'm starting o build a online PVP (duel like, one-to-one) game, where there is leveling, skill points, special attacks and all the common stuff. Since I never did anything like that, I'm still thinking about the maths behind the level/skill/special balances. So I thought good way of testing the best/combo builds would implement a Genetic Algorith. It'd be like that: Generate a big portion of random characters Make them fight, level them up accordingly to the victories(more XP)/losses(less XP) Mate the winners, crossing their builds, to try to make even best characters Add some more random chars, emulating new players Repeat the process for some time, or util find some chars who can beat everyone butts So I could play with the math and try to find the balance where the top x% chars would be a mix of various build types. So, is it a good idea, or there are some other easier method to do the balance? PS: I like this also, because it sounds funny

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  • Why don't more companies hire remotely?

    - by James
    I keep hearing about the desperate recruiting efforts of companies in tech hubs such as SF and NYC. However, every time I'm contacted by a startup I'm told the position is on-site and working remotely isn't possible. Let me clarify that these are tech startups. They should be very comfortable with the idea of using technology to get things done and connect teams together. With the housing market the way it is, many of us can't relocate even if we wanted to pay the higher cost of living. Why are so many companies still stuck in the industrial mindset of butts in seats?

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  • Force close message when preferences are called via menu button

    - by Dan T
    I see no problem in the code. Help? preferences.xml <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <PreferenceScreen xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"> <ListPreference android:title="Gender" android:summary="Are you male or female?" android:key="genderPref" android:defaultValue="male" android:entries="@array/genderArray" android:entryValues="@array/genderValues" /> <ListPreference android:title="Weight" android:summary="How much do you weigh?" android:key="weightPref" android:defaultValue="180" android:entries="@array/weightArray" android:entryValues="@array/weightValues" /> </PreferenceScreen> arrays.xml <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <resources> <string-array name="genderArray"> <item>Male</item> <item>Female</item> </string-array> <string-array name="genderValues"> <item>male</item> <item>female</item> </string-array> <string-array name="weightArray"> <item>120</item> <item>150</item> <item>180</item> <item>210</item> <item>240</item> <item>270</item> </string-array> <string-array name="weightValues"> <item>120</item> <item>150</item> <item>180</item> <item>210</item> <item>240</item> <item>270</item> </string-array> </resources> Preferences.java: package com.dantoth.drinkingbuddy; import android.os.Bundle; import android.preference.PreferenceActivity; public class Preferences extends PreferenceActivity { @Override protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); addPreferencesFromResource(R.xml.preferences); }; } butts.xml (idk why it's butts but I've gotten used to it now. really just sets up the menu button) <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"> <item android:id="@+id/settings" android:title="Settings" android:icon="@drawable/ic_menu_settings" /> <item android:id="@+id/archive" android:title="Archive" android:icon="@drawable/ic_menu_archive" /> <item android:id="@+id/new_session" android:title="New Session" android:icon="@drawable/ic_menu_new" /> <item android:id="@+id/about" android:title="About" android:icon="@drawable/ic_menu_about" /> </menu> within DrinkingBuddy.java: @Override public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) { switch (item.getItemId()) { case R.id.settings: startActivity(new Intent(this, Preferences.class)); return true; case R.id.archive: Toast.makeText(this, "Expect to see your old drinking sessions here.", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show(); return true; //ETC. } return false; That's it. I can press the menu button on the phone and see the menu items I created, but when I click on the "Settings" (r.id.settings) it FC. Do I have to do anything to the manifest/other thing to get this to work??

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  • margin between content and div overflow scrollbar

    - by ben
    I am using the following bits of code to keep my menu items fixed while allowing for the scrolling of content because it seems to be the most stable method across all browsers. body { overflow: hidden; } div.content { height: 100%; overflow: auto; } My problem is simple, and yet I can not seem to figure it out, the content inside the tag butts up against the scrollbar for the div area and it makes reading much more difficult. How can I get a margin between them (apart from floating a transparent image to the right to create space, there HAS to be a better way)?

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  • Workaround for Outlook 2007 for wrapping text around image with margin?

    - by DavidW
    As we all know, Outlook 2007 uses the Word 2007 rendering engine, causing endless grief when designing HTML email message. [Insert rant here] In particular, float, margin, and padding are - shall we say? - poorly supported. To simulate float so that text wraps around an image, apparently we can simply use: <img src="foo.png" align="right"> The issue is padding/margin. Without padding/margin, the wrapped text butts up against the image which looks goofy. One workaround is to edit the image and add transparent framing that simulates margin. Does anyone know any other workarounds?

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  • Is it possible to use Django's testing framework without having CREATE DATABASE rights?

