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  • Smart Help with UPK

    - by [email protected]
    A short lesson on how awesome Smart Help is. In Oracle UPK speak, there are targeted and non-targeted applications. Targeted applications are Oracle EBS, PeopleSoft, Siebel, JD Edwards, SAP and a few others. Non-targeted applications are either custom built or other third party off the shelf applications. For most targeted applications you'll see better object recognition (during recording) and also Help Integration for that application. Help integration means that someone technical modifies the help link in your application to call up the UPK content that has been created. If you have seen this presented before, this is usually where the term context sensitive help is mentioned and the Do It mode shows off. The fact that UPK builds context sensitive help for its targeted applications automatically is awesome enough, but there is a whole new world out there and it's called "custom and\or third party apps." For the purposes of Smart Help and this discussion, I'm talking about the browser based applications. How does UPK support these apps? It used to be that you had to have your vendor try to modify the Help link to point to UPK or if your company had control over the applications configuration menus, then you get someone on your team to modify this for you. But as you start to use UPK for more than one, two or three applications, the administration of this starts to become daunting. Multiple administrators, multiple player packages, multiple call points, multiple break points, help doesn't always work the same way for every application (picture the black white infomercial with an IT person trying to configure a bunch of wires or something funny like that). Introducing Smart Help! (in color of course, new IT person, probably wearing a blue shirt and smiling). Smart help eliminates the need to configure multiple browser help integration points, and adds a icon to the users browser itself. You're using your browser to read this now correct? Look up at the icons on your browser, you have the home link icon, print icon, maybe an RSS feed icon. Smart Help is icon that gets added to the users browser just like the others. When you click it, it first recognizes which application you're in and then finds the UPK created material for you and returns the best possible match, for (hold on to your seat now) both targeted and non-targeted applications (browser based applications). But wait, there's more. It does this automatically! You don't have to do anything! All you have to do is record content, UPK and Smart Help do the rest! This technology is not new. There are customers out there today that use this for as many as six applications! The real hero here is SMART MATCH. Smart match is the technology that's used to determine which application you're in and where you are when you click on Smart Help. We'll save that for a one-on-one conversation. Like most other awesome features of UPK, it ships with the product. All you have to do is turn it on. To learn more about Smart Help, Smart Match, Targeted and Non-Targeted applications, contact your UPK Sales Consultant or me directly at [email protected]

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  • Make your CHM Help Files show HTML5 and CSS3 content

