The Whiteboard

Shahar

00:04

I actually found that now haha. But FFMPEG has no PHP API and I'm afraid using exec too much will destroy the server

dreza

00:26

hello?

Shahar

Hey

Do you know how to convert an animated GIF to MP4 in php?

dreza

umm, no sorry. php isn't my strong suit

hey. i've got a query that I wanted to get peoples thoughts on. not sure if this is an ok forum to ask at.

Shahar

convert some.gif some%05d.png
ffmpeg -i some%05d.png some.avi
rm some*.png

What's the query

dreza

Been doing scrum and a fellow developer has been saying for the last 4 scrums that they should be finished their story today and have the code checked in in the next hour or so. Just got to do a couple more minor bits.

but that was 4 scrums (4 working days)

I'm not sure how to broach it with him, or if it even needs broaching i.e. i'm just being picky etc

was gonna ask this on project management but no one chatting there :)

Shahar

Yeah it's probably not really appropriate here

although you can call Michael

dreza

00:31

ok

umm call Michael?

Shahar

@MichaelT

dreza

what do u mean call?

Shahar

Nothing I just tagged his name. I think that would send him a signal (?)

user55340

When you put an '@' in front of someone's name it goes bing. @dreza like that.

dreza

oh, sweet

Shahar

00:33

> Been doing scrum and a fellow developer has been saying for the last 4 scrums that they should be finished their story today and have the code checked in in the next hour or so. Just got to do a couple more minor bits.
but that was 4 scrums (4 working days)
I'm not sure how to broach it with him, or if it even needs broaching i.e. i'm just being picky etc
was gonna ask this on project management but no one chatting there :)

dreza

wasn't sure if these rooms for for general chit chat or not. first time here really...

user55340

@dreza PM.SE is a bit slower than P.SE... smaller site.

dreza

@MichaelT yeah, fair enough

user55340

Ask them to check in what they do have, no matter how little so that its possible to see what the proper velocity is and adjust any estimates if needed.

user55340

The point of scrum is to move forward. If something is an obstacle, it needs to be identified and dealt with. If for the past 4 days, he's had an obstacle of some sort and isn't progressing, that needs to be identified.

dreza

00:36

cool, yeah ok. i have work that is dependant on them as well. each scrum when i have said my roadblocks I mention their issue.

user55340

If, on the other hand, you've got a Paula bean that needs to be identified and dealt with. The lack of code check ins can certainly be holding up other progress.

dreza

ahh, yeah. i'm not sure. could be as haven't seen the code yet. this guy is supposed to be the lead developer on the project too so it's a bit tricky

user55340

While 'critical path' isn't something thats too appropriate with scrum, it is a concept that PMs will know and understand.

dreza

although all my reading says no lead developers in agile. it's just what our company did for this project

ok, cheers. I think the best bet is to suggest they check-in what they have done like you said. Hopefully that might trigger something too. cheers.

user55340

Point out that as the time frame for your code that is dependent on the code that you are waiting for gets shorter you become the critical path for the project and any issues that you have then can substantially impact the timeline for the overall project because everything is now waiting on you.

user55340

00:40

If you are 4 months out and find that your estimate for the code is 2 months rather than 1 month... yo've got time to fix that. If you have ti wait 3 more months to be able to work on it... you've now pushed out the final product a month because there is no longer any slack in the schedule.

user55340

amazon.com/Slack-Getting-Burnout-Busywork-Efficiency/dp/…

user55340

@dreza you might want to get a copy of that book (and possibly one for your PM too).

dreza

good idea. he does always mention at the scrums though how he has been pulled onto other work etc etc and so that's delayed this work etc I personally think that's covering the issue, but can't really say that.

