SP Rao

Well, I just installed Drupal 5 days ago succesfully. Have also used quite a few modules of Drupal.As everyone realizes, not many layouts are present for Drupal. I've hust selected one and proceeding with it. (Layout can be changed anytime). Though I had quite some frustrating times with Drupal, this one is the most frustarting one.Well, there are modules like Forum, Blog, Book etc for putting content up there in the site.Actually my problem is, I want separate pages for these and I want my front page to contain only articles. I want to keep liks for Blog, Forum Pages. The link part is done. But, I'm unable to stop displaying blog topics in the front page. I don't want them to be part of my menu "Content"... Any help here?

First of all thanks a lot guys for showing interest in the problem. evought beatufully described an algorithm to achieve it. Well mate, unfortunately that solution doesn't work. Simply because by putting a wrap around function for the statics function of mine, I'm effectively making my static function non static! The very purpose of me defining the function static was, to enable exception handling irrespective of the object. (As we both know static functions can be called without an object. Static functions will be defined only once in the memoy. Instead of allocating memory everytime an object is defined, for static functions the compiler just reffers to the same function which is created in the memory.) Which in turn means, there is only one instance of my static function at a time. This is very essential for performance of my code. The fact that only one instance of static function is needed in turn has a lot of benefits. By putting the wrap function I'm destroying it all... My architecture will anyway change because this non-static member function needs an object to be called! (Which in turn means, I've made my static member function effectively non-static). That solution won't serve my purpose though extremely well crafted and very well explained by evought. Well Vyoma, this is exactly what I used as explained below. And as for having an exception handling class library I already have one, but the exception catching mechanism I must incorporate in m class itself. (Kindly forgive me if the words are mispelled, I'm using a pathetic keyboard here in this net cafe). I guess I'm left with no option nut to change design I believe. I've come up with another stratergy though. For every thread I'm gonna open, I'm storing the address in a linked list.(In fact I'm using the great RogueWave library for it ). Now if you can imagine, through this pointer which is stored in my list, I can actually access the "this" pointer for the object. Check below for the pseadocode. Static function SF(){//code goes here (check for the pointer to current thread in the list) { Current Thread Pointer->this->My variable=True; //Cought a definite exception //Code goes here }return} As you can see in the above, I've accessed the object which caused the exception in a different way With some enhancement for my code. The problem solved, issue ends here. Now if you are interested, this library RogueWave is exceptionally good for string handling ;-) visit http://www.roguewave.com/ for details. Thanks a lot guys.

Very true even I was searching for configurable laptops. Actually a lot of dealers allow upgrades. Like RAM, DVD RWs, HDs etc... But these are more like accessories, the core still needs to be bought. But _______jesh________ if you could tell me the need, I might just be able to help. For which purpose you intend to use the laptop? Basically good basic laptops will come with a price tag of around INR30000. You'll be able to get a very decent latop @INR 40000-45000. If you want with dual-core processors (Unless you want to run very high end graphic programs like high end games and extreme mathermatical softwares you don't need dual core processor.) For general purpose use and occasional gaming a Intel Centrino Mobile Processor and a GForce graffix card would do. This combination with 512Mb RAM,80GB HDD, DVD RW and all the accessories you'll be able to get at around 45,000 to 50000 INR. If you be still more specific, I might be able to guide you better.

Honestly this is a disgrace. First a dll is missing, second you can't play it without net.Pathetic man. Remember all those pirated games which used work without giving any probs whatsoever? As far as I've found, always the support teams will give junk answers. Your question is one among the simplest questions to answer. "Can I play the game without internet connection?", a yes or a no. Simple as that. If they can't even do that, then honestly it's a pity. I'm sorry I've never tried installing this original game, so I can't really help in this topic. But couldn't help expressing myself. I believe that if you can't get the game working without internet, they should pay your money back along with conpensation. Well, if it was US, we could've sued them. But... This is God's own India. (You know what I mean )

I agree with vyoma in this regard. I've not played in PBEM(Play By EMail) approach, but PBP(Play By Post) is really exciting. Though there is a delay involved in PBP method, it's rich and geaographical barriers will be eliminated. The other point about not enough roleplayers that Vyoma was making is so very true. It's funny, but true. In a country where literacy is <60% one might imagine the ability of a person to play RPG. The internet revelution started very late in India. (After 1995). So lack of information is one reason why we don't find enough roleplayers around. In fact I was introduced to RPGs by very own Vyoma Moreover even with the community of people who are aware of games are freaks of Action games... Nobody likes spending hours together in character and story building. I've never played pen and paper RPG though I've played good amount of RPG using PBP approach.