    - by Rick Strahl
    The HTML Help 1.0 specification aka CHM files, is pretty old. In fact, it's practically ancient as it was introduced in 1997 when Internet Explorer 4 was introduced. Html Help 1.0 is basically a completely HTML based Help system that uses a Help Viewer that internally uses Internet Explorer to render the HTML Help content. Because of its use of the Internet Explorer shell for rendering there were many security issues in the past, which resulted in locking down of the Web Browser control in Windows and also the Help Engine which caused some unfortunate side effects. Even so, CHM continues to be a popular help format because it is very easy to produce content for it, using plain HTML and because it works with many Windows application platforms out of the box. While there have been various attempts to replace CHM help files CHM files still seem to be a popular choice for many applications to display their help systems. The biggest alternative these days is no system based help at all, but links to online documentation. For Windows apps though it's still very common to see CHM help files and there are still a ton of CHM help out there and lots of tools (including our own West Wind Html Help Builder) that produce output for CHM files as well as Web output. Image is Everything and you ain't got it! One problem with the CHM engine is that it's stuck with an ancient Internet Explorer version for rendering. For example if you have help content that uses HTML5 or CSS3 content you might have an HTML Help topic like the following shown here in a full Web Browser instance of Internet Explorer: The page clearly uses some CSS3 features like rounded corners and box shadows that are rendered using plain CSS 3 features. Note that I used Internet Explorer on purpose here to demonstrate that IE9 on Windows 7 can properly render this content using some of the new features of CSS, but the same is true for all other recent versions of the major browsers (FireFox 3.1+, Safari 4.5+, WebKit 9+ etc.). Unfortunately if you take this nice and simple CSS3 content and run it through the HTML Help compiler to produce a CHM file the resulting output on the same machine looks a bit less flashy: All the CSS3 styling is gone and although the page display and functionality still works, but all the extra styling features are gone. This even though I am running this on a Windows 7 machine that has IE9 that should be able to render these CSS features. Bummer. Web Browser Control - perpetually stuck in IE 7 Mode The problem is the Web Browser/Shell Components in Windows. This component is and has been part of Windows for as long as Internet Explorer has been around, but the Web Browser control hasn't kept up with the latest versions of IE. In a nutshell the control is stuck in IE7 rendering mode for engine compatibility reasons by default. However, there is at least one way to fix this explicitly using Registry keys on a per application basis. The key point from that blog article is that you can override the IE rendering engine for a particular executable by setting one (or more) registry flags that tell the Windows Shell which version of the Internet Explorer rendering engine to load. An application that wishes to use a more recent version of Internet Explorer can then register itself during installation for the specific IE version desired and from then on the application will use that version of the Web Browser component. If the application is older than the specified version it falls back to the default version (IE 7 rendering). Forcing CHM files to display with IE9 (or later) Rendering Knowing that we can force the IE usage for a given process it's also possible to affect the CHM rendering by setting same keys on the executable that's hosting the CHM file. What that executable file is depends on the type of application as there are a number of ways that can launch the help engine. hh.exeThe standalone Windows CHM Help Viewer that launches when you launch a CHM from Windows Explorer. You can manually add hh.exe to the registry keys. YourApplication.exeIf you're using .NET or any tool that internally uses the hhControl ActiveX control to launch help content your application is your host. You should add your application's exe to the registry during application startup. foxhhelp9.exeIf you're building a FoxPro application that uses the built-in help features, foxhhelp9.exe is used to actually host the help controls. Make sure to add this executable to the registry. What to set You can configure the Internet Explorer version used for an application in the registry by specifying the executable file name and a value that specifies the IE version desired. There are two different sets of keys for 32 bit and 64 bit applications. 32 bit only or 64 bit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\MAIN\FeatureControl\FEATURE_BROWSER_EMULATION Value Key: hh.exe 32 bit on 64 bit machine: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\MAIN\FeatureControl\FEATURE_BROWSER_EMULATION Value Key: hh.exe Note that it's best to always set both values ideally when you install your application so it works regardless of which platform you run on. The value specified is a DWORD value and the interesting values are decimal 9000 for IE9 rendering mode depending on !DOCTYPE settings or 9999 for IE 9 standards mode always. You can use the same logic for 8000 and 8888 for IE8 and the final value of 7000 for IE7 (one has to wonder what they're going todo for version 10 to perpetuate that pattern). I think 9000 is the value you'd most likely want to use. 9000 means that IE9 will be used for rendering but unless the right doctypes are used (XHTML and HTML5 specifically) IE will still fall back into quirks mode as needed. This should allow existing pages to continue to use the fallback engine while new pages that have the proper HTML doctype set can take advantage of the newest features. Here's an example of how I set the registry keys in my Tarma Installmate registry configuration: Note that I set all three values both under the Software and Wow6432Node keys so that this works regardless of where these EXEs are launched from. Even though all apps are 32 bit apps, the 64 bit (the default one shown selected) key is often used. So, now once I've set the registry key for hh.exe I can now launch my CHM help file from Explorer and see the following CSS3 IE9 rendered display: Summary It sucks that we have to go through all these hoops to get what should be natural behavior for an application to support the latest features available on a system. But it shouldn't be a surprise - the Windows Help team (if there even is such a thing) has not been known for forward looking technologies. It's a pretty big hassle that we have to resort to setting registry keys in order to get the Web Browser control and the internal CHM engine to render itself properly but at least it's possible to make it work after all. Using this technique it's possible to ship an application with a help file and allow your CHM help to display with richer CSS markup and correct rendering using the stricter and more consistent XHTML or HTML5 doctypes. If you provide both Web help and in-application help (and why not if you're building from a single source) you now can side step the issue of your customers asking: Why does my help file look so much shittier than the online help… No more!© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2012Posted in HTML5  Help  Html Help Builder  Internet Explorer  Windows   Tweet !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();

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  • Microeconomical simulation: coordination/planning between self-interested trading agents

    - by Milton Manfried
    In a typical perfect-information strategy game like Chess, an agent can calculate its best move by searching the state tree for the best possible move, while assuming that the opponent will also make the best possible move (i.e. Mini-max). I would like to use this approach in a "game" modeling economic activity, where the possible "moves" would be to buy or sell for a given price, and the goal, rather than a specific class of states (e.g. Checkmate), would be to maximize some function F of the agent's state (e.g. F(money, widget) = 10*money + widget). How to handle buy/sell actions that require coordination between both parties, at the very least agreement upon a price? The cheap way out would be to set the price beforehand, maybe based upon the current supply -- but the idea of this simulation is to examine how prices emerge when freely determined by "perfectly rational" agents. A great example of what I do not want is the trading algorithm in SugarScape -- paraphrasing from Growing Artificial Societies p101-102: when a pair of agents interact to trade, they each compute their internal valuations of the goods, then a bargaining process is conducted and a price is agreed to. If this price makes both agents better off, they complete the transaction The protocol itself is beautiful, but what it cannot capture (as far as I can tell) is the ability for an agent to pay more than it might otherwise for a good, because it knows that it can sell it for even more at a later date -- what appears to be called "strategic thinking" in this pape at Google Books Multi-Agent-Based Simulation III: 4th International Workshop, MABS 2003... to get realistic behavior like that, it seems one would either (1) have to build an outrageously-complex internal valuation system which could at best only cover situations that were planned for at compile-time, or otherwise (2) have some mechanism to search the state tree... which would require some way of planning future trades. Note: The chess analogy only works as far as the state-space search goes; the simulation isn't intended to be "zero sum", so a literal mini-max search wouldn't be appropriate -- and ideally, it should work with more than two agents.

