The Infinite Loop - Beginner's SEO, Beginner C# & JQuery Tutorials

Automatic Get/Set Visual C# 2010

Scott — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 15:29:45 +0000

One of my favorite features of c#. Automatic getters/setters!

Before, one would have to declare a variable.

private int _x;
And then write get/set methods:

public int X{ get{return _x;} set{x=value;} }

However, in VISUAL C# 2010 - you can now do the following:
public int X{get;set;} Which is the same as the code above!

Note: If you want to wrap any validation or anything around the get/set you will still need to write out the full get/set. However, for quick variables that require no extra work - the automatic get/set is a lifesaver! (or timesaver - if you're life is not in danger...whichever you prefer)

C#/PHP Database Object Generator/Database Access Layer Generator

Scott — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 05:36:29 +0000

This is something i have been working on.
It is virtually a tool I use to generate c#/php classes based on a database schema.
The c#/SQL integration works well, however, I am still working to support the php/mysql generation.

It creates very simple base C# classes based on a database connection. The program includes Saving Generation profiles and reloading them at a later time. It has a recently loaded profiles list - and allows you to regenerate the DAO as many times as you like.

By using this C# Database Object Generator/Database Access Layer Creation Tool I can focus on my application development as opposed to my DAL (data access layer) development.

This piece of software is currently in beta - and I am the only beta tester!

If you would like the installer - you can send me an email and I can send you a copy.

Here are some screenshots and some example usage!

And example usage of the classes generated by the c# database object generator tool. Note - the class HeroBase was from the generation files.

public HeroBase GetHeroById(int id) {


            SqlConnection conn = serv.GetConnection();

            try

            {

                conn.Open();

                SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand();

                cmd.CommandText = "SELECT * FROM hero WHERE hero_id="+id;

                cmd.Connection = conn;

                SqlDataReader rdr = cmd.ExecuteReader();

                while (rdr.Read())

                {

                    HeroBase h = HeroFromReaderRow(rdr);

                    if (h != null)

                        return h;

                }

            }

            catch (Exception ex)

            {

                throw new Exception("Could not load Heros " + ex.Message);

            }

            finally

            {

                conn.Close();

            }

            return null;

        }
        public HeroBase HeroFromReaderRow(SqlDataReader rdr)

        {

            if (rdr == null)

                return null;
            HeroBase h = new HeroBase();

            h.HeroId = Convert.ToInt32(rdr["hero_id"]);

            h.HeroName = rdr["hero_name"].ToString();

            h.HeroDescription = rdr["hero_description"].ToString();

            h.HeroType = rdr["hero_type"].ToString();

            h.ImageFile = rdr["image_file"].ToString();

            h.ModelFile = rdr["model_file"].ToString();

            h.BaseAutoAttackLow = Convert.ToInt32(rdr["base_auto_attack_low"]);

            h.BaseAutoAttackHigh = Convert.ToInt32(rdr["base_auto_attack_high"]);

            h.BaseMovementSpeed = Convert.ToInt32(rdr["base_movement_speed"]);

            h.Premium = Convert.ToBoolean(rdr["premium"]);

            h.Concentration = Convert.ToInt32(rdr["concentration"]);

            h.ModelRotation = Convert.ToDouble(rdr["model_rotation"]);

            h.ModelScale = Convert.ToDouble(rdr["model_scale"]);

            h.Active = Convert.ToBoolean(rdr["active"]);

            return h;

}

The reason the classes are affixed with the 'Base' word, is because this allows for the extension of these classes. HeroBase is the database version of the class - which includes base_hp, base_energy, base_movement_speed etc etc, however, an actual hero in a game will have much more than this (hp timers, energy/mana timers, current hp, current energy) - the naming of the classes allows for you to easily extend them.

For example:
public class Hero:HeroBase(){ public Hero():base(){ CurrentHP=MaxHP; } public int CurrentHP{get;set;} }

I have classes created named service.
E.g HeroService - this service has necessary methods for loading heroes from the database. This service returns objects of the Hero/HeroBase type.

