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AT&T Labs Research has some recent work in TTS. I'm not sure how state-of-the-art it is, but its certainly much better than the TTS refered to.

C++ is first of all definitely a separate language, in the sense that a C++ compiler will fail to compile legal C code. (Many compilers accept both C and C++ code, but must necessarily process them as either C or C++, not both.) If C and C++ are not "separate languages", then converting code from C to C++ or C++ to C must be a trivial task.

C++ is also a separate language in the sense that good C++ code (the definition of which does seem to differ depending on which edition of Stroustrup you look at) looks little like good C code. The STL (and templates in general) and exceptions result in source code that looks little like C.

it is merely an incremental improvement, an add-on basically. That's why it's called C++ and not D.

Stroustrup wrote: "I picked C++ because it was short, had nice interpretations, and wasn't of the form ``adjective C.'' in his own FAQ. No mention of emphasis on C++ "merely" being an "incremental improvement".

If you're curious, yes, there was a B, but there was not actually an A (or rather, there was, but it was called ALGOL).

B came from BCPL.

1. Server load.

2. Limited feedback. Would be much more interesting as a tool for discovery if users could grade their findings. Presumably annotation would allow memos to be posted.

3a. Privacy concerns, i.e. this would seem to provide more transparency to crowds. And Slashdotters might become more predictable. (Nah!)

3b. Privacy concerns II. By announcing statistics of aggregate use it might be possible for a repressive regime (China, Scientology) to gain ammunition against individual websites by being able to prove how many visitors they had and (by purchasing an advertisement on an associated server like yahoo) what their IP addresses and demographic profile are (as impled by 3a above). ActiveX or Javascript exploits may also target heavy traffic streams with relatively little effort.

4. Confusing intent. Adding visible backlinks seems quite valuable. However the client still cannot look more than one ply above its current location in what is still an undirected tangle. Is the tangle team (nice name by the way) aware of the large body of work already accomplished in annotation, syntactic web, Xanadu, etc.? What pressures exist to get people to take the less-travelled routes, or is the purpose to increase the traffic of popular sites? In that case are annotations superfluous? More docs please.

5. (?) a bug in slash they note.

There are a number of VNC server/client programs you could use. There's this, for example.

I'm not sure I completely understand your needs, but would VNC be an incomplete but cheap solution?

here--I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing.

As most of you desktop users already know, the KDE Project recently released KDE 3.1beta2, which will be the final development release before KDE 3.1. The good news is, KDE 3.1 is scheduled for release in just a few weeks.

KDE 3.1, the strongest KDE release to date, promises new goodies for just about everyone who gets to enjoy the full KDE desktop experience. Here is a sampling of what is in store for you:

Browsing with Tabs. The many fans of tabbed browsing will be delighted by this new addition to the KDE web browser ( Konqueror ) (screenshot). To simplify downloading a large number of files, a new download manager (KGET), which fully integrates into Konqueror, has joined the network package (kdenetwork). It manages any number of downloads in one window, where transfers can be added, removed, paused, resumed, queued or scheduled. A dialog displays transfer status, including progress, size, speed and estimated time to completion.

Eye Candy. The artistically-inclined KDE contributors have showered us with a basket of new eye candy. As shown in this screenshot, KDE 3.1 will ship with the contemporary Crystal icon set as well as the original new Keramik theme. The screenshot also shows the new drop-shadows. To help manage these stunning themes, KDE will provide a new theme manager with improved theme style and color decoration previews (screenshot). Menus and other desktop windows can also use attractive drop shadows, as shown in the screenshot above.

Personal Information Management. On the PIM front, the email client ( KMail ) has gained several privacy and security enhancements - namely S/MIME, PGP/MIME and X.509v3 support - in collaboration with the Aegypten project, an IT security project sponsored by the German government (screenshot). The calendar / scheduling application (KOrganizer) features a new Exchange 2000 plugin. The address book (KAddressbook) has gained the ability to fetch contact information from one or more LDAP servers. It can also print contact information and import industry-standard vCards.

While not included in the 3.1 release, the next quantum jump in KDE's email / groupware architecture is scheduled for KDE 3.2, when KDE will ship a completely copy-lefted, integrated groupware system. Currently known as the Kroupware Project, it is being sponsored by the German government and will integrate the major KDE PIM applications (screenshot, screenshot). More about this project, and some additional screenshots, can be found on the dot. KDE 3.2 will also feature the ability to use Vim as the mail composer (screenshot).