    - by superjoe30
    Since I don't have a hundred bazillion dollars, my Django app lives on a shared host, where all kinds of crazy rules are in effect. Fortunately, they gave me shell access, which has allowed me to kick butts and take names. However I can't do anything about not having CREATE DATABASE rights. I'm using postgresql and have a killer test suite, but am unable to run it due to the code not being able to create a new database. However I am able to create said database beforehand via cPanel and use it with Django. I just don't have CREATE DATABASE rights. Is there a way I can still run my test suite?

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  • How to prepare for a programming competition? Graphs, Stacks, Trees, oh my! [closed]

    - by Simucal
    Last semester I attended ACM's (Association for Computing Machinery) bi-annual programming competition at a local University. My University sent 2 teams of 3 people and we competed amongst other schools in the mid-west. We got our butts kicked. You are given a packet with about 11 problems (1 problem per page) and you have 4 hours to solve as many as you can. They'll run your program you submit against a set of data and your output must match theirs exactly. In fact, the judging is automated for the most part. In any case.. I went there fairly confident in my programming skills and I left there feeling drained and weak. It was a terribly humbling experience. In 4 hours my team of 3 people completed only one of the problems. The top team completed 4 of them and took 1st place. The problems they asked were like no problems I have ever had to answer before. I later learned that in order to solve them some of them effectively you have to use graphs/graph algorithms, trees, stacks. Some of them were simply "greedy" algo's. My question is, how can I better prepare for this semesters programming competition so I don't leave there feeling like a complete moron? What tips do you have for me to be able to answer these problems that involve graphs, trees, various "well known" algorithms? How can I easily identify the algorithm we should implement for a given problem? I have yet to take Algorithm Design in school so I just feel a little out of my element. Here are some examples of the questions asked at the competitions: ACM Problem Sets Update: Just wanted to update this since the latest competition is over. My team placed 1st for our small region (about 6-7 universities with between 1-5 teams each school) and ~15th for the midwest! So, it is a marked improvement over last years performance for sure. We also had no graduate students on our team and after reviewing the rules we found out that many teams had several! So, that would be a pretty big advantage in my own opinion. Problems this semester ranged from about 1-2 "easy" problems (ie bit manipulation, string manipulation) to hard (graph problems involving fairly complex math and network flow problems). We were able to solve 4 problems in our 5 hours. Just wanted to thank everyone for the resources they provided here, we used them for our weekly team practices and it definitely helped! Some quick tips that I have that aren't suggested below: When you are seated at your computer before the competition starts, quickly type out various data structures that you might need that you won't have access to in your languages libraries. I typed out a Graph data-structure complete with floyd-warshall and dijkstra's algorithm before the competition began. We ended up using it in our 2nd problem that we solved and this is the main reason why we solved this problem before anyone else in the midwest. We had it ready to go from the beginning. Similarly, type out the code to read in a file since this will be required for every problem. Save this answer "template" someplace so you can quickly copy/paste it to your IDE at the beginning of each problem. There are no rules on programming anything before the competition starts so get any boilerplate code out the way. We found it useful to have one person who is on permanent whiteboard duty. This is usually the person who is best at math and at working out solutions to get a head start on future problems you will be doing. One person is on permanent programming duty. Your fastest/most skilled "programmer" (most familiar with the language). This will save debugging time also. The last person has several roles between assessing the packet of problems for the next "easiest" problem, helping the person on the whiteboard work out solutions and helping the person programming work out bugs/issues. This person needs to be flexible and be able to switch between roles easily.

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  • Professional Scrum Developer (.NET) Training in London