All in all - it saves me a ton of time and I am glad Ive written this tool. Please comment if you have any interest in it - as I would like to gauge interest before I invest more of my time into refining it. As it sits now - it is perfect for my side project development, however, if there is enough interest - I am more than willing to improve it

Beginner Game programming jobs in Toronto

Scott — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 05:09:36 +0000

Well, it seems to me that finding a game programming job in Toronto is going to be pretty hard.
I have used XNA and am currently working on a small c#/xna based engine for a game.
Currently I have the following, none of which are graphical (except for the heroes with a small chase camera):

Heroes (Health, HP regen, Energy Regen, Attacking Mechanisms, Defense Mechanisms)
Hero Abilities
Hero Stats
Creep Waves (CreepEngine class responsible for spawning waves and keeping track of wave timers etc)

and am currently working on a few mechanics - like stealing gold etc.
I guess Im just doing this to kill time and practice coding a game engine, but hopefully it gets to a point where it could be useful to someone.

It seems breaking into the game programming industry will be harder than I thought - teachers in college often discouraged me from it - saying it was a hard industry with tight deadlines etc etc...but what can be more fun than MAKING GAMES?!

There will be a point in time where I know that programming business apps will no longer do it for me - and thats when I want to switch over to game programming. Call it a midlife crisis (at 22 years old) - but I am passionate about it! It seems that most video game companies already want a ton of experience in the game industry - how can someone get that experience if no one in the industry will hire?

Its nuts.
3years with an advanced college diploma - and its not enough.
Everyone wants a bachelors degree in comp sci - because having the money to pay your way through university and being in debt is somehow a sign that your dedicated. I will continue working on my little demo - it wont be easy and it will take a while but, I will get there.

Is anyone in the same situation as me?
Does anyone feel helpless with this whole video game industry?

Its such a big industry - I don't even know where to start (Sure, I can go to a game programming school for $15,000/yr) - but life isnt a crystal staircase and I have bills to pay).

Any tips, inside knowledge etc, is highly appreciated - [b]comment if you'd like please!!! [/b]

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Scott — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 03:55:24 +0000

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Paging in PHP – PHP Paging Tutorial

Scott — Sun, 30 May 2010 01:56:07 +0000

PHP Paging & Automatic Pagination Tutorial - Paging made easy

I have written a php paging tutorial before. Admittedly, it wasn't the greatest. I don't think I was as clear as I wanted to be. SO I'm trying again. At the end of this tutorial, there is a file named php-automatic-pagination.php.txt
Please download it! It will help you understand the following.

Here is what we will be making..nice, simple pagers! (Dont worry about the Image #x text, thats really not part of the tutorial)

Paging in php and automatic pagination is something every coder has to deal with when coding in php. I mean, you COULD show all results on 1 page and skip the php paging, but paging is necessary to reduce bandwidth and organize content. Paging is very easy to do and I will walk you through it step by step.

PHP automatic paging comes with a few questions:
Paging 1 : Page Size - How many results would you like to display per page?
Paging 2 : How can we bring back proper results in mysql?
Paging 3 : How can we print a pager that will help show the next items.

Decide on your page size - 10, 15, 25, 50, 100. It really depends on what you would like to do. For this tutorial I will use 15.

//we want 15 results per page

$pgsize=15;

//if there is a p variable in the query string e.g: page.php?p=5 we will get this value, else we will use 1 (page 1)

$pg=(is_numeric($_GET["p"]) ? $_GET["p"] : 1);

//lets determine where we would like to get results from
//if $pg is 1, this calculation results in 0 (we want to start from the first record in the database)
//if $pg is 2, this calculation will result in 1*15..which means we will start at the 15th index of the database (row 16)

$start=($pg-1)*$pgsize;

//let us query the database for our results
//you will notice LIMIT and $start and $pgsize.
//On page 1, this query will be SELECT * FROM image_table LIMIT 0,15 - this means return 15 rows starting at row-index 0 (row 1)
//On page 2, this query will be SELECT * FROM image_table LIMIT 15, 15 - this means we will return 15 rows starting at row-index 15 (row 16)
//On page 3, this query will be SELECT * FROM image_table LIMIT 30,15 - this means we will return 15 rows starting at row-index 30 (row 31)
GET IT?!?!?!