File Management. The file manager (Konqueror) has a number of new goodies, such as folder icons which reflect a folder's contents, a video thumbnail generator and a number of plugins for providing enhanced- or meta-information about various file types (e.g., images, binary packages, source code). The file search utility can now search file meta-information for searching multi-media files.

Desktop Sharing. For those who switch work stations frequently, KDE offers a new VNC-compatible desktop sharing framework. It enables users to share a KDE desktop across multiple machines (screenshot).*

Enterprise. Enterprises, Internet cafes and similar users will appreciate enhancements to the KDE Kiosk framework (the Kiosk framework provides an easy way to disable certain features within KDE to create a more controlled environment). In addition, the panel (Kicker) now supports fully customized menus.

Multimedia. The multimedia framework (kdemultimedia) has a new video decoder based on Xine. Xine is a video framework which provides support for various video formats, such as AVI, DivX, Cinepak, Sorenson Video, MPEG 1/2 and 4, QuickTime / MOV, ASF and others.

Games. For the playful among us, KDE 3.1 will offer a number of new games in the games package (kdegames), including a golf game ( Kolf ) (screenshot), an Atlantik and Monopoly-type game ( Atlantik ), a Blackjack game ( Megami ). and a Same-like game ( Klickery ).

Ease of Use. A number of other improvements are meant simply to make the desktop easier to use and configure. For example, the application finder (KAppfinder) provides a nice tree view for selecting the applications to include in the KDE desktop menu hierarchy. Two new user notification methods have also been added for providing non-obtrusive informational messages: a passive popup window (KPassivePopup), which pops up next to the application's entry in the panel's taskbar (without stealing the focus), as well as messages which appear in an application's title-bar (KWindowInfo). In addition, the control center (KControl) has received a face lift and better organization (screenshot).

Miscellaneous. Of course work under the hood continues for KDE 3.1 as well. It provides a number of speed improvements, such as Konqueror start-up time, a number of usability enhancements by the KDE Usability Project, as well as almost 1,000 critter fixes.

More information about planned KDE 3 features is available for KDE 3.1 and KDE 3.2.

Some interesting KDE statistics: the KDE CVS source code repository consists of about 2.6 million lines of code (LOC) (for comparison, the GNU/Linux kernel version 2.5.29 consists of about 3.1 million lines of code). The KDE Project consists of hundreds of active contributors, with 300 of them translating KDE into over 70 languages (KDE 3.0.4 shipped in 51 languages). In May 2002 over 11,014 CVS commits were executed. The KDE website has 24 official mirrors in 16 countries and the KDE FTP site has 71 official mirrors in 30 countries.

Here's two pages on the history of the telephone invention:
Bell as inventor
Marconi as inventor
But you're right about Bell corp. Here's ATT's history

Bigger than WorldCom's IP network ? Heh...I don't think so...
AT&T versus WorldCom

VNC is a dangerous toy without security, whether that be via SSH or tunnelling plus a firewall.

Sounded good. I tried a demo of iPlanet a year or so ago, I couldn't get it working; *way* to complicated and fragmented. And I haven't heard much of Sun employees using it.

I have dreamed of a portable virtual desktop for years. Unfortunately, it doesn't exist yet; but for each specific application, there are some solutions (and some general solutinos). The best I have come up with is the following arrangement:

• Use IMAP for mail. This lets you get at the same set of folders, no matter where you are. If you're on a different laptop, desktop, or PDA, banging in the server name and username/password is pretty quick, for getting at your email stored centrally.
  
  
• For web browsing, you really don't need to do much specially, since it's fairly stateless to start with. I have on my own personal web server, a list of links of stuff I use frequently, which is a good common jumping off point that I can access from anywhere, authenticated via SSL. There may be automated tools for this type of thing, I don't know.
  
  
• For general central application access, use VNC VNC for remote desktop access; there are clients available for a wide variety of platforms, and source available. Sort of portable PC-Anywhere; not quite as efficient, but pretty good.
  

A little rough around the edges, but 90% of what I do (and probably 98% of what typical users do) revolves around email, the web, and a couple of specific applications, it goes a long way towards the ultimate solution, which hopefully will be available some day.

The true solution to this is a unversal open *protocol* for applications. IMAP lets universal email be *very* portable. There is no equivalent for calendaring. This is no equivalent for TODO lists. There is no equivalent for most other important applications. If there were, then mutliple vendors could implement it on different platforms, giving true portability.

Until this happens, there will be fragmented proprietary solutions, which by definition, will not be the universal solution. Sigh.