I don't know where to start. I'm stuck in a strange position. Well, I have a class in which I have three functions which use to log exceptions when they occur. I've declared them as static functions as they'll be common for all the threads. Now, I have to enhance my class. For one specific exception, I need to perform soem set of operations. That means, when that particular exception acuurs, I need to log it in a variable (Say it's of type boolean and I want it to be true when the exception occurs). Now, since I detect and log exceptions using static member function of my class, I can only access static variables of the class. but I can't make this varioable static because if I make it as static, then every thread will be shouting as though they've got the exception though in reality only one thread has encountered an exception. My design has gone too far to change it by making the exception handling function no - static (normal member function) on the other hand I can't have the indicator variable as static either.Any alternate solution possible??? Kindly throw light here...

Well, everything depends on the necessity and budget. MySQL is free and pretty much simple. So obviously for normal purposes (Small databases.) this should be suffice. But in general if you want to lean a database that has real class or something like, then there are a lot of options. The most noticable are MS SQL, Oracle, Sybase, SAP. I don't know much about SAP. And as far as my knowledge goes, SAP is useful for huge amount of data. Oracle too is a cometetor there and Oracle is one amonthe best databases I've come across. I've worked on Oracle, Sybase, MS SQL. MS SQL is one among the easiest databases to use. Specially to perform activities like backup and recovery (Basically DBA activities), it's very convinient in MS SQL. On the other hand Oracle gives a lot of options, so it becomes a little difficult till you get used it. When it comes to Sybase again my knoledge is limited. It offers a lot of good features(so does oracle). But Oracle scores in a lot of regions. It supports ANSI syntax for SQL (Oracle 9i onwards). It's lock handling mechanism is the best. Specially once your table data crosses size of 1-2GB, you'll have real tough time fetching records from MS SQL database. But Oracle will not give you much of a problem. Basically Oracle fairs better in most of the areas. I do not wish to write much about these as I believe we would never be rich enough to buy these databases. So the best free database is MySQL. (In my Opinion )

That's very sad news indeed. Very tragic death, ain't it? Dying while doing something which he always loved to do, that too in which he was an expert is really tragic. Irony of life. One pulls so many stunts, never know which one backfires. This wasn't the first such incident I'm hearing, nor would it be the last.Cruel hands of fate (If at all it exists).May his soul rest in peace.

I have some different comments to make about India. I do agree compared to a lot of other professionals here, the pay is good for a programmer. But, like others were mentioning, managers, consultants and sales people earn more than a programmer within the software industry.Now, what would be a great salary per month for a programmer? If he gets 400$/month it's considered extremely good salary here!!! I after two years of working in Asia's largest software company TCS, get a disgusting salary of 630$ a month! How many people would call that great? But, considering the cost of living here, it is a great income. Also owing to the fact that, getting a software job now is almost as simple as anything you can get here(assuming you have BE degree in IT), this route of career looks perfect for many. Most of them live an a dream world. Good jobs are offered by MNCs based outside India. Indian companies are mainly intio software consultancy which simply means "body shopping". Some other clients "hire" us. Our company does projects for clients majorly based out of USA and Europe... (almost all fortune 500 companies are in one way or the other rely on Indian Consultancy firms like TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Satyam, Patni etc... for software development and maintainance.).Entry level salary for a programmer in all the above mentioned Indian companies vary between 250$ to 400$. The hikes are great. The best in Asia in any industry. But then again, the hikes for programmers are much lower compared to the managers. Basically if you are on the managarial side, you hikes are more; salary is way too high compared to that of a programmer.Basically within the industry of software, programmer has the lowest pay; managers and consultants the maximum.But, only good part abou these companies are, you get to go "onsite". Everyone wants to join these companies because he gets to go "onsite". (Onsite means working in the client's office.) Since majority of our clients are from USA and Europe, we get to visit these contries and work there. And while working there, we'll be getting very good allowances there... (Avg after paying taxes wages varying from 2000$-3500$ for engineers with <5 years of exp in USA, In Europe... around 1800 pound sterling... ).Now, if you don't get onsite, even the best of the pays for 5-8 years experienced programmers here are in the range 1000$-1500$. People here in India might argue that it's an extremely high salary. But the standard of living here is not even comparable with Developed countries. Roads are pathetic, no infrastructure and absolutely no value for a productive man's time. With all these difficulties, there is extreme work pressure on programmers. Too much.But , compared to other fields here we get far better pay as programmer. But then again, in a country where a Toyota Corolla costs around $28000!!! (I guess it costs 13,000$ in the USA) can't really say that we can afford luxuries so easily.... even if we have one among the higher paid jobs.All in all it's a decent enough profession here.