$imgs=mysql_query("SELECT * FROM image_table LIMIT $start, $pgsize");

//we will also need the total number of records in our table
//notice there is no limit? we want to know how many records are in the entire table!
//we can use COUNT(*), COUNT(1), or COUNT(fieldname), they will all return the same result

$img_total=mysql_query("SELECT COUNT(1) FROM image_table");

//mysql_query returns a resource id, we can use this to get the row it has returned

$img_total=mysql_fetch_row($img_total);

//the count will be the first field in this row

$img_total=$img_total[0];

//lets determine how many pages we will need
//WRONG!, this will cut off results..why?
//say we have 31 images, and our page size is 15. 31/15= ~2.x...We need to round this result up!

$max_pages=$img_total / $pgsize;

//use this line instead

$max_pages=ceil($img_total/$pgsize);

Once we have all this information, we can use a handy little function I have written named printPager. This function will print out a neat little pager. It uses a helper function named add_querystring_var which was from Added Bytes here:
http://www.addedbytes.com/code/querystring-functions/

Copy/paste this function into your page or into one of your includes:
This will print out your awesome little pager!

PHP Automatic Pagination Function

function printPager($max_pages,$pg){
print '

';
print '';
print '

';
}

Print Pager is called like so:

PHP Pager Styles

We can style this pager using the following:
/*pagers*/

div.clear{clear:both;}
/spacing between numbers and sizes
ul.pager li {
float:left;
margin-right:5px;
font-size:8pt;
padding: 2px 5px 2px 5px;
}

//link color
ul.pager li a{
color:red;
}

//link hover style
ul.pager li a:hover{
text-decoration:underline;
color:red;
}

//current page styling
ul.pager li.current span{
color:red;
}

//previous and next stylings
ul.pager li.prev, ul.pager li.next{

}

Download this tutorials script! It will help you understand. Right click: php-automatic-pagination-tutorial.php and click Save as. Then get rid of the .txt extension and name it php if you would like to run it. You will need to setup a database table to use for the tutorial. It can have an id field and another field.

If you enjoyed this post please leave a comment! I like reading and responding to all my readers!
Thanks

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Scott — Mon, 24 May 2010 07:57:40 +0000

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ING Direct Orange Key 2010

Scott — Sat, 22 May 2010 05:44:44 +0000

Using this ING Direct 2010 orange key: 17190811S1 you and I will receive a $25 each when you deposit a minimum of $100 to start your account!

Who doesn't like free money? Enjoy

Hide Google Custom Search Engine (CSE) Textbox

Scott — Fri, 21 May 2010 17:03:05 +0000

There doesn't seem to be any articles on this, so I will try to save you time by letting you know. Using firebug, we can inspect the textbox element to see it is a form with the class .gsc-search-box.

To hide the search box simply add this to your css:

.gsc-search-box {
display:none;
}

High Rate Interest Account – Tax Free Accounts Canada

Scott — Fri, 21 May 2010 16:15:14 +0000

There are many banks offering tax free savings accounts in Canada and "high" interest savings accounts.
I've come to notice that most of these banks offer anything but a high rate interest account.

Over the past years of my life, I have looked at different banks and competing interest rates, and I have learned that high rate interest accounts are hard to come by. Even major banks like TD Canada Trust and CIBC cannot really say they offer a high rate interest account. Here are their current Savings Account Interest Rates.