I'm not sure whether any PDA other than Zaurus will act as a VNC server. With VNC, you just make the Zaurus grab an IP address off the network and set the VNC server running on the Zaurus. Then, from any other terminal on the network (could be runing Windows, Linux, Unix ... just about anything), open a VNC client, type in the IP address assigned to the Zaurus, and your password.

Lo and behold! The screen of the Z (with a keyboard below it, if you want) pops up in a window on your terminal, and you can just type on the terminal's keyboard.

In other words, it is just like being able to attach any keyboard that you could attach to a regular desktop computer to your Z, and use that for typing. VNC enables you to do a lot of other cool stuff, too.

Hope that suggestion helps. Not perfect (sometimes you don't have a network). But it is awfully good. And if you have a laptop, you can always connect the laptop and the Z in ad-hoc mode wirelessly, and use the laptop's keyboard as a surrogate keyboard, via VNC.

But if they were launching from the US, they'd still need permission to export the same parts to the moon.

CIAO from AT&T is a good tool for C/C++/Java. I do work in a research lab that does this type of stuff, and we use CIAO DBs as a backend to some of our work, but it works quite well in it's own right as a visualizer.
http://www.research.att.com/~ciao/

Do we teach theoretical science, or applied science?

You teach by example, and do both. Andrew Koenig and Barbara Moo, two of the prime movers behind C++, wrote a book called Accelerated C++: Pratical Programming by Example , as a new approach to teaching C++.

It absolutely kicks ass. Somebody else on this page commented that you need to learn C before learning C++. Most C++ people disagree; this book proves them correct. It starts with

#include <iostream>

// something went here

int main()
{
std::cout << "Hello, World!" << std::endl;
}

The people I know who have started using this book, and the approach that they advocate, to teach beginning programmers, have all found their students not only picking up the language faster, but being less frustrated with programming in general (admit it, we've all been there), and having a better understanding of what's happening in their code.

(Pointers aren't even introduced until chapter 9 or 10, which means anything that visibly uses pointers isn't needed until then, either. Very nice.)

This article is saying that for the thousands of numbers tested, every one except 196 has exhibited this property.

Wrong, 196 is though to be the smallest integer with this property. Check the integer sequence referenced. It gives 45 integers which are thought to have this property, starting with 196, 295, 394, 493, 592, 689, 691,...

(I'd bet there are either infinitely many such numbers or none...)

Billy boy went over to Cambridge a while back and gave them an enormous grant. Microsoft and the Computer Science department now work very much hand in hand (in a great new campus building), but the emphasis seems to be that Microsoft benefits from the research being done by the CS lab, and gives it a practical channel to reach mainstream audiences.

Before that, Olivetti Research had a lot to do with the CS lab and a lot of that was very fruitful too (see WinVNC for an example).

One of my old supervisors and a nut on language theory went to Microsoft when they came to Cambridge and has had much success turning his research into practice. The underlying language model of .NET has influences from the academic research done at the University (and of course from elsewhere).

Point is, partnership between academia and business can work very well, and if taking a measly class in a language that actually implements excellent OO constructs and principles as part of a computer or engineering course causes people upset, I really think they need to reassess their thoughts on the purpose of those courses. Especially since such a partnership might subsidise the costs of going to college, which is borderline prohibitivein the US. I've seen so many people claiming to know OO that are clueless on the topic and whose code is so very confused that I suspect OO teachers don't understand the principles properly.

I had to rely on Modula 3 and a couple of other languages, and abstract language theory. Hardly practical, but at the time there was no language that elegantly encompassed the teachings. I ended up working with Smallworld's Magik language which had no decent IDE, but which implements some excellent OO principles. C# is the first mainstream language to really cleanly implement these things. Java's not bad, but it's just not clean.

I have my reservations about some of Microsoft's business practices, but people need to see that there is also a good side to Microsoft, and C# is just one excellent example of that.

Only one I know about is Graphviz. There is a description of the algorithm somewhere on the site.

I think Avery Brooks should kick Tom Selleck's ass!

I cary a 3.5" mini cd full of diagnostics programs for winblows, because god knows you need them when dealing with windows and windows users. Here is a list of what's on the disc. First of all it's a basic MS-DOS bootable disk with all the functionality of a regular MS-DOS boot CD (fdisk, format, edit, etc) and a few utilities such as
Fresh Diagnose
VNC server and viewer
NessusWX
Fresh Diagnose is an excellent benchmark/testing utility.
VNC is for accessing remote desktops (Great for lazy people such as myself)
NessusWX is a windows interface for Nessus security scanner. A must for checking default installations of any OS.
All the extra utilites are freeware. MS-DOS is of course copyrighted.

hth

High-dimensional (or multivariate) visualization is nothing new in the world of statistics & exploratory data analysis. Check out the freely available XGobi software or the new GGobi package. For a 100% Java version, see Blue Orca.