May be what you say makes sense. But what bugs me is the fact that my select never utilizes table scan. It always runs through the index which I've forced. Moreover the select just selects the oldest record of the table. And insert will be inserting at the end of the table. The only possible clash I can think of is when there in one single row in the table.... But the lock is ocuuring even when there are 7000 records in the table! ANyway I'll check in SYBASE site and post updates if any. Thank you so much.

Well, Yordan. First, the deadlocks don't occur four at once, they occur randomly. May be the way in which I phrased the sentense was not right. What I meant was, while processing 15,000 records, I get 4-6 deadlocks. Their occurence is purely random. Second, there is no update statement involved in the deadlock I'm encountering. I have proper logs for it. I do agree that update can lock, but they is no update. The lock is between a select statement and an insert into the same table, which is more the select will not go for table scan! The way in which the SPs get fired can not be changed. As and when the user enters a data, it has to be inserted. That's why indexes were created for the table so that for selects, table scan will be eliminated. When I did analyze the situaltion, there is one possibility that a record might be locked. If I'm trying to insert into the table, the rowid details will be needed for the insert as it'll append the data to the end of the table. At the same time if the select tries to select that newly created row before the insert is committed, then there is a possibility of deadlock. But, are you aware of any techniques to eliminate insert-select locks in SYBASE?

May be my reply is a bit late. I'm new around here. Just came into this thread coz of my friend Vyoma. Ok. Enough of intro. The art in that Mayan Warrior is just awesome man... Exquisite. Checked your DeviantArt too. Just too cool a gallary. Well, I'm never quite an artist, but I really love art though. (I can never be a critic though ) Anyway keep up the good work. Use your talents and give us more! [by the way, was kinda curious on some of your arts. Like how did you create that banner of yours? Painted or animated?]

Actually I'm relatively new to SYBASE database. Though I have worked before with Oracle, MS SQL and MYSQL, I'm finding some problems in performance tuming in SYBASE. Basically I'm dealing with very huge system with tables having 4crore + records. I have a table in which I face deadlock situation between a select statement and an insert statement. (This particular table doesn't have much records, usually <5000 records). The code piece looks like this.(Obviously I've morphed columns and column names due to confidentiality issues). set rowcount 1 --I want only one row to be fetched select id, description from tQueue1 (1) --Fetch first record using index 1 /*Actually I've verified, this is the most optimal way to select the first row of the table. Basically the table is acting as a queue from which I'll be processing records one by one. Simulataneously as I process the data, new and new records keep getting inserted into the Queue*/ Now this select I specified up there is deadlocking with an insert into the same table. I'm using 2 Stored Procedures. One for selecting and one for inserting. There are a number of c++ threads which control the firing of these SPs. That means, at a time multiple inserts are permitted. The indexes are in place. No table scan is involved, yet again I'm getting Deadlocks. The deadlock is occuring at the rate of 4-6 out of 15000 records. But everyday, I'll be processing atleast 1,00,000 rows. This is eating my brains out. Does anyone here knows advanced Performance tuning in Sybase? Help in any form is appreciated.

Actually the link is really good. It was really helpful for me. Mast of the 10 security tips given were new to me Cool stuff Actually the site is really good for other security related stuffs too. Thanks TavoxPeru for a very nice link.

Well, I agree with KDEWolf. If this VISTA comes with more manual options it'd probably run in any machine in which XP is running though they say 512mb is needed. Anyway, I'll be recieving a DVD of VISTA Beta version soon according to an official mail from Microsoft. Microsoft had some offer in INDIA untill recently... You have to answer some junk quiz about Vista. If you answer all the questions right, you'll recieve windows Vista DVD courioured to your address. Let me try installing it. May be I'll be able to comment better later. I'm not sure if the offer still exists, the offer was @ the link Vista DVD Offer. There were two offers. One asking you to prebook it and avail 50% off and the other was answer a quiz and get the DVD. The catch is it is only for Indians. Anyway, I'm awaiting the arrival of my Vista Beta DVD....

