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This page is a collection of obscure C++ features, gathered over the years as I've explored different corners of the language. C++ is very big and I'm always learning more about it. Hopefully you'll learn something from this page even if you already know C++ pretty well. The features below are roughly ordered from least to most obscure. Are these really that obscure? What else should be on this list?
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In the last few years, we see the advent of highly distributed systems. Systems that have clusters with lots of servers are no longer the sole realm of the googles’ and facebooks’ of the world and we begin to see multi-node and big data systems in enterprises.... So now that large(r) clusters are more prevalent, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on the fallacies of distributed computing and how/if they are relevant; should they be changed. Mo' instances, mo' problems.
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There is a perception in some tech circles that older programmers aren’t able to keep pace with rapidly changing technology, and that they are discriminated against in the software field. But a new study from North Carolina State University indicates that the knowledge and skills of programmers actually improve over time – and that older programmers know as much (or more) than their younger peers when it comes to recent software platforms. It's worth noting that, in this study, 37 is old. Get off my lawn.
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When we released our very first game, Game Dev Tycoon yesterday, we did something unusual and as far as I know unique. We released a cracked version of the game ourselves, minutes after opening our Store.... The cracked version is nearly identical to the real thing except for one detail... Slowly their in-game funds dwindle, and new games they create have a high chance to be pirated until their virtual game development company goes bankrupt. Predictably, they complain.
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It'll be less pirated; it'll be not played as much as would be, which will have an impact on sales. The net result will be less profit.
So far my prediction. Now we'll have to wait for the results 
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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Considering the extensive media coverage the game gets bacause of this I expect the sales to skyrocket.
Otherwise you do raise some valid points, but that's really a grey area there...
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szukuro wrote: Considering the extensive media coverage the game gets bacause of this I expect the sales to skyrocket.
Media coverage never made me play a game.
It'll take a while before we get an answer though
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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won't the results be skewed now that a "PROPER" crack has been released?
(looking at the legit players vs pirates chart on the blog page)
how will they distinguish legit players, players that downloaded the "rigged" version and pirates that downloaded the cracked "legit" version?
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Like any language — English, for example — management-speak can be used “to deflect blame, complicate simple ideas, obscure problems, and perpetuate power relations.” But that is a function of language. And make no mistake: bureaucratese is its own language. Or, to be more precise, its own idiom. Idioms evolve organically among the members of a group sharing common interests and concerns to better communicate those very interests and concerns.... These all necessarily exclude people outside the in-group, but this does not need to be a sinister thing. Try to follow a conversation among particle physicists in the Cal Tech lunchroom one day if you doubt me. Going forward, impactful asks for stakeholders will drill down.
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You follow a link to a blog post and if you are lucky the post is there, just as it was the day the author created it. But just as likely, the link is broken and goes nowhere. Or the author has changed the contents (or at least the presentation) or simply moved it to a different place. Blogs are abandoned, services go out of business or are aquired, authors lose interest, lose faith, and sometimes simply die. And although the URL, that universally unique permutation of characters, remains, the content it pointed to is lost. This is only going to get worse. What's the best way to archive the web?
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For the past few months we have seen a gradual increase in server-level compromises. In fact, every week it seems we’re handling half a dozen or so and it continues to increase. It’s one of the reasons that I have started including this as a trend in my most recent Website Security presentations. Just last week we talked about some very sneaky hacks that targeted the Apache binaries directly in the place of the modules, contrary to what we had been seeing. Fortunately, the more sophisticated attack are still far and few in between leaving us to deal with rogue modules more often than not. Now they're going directory for the Apache binaries. Here's how to stay safe.
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The password creation process on different websites can be a bit like visiting foreign countries with unfamiliar social customs. This one requires eight characters; that one lets you have up to 64. This one allows letters and numbers only; that one allows hyphens. This one allows underscores; that one allows @#$&%, but not ^*()[]!—and heaven forbid you try to put a period in there. Sometimes passwords must have a number and at least one capital letter, but no, don’t start the password with the number... Many successful password attacks have little to do with the content of the password itself.
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It seems funny to call the software our conference runs on a "platform" as that sounds very "enterprisey" and official. In the past we've done aspConf and mvcConf with sponsors who helped pay for things. We used Channel 9 and had a studio and streamed either from Seattle or using Live Meeting. However, this year we wanted to do it on the cheap and more distributed. We wanted speakers from ALL over in all time zones. How cheap? About USD$10ish we figure. I'll get a complete bill later, but we basically wanted to scale up, do the talks and scale down. How to organize your own conference for the price of a take-out lunch.