@MichaelT Thanks might take a look into it

user55340

The thing is that when there's no slack in the schedule things get chaotic and problems arise. He is removing the slack from your schedule.

user55340

Even if he's just got the stubs for an interface... its something to be able to work from.

user55340

00:42

The other point to make is that if he is getting pulled into other projects and work, then his resource allocation needs to be re-evaluated and timelines adjusted accordingly.

dreza

Yeah, I thought all our time was supposed to be accounted for in that. But that's a good point to make.

user55340

100% allocation to a project is a wonderful ideal... but its rarely recognized unless other measures are taken.

user55340

amazon.com/Death-March-2nd-Edward-Yourdon/dp/013143635X

dreza

yeah, our PM said only %80 of our day is scheduled for the project

user55340

While you might not be at that point yet, it does have some ideas for how to get the focus the project needs (like moving the team physically to another place).

dreza

00:45

awesome, thanks

user55340

Its also a fun book to have on your desk when managers come around to talk to you.

dreza

haha, that sounds like a plan....

Shahar

How would I create a temporary name in PHP

but I want it to be fixed length

so that I can add other things after generating it (i.e. <generated>_7) without collisions

Actually I think I'll just remove the _'s from the generated name

user55340

03:42

@RobertHarvey you know you want to rant...

user55340

I updated my answer with a few counter arguments - I'm just looking to have an honest discussion because as a polyglot with strong fp experience I question these conventions heavily coming back to Java . Thank you for your response :) — JasonG 7 mins ago

Robert Harvey

04:15

@MichaelT No thanks. I did the rant thing already today, and nobody wanted to listen. Think I'll take a vacation away from it for awhile.

See, this is exactly what I'm talking about. People use EDIT: to milk their questions for more information, provoke a discussion, summarize the answers in their question, etc. There isn't any valid use case for EDIT: that the Edit History doesn't already do better.

Ampt

13:02

0

Q: C++ certifications

What are the most respectable C++ certifications? How do they relate to each other? For now I am aware only of the CPPGM and Brainbench.

Free CV ^^

Thomas Owens

Engineers: So your PM sucks? Here’s how to fix it.

Ampt

Interesting read

I wonder if PM Schools/training solutions will start popping up to align better with the Agile methodology

Thomas Owens

I've only scanned it. The parts I read were really good. I hope to read the whole thing at lunch. Or after work.

Ampt

that train commute gives me time to catch up on my favorite books/articles/everything

Thomas Owens

13:18

I have a driving commute. And I don't want to live in any of the towns that share mass transit that go to the office.

Ampt

Anyone know of any good windows applications to create multiple virtual desktops?

I'm looking for something like spaces for mac

After having multiple desktops in linux for so long, it would be a nice-to-have feature haha

Oded

I use VirtuaWin - old, but has configurable key bindings

virtuawin.sourceforge.net

And better than any other I have tried.

Ampt

interesting, I'll definitely give it a look

thanks Oded

Thomas Owens

Microsoft used to have one for Windows XP. They never updated it for Vista/7/8.

Ampt

the one on sysinternals?

it works for 8

just not that great

Thomas Owens

13:28

Oh. Did they finally update it?

Oded

Yeah, it isn't a good one at all.

Thomas Owens

I never used it at home, but it was amazing at work.

Ampt

this one seems to work well

the tracpad on my new computer supports 3 finger swipes so I'm using that to control it

works fairly well, if not the most graphically impressive haha

Thomas Owens

Oh. Let me check out Desktops. If this works on 7, I'll be happy.

Ampt

err yes, sorry, i had it on windows 7 on the work laptop

that was where I tried it

Oded

13:31

@ThomasOwens it does.

Thomas Owens

It's not flashy. I like it.

Process Explorer should be the new Task Manager.

Stack Exchange

The Codeless Code: Case 154: A Bridge To Nowhere

posted on July 20, 2014

A bridge builder was completing his inspection of Zjing's Bridge when he spied master Kaimu standing nearby. The builder said to Kaimu: “I have heard your monks speak of themselves as ‘software engineers.’ As a true engineer I find such talk absurd... “In my profession we analyze all aspects of our task before the first plank is cut. When our blueprints are done I can tell you exactly how …

Dustin E.

Does anyone know if there is a word for "Something that does not correspond to a class" Such as a Xref table in SQL.

I'm just curious and this is the first place I thought to look after I couldn't find it on Google.

enderland

@Oded I also use virtuawin. I recommend using AutoHotKey to get a "Inspect Window" functionality which is very good for setting up VirtuaWin's setting

Dustin E.