Canadian Savings Account Interest Rates:
TD Canada Trust Savings Account Interest Rates:
http://www.tdcanadatrust.com/accounts/int-calc.pdf
Savings Account: 0.05% (0.25% past the $3,000 mark)

CIBC Savings Account Interest Rates:
http://www.cibc.com/ca/rates/bank-acct-rates.html
Savings Acccount (varied): 0% (0.10% with a $5,000+ balance)

SCOTIABANK Savings Account Interest Rates:
http://scotiabank.com/rates/savings.html#scotiaplus
Savings Account (varired): (0.1%-0.25%)

ICICI Savings Account Interest Rates
http://www.icicibank.ca/personalbanking/popup_sav.htm
Savings Account(varied): (0.75%-1.25%)

Now we're talking. However, further investigation will show you that ICICI isn't all its cracked up to be. Just because a bank is offering a High Rate Interest Account, does not mean they are the best choice for your investment.

Fees and Charges should play a big role in determining which high rate interest, tax free account you should choose for your investment.
ICICI Fees & Charges

A few years ago, my sister told me about a bank that offered a high interest rate account, and had NO fees. Yes, NO FEES! I personally thought this was too good to be true, but after doing my research I realize it was not. I am now currently a happy customer of this bank and have been for a while. I have an Investment Savings Account AND a Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA) which offers one of the best interest rates on the current market. That, along with no fees, and I have been making a good deal of interest on very little principal.

If you haven't heard of them, you must be living under a rock.

Best High Rate Interest Account/Tax Free Accounts Canada
ING Direct is offering one of the best interest rates on the TFSA/GIC Market.
ING Direct Current Savings Account & TFSA Rates
http://www.ingdirect.ca/en/accounts-rates/index.html

Currently, ING Direct is offering a 2% TFSA and a 1.2% Investment Savings Account.
These accounts come with no ING Direct fees & charges.

You should however, read about TFSAs and figure out what your contribution limit is for the year. In Canada at the moment, this amount is $5,000 per year. Contribution Limit means how much you can contribute..if you contribute $5000 and then later withdraw $1000, you cannot recontribute $1000 for the remainder of the year!

ING Direct's TFSA is one of the best High Rate Interest, Tax Free Savings Account.

Joining is easy and can be done in 3 steps:

Decide on your account
http://www.ingdirect.ca/en/signmeup/index.html. I recommend the TFSA (Tax Free Savings Account). ING also offers some high interest rate GIC's and Investment Savings Accounts...although at the moment your money is better off in a TFSA than a GIC. When you find the account you'd like click: Enroll Now!
Fill out the information form. Where it asks for an Orange Key type this: 17190811S1 to receive a $25 bonus when you make an initial deposit of $100. Disclaimer: I will also get a $25 referral bonus when you use this key. If I have educated you and helped you make a good choice, please enter the key to show your appreciation. If you would not like to enter the key, that is also fine. (The purpose of this post was to educate on high rate accounts, not give myself bonuses, however I figured I would include it because who wouldn't want a bonus?) Take Note of the Client ID you are given, you will use this to login to the site, and in Step 3
Write a cheque made out to yourself. If you would like to receive the $25 bonus, you must write a minimum of $100. You can use a minimum of $1, however, you will not receive this bonus. In the memo line write this: Client Number - 2391030 (Replace this with your actual client ID in step 2!) and mail the cheque to:

ING Direct
111 Gordon Baker Road
Toronto, ON
M2H 3R1

Once your cheque has cleared, the account you mailed the cheque from will be electronically linked to your ING Account. You can then use INGDirect.ca to transfer money between the accounts, setup ONGOING ASP (Automatic Savings Plans).

The ASP feature is what really got me to open an account. You can choose an amount and have it withdraw on an ongoing basis. Every 2 weeks, on payday, I have $100 moving from my chequing account with TD Canada Trust to my ING Savings Account. You just set it and forget it....The best part is, you NEVER see the money, so you never miss it. But, under the covers, you are saving, and gaining a great interest rate!

Hope this article helps you on your journey to earning interest on your hard earned money.
Once again, if you would like for us both to receive a $25 bonus please use this code as your orange key: 17190811S1 and deposit a minimum of $100. If you would not like for either of us to receive a bonus, do not enter the key.