Well, the site mentioned by TavoxPeru is too basic. Effective yes. But not very well organized. Things are scattered around. But yes, for somebody who doesn't want to learn much fundu stuff and just want to see the job through, the site is useful. Basically if you have less time and more job to do (Very basic level), this is a good site for you.

Well, as ginginca was asking for some guidance, there are a lot of stuff in the web. Somehow I feel that you don't need to search particularly for MySQL tutorials alone. It's better you learn the basica of SQL first. (May be little bit about RDBMS concepts). Now, there are million sites on net which will provide you information about SQL. The one which is particularly good for beginners is http://www.sqlcourse.com/. This site offers online interactive tutorial where you can test what you are learning too. Moreover, you will get info and updates on almost all well known databases MySQL, Oracle, MS SQL etc. I think this site will definitely help you in learning the SQL basics. You may also try W3Schools tutorials for SQL SQL Tutorial For RDBMS concepts and data modelling, any google search will help you. Happy programming

Well, In places where I worked literally every programming laguage is used! May be it is bacause I work for a software consultancy/service company. A lot depends on the type of software you are developing/enhancing. Still for system level programs C/C++ is preffered. JAVA too is coming up, but for OS level (Which includes OS in firmwares) rogramming, C/C++ is preffered simply because of the flexibility it offers. Now other high end applications these days prefer core Java and Java variants like J2EE. Most of the new projects in my company will be using J2EE, Oracle APPS or Microsoft .NET Technologies. All in all, atleast as long as application programming is comcerned, world has moved on to Java or Java like languages. (C#.NET...). In system programming, C and C++ still Rule!

Honestly the list provided by Houdini was extensive and very handy indeed. lonebyrd, you are right in asking that question to some extent... In your case you may not need to use names like AUTO_INCREMENT. May be there are times when you might want similar table names. But, what Houdini was pointing out was, the list of reserved words and in buit function names of MySQL, which can not be used for user objects. Well, by the looks of it, you appear to be new to the very database concepts itself rather than MySQL alone. Going through RDBMS fundamentals and little SQL fundamentals would be helpful. I'll just give you very brief details of database fundamentals. Now, you have created a database, alright. Vewry well, you are through with your first step. Now for your design, you need to identify data items which you want to be stored in your database. Once you identify all the details, you should start categerising them by relashonship. Now, you will have sub groups of details after you finish your categarization. Now each such subgroup can be implimented in a table. (Table is nothing but, collection of data. For imagination you can think of it as a spreadsheet). Each element within the subgroup will be a "column" of the table. Let us take your necessity. Let us identify the details you will need in database. First let's just list them all. You have many separate stations. The station might have a name, let's a description and any other detail you want associated with it. Next, each station will have attributes like crew, aets, ads etc... Now, as you can see, Station has some details related to it. Like, it's name, a description etc. Now all these things can be clubbed and put in a table say Station. The table will have columns like Station ID, Station Name, Station decription. (Just an example. I'm not too sure of what you want ) Once you create this table, you can just imagine it as spreadsheet. You know the columns. You can just keep on adding rows. Now, there should be a "Primary Key" for your master table. Let it be Station ID. This will be unique in your table. No two rows will have same Station ID. Now, every station will have attributes like crew, aets, ads etc. Now one station can have multiple crew, aets or ads. So you can maintai these things in different tables. I don't know your specific need. If you have further details associated with Crew , aet or ads, then you may have to create a different table for each of them. The primary key of you table Station (i.e. Station ID) should be present in all these tables as primary key. In other words, the column Station ID will be present in all these child tables. Hope you are getting some idea now. I hope this helps you a bit. Anything more is needed just give exact details of the problem. Will be too gland to lend a hand to solve it.

Ok. Your table structure looks fine. You say that you IDNUM as the common field between two tables. As long as it is unique in bothe the tables your table structure will alllow you to join the tables perfectly. Are you planning to have a row in "usercredits" for every user in userid? May be it doesn't matter, but if you don't have any row in usercredits for a particular userid, you'll have to handle the exception of "Now Rows Found". Yes, you are starting off correctly. You can use IDNUM for joining the tables.