Perhaps the word imaginary is well suited for describing something this way

Ampt

13:47

@ThomasOwens have you seen the new Task Manager?

I love it

Thomas Owens

14:11

@Ampt I have not seen the Windows 8 one, no.

Ampt

howtogeek.com/108742/…

I love it

between the redesigned look that makes it look less windows 2000 and more modern, and the functional changes like color coding usage and providing usage history, it's pretty damn solid

user41796

14:42

I should have known they were q-banned on SO.

user41796

-3

Q: Increase an array's size

How do you increase an array's size? I do not want to use a vector, or make a new array and copy the data over. Example: int a[5]={1,2,3,4,5}; I don't want to change any values, I just want to change it to this: int a[6]={1,2,3,4,5,6}; Is it possible? Online, I couldn't find how to do it, ...

c++ array

user41796

Migration failed, and I placed the 5th VTC.

Ampt

14:54

time to downvote it for the ROOMBA OF DOOM

user41796

I was hoping for easy repz on the migrate, but oh well.

Ampt

yeah you slacker

if you want the SO rep, go hang out in SO

enderland

@Ampt there be dragons!

Ampt

There be trolls, and code-pasters and just general idiots

plus the only rule in the land is Fastest Gun in the West

Arrr, it be a terrible place to be

user41796

And I'm definitely s l o w.

user41796

14:59

And I hear the mods over there are a little bit on the loony side.

Ampt

Yeah, they whisper of a Dread Pirate who goes by the name of Robert

They say he can skin a man alive with but one click of his mouse

user41796

You get a star on that one. Has there been any progress in the silk road dread pirate case?

Ampt

not sure, don't really keep up with it

never really got into silk road

most of what I want can be purchased through amazon haha

despite the fact that I would, infact, download a car if I could

user41796

to my knowledge, I haven't even used a tor client. So I can safely say I never visited that silk road.

Ampt

I've used tor before, but mostly to get around geograpical based content. "Why yes, I am from sweden"

never messed around in the deep web

user41796

15:06

Apparently Roberts tried to get some of the charges dismissed. Those requests were summarily laughed at by the court. Next time he's due back in court is November.

Ampt

very interesting

it's an interesting time we live in

We could end up in some Cyberpunk fantasy land or it could be 1984 haha

user41796

or both.

Ampt

yep. it'll be something for sure

ugh, I wish Chromes built in PDF viewer was just a little more beefy

user41796

In other news, I built a media center over the weekend.

Ampt

anything over 100 pages and scrolling becomes a pain

oh really, how did that go?

user41796

15:15

I'm thoroughly convinced MS intended to stick it to their consumers with Win8

Ampt

really?

how so

user41796

I used 8.1, but the interface and defaults are just ... pathetic

Ampt

to set up a media center?

user41796

Even the installer had issues to where it wouldn't let me format the drives prior to the installation starting up

user41796

I'm going to put XMBC on the system tonight

Ampt

15:16

what kind of specs did you put in it?

i3?

user41796

Seems fairly straightforward

Ampt

AMD?

user41796

AMD A8

Ampt

I've heard good things about XBMC

user41796

A8-6600

user41796

15:17

Found a couple of tutorials and they raved about XMBC

Ampt

did you just use the integrated graphics?

user41796

I'm not as interested in all the plugins at this point, but we'll see

user41796

yes - the integrated graphics helped push me towards AMD

Ampt

personally, I love my chromecast, but it's not for everyone

user41796

all told, it was ~500 - 550

Ampt

15:18

wow

not bad

user41796

I need the ability to rip DVDs and blurays

Ampt

4 gigs of ram I take it?

user41796

primarily so the kids can just use the carousel to pick whatever movie they want to watch

Ampt

yeah

user41796

8 GB of RAM, 120 GB SSD with a 1TB HDD backing it

user41796

15:18

gigabit motherboard with integrated wifi

Ampt

just 1TB of movies? Some dad you are...

hahaha jk

integrated wifi is pretty much the best things since sliced bread

user41796

I think there's space for another HDD once the 1TB fills up

user41796

I know I have a spare SATA port for it

user41796

I was originally going to get an A10, but dropped down to A8 to balance out the increase in cost for the mobo w/ wifi