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  • Introducing UPK 3.6 Simulation Help (You Say It and We Do It!)

    - by kathryn.lustenberger(at)oracle.com
    We would like to thank everyone that participated in the recent documentation survey that was conducted over the last several months. Your feedback is valuable and we appreciate the time you took to provide it. Many of you commented that you would like to have "UPKs for UPK" in the documentation. In response, we are pleased to announce the availability of Simulation Help. This unique help system is a blending of the text-based Developer help and a collection of approximately 200 simulations that show authors how to create, record, refine, localize, and publish content using the Developer. You can access Simulation Help at any time using the following link: http://download.oracle.com/technology/products/upk/index.html Save this link as a favorite or bookmark in your browser for easy access anytime. We have also provided a link to a short one-question survey so you can tell us what you think of the new Simulation Help. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BJT7LV6 Thanks again for your valuable feedback on the product documentation!

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  • Developing a mobile application, how to show help if it contains too much data?

    - by MobileDev123
    I am developing a mobile application which has many functionality, and I am pretty sure that the design will confuse the user about how to use some functionality so we decided to include some help as we can see them regularly in desktop applications, but later we found that the help text is too long. We don't think that one screen is enough to describe what a user can do. Moreover the project itself is subjected to evolve based on beta stage and user reports. After a lot of thinking and meetings we have decided three options to show the users what they can do. Create the website or blog, so we can let the users know what they can do with this application, the advantage is that it can provide us a good source of marketing, but for that they have to access the site while most part of the application can be used while being offline in earlier versions. Create a section in the application called demos to show the same thing locally, but we are afraid that it will increase the size, that we think can be avoided (and we are planning to avoid if there is any option) Show popups, but we discarded this thinking that pop ups annoys user no matter what the platform is. I want to know from community that which option will you choose, we are also open to accept other ideas if you have.

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  • openss7 help help help

    - by deddihp
    Hello, is there anyone in this forum who have experience with openss7 before ?. Or maybe stil developing with openss7 ?. I need to discuss something, since it's difficult to find the solution...

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  • Simulation in Java/C for AI design

    - by abhishekgupta92
    I want to conduct a contest, in which contestants are required to code in java/c and design AI or gameplay. The game should have a visual simulation so that the players could enjoy their designs (AI or gameplay) graphically as well. A possible example can be soccer, in which contestant have to design the ai of the players and decided upon the team-play. Also, they play over the network in such a game against some other player. How can i go about it?

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  • Microsoft Robotics Development Studio simulation project deployment

    - by slibby05
    I am currently working on a project in Microsoft Robotics Development Studio, and I am having a little trouble deploying the solution for general use. My problem is this. I am making a simulation, so I need to deploy the simulation engine along with my project. This is dependent on the Ageia PhysX engine, DirectX, and the Microsoft XNA framework. I understand this, and I understand that the deployment tool for MRDS (dssdeploy) isn't set up to deploy simulations by default. So, if anyone has worked with MRDS before, and has deployed a simulation, I could use some help with this.

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  • C# Monte Carlo Simulation Package Needed

    - by Yunzhou
    I'm relative new to C# and doing a project using Monte Carlo Simulation. Basically my question is the following. I have two uncertain variable inputs, A and B, and they will go through a model and give an output C. So C = f(A,B). I know A's probability distribution (Triangular) and B's probability distribution (Discrete). How can I get the probability distribution of C? What I have done now is that I can generate random numbers based on A's triangular distribution as well as B's discrete distribution. Each pair of randomly generated A and B gives a resultant C. I've run this model 1000 times thus I can get 1000 possible values of C. The difficulty is to get the corresponding probabilities of each value of C. Obviously it's not 1/1000 unless C is uniformly distributed. Is there any Monte Carlo Simulation package/library I can use?

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  • Good "Modelling & Simulation" book recommendations for programmers?

    - by Harry
    I'm a programmer, and have completely forgotten all the advanced engineering Math I studied ~20 years ago at school. I now have an urgent need to learn about Modelling and Simulation. Though the present context is Disease Modelling, I'm not sure if there's such a thing as 'general' modelling and simulation... with concepts / techniques / algorithms that could be used in just about any domain (and not just limited to biology, finance, trade, economic, weather, etc.) Would you have any recommendations that are easy to read by a semi-Math-literate programmer? Basically, I cannot afford to drown myself in too much Math and theory behind M & S, hence this post. Tia...

