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Posted on in Programming
For those not acquainted with the vernacular of relational databases, many frequently used terms can be hard to grasp. These terms are often difficult to comprehend, but the concepts they describe can be illustrated in plain English. When a database administrator or developer is working with someone not fluent in …
Posted on in Programming
When planning for a new application, all organizations are faced with deciding whether to develop the application in-house or purchasing an off-the-shelf software package. Developing the application in-house has the benefit of ensuring the application is custom-fit to the organization's needs. Unfortunately, this custom-fit may result in an application that …
Posted on in Programming
Like many other kinds of businesses, a landscaping business needs a billing system.
As is often the case, billing systems require an incredible level of customization
thanks to the various intricacies of most companies' pricing structures. Designing
a billing system to fit the specific needs of an individual organization is …
Posted on in Programming
A database is a collection of files used by an organization in support of its daily operations. The files in a database are commonly called tables because their data is organized into rows and columns. Databases allow for easy storage and retrieval of the data kept within the files that …
Posted on in Programming
Before a programmer can sit down and create a new application, she must understand the nature of the problem the application is designed to solve. Programming projects often begin with a relatively simple problem. These simply stated problems often mask a much more complicated issue. Rarely do programmers create applications …
Posted on in Programming
This is a six-part introduction to database systems with a collected list of references at the end. These posts were derived from a set of papers I had to write for a business class.
Posted on in Programming
As Company X begins to move toward a new information system, it must decide on how it will implement a new software strategy. They can choose to use pre-developed, off-the-shelf software or develop their own. Although off-the-shelf software has the benefit of being readily available, few systems are ready to …
Posted on in Programming
Chance asked me to post the Perl script I've been using to collect and graph protocol specific usage information in MRTG. Below, you will find a link to the zip file containing the Perl script.
You can put this script where you like, but you will need to reference it …
Posted on in Programming
Whenever I start a new software project, I spend way too much time trying to
figure out what I'm going to call it. I try to think of something clever, but I'm
never really satisfied with what I come up with. (I suppose this means I'm not
clever.) Starting with …
Posted on in Programming
I stumbled across this interesting image evolution project on AlteredQualia yesterday. This project takes Roger Alsing's example of image evolution using polygon rendering and re-implements it in JavaScript. I decided to run my own test against my avatar images. Both results use 50 polygons with 6 vertices.
Originally, I started …
Posted on in Programming
In previous coding examples, I've used Assembla to
demonstrate some Subversion interactions. At the
time, Assembla offered a free Subversion repository bundled with some really nice
development tools. In fairness to all Slaptijack readers, I need to point out
that Assembla's Andy Singleton announced the
end of free plans
(except …
Posted on in Programming
I recently began working on a project based on Pinax. The Pinax project's goal is to develop a set of re-usable applications for the Django Web Framework that are common in website development. Generally, these applications provide the functions and features common in social media sites. For reference, Bob Haugen …
Posted on in Programming
Database transactions are really no mystery. For the uninitiated, the idea is that we want to make changes to the database inside of a transaction that can be committed or thrown away. Why is this a good thing? Without transactions, changes to the database have to be manually undone if …
Posted on in Programming
ProBlogger Darren Rowse recently posted a question about putting dates on blog posts. A lot of folks were interested in the idea of removing dates from older blog posts, but don't know where to start. This is a useful PHP excercise, so I decided to implement it on my personal …
Posted on in Programming
Choosing a language in which to develop your custom Nagios plugins is pretty easy. You have two roads you can go down: compiled or scripting.
If you decide to build plugins using a compiled language, just about any will do. Generally speaking, C is the usual choice for something like …