Ampt

is it hooked up to an HDTV?

user41796

15:20

yep - had to actually. The spare monitor I have at home is only VGA. And the new board only has DVI and HDMI outputs

Ampt

A good mobo is pretty essential considering what all it does. Between the northbridge managing the wifi/ethernet/storage and the CPU Voltage monitoring, it's pretty important

user41796

and my DVI -> VGA converter has the extra 4 pins four dual-DVI whereas the plug on the mainboard is single DVI

Ampt

it's not for dual-DVI, your DVI on the board is only DVI-D

you need DVI-I or DVI-A (I forget what it's called) to provide VGA compatibility

basically DVI-D only has digital lines

DVI-[I/A] provides both digital and vga

user41796

ah, that makes sense.

Ampt

dual link DVI uses all of the bajillion pins. Most cables only have the outer two matricies of pins populated for that reason

user41796

15:23

was just as easy to plug directly into the TV at that point

Ampt

yeah, I learned that lesson the hard way with my moms new GFX card

one was DVI-D and one was DVI-[I/A]

user41796

I was wondering how you knew those details so well... :-)

Ampt

both her monitors were VGA, so we couldn't use a converter

DOH

haha yeeep. Lot's of heavy sighing and apologies

ended up just swapping my old monitor for hers since mine supports DVI/ VGA

That build was rushed and I messed up.. a lot. Got the wrong socket type for her MOBO even

whoooops

user41796

ouch

Ampt

this is why you don't drink and newegg kids

eh, newegg was great about it, but it was a hassle

user41796

15:25

my only screw ups (so far) were ordering a CPU fan when I didn't need one and forgetting to pick up a power supply the first time

user41796

I've got a microcenter local to me, so that simplified getting replacement parts and returns

Ampt

well, it was like computer build number 7-8 for me, so I figured I could pick and order all the parts in 10 minutes, and AMDs A series chips tricked me on their socket

user41796

oh, and I forgot to get a 3rd sata cable when originally ordering

user41796

yeah, I put a semi-decent amount of research into things

user41796

and I briefly compared against getting an intel chip but then quickly shrugged my shoulders and went with a simple system.

user55340

15:27

@GlenH7 IIRC, its a trollish account (check MSO contributions)

user55340

Ahh, those have been deleted.

user41796

@MichaelT Ugh. That makes my sense of shame even worse.

Ampt

@GlenH7 AMD is the best performance per dollar if you don't have high demands

user55340

There was a big hubbub on MSO about someone changing the title of a room to something offensive...

user41796

This chipset can apparently support 4k monitors, so I figured that would take care of me for a few years

Ampt

15:28

wow, that's suprising

user41796

@MichaelT in addition to the C++ room name change issue a little while back?

Ampt

it can decode and play 4k video, or you can set your desktop to 4k and edit word docs?

user41796

not sure since I don't have a 4k monitor or tv

user41796

nor am I likely to for a while

user55340

@GlenH7 That was the one... the thing is, the person complaining about it was the one who did it... who is now question banned.

Ampt

15:29

@GlenH7 they are coming down in price

saw a 60" 4k samsung at bestbuy for 2600

user41796

@MichaelT oh! <Facepalm/>

user41796

@Ampt new kitchen cabinets come first. :-)

Ampt

Haha not saying I would pay that for it

but it's much better than the 40k you would have to pay 18 months ago

besides, I just blew all my personal entertainment budget for the next year on a new computer

user55340

@Ampt I recall someone pricing the cost of a Mac Pro (the coffee pot) with all 4k monitors.

Ampt

I may or may not have done that

hahaha

user41796

15:31

@MichaelT my wallet cringes at the mere thought

Ampt

although the apple iCinema displays aren't that bad

2560 x 1440

so 2.5k

user55340

It can drive 3x 4k displays...

Ampt

driving and utilizing are very, very different

even the GTX Titan breaks a sweat playing games at 4k

user55340

But think of how many windows you could have open!

Ampt

I could edit so many word docs!

user41796

15:34

Think of all the artifacts you could create... :-) #consultantHumor

user55340

Btw, could we get two more close votes on programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/240513/… ?