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  • Discrete event simulation framework for .NET

    - by Kuba
    Does anyone have an experience with some discrete event simulation library that could be used in .NET (C#)? Despite the basic functionality for queing events and dispatching them, it would be fine to have some non-deterministic behavior (e.g. failures simulation). I have some tips and I am even considering to write my own, but first, I would like to collect some recomendations. Thanks. Additional info: i'm not looking explicitly for free product, however, the prize matters :) Just to precise the field i need to map, here is the example of a product: http://www.holushko.com/index.html

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  • Schmelp Portal, Help Portal: Oracle Fusion Applications Help Online

    - by ultan o'broin
    Yes, the Oracle Fusion Applications Help (or "Help Portal" to us insiders) is now available. Click the link fusionhelp.oracle.com and check it out! Oracle Fusion Applications Help user interface If you're developing your own help for Fusion Apps, then you can use the newly published Oracle Fusion Help User Interface Guidelines to understand the best usage. These guidelines are also a handy way to get to the embedded help design patterns for Oracle Fusion Applications, now also available. To customize and extend the help content itself no longer requires the engagement of your IT Department or expensive project work. Customers can now use the Manage Custom Help capability to edit or add whatever content they need, make it secure and searchable, and develop a community around it too. You can see more of that capability in this slideshare.net presentation from UKOUG Ireland 2012 about the Oracle Fusion Applications User Assistance and Support Ecosystem by Ultan O'Broin and Richard Bingham. Manage Custom Help capability To understand the science and craft that went into the creation and delivery of the "Help Portal" (cardiac arrests all round in Legal and Marketing Depts), then check out this great white paper by Ultan O'Broin and Laurie Pattison: Putting the User into Oracle Fusion Applications User Assistance. So, what's with this "Help Portal" name? Well, that's an internal (that is, internal to Oracle) name only and we should all really call it by the correct product listing name: Oracle Fusion Applications Help. To be honest, I don't care what you call it as long as it is useful. However, these internal names can be problematic when talking with support or the licensing people. For years, we referred casually to the Oracle Applications Help or Oracle Applications Help System that ships with the Oracle E-Business Suite products as "iHelp". Then, somebody went and bought Siebel. Game over.

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  • Robot Simulation in Java

    - by Eddy Freeman
    Hi Guys, I am doing a project concerning robot simulation and i need help. I have to simulate the activities of a robot in a warehouse. I am using mindstorm robots and lego's for the warehouse. The point here is i have to simulate all the activities of the robot on a Java GUI. That is whenever the robot is moving, users have to see it on the GUI a moving object which represents the robot. When the roads/rails/crossings of the warehouse changes it must also be changed on the screen. The whole project is i have to simulate whatever the robot is doing in the warehouse in real-time. Everything must happen in real-time I am asking which libraries in Java i can use to do this simulations in real-time and if someone can also point me to any site for good information. Am asking for libraries in Java that i can use to visualize the simulation in real-time. All suggestions are welcome. Thanks for your help.

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  • agent-based simulation: performance issue: Python vs NetLogo & Repast

    - by max
    I'm replicating a small piece of Sugarscape agent simulation model in Python 3. I found the performance of my code is ~3 times slower than that of NetLogo. Is it likely the problem with my code, or can it be the inherent limitation of Python? Obviously, this is just a fragment of the code, but that's where Python spends two-thirds of the run-time. I hope if I wrote something really inefficient it might show up in this fragment: UP = (0, -1) RIGHT = (1, 0) DOWN = (0, 1) LEFT = (-1, 0) all_directions = [UP, DOWN, RIGHT, LEFT] # point is just a tuple (x, y) def look_around(self): max_sugar_point = self.point max_sugar = self.world.sugar_map[self.point].level min_range = 0 random.shuffle(self.all_directions) for r in range(1, self.vision+1): for d in self.all_directions: p = ((self.point[0] + r * d[0]) % self.world.surface.length, (self.point[1] + r * d[1]) % self.world.surface.height) if self.world.occupied(p): # checks if p is in a lookup table (dict) continue if self.world.sugar_map[p].level > max_sugar: max_sugar = self.world.sugar_map[p].level max_sugar_point = p if max_sugar_point is not self.point: self.move(max_sugar_point) Roughly equivalent code in NetLogo (this fragment does a bit more than the Python function above): ; -- The SugarScape growth and motion procedures. -- to M ; Motion rule (page 25) locals [ps p v d] set ps (patches at-points neighborhood) with [count turtles-here = 0] if (count ps > 0) [ set v psugar-of max-one-of ps [psugar] ; v is max sugar w/in vision set ps ps with [psugar = v] ; ps is legal sites w/ v sugar set d distance min-one-of ps [distance myself] ; d is min dist from me to ps agents set p random-one-of ps with [distance myself = d] ; p is one of the min dist patches if (psugar >= v and includeMyPatch?) [set p patch-here] setxy pxcor-of p pycor-of p ; jump to p set sugar sugar + psugar-of p ; consume its sugar ask p [setpsugar 0] ; .. setting its sugar to 0 ] set sugar sugar - metabolism ; eat sugar (metabolism) set age age + 1 end On my computer, the Python code takes 15.5 sec to run 1000 steps; on the same laptop, the NetLogo simulation running in Java inside the browser finishes 1000 steps in less than 6 sec. EDIT: Just checked Repast, using Java implementation. And it's also about the same as NetLogo at 5.4 sec. Recent comparisons between Java and Python suggest no advantage to Java, so I guess it's just my code that's to blame? EDIT: I understand MASON is supposed to be even faster than Repast, and yet it still runs Java in the end.

