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Has anyone made the jump from being a full-time employee as a software developer to a contract developer who hops from contract to contract? What's involved in making that jump? Currently I'm a Senior Developer / Team Lead with a financial institution. While I have a decent amount of...

Hi Guys, I wanted to see if I could get your input on a good way to re-design this solution (ASP.NET Web App) We currently have an application that allows users to use a web interface to build "drag-n-drop" select queries to be run against database tables or views. It supports several...

I'm not sure if this is the right place for general discussion around software development not directly related to code, but here goes: Recently I've been thinking about the role of software developers in software support. I'm a Java/.NET developer in an IT operations environment, and seeing...

Can anybody recommend a good book on learning computer organization? I wouldn't mind playing around with an Assembly language, but my main priority is to learn how the hardware works. I want to learn this stuff primarily out of interest, but I've also been told that learning the low-level...

//snip StreamReader inputFile = File.OpenText(args[1]); StreamWriter outputFile = new StreamWriter(args[2]); List<string> masterList = new List<string>(); string input; input = inputFile.ReadLine(); while (input != null)...

Hey all, So I'm faced with a bit of a dilemma. I'm going on my last internship opportunity before graduation (next summer), and I have two choices. I could go w/ RIM in Waterloo, Ontario as a Windows 7 Migration Developer. It sounds like they're getting ready to launch a location-wide...

As a fun little project, I thought I would try to create a mini-site (offline) that mimics the functionality of MemeGenerator. What I want to do is create some stock images with blank space, and allow users to use a web form to add overlay text. When they hit submit, the text gets added to...

Hey all, I'm a little unsure of what to do. Some background info might help put this into context: I'm about 1.5yrs away from completing a B. Comm in IT Management (specialization in Applications Development). Unfortunately for me, I've always known that I've wanted to write software for a...

Pointers and me never quite got along. I've read so much about them, but I've yet to really encounter a situation where I've thought that it was quintessential to use a pointer. I had a bit of a problem with my first job in C. When I started I would write code... upon code reviews the...

Is there some magic to user-defined functions that I'm not understanding? I have created the following function: -- contents of sql file to create function CREATE FUNCTION fx_createProblemCategoryTest3 (@problemCategory nvarchar(128)) RETURNS nvarchar(128) AS BEGIN declare @sym as...

Hey, so this is my first time dabbling in XNA, or any kind of movement code since the Macromedia Flash days. Long story short... I've created a small game sprite that can move in any direction across a 2D plane. I have added the following function, called moveSprite, which does as its name...

I'm just curious as to whether or not anybody here has experience getting into software development without a degree in computer science or engineering. Here's some background info on my situation: I'm currently doing a B.Comm in IT Management (specialization in Application Development)...

After playing some Dead Space last night I realized that I have never beaten Doom 3. I popped in the discs and installed the game again, thinking that it might look pretty sharp compared to what it looked like on my old rig. Unfortunately, it looked pretty lousy. The shadowing was cool but...

For employee appreciation week at work we were all given $25 gift certificates for a store of our choice. Naturally, I chose best buy. I really don'tknow what to do w/ this thing since I don't have any planned purchases from Best Buy for the foreseeable future. I also can't think of any...

I'm looking to get my dad a decent 4:3 LCD monitor for Father's day, but I can't seem to find anything through distributors. My dad is a real traditionalist, and for whatever reason insists that he doesn't like widescreen monitors. I was hoping to find a 19" or a 21" available in Canada to...

Okay so here's my situation: I am, first and foremost, a PC gamer. I always have been and I always will be. When I bought my console I did not think that I'd be getting a new gaming PC (laptop owner) so I bought a 360 (better shooter system). Now I have a gaming PC again, and I only use my...

Hey, I have a fairly odd problem with hibernation mode on my PC. It seems that no matter what I do, my PC will always awaken from hibernation at 3am. I've checked every setting that I can think of, and I've taken a look at all of my schedule tasks, but to no avail. I don't have anything...

Hey all, I need to create a nested if statement for Excel. This is what it would look like in a normal programming language: if (orders < 500) cost=20; else if (orders >= 500 && < 1000) cost=18; else if (orders >= 1000 && < 1500) cost=16; else if (orders >= 1500 && < 2000)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-6q87XCSrc Hey all, Here's an old video I made for a high-school project on violent videogames. I recently blogged on competitive gaming/the ESRB and totally remembered this video. IMO it's pretty well done... if nothing more there's some nostalgia to be...