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Staying in shape as a programmer can be difficult, but recent studies have shown that even if you’re among those in our profession who do work out regularly, sitting for long periods of time at work is detrimental to your health. To be a bit more dramatic about it, sitting is killing you (see Phil Haack’s blog post on this from last year). So, how can we combat this risk while continuing to get our work done (and, if you’re like me, keep on doing the thing you love)? How do you balance coding and keeping in shape?
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It would be nice to "Sleep while working". Not found a pill for that yet 
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I've been thinking about getting a height adjustable desk for home use on and off for about a year. I'm tall and long legged, so after buying myself a chair that adjusted higher than standard and having the ergonomics people rebuild my desk at work to a 34(?)" height (about the only thing cube style furniture is good for) I've found myself wanting a higher desk for home use.
Unfortunately, standard flatpack furniture appears to only be available in 29-31" heights and while I haven't gone to anyone offering custom built furniture for a quote I know it won't be cheap; which has me wondering about just getting an adjustable desk instead. The catch is that I really like the corner desks I have both at work and at home because they let me angle multiple screens so I can easily look at any of them and still have space on each side to put other stuff.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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I started experimenting with a standing desk a little over 2 years ago.
The first attempt was to raise up all of my equipment to an appropriate standing height. It was meant to be temporary and experimental, so I simply used boxes, book and boards already around the house. I simply wanted to see what it felt like and get an idea of appropriate keyboard and monitor height in case I wanted to make permanent changes.
Pros: The change of posture was positive, and I found standing helped me focus on the work at hand. When I needed to stop and think, or got frustrated, I could step away, pace, reach for a reference book more easily. My day self-organized into getting a task done, then stepping away, then stepping back to get a task done.
Cons: This setup was all or nothing. Going directly from sitting all the time to standing all the time was physically difficult, tiring and even painful. I still do not like standing all day, and I find some tasks - research, reading - I focus on better when sitting.
That experiment lasted a few months. We moved, and for my new home office I bought a height-adjustable desk (specifically, a GeekDesk[^]).
Pros: Within its range, adjustable to any height you like at the touch of a button, so instantly flexible for whatever work you need to do. Getting under the desk for cable or equipment management is super easy. (Seems dumb until you have to crawl under your desk to plug something in. Raising the whole thing up seems brilliant.)
Cons: Expensive. And now it's your responsibility to set it at standing height. Like the treadmill that turns into a laundry rack, it's easy to get back into the habit of leaving it down at sitting all the time (as I am right now).
As with any exercise, making it a habit is the hardest part, but also the most effective strategy.
I still like the GeekDesk a lot and recommend one if it fits your budget or someone else is paying. If I had it to do over again, I'd probably invest in a tall draftsman's chair first, set up a dedicated standing desk, then standing becomes the default, but I can still sit. Small outlay. Almost the same flexibility.
If you use a laptop, then of course you can simply move to a different location to sit down. Again, the dedicated standing desk works for you, though not if you like to use big desktop monitors.
Good shoes are important for extended standing. Since I work at home, changing between house shoes with good sole support like Birkenstocks, regular shoes, and stocking feet makes for a nice variation.
Going back to the "painful" remark, my experience suggests that going from all sitting to all standing is going to be about as fun as going from all sitting to running a marathon. Start slow and build up to a comfortable routine. Overall, when I actually use the standing desk, I find it beneficial for both my body and my focus on work.
I know a few people who walk or bike while working, but this doesn't interest me at all. It seems distracting, the setup seems inflexible, and I'd much rather work hard, take a break, go out for a walk and clear my head, then come back refreshed for more work. YMMV.
Director of Content Development, The Code Project
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Terrence Dorsey wrote: Again, the dedicated standing desk works for you, though not if you like to use big desktop monitors.
My home desktop runs at 4960x1600[^] (that's 2x20" 1x30" monitors); so big monitor space support is an absolute requirement for me.
Terrence Dorsey wrote: oing back to the "painful" remark, my experience suggests that going from all sitting to all standing is going to be about as fun as going from all sitting to running a marathon. Start slow and build up to a comfortable routine.