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  • Algorithms for City Simulation?

    - by anon
    I want to create a city filled with virtual creatures. Say like Sim City, where each creature walks around, doing it's own tasks. I'd prefer the city to not 'explode' or do weird things -- like the population dies off, or the population leaves, or any other unexpected crap. Is there a set of basic rules I can encode each agent with so that the city will be 'stable'? (Much like how for physics simulations, we have some basic rules that govern everything; is there a set of rules that governs how a simulation of a virtual city will be stable?) I'm new to this area and have no idea what algorithms/books to look into. Insights deeply appreciated. Thanks!

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  • Arbitrary-precision random numbers in C: generation for Monte Carlo simulation without atmospheric n

    - by Yktula
    I know that there are other questions similar to this one, however the following question pertains to arbitrary-precision random number generation in C for use in Monte Carlo simulation. How can we generate good quality arbitrary-precision random numbers in C, when atmospheric noise isn't always available, without relying on disk i/o or network access that would create bottlenecks? libgmp is capable of generating random numbers, but, like other implementations of pseudo-random number generators, it requires a seed. As the manual mentions, "the system time is quite easy to guess, so if unpredictability is required then it should definitely not be the only source for the seed value." Is there a portable/ported library for generating random numbers, or seeds for random numbers? The libgmp also mentions that "On some systems there's a special device /dev/random which provides random data better suited for use as a seed." However, /dev/random and /dev/urandom can only be used on *nix systems.

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  • Python: Traffic-Simulation (cars on a road)

    - by kame
    Hello! I want to create a traffic simulator like here: http://www.doobybrain.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/traffic-simulation.gif But I didn't thougt very deep about this. I would create the class car. Every car has his own color, position and so on. And I could create the road with an array. But how to tell the car where to go? Could I hear your ideas? EDIT: Is it forbidden to get new ideas from good programmers? Why do some people want to close this thread? Or were to ask such questions? I dont understand them. :(

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  • Conversation as User Assistance

    - by ultan o'broin
    Applications User Experience members (Erika Web, Laurie Pattison, and I) attended the User Assistance Europe Conference in Stockholm, Sweden. We were impressed with the thought leadership and practical application of ideas in Anne Gentle's keynote address "Social Web Strategies for Documentation". After the conference, we spoke with Anne to explore the ideas further. Anne Gentle (left) with Applications User Experience Senior Director Laurie Pattison In Anne's book called Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Documentation, she explains how user assistance is undergoing a seismic shift. The direction is away from the old print manuals and online help concept towards a web-based, user community-driven solution using social media tools. User experience professionals now have a vast range of such tools to start and nurture this "conversation": blogs, wikis, forums, social networking sites, microblogging systems, image and video sharing sites, virtual worlds, podcasts, instant messaging, mashups, and so on. That user communities are a rich source of user assistance is not a surprise, but the extent of available assistance is. For example, we know from the Consortium for Service Innovation that there has been an 'explosion' of user-generated content on the web. User-initiated community conversations provide as much as 30 times the number of official help desk solutions for consortium members! The growing reliance on user community solutions is clearly a user experience issue. Anne says that user assistance as conversation "means getting closer to users and helping them perform well. User-centered design has been touted as one of the most important ideas developed in the last 20 years of workplace writing. Now writers can take the idea of user-centered design a step further by starting conversations with users and enabling user assistance in interactions." Some of Anne's favorite examples of this paradigm shift from the world of traditional documentation to community conversation include: Writer Bob Bringhurst's blog about Adobe InDesign and InCopy products and Adobe's community help The Microsoft Development Network Community Center ·The former Sun (now Oracle) OpenDS wiki, NetBeans Ruby and other community approaches to engage diverse audiences using screencasts, wikis, and blogs. Cisco's customer support wiki, EMC's community, as well as Symantec and Intuit's approaches The efforts of Ubuntu, Mozilla, and the FLOSS community generally Adobe Writer Bob Bringhurst's Blog Oracle is not without a user community conversation too. Besides the community discussions and blogs around documentation offerings, we have the My Oracle Support Community forums, Oracle Technology Network (OTN) communities, wiki, blogs, and so on. We have the great work done by our user groups and customer councils. Employees like David Haimes reach out, and enthusiastic non-employee gurus like Chet Justice (OracleNerd), Floyd Teter and Eddie Awad provide great "how-to" information too. But what does this paradigm shift mean for existing technical writers as users turn away from the traditional printable PDF manual deliverables? We asked Anne after the conference. The writer role becomes one of conversation initiator or enabler. The role evolves, along with the process, as the users define their concept of user assistance and terms of engagement with the product instead of having it pre-determined. It is largely a case now of "inventing the job while you're doing it, instead of being hired for it" Anne said. There is less emphasis on formal titles. Anne mentions that her own title "Content Stacker" at OpenStack; others use titles such as "Content Curator" or "Community Lead". However, the role remains one essentially about communications, "but of a new type--interacting with users, moderating, curating content, instead of sitting down to write a manual from start to finish." Clearly then, this role is open to more than professional technical writers. Product managers who write blogs, developers who moderate forums, support professionals who update wikis, rock star programmers with a penchant for YouTube are ideal. Anyone with the product knowledge, empathy for the user, and flair for relationships on the social web can join in. Some even perform these roles already but do not realize it. Anne feels the technical communicator space will move from hiring new community conversation professionals (who are already active in the space through blogging, tweets, wikis, and so on) to retraining some existing writers over time. Our own research reveals that the established proponents of community user assistance even set employee performance objectives for internal content curators about the amount of community content delivered by people outside the organization! To take advantage of the conversations on the web as user assistance, enterprises must first establish where on the spectrum their community lies. "What is the line between community willingness to contribute and the enterprise objectives?" Anne asked. "The relationship with users must be managed and also measured." Anne believes that the process can start with a "just do it" approach. Begin by reaching out to existing user groups, individual bloggers and tweeters, forum posters, early adopter program participants, conference attendees, customer advisory board members, and so on. Use analytical tools to measure the level of conversation about your products and services to show a return on investment (ROI), winning management support. Anne emphasized that success with the community model is dependent on lowering the technical and motivational barriers so that users can readily contribute to the conversation. Simple tools must be provided, and guidelines, if any, must be straightforward but not mandatory. The conversational approach is one where traditional style and branding guides do not necessarily apply. Tools and infrastructure help users to create content easily, to search and find the information online, read it, rate it, translate it, and participate further in the content's evolution. Recognizing contributors by using ratings on forums, giving out Twitter kudos, conference invitations, visits to headquarters, free products, preview releases, and so on, also encourages the adoption of the conversation model. The move to conversation as user assistance is not free, but there is a business ROI. The conversational model means that customer service is enhanced, as user experience moves from a functional to a valued, emotional level. Studies show a positive correlation between loyalty and financial performance (Consortium for Service Innovation, 2010), and as customer experience and loyalty become key differentiators, user experience professionals cannot explore the model's possibilities. The digital universe (measured at 1.2 million petabytes in 2010) is doubling every 12 to 18 months, and 70 percent of that universe consists of user-generated content (IDC, 2010). Conversation as user assistance cannot be ignored but must be embraced. It is a time to manage for abundance, not scarcity. Besides, the conversation approach certainly sounds more interesting, rewarding, and fun than the traditional model! I would like to thank Anne for her time and thoughts, and recommend that all user assistance professionals read her book. You can follow Anne on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/annegentle. Oracle's Acrolinx IQ deployment was used to author this article.