    - by Martin Hinshelwood
    On the 26th - 30th July in Microsoft’s offices in London Adam Cogan from SSW will be presenting the first Professional Scrum Developer course in the UK. I will be teaching this course along side Adam and it is a fantastic experience. You are split into teams and go head-to-head to deliver units of potentially shippable work in four two hour sprints. The Professional Scrum Developer course is the only course endorsed by both Microsoft and Ken Schwaber and they have worked together very effectively in brining this course to fruition. This course is the brain child of Richard Hundhausen, a Microsoft Regional Director, and both Adam and I attending the Trainer Prep in Sydney when he was there earlier this year. He is a fantastic trainer and no matter where you do this course you can be safe in the knowledge that he has trained and vetted all of the teachers. A tools version of Ken if you will Find a course and register Download this syllabus Download the Scrum Guide What is the Professional Scrum Developer course all about? Professional Scrum Developer course is a unique and intensive five-day experience for software developers. The course guides teams on how to turn product requirements into potentially shippable increments of software using the Scrum framework, Visual Studio 2010, and modern software engineering practices. Attendees will work in self-organizing, self-managing teams using a common instance of Team Foundation Server 2010. Who should attend this course? This course is suitable for any member of a software development team – architect, programmer, database developer, tester, etc. Entire teams are encouraged to attend and experience the course together, but individuals are welcome too. Attendees will self-organize to form cross-functional Scrum teams. These teams require an aggregate of skills specific to the selected case study. Please see the last page of this document for specific details. Product Owners, ScrumMasters, and other stakeholders are welcome too, but keep in mind that everyone who attends will be expected to commit to work and pull their weight on a Scrum team. What should you know by the end of the course? Scrum will be experienced through a combination of lecture, demonstration, discussion, and hands-on exercises. Attendees will learn how to do Scrum correctly while being coached and critiqued by the instructor, in the following topic areas: Form effective teams Explore and understand legacy “Brownfield” architecture Define quality attributes, acceptance criteria, and “done” Create automated builds How to handle software hotfixes Verify that bugs are identified and eliminated Plan releases and sprints Estimate product backlog items Create and manage a sprint backlog Hold an effective sprint review Improve your process by using retrospectives Use emergent architecture to avoid technical debt Use Test Driven Development as a design tool Setup and leverage continuous integration Use Test Impact Analysis to decrease testing times Manage SQL Server development in an Agile way Use .NET and T-SQL refactoring effectively Build, deploy, and test SQL Server databases Create and manage test plans and cases Create, run, record, and play back manual tests Setup a branching strategy and branch code Write more maintainable code Identify and eliminate people and process dysfunctions Inspect and improve your team’s software development process What does the week look like? This course is a mix of lecture, demonstration, group discussion, simulation, and hands-on software development. The bulk of the course will be spent working as a team on a case study application delivering increments of new functionality in mini-sprints. Here is the week at a glance: Monday morning and most of the day Friday will be spent with the computers powered off, so you can focus on sharpening your game of Scrum and avoiding the common pitfalls when implementing it. The Sprints Timeboxing is a critical concept in Scrum as well as in this course. We expect each team and student to understand and obey all of the timeboxes. The timebox duration will always be clearly displayed during each activity. Expect the instructor to enforce it. Each of the ½ day sprints will roughly follow this schedule: Component Description Minutes Instruction Presentation and demonstration of new and relevant tools & practices 60 Sprint planning meeting Product owner presents backlog; each team commits to delivering functionality 10 Sprint planning meeting Each team determines how to build the functionality 10 The Sprint The team self-organizes and self-manages to complete their tasks 120 Sprint Review meeting Each team will present their increment of functionality to the other teams = 30 Sprint Retrospective A group retrospective meeting will be held to inspect and adapt 10 Each team is expected to self-organize and manage their own work during the sprint. Pairing is highly encouraged. The instructor/product owner will be available if there are questions or impediments, but will be hands-off by default. You should be prepared to communicate and work with your team members in order to achieve your sprint goal. If you have development-related questions or get stuck, your partner or team should be your first level of support. Module 1: INTRODUCTION This module provides a chance for the attendees to get to know the instructors as well as each other. The Professional Scrum Developer program, as well as the day by day agenda, will be explained. Finally, the Scrum team will be selected and assembled so that the forming, storming, norming, and performing can begin. Trainer and student introductions Professional Scrum Developer program Agenda Logistics Team formation Retrospective Module 2: SCRUMDAMENTALS This module provides a level-setting understanding of the Scrum framework including the roles, timeboxes, and artifacts. The team will then experience Scrum firsthand by simulating a multi-day sprint of product development, including planning, review, and retrospective meetings. Scrum overview Scrum roles Scrum timeboxes (ceremonies) Scrum artifacts Simulation Retrospective It’s required that you read Ken Schwaber’s Scrum Guide in preparation for this module and course. MODULE 3: IMPLEMENTING SCRUM IN VISUAL STUDIO 2010 This module demonstrates how to implement Scrum in Visual Studio 2010 using a Scrum process template*. The team will learn the mapping between the Scrum concepts and how they are implemented in the tool. After connecting to the shared Team Foundation Server, the team members will then return to the simulation – this time using Visual Studio to manage their product development. Mapping Scrum to Visual Studio 2010 User Story work items Task work items Bug work items Demonstration Simulation Retrospective Module 4: THE CASE STUDY In this module the team is introduced to their problem domain for the week. A kickoff meeting by the Product Owner (the instructor) will set the stage for the why and what that will take during the upcoming