Ampt

I love that title...

user55340

OP is deleted, will never update the question to address issues, said that the one answer on there is not the right one.

Ampt

It's like I'm watching reality TV

user41796

already VTC'd

Ampt

15:36

On this episode of Mock Objects: Real Issues, we deal with test driven development. Wait until you see what our objects do next!

user55340

Btw, this is a MSE question to watch:

user55340

28

Q: Why do old expired close votes prevent me from ever voting to close again?

I am going through some old content on Stack Overflow and voting to close. For example, questions that are specific to one person's homework and may have been resolved with a simple typo fix or something. Or exam preparation study recommendations, eg. How does one prepare for the ColdFusion 9 ACE...

discussion support flags vote-to-close clean-up

Ampt

Interesting. VTC applied

lol JK, I only have 1 rep on meta

user55340

Btw, did you see I hurt Jimmy's brain?

user55340

yesterday, by MichaelT

@JimmyHoffa http://haskellryangosling.tumblr.com ... because... well... because you'll never unsee it when you write haskell again.

user55340

15:45

yesterday, by Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT wow.

user41796

My LEGO calendar at work is a pretty good metaphor for how my year has gone. I just now updated it to August from January. I know it's not August (yet), but like I said, it's a good metaphor.

user41796

@MichaelT I'm dying laughing from those

user55340

@GlenH7 But you won't be writing haskell and picturing Ryan Gosling when doing so.

user41796

No, pretty unlikely for either case

user55340

But next time he uses 'ord'...

user55340

15:50

Ok, don't need that staring at me... look at the history if you want to see Ryan Gosling saying stuff about Haskell.

Oded

Way to abuse the Haskell type system

user55340

@Oded Nope that neither... Hey girl. The type of my love is parametrically polymorphic: it is unbounded.

user41796

@MichaelT yeah, no harm in putting that meme back into the history. :-)

Ampt

Ok, so when I create a pom.xml and specify a groupID, what does that mean?

what exactly am I putting there?

user55340

A way to organize artifacts.

user55340

15:55

Typically its the first two parts of the package name.

Ampt

yeah.. does that have to resolve to some sort of java path?

user55340

Nope. Its just a name space to avoid artifact collisions.

Ampt

oh.. well thats probably my problem haha

we're trying to create a new project from scratch and it's going less than stellar

user55340

Whats the problem?

Ampt

it's an Adobe AEM project... so there are a LOT of moving parts

we're not sure what's required, what's not

and how to even make sure it's all functioning properly haha

it's a lot of trial and error right now

user41796

16:04

Every now and then I wish I was a mod so I could immediately close a question and see who the maroon was that voted to migrate a question to SO. "Don't migrate crap!" should be at the top of the vote-to-migrate page.

AJ Henderson

@MichaelT I posted an answer to it

user55340

@AJHenderson What about after a year the close vote expires?

user55340

And, thats only on ones that aren't successful.

AJ Henderson

@MichaelT could do that, but why does it matter. If it hasn't changed and it wasn't worth closing then, what changed in a year?

I'm pretty sure if a question is edited it allows closing again, though I'm not 100% sure on that. If that isn't the case, I think that would be the bigger case

user55340

The scope of the site... the community tolerance for certain posts. The ability to dup-hamer questions to the canonical ones?

AJ Henderson

16:06

and if it is one that has drifted off topic, then flag for moderator attention

mods can always nuke it

I could see an argument for allowing dupe later

user41796

@AJHenderson OP had flagged in that case and mod declined the flag saying "use the regular tools."

user55340

(that is what Greg was doing - going through old posts and dup hammering the ones to the canonical versions of the questions... and came across some questions that he had voted to close earlier and couldn't dup hammer now)

AJ Henderson

@GlenH7 yeah, which means mod didn't really think it was an issue

which probably means it was working as designed

user15026

@GlenH7 Yes, that should be like a giant banner.