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  • Elegant way of parsing Data files for Simulation

    - by sc_ray
    I am working on this project where I need to read in a lot of data from .dat files and use the data to perform simulations. The data in my .dat file looks as follows: DeviceID InteractingDeviceID InteractionStartTime InteractionEndTime 1 2 1101 1105 1,2 1101 and 1105 are tab delimited and it means Device 1 interacted with Device 2 at 1101 ms and ended the interaction at 1105ms. I have a trace data sets that compile thousands of such interactions and my job is to analyze these interactions. The first step is to parse the file. The language of choice is C++. The approach I was thinking of taking was to read the file, for every line that's read create a Device Object. This Device object will contain the property DeviceId and an array/vector of structs, that will contain a list of all the devices the given DeviceId interacted with over the course of the simulation.The struct will contain the Interacting Device Id, Interaction Start Time and Interaction End Time. I have a two fold question here: Is my approach correct? If I am on the right track, how do I rapidly parse these tab delimited data files and create Device objects without excessive memory overhead using C++? A push in the right direction will be much appreciated. Thanks

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  • Simulation tree command in C

    - by Ecle
    I have to create the simulation of tree command in C, this is my current code: #include <stdio.h> #include <sys/types.h> #include <sys/stat.h> #include <dirent.h> #include <string.h> main(int argc, char *argv[]){ int i; if(argc < 2){ printf("\nError. Use: %s directory\n", argv[0]); system("exit"); } for(i=1;i<argc;i++) //if(argv[i][0] != '-') tree(argv[i]); } tree(char *ruta){ DIR *dirp; struct dirent *dp; static nivel = 0; struct stat buf; char fichero[256]; int i; if((dirp = opendir(path)) == NULL){ perror(path); return; } while((dp = readdir(dirp)) != NULL){ printf(fichero, "%s/%s", path, dp->d_name); if((buf.st_mode & S_IFMT) == S_IFDIR){ for(i=0;i<nivel;i++) printf("\t"); printf("%s\n", dp->d_name); ++nivel; tree(fichero); --nivel; } } } Apparently, it works! (due to it compiles correctly) But I don't why. I can't pass the correct arguments to execute this. Thank you so much, people.