Happy Saving and feel free to post comments on how much you have saved with ING!
In a short year of having a small fluctuating balance of under $3000, I have earned close to $200 in interest, compared to measly cents at TD.

How To Remove Viruses and Spyware Manually

Scott — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 23:04:49 +0000

Remove Viruses and Spyware Manually

Viruses,spyware, malware - whatever you want to call it, these things wreak havoc on your computer. Browser hijacks, file deletion, disabling ctrl+alt+delete are just a few things that some of these baddies can do. However, there are some tools to help you remove viruses and spyware manually.

Preventing Viruses and Spyware

Prevention is the best medicine. I'm sure you've heard something like that before but its true. Knowing about how to prevent spyware goes a long way. There are many programs that offer virus+spyware/malware protection and they will monitor your computer for changes to your registry and files. I recommend the following programs for spyware/malware protection and scans.

Spyware Search & Destroy (Spybot S&D)

Ad-aware SE (Free for personal use)

Malware Bytes

Steps To Remove Viruses and Spyware Manually

Download and Update 1 of the above software (or all 3! [recommended])
Perform scans - Use the above programs to perform viruses, spyware, and adware scans. This is usually the initial step in removal as it will remove most of the spyware/adware/malware on your computer. I recommend using safe mode to do these scans. In safe mode, your computer does not load extra applications and drivers, only the bare minimum need to run your operating system, so these programs will have an easier time removing/deleting files from these viruses. There are different ways to get into Windows Safe Mode. On my computer, I turn off the power and turn the computer on. I keep hitting the F5 key until i get a prompt asking how I want to boot. I select safe mode and let it load. On your computer it may be a different F key...like F7.
Check your startup using msconfig - Now that we have run scans and have done an initial clean on our computer. We can check our startup. Hit Start, then Run and type msconfig. Hit OK. Click the Startup tab, and look through the list. For the most part, anything here can really be unchecked. Try to look at the file path and the name of the checked items, this will usually give you a hint of what is what. Example: Logitech Quickcam Driver -> This is probably your camera driver, dont disable it. Once you go through the list and uncheck unwated items, click apply. Restart when you are prompted to. After restarting, click Do Not Show This Message Again and click OK.
HijackThis! - Download Hijack This Hijack This is a program that will scan your computer and show information about changes that have been made to it. Download and install hijack this and run a scan and produce a log. You can copy and paste your log into this site: http://hjt.networktechs.com/ and it will guide you onto what to remove (To remove items, place checks next to them and click Fix Selected Issues) . Also, there are many forums which will let you paste a HJT log and other kind users will help you analyze it. Alternatively, you can post your HJT log in the comments below and I will try to assist you with it.
CC Cleaner - Download CC Cleaner CC Cleaner will help remove temporary browser files, cookies, recycle bin, some program cache info. It is a good idea to run this program every once in a while just to help free up some space and keep your programs running in top shape.
Reformat (Last Resort/First Resort) - A lot of viruses and spyware can be removed with the above steps, however, sometimes you get very pesky viruses and programs. If you think the malware/adware/virus will be extremely difficult to remove, or if it is extremely malicious (i.e rootkit viruses that attach to windows files) sometimes the BEST option is to reformat and reinstall windows. This is the ONLY way to ensure your computer is COMPLETELY free of spyware. The programs listed above often do the trick. Sometimes you will do Steps 1-5 and then decide to reformat anyways because they couldn't completely remove the infection. Sometimes when I get extremely pesky infections, I reformat as my first resort. A backup, reformat and reinstall of all my programs takes me less than 4hours. Sometimes, virus removal and infection cleaning takes more than this.

Hope this guide helps you remove viruses and spyware infections. I often get paid to clean and remove spyware, adware, and viruses, however, I don't mind sharing how I do it. Most people just cant be bothered with it, but, if you can take the time to do the steps above, you will have a cleaner, faster, better, smoother running computer.
Comment if this helped you!
Paste your HJT logs if you need assistance.