user41796

@AJHenderson nah, I'm going with lazy SO mods. :-)

user41796

16:09

@AshleyNunn I might open an MSE request this afternoon to that effect, just to see if it gets any attention

user15026

@GlenH7 Worth a shot. Might be just another thing for people to blissfully ignore, but I live in hope. :P

user41796

Short of my getting the ability to close and then correct the community member, it's worth a shot.

user55340

61

Q: Add a "don't migrate crap" migration 'path' to all sites

Don't Migrate Crap This is the golden rule of migrations. And we do it far too often. I'll even admit to it. Its sometimes difficult to justify to one's self to spend more time drafting a custom off topic reason to say it when it is more work than the OP has spent putting into writing the que...

feature-request migration close-reasons

user55340

40

Q: Can we try to dissuade some bad migrations by adding the "first rule" to the dialog?

tl;dr Can we get what Jeff has referred to as the "first rule" or "golden rule" of migrations on quite a few occasions - namely "Don't. Migrate. Crap." - added to the off-topic / migration dialog? It could even be sugar-coated with nice words if necessary. Migrating users don't receive a lo...

discussion feature-request user-interface migration

user41796

@MichaelT Looks like I won't be making that same request today. :-)

user55340

16:12

@GlenH7 Could always bounty it.

user55340

(and give the rep to Thomas...)

user41796

I think I'll edit the suggested phrase and bump it that way.

user41796

Wee! and I get 2 repz for my efforts

user55340

@AJHenderson "If the pose has been "

user55340

You can fix it in the edit window with no one but the whiteboard knowing you're trying to edit poses.

AJ Henderson

16:22

@MichaelT where was that?

user55340

> I guess the real question should be "what has changed since I last voted to close?" If the pose has been edited, then certainly it makes sense to be able to close again, though that might open the door to abuse by editing the post just so you can VtC.

AJ Henderson

@MichaelT thank ye

or should I say thank yt

tgkprog

For a relationship between entities : Products and Customers in a web app, that describes people who have bought a product. Favour name "customersWhoBought" or "customersBought" ?

AJ Henderson

many to many?

tgkprog

yep its many to many

typical web store scenario

AJ Henderson

16:29

I'd probably go with customersBought personally. customersWhoBought seems more like it should be one to many

tgkprog

okay

AJ Henderson

it is really a record of what customers bought

not just customers who bought a particular item

but that's largely just personal preference

tgkprog

Using "customersBought" Danke folks

user55340

yrch... delete votes to the blogs

user55340

16:56

Btw, @GlenH7 projecteuler.net/problem=155

user55340

@GlenH7 another BTW... if you look at a question that has been closed and you recall the vote information about it, you can determine some of who voted how.

Ampt

17:50

@MichaelT Calculating the Capacitance is a red herring

I'm not sure you would even need to do it if you could work the rules out correctly

user55340

btw, 1h until tech interview for Amazon affiliated company. I'll be closing out of SE during that period (just to avoid any whiteboard bings)

Ampt

So we should ping you incessantly for ~1 hour in an hour? Got it.

But seriously, good luck :)

user55340

Its part 2 of 3. 1 was HR (phone). 2 is tech (online). 3 is culture (in person)

Ampt

ah ok

then this is the part you should absolutely kill then

user55340

I hope so. It was described as data structures questions.

Ampt

17:55

make a linked list in C? haha

user55340

Side bit - two things to read about JVM under the hood:

user55340

@Cruncher It won't break, it just won't be as optimal. There's some fun to be read about in Tuning the JVM for Unusual Uses and My Favorite Hotspot JVM Flags that gives you a better idea of what this all means and what tricks HotSpot has. Note that is for HotSpot - not Dalvik or other VMs. — MichaelT 12 mins ago

Ampt

shhhh here comes the crazy SO mod

user55340

@Ampt At least one of the qualifiers there is redundant.

user55340

"crazy SO *" fits. As does "crazy mod"

user41796

17:57

@MichaelT I'm confident you'll do well.

user55340

> Marcus Kohler commented on -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError, useful if you have a slow-leaking application you can't pin down. It will dump heap information to disk whenever there's an OutOfMemoryError, allowing you to do offline analysis.

user55340

@RobY: And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson ♫ — Robert Harvey 5 mins ago

user55340

@RobertHarvey is old.

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