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  • gpgpu vs. physX for physics simulation

    - by notabene
    Hello First theoretical question. What is better (faster)? Develop your own gpgpu techniques for physics simulation (cloth, fluids, colisions...) or to use PhysX? (If i say develop i mean implement existing algorithms like navier-strokes...) I don't care about what will take more time to develop. What will be faster for end user? As i understand that physx are accelerated through PPU units in gpu, does it mean that physical simulation can run in paralel with rastarization? Are PPUs different units than unified shader units used as vertex/geometry/pixel/gpgpu shader units? And little non-theoretical question: Is physx able to do sofisticated simulation equal to lets say Autodesk's Maya fluid solver? Are there any c++ gpu accelerated physics frameworks to try? (I am interested in both physx and gpgpu, commercial engines are ok too).

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  • Simple Physics Simulation in java not working.

    - by Static Void Main
    Dear experts, I wanted to implement ball physics and as i m newbie, i adapt the code in tutorial http://adam21.web.officelive.com/Documents/JavaPhysicsTutorial.pdf . i try to follow that as i much as i can, but i m not able to apply all physical phenomenon in code, can somebody please tell me, where i m mistaken or i m still doing some silly programming mistake. The balls are moving when i m not calling bounce method and i m unable to avail the bounce method and ball are moving towards left side instead of falling/ending on floor**, Can some body recommend me some better way or similar easy compact way to accomplish this task of applying physics on two ball or more balls with interactivity. here is code ; import java.awt.*; public class AdobeBall { protected int radius = 20; protected Color color; // ... Constants final static int DIAMETER = 40; // ... Instance variables private int m_x; // x and y coordinates upper left private int m_y; private double dx = 3.0; // delta x and y private double dy = 6.0; private double m_velocityX; // Pixels to move each time move() is called. private double m_velocityY; private int m_rightBound; // Maximum permissible x, y values. private int m_bottomBound; public AdobeBall(int x, int y, double velocityX, double velocityY, Color color1) { super(); m_x = x; m_y = y; m_velocityX = velocityX; m_velocityY = velocityY; color = color1; } public double getSpeed() { return Math.sqrt((m_x + m_velocityX - m_x) * (m_x + m_velocityX - m_x) + (m_y + m_velocityY - m_y) * (m_y + m_velocityY - m_y)); } public void setSpeed(double speed) { double currentSpeed = Math.sqrt(dx * dx + dy * dy); dx = dx * speed / currentSpeed; dy = dy * speed / currentSpeed; } public void setDirection(double direction) { m_velocityX = (int) (Math.cos(direction) * getSpeed()); m_velocityY = (int) (Math.sin(direction) * getSpeed()); } public double getDirection() { double h = ((m_x + dx - m_x) * (m_x + dx - m_x)) + ((m_y + dy - m_y) * (m_y + dy - m_y)); double a = (m_x + dx - m_x) / h; return a; } // ======================================================== setBounds public void setBounds(int width, int height) { m_rightBound = width - DIAMETER; m_bottomBound = height - DIAMETER; } // ============================================================== move public void move() { double gravAmount = 0.02; double gravDir = 90; // The direction for the gravity to be in. // ... Move the ball at the give velocity. m_x += m_velocityX; m_y += m_velocityY; // ... Bounce the ball off the walls if necessary. if (m_x < 0) { // If at or beyond left side m_x = 0; // Place against edge and m_velocityX = -m_velocityX; } else if (m_x > m_rightBound) { // If at or beyond right side m_x = m_rightBound; // Place against right edge. m_velocityX = -m_velocityX; } if (m_y < 0) { // if we're at top m_y = 0; m_velocityY = -m_velocityY; } else if (m_y > m_bottomBound) { // if we're at bottom m_y = m_bottomBound; m_velocityY = -m_velocityY; } // double speed = Math.sqrt((m_velocityX * m_velocityX) // + (m_velocityY * m_velocityY)); // ...Friction stuff double fricMax = 0.02; // You can use any number, preferably less than 1 double friction = getSpeed(); if (friction > fricMax) friction = fricMax; if (m_velocityX >= 0) { m_velocityX -= friction; } if (m_velocityX <= 0) { m_velocityX += friction; } if (m_velocityY >= 0) { m_velocityY -= friction; } if (m_velocityY <= 0) { m_velocityY += friction; } // ...Gravity stuff m_velocityX += Math.cos(gravDir) * gravAmount; m_velocityY += Math.sin(gravDir) * gravAmount; } public Color getColor() { return color; } public void setColor(Color newColor) { color = newColor; } // ============================================= getDiameter, getX, getY public int getDiameter() { return DIAMETER; } public double getRadius() { return radius; // radius should be a local variable in Ball. } public int getX() { return m_x; } public int getY() { return m_y; } } using adobeBall: import java.awt.