Being able to switch gradually, or pretend I will anyway, is a part of why I'm interested in an adjustable desk (the height problem with flatpack products being the other). Also because I have a small apartment I don't have room for two desks even if I was willing to drop several grand on a second set of monitors for the second.
Terrence Dorsey wrote: I know a few people who walk or bike while working, but this doesn't interest me at all. It seems distracting, the setup seems inflexible, and I'd much rather work hard, take a break, go out for a walk and clear my head, then come back refreshed for more work. YMMV.
I've no real idea how, or if, this would work out for me. Having to spend $$lot$ separately for a treadmill would give major encouragement to my inner procrastinator and cheapskates. OTOH the only exercise program I've ever managed to stick to for a usefully long period of time has been going for long walks around the neighborhood during the daylight months. However between worse than useless levels of street lighting (kills my night vision while not providing enough illumination for safety) and the accumulation of alternately snow or salt/sand on the sidewalks I'm forced to stop every winter and end up gaining back the inch I walked off my waist during the summer and then face the *ugh* I'm so out of shape problem around now when I try to restart. 
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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One more question; what does all the up/down movement to for cable management? I'd probably keep my tower on the floor; so I'd have wires for 3 monitors (power and video), 5 channel speakers, and a powered USB hub running from the desktop to the PC and UPSes at a bare minimum. Depending on if I get a side table or not I'd potentially also have wires for a printer, cable modem, router, network switch, and a battery charger adding to the snarl (and I can't escape the feeling I'm forgetting something else).
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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To minimize clutter, I mounted a 9-plug power strip and gigabit ethernet switch to the underside of the desk. This minimizes the cables running from desktop to floor.
I have a tower on the floor (second one soon, maybe) and a Mac Mini on the desk, plus two monitors, KVM, two lamps and various peripherals.
With all that, I have only 4 cords going floor to desk: power strip, KVM to tower, ethernet to wall and ethernet to tower.
Cable management is actually easier because I can raise the desk up and get under there better to plug things in and keep things tidy (not that I always do). If you plug in the floor-to-desktop wires with the desk at full height, you know they'll always be long enough.
There are only two tricks: making sure cables don't snag on the way up, and making sure you don't leave something under the table that hangs it up on the way down. Double-sided velcro straps are good for cable management. Go slow down and back up the first time you've hooked things up, sort out any trouble that reveals itself and you should be good to go.
Standing at the desk right now, thanks to the reminder of this thread. I should write a blog post about my experience, with photos, so everyone can see. On the to do list for the week.
Director of Content Development, The Code Project
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Terrence Dorsey wrote: I mounted a 9-plug power strip and gigabit ethernet switch to the underside of the desk.
I'd still end up with a power mess. My current setup has the tower and monitors on different (large) UPSes and some odds and ends on surge only; and I really need to get a 3rd underneath again to keep my core networking separate from my desktop power pig. (And then there's still desktop #2 and my file server setup behind my chair and on a separate UPS; but neither of these would end up on my desk either so they don't really count for this discussion. My landlord's going to get a rude surprise whenever I move out and his heating bill suddenly jumps because his new tenant ends up needing the furnace more than the few days a year max I've had it on the last few. (Not sure if I turned my heat on beyond a fall test this year at all.)  )
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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After spending about 15 or 20 minutes standing in front of a medium bookshelf with a laptop on the top and using a few books as variable height shims it seems I'd need it all the way up to the 49" limit barefoot; to turn it into a walking desk I'd need to put it up on blocks.
*grumble* I'm only 6'2"; so much for a company selling premium adjustable ergonomic products stepping outside of the one size fits most bracket.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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Interesting. I'm also 6' 2" and don't have any problem, though I can see the added height to accommodate a treadmill might complicate things.
Director of Content Development, The Code Project
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I measured my setup in the standing position.
The desktop is 44-45" inches high, a good level for relaxed typing.
My monitors are raised up on homemade stands so the tops of the monitors are just above eye level. Actual height of the stands depends on the adjustability of the monitors, but they're set up so the bottom edge is about a foot from the table surface. I find this a comfortable setup.
It took a bit of experimentation to arrive at this setup.
Director of Content Development, The Code Project
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I guess your arms must be a bit longer than mine then (or my total length is disproportionately in my huge hands). Screen height I figured would require something beyond the OEM stands; so I just angled it as best I could while looking down. I came up with the 48-49" height by adjusting the height of my laptop keyboard so that my forearms were parallel to the floor for proper typing posture.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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