Hey, I hear that Windows 7's public beta supports the "upgrade" option. I was wondering if it was possible to upgrade from a 32bit Windows Vista Ultimate install to a 64bit Windows 7 install. I'm not in the mood to format my HDD and re-download all of my games and what-not.

Hey, I need a good party game for the Xbox360... something that isn't Guitar Hero or Rock Band. Any suggestions? I figure that Uno will get boring quickly

Hi all, I've been playing around with the VPN functionality in Windows XP and Vista. I have configured my Windows XP laptop to act as a VPN server for my network. My friend attempted to connect to my network and was successful. He was granted an IP address and we were even able to...

Hi all, I'm committing PC audio crime by using onboard audio w/ analog. As you can imagine I'm getting a ton of buzzing, birring, and annoying interference when I plug in my headphones. The strange thing is that I don't hear any interference (or if I do it's unnoticeable) when I plug my...

Is there anybody left on the planet that still plays this game? It was the half-decent followup to what was once the best fighting game on the PC... good old OMF: 2097. I tried playing this game last night and noticed that the game renders a pure white screen underneath the HUD on my 4870...

http://tft.vanity.dk/ I found this nifty site amidst my lunch-time Internet scourging.

What's the difference between the two? I've seen both terms thrown around in job descriptions (though software development pops up a lot more). Are they interchangeable, or do they have different meanings?

Hey, I'm trying to create a ridiculously simple class to recreate an error I'm having with some larger software. class TestThisOS { public static void main(String args[]) { String whatIsThisOS = System.getProperty("os.name"); System.out.println("OS: " +...

Hi all, I'm dealing with a friend's PS3. Despite using the video reset and new cables, he can't get the PS3 to output. It's out of warranty. I'm guessing that this is a motherboard problem. Would I be able to repair this myself without replacing the motherboard?

Hey, I'm haivng some trouble with the latest 8.10 hotfix drivers and GRID. My card is supposed to tear right into this game no problem. However, the game's framerate plummets to about 1 frame per second (so bad that menu navigation is near impossible) if I try to enable any form of...

Gargh! So I've assembled my PC with everything that it needs, and I encounter the following problem: With the 24pin ATX connector and the extra 6pin ATX connector plugged in, the PC constantly powers on and off. With just the 24pin ATX power, the machine turns on but I get no beep codes...

Hey, So I put my PC together (minus the RAM and V-card, in shipping) and I tried turning it on to test the fans. The computer boots up and runs for all of three seconds before shutting off. It then proceeds to continually power itself on and off. Is this a shortcircut, a CPU issue, or...

Hey all. I'm building a new computer with a Gigabyte P45 DS3R. This features a Realtek ALC889a chipset. I also have an old Sound Blaster Audigy 2 sitting in a static bag. I took it out of my old machine because I donated that to my dad and didn't think he needed 5.1 audio support. I'm...

Hey, I'm almost embarassed to ask this question because it's totally n00bish, and I should know the answer, but here goes: I have a varaiable with characters I want to replace. Say i have t(e)st I want to replace the curve brackets with square brackets I have this much figured out...

Hey, I came across some strange syntax in a batch script. A variable was used to store a directory, but instead of reading %MYDIRECTORY%, the variable read %MYDIRECTORY:)=^)% I cant seem to figure out what, if anything, the :)=^) does.

Which ATi card manufacturer has the best warranty? IMO eVGA is the best for nVidia with their limited lifetime warranty... is there anything else comparable from a manufacturer that does ATi cards?

The 4850 in Crossfire mode (2x4850) seems like a really great buy at $400.... I'm just wondering if the GDDR5 and the other improvements the 4870 has is worth the extra $200? Right now, benchmarks seem to say that it's not a worthwhile investment. Were the 4870 a 1gb card, I would definitely...

I'm looking to get a widescreen LCD (22 or 24 inches) monitor for use with my xbox360, a new PC that I'll be building, and my work laptop. Currently, I use a 19inch CRT monitor for PC gaming/360 gaming, and LCDs on my laptop and at work. My question is about input lag, as it pertains to...

OK, so here's the deal. I've got HL2 and episode 1 for PC, but my gaming PC is old and I'm a cheap bastard. So now I've got a 360 and I'm planning on getting Orange box for it. The only thing is that I still play my 360 on my old PC monitor (via VGA cables) which is a 19inch CRT at a res...

Okay, so this is about the strangest computer problem I've ever come across. My computer will not boot all the time. I've spent the past three days trying to figure it out, testing everything from my RAM, to my videocard, to even my HDD... and I've found the problem: The tray that holds...