sprints. The team will then define the quality attributes of the project and their definition of “done.” The legacy application code will be downloaded, built, and explored, so that any bugs can be discovered and reported. Introduction to the case study Download the source code, build, and explore the application Define the quality attributes for the project Define “done” How to file effective bugs in Visual Studio 2010 Retrospective Module 5: HOTFIX This module drops the team directly into a Brownfield (legacy) experience by forcing them to analyze the existing application’s architecture and code in order to locate and fix the Product Owner’s high-priority bug(s). The team will learn best practices around finding, testing, fixing, validating, and closing a bug. How to use Architecture Explorer to visualize and explore Create a unit test to validate the existence of a bug Find and fix the bug Validate and close the bug Retrospective Module 6: PLANNING This short module introduces the team to release and sprint planning within Visual Studio 2010. The team will define and capture their goals as well as other important planning information. Release vs. Sprint planning Release planning and the Product Backlog Product Backlog prioritization Acceptance criteria and tests Sprint planning and the Sprint Backlog Creating and linking Sprint tasks Retrospective At this point the team will have the knowledge of Scrum, Visual Studio 2010, and the case study application to begin developing increments of potentially shippable functionality that meet their definition of done. Module 7: EMERGENT ARCHITECTURE This module introduces the architectural practices and tools a team can use to develop a valid design on which to develop new functionality. The teams will learn how Scrum supports good architecture and design practices. After the discussion, the teams will be presented with the product owner’s prioritized backlog so that they may select and commit to the functionality they can deliver in this sprint. Architecture and Scrum Emergent architecture Principles, patterns, and practices Visual Studio 2010 modeling tools UML and layer diagrams SPRINT 1 Retrospective Module 8: TEST DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT This module introduces Test Driven Development as a design tool and how to implement it using Visual Studio 2010. To maximize productivity and quality, a Scrum team should setup Continuous Integration to regularly build every team member’s code changes and run regression tests. Refactoring will also be defined and demonstrated in combination with Visual Studio’s Test Impact Analysis to efficiently re-run just those tests which were impacted by refactoring. Continuous integration Team Foundation Build Test Driven Development (TDD) Refactoring Test Impact Analysis SPRINT 2 Retrospective Module 9: AGILE DATABASE DEVELOPMENT This module lets the SQL Server database developers in on a little secret – they can be agile too. By using the database projects in Visual Studio 2010, the database developers can join the rest of the team. The students will see how to apply Agile database techniques within Visual Studio to support the SQL Server 2005/2008/2008R2 development lifecycle. Agile database development Visual Studio database projects Importing schema and scripts Building and deploying Generating data Unit testing SPRINT 3 Retrospective Module 10: SHIP IT Teams need to know that just because they like the functionality doesn’t mean the Product Owner will. This module revisits acceptance criteria as it pertains to acceptance testing. By refining acceptance criteria into manual test steps, team members can execute the tests, recording the results and reporting bugs in a number of ways. Manual tests will be defined and executed using the Microsoft Test Manager tool. As the Sprint completes and an increment of functionality is delivered, the team will also learn why and when they should create a branch of the codeline. Acceptance criteria Testing in Visual Studio 2010 Microsoft Test Manager Writing and running manual tests Branching SPRINT 4 Retrospective Module 11: OVERCOMING DYSFUNCTION This module introduces the many types of people, process, and tool dysfunctions that teams face in the real world. Many dysfunctions and scenarios will be identified, along with ideas and discussion for how a team might mitigate them. This module will enable you and your team to move toward independence and improve your game of Scrum when you depart class. Scrum-butts and flaccid Scrum Best practices working as a team Team challenges ScrumMaster challenges Product Owner challenges Stakeholder challenges Course Retrospective What will be expected of you and you team? This is a unique course in that it’s technically-focused, team-based, and employs timeboxes. It demands that the members of the teams self-organize and self-manage their own work to collaboratively develop increments of software. All attendees must commit to: Pay attention to all lectures and demonstrations Participate in team and group discussions Work collaboratively with other team members Obey the timebox for each activity Commit to work and do your best to deliver All teams should have these skills: Understanding of Scrum Familiarity with Visual Studio 201 C#, .NET 4.0 & ASP.NET 4.0 experience*  SQL Server 2008 development experience Software testing experience * Check with the instructor ahead of time for the exact technologies Self-organising teams Another unique attribute of this course is that it’s a technical training class being delivered to teams of developers, not pairs, and not individuals. Ideally, your actual software development team will attend the training to ensure that all necessary skills are covered. However, if you wish to attend an open enrolment course alone or with just a couple of colleagues, realize that you may be placed on a team with other attendees. The instructor will do his or her best to ensure that each team is cross-functional to tackle the case study, but there are no guarantees. You may be required to try a new role, learn a new skill, or pair with somebody unfamiliar to you. This is just good Scrum! Who should NOT take this course? Because of the nature of this course, as explained above, certain types of people should probably not attend this course: Students requiring command and control style instruction – there are no prescriptive/step-by-step (think traditional Microsoft Learning) labs in this course Students who are unwilling to work within a timebox Students who are unwilling to work collaboratively on a team Students who don’t have any skill in any of the software development disciplines Students who are unable to commit fully to their team – not only will this diminish the student’s learning experience, but it will also impact their team’s learning experience Find a course and register Download this syllabus Download the Scrum Guide Technorati Tags: Scrum,SSW,Pro Scrum Dev

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