*; import java.awt.event.*; import javax.swing.*; public class AdobeBallImplementation implements Runnable { private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L; private volatile boolean Play; private long mFrameDelay; private JFrame frame; private MyKeyListener pit; /** true means mouse was pressed in ball and still in panel. */ private boolean _canDrag = false; private static final int MAX_BALLS = 50; // max number allowed private int currentNumBalls = 2; // number currently active private AdobeBall[] ball = new AdobeBall[MAX_BALLS]; public AdobeBallImplementation(Color ballColor) { frame = new JFrame("simple gaming loop in java"); frame.setSize(400, 400); frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE); pit = new MyKeyListener(); pit.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(400, 400)); frame.setContentPane(pit); ball[0] = new AdobeBall(34, 150, 7, 2, Color.YELLOW); ball[1] = new AdobeBall(50, 50, 5, 3, Color.BLUE); frame.pack(); frame.setVisible(true); frame.setBackground(Color.white); start(); frame.addMouseListener(pit); frame.addMouseMotionListener(pit); } public void start() { Play = true; Thread t = new Thread(this); t.start(); } public void stop() { Play = false; } public void run() { while (Play == true) { // bounce(ball[0],ball[1]); runball(); pit.repaint(); try { Thread.sleep(mFrameDelay); } catch (InterruptedException ie) { stop(); } } } public void drawworld(Graphics g) { for (int i = 0; i < currentNumBalls; i++) { g.setColor(ball[i].getColor()); g.fillOval(ball[i].getX(), ball[i].getY(), 40, 40); } } public double pointDistance (double x1, double y1, double x2, double y2) { return Math.sqrt((x2 - x1) * (x2 - x1) + (y2 - y1) * (y2 - y1)); } public void runball() { while (Play == true) { try { for (int i = 0; i < currentNumBalls; i++) { for (int j = 0; j < currentNumBalls; j++) { if (pointDistance(ball[i].getX(), ball[i].getY(), ball[j].getX(), ball[j].getY()) < ball[i] .getRadius() + ball[j].getRadius() + 2) { // bounce(ball[i],ball[j]); ball[i].setBounds(pit.getWidth(), pit.getHeight()); ball[i].move(); pit.repaint(); } } } try { Thread.sleep(50); } catch (Exception e) { System.exit(0); } } catch (Exception e) { e.printStackTrace(); } } } public static double pointDirection(int x1, int y1, int x2, int y2) { double H = Math.sqrt((x2 - x1) * (x2 - x1) + (y2 - y1) * (y2 - y1)); // The // hypotenuse double x = x2 - x1; // The opposite double y = y2 - y1; // The adjacent double angle = Math.acos(x / H); angle = angle * 57.2960285258; if (y < 0) { angle = 360 - angle; } return angle; } public static void bounce(AdobeBall b1, AdobeBall b2) { if (b2.getSpeed() == 0 && b1.getSpeed() == 0) { // Both balls are stopped. b1.setDirection(pointDirection(b1.getX(), b1.getY(), b2.getX(), b2 .getY())); b2.setDirection(pointDirection(b2.getX(), b2.getY(), b1.getX(), b1 .getY())); b1.setSpeed(1); b2.setSpeed(1); } else if (b2.getSpeed() == 0 && b1.getSpeed() != 0) { // B1 is moving. B2 is stationary. double angle = pointDirection(b1.getX(), b1.getY(), b2.getX(), b2 .getY()); b2.setSpeed(b1.getSpeed()); b2.setDirection(angle); b1.setDirection(angle - 90); } else if (b1.getSpeed() == 0 && b2.getSpeed() != 0) { // B1 is moving. B2 is stationary. double angle = pointDirection(b2.getX(), b2.getY(), b1.getX(), b1 .getY()); b1.setSpeed(b2.getSpeed()); b1.setDirection(angle); b2.setDirection(angle - 90); } else { // Both balls are moving. AdobeBall tmp = b1; double angle = pointDirection(b2.getX(), b2.getY(), b1.getX(), b1 .getY()); double origangle = b1.getDirection(); b1.setDirection(angle + origangle); angle = pointDirection(tmp.getX(), tmp.getY(), b2.getX(), b2.getY()); origangle = b2.getDirection(); b2.setDirection(angle + origangle); } } public static void main(String[] args) { javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() { public void run() { new AdobeBallImplementation(Color.red); } }); } } *EDIT:*ok splitting the code using new approach for gravity from this forum: this code also not working the ball is not coming on floor: public void mymove() { m_x += m_velocityX; m_y += m_velocityY; if (m_y + m_bottomBound > 400) { m_velocityY *= -0.981; // setY(400 - m_bottomBound); m_y = 400 - m_bottomBound; } // ... Bounce the ball off the walls if necessary. if (m_x < 0) { // If at or beyond left side m_x = 0; // Place against edge and m_velocityX = -m_velocityX; } else if (m_x > m_rightBound) { // If at or beyond right side m_x = m_rightBound - 20; // Place against right edge. m_velocityX = -m_velocityX; } if (m_y < 0) { // if we're at top m_y = 1; m_velocityY = -m_velocityY; } else if (m_y > m_bottomBound) { // if we're at bottom m_y = m_bottomBound - 20; m_velocityY = -m_velocityY; } } thanks a lot for any correction and help. jibby

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