The Remote Framebuffer Protocol that VNC uses to export the display is not limited to rasterized GUIs. A very constrained device could run a VNC server that uses the colored rectangle primitive of RFB to directly paint some very simple shapes.

For example, check out this very simple rfb server here. It displays a counter using LCD-style digits, using filled rectangles. There is no fancy graphical toolkit required, and no rasterization step.

There are a variety of techniques that make it possible to detect NAT usage, and it looks like certain ISPs (namely Comcast) even have entire departments dedicated to doing just that.

Of course when your that close to development you often don't realize what it is like for a newcomer to start learning a language. And this is probally where both Stroustrup and the K&R book are not that good for beginners. It is rare that the creator of something is a good writer at explaining it to those starting out.

Stroustrup's The Design and Evolution of C++ is a wonderful book for anyone who has taken a compiler design class and is interested in many of the details of making a language work.

For a "real" article on Internet traffic, you may want to have a look at this one:
abstract
Full article (PDF).

It basically says that the US Internet backbone traffic is doubling every year.

taken from the article:
===============
Table 1.3. Traffic on Internet backbones in U.S.. For each year, shows estimated traffic in terabytes during December of that year.

year TB/month
1990 1.0
1991 2.0
1992 4.4
1993 8.3
1994 16.3
1995 ?
1996 1,500
1997 2,500 - 4,000
1998 5,000 - 8,000
1999 10,000 - 16,000
2000 20,000 - 35,000
===============

but in the end, you'll believe what you want to believe anyway...

For a "real" article on Internet traffic, you may want to have a look at this one:
abstract
Full article (PDF).

It basically says that the US Internet backbone traffic is doubling every year.

taken from the article:
===============
Table 1.3. Traffic on Internet backbones in U.S.. For each year, shows estimated traffic in terabytes during December of that year.

year TB/month
1990 1.0
1991 2.0
1992 4.4
1993 8.3
1994 16.3
1995 ?
1996 1,500
1997 2,500 - 4,000
1998 5,000 - 8,000
1999 10,000 - 16,000
2000 20,000 - 35,000
===============

but in the end, you'll believe what you want to believe anyway...

.1 What is the purpose of the HRID/PIN? The purpose of the AT&T HRID/PIN is to verify the user's identity so that he or she (if authorized) can access secure information on AT&T and partner web sites. All AT&T web applications are encouraged to use the AT&T HRID/PIN process so that AT&T associates only have to remember one password (the PIN) for many applications. There are currently over 200 AT&T applications that have integrated the HRID/PIN service into their software. AT&T associates also enjoy a single sign-on experience between all participating HRID/PIN applications. The AT&T HRID/PIN Service is planned to be marketed to external companies as an AT&T Managed Security Service. In an "eat-your-own-dog-food" approach, the Service is being first deployed to all AT&T associates.

The HRID/PIN Service uses the AT&T Common Security Platform (CSP) to provide all password enforcement and password management functions. The CSP policy enforcement servers are web proxy servers that straddle the public networks (i.e., UGN, Internet) and the CSP secure network. All HRID/PIN Service content is located within the CSP secure network. When the CSP proxies detect that you want to access a secure page within the CSP secure network (e.g., the HRID logon page), the CSP proxy prompts you for HRID and PIN. If the CSP proxy validates your PIN, the proxy connects your browser to a page that generates an encrypted cookie that is shared with participating HRID applications. The encrypted cookie contains your HRID, your employment status, group membership, Social Security Number, etc BUT not your PIN. Your PIN and the values in your Personal Security Profile are never sent outside of the CSP secure network.

.1 What is the purpose of the HRID/PIN? The purpose of the AT&T HRID/PIN is to verify the user's identity so that he or she (if authorized) can access secure information on AT&T and partner web sites. All AT&T web applications are encouraged to use the AT&T HRID/PIN process so that AT&T associates only have to remember one password (the PIN) for many applications. There are currently over 200 AT&T applications that have integrated the HRID/PIN service into their software. AT&T associates also enjoy a single sign-on experience between all participating HRID/PIN applications. The AT&T HRID/PIN Service is planned to be marketed to external companies as an AT&T Managed Security Service. In an "eat-your-own-dog-food" approach, the Service is being first deployed to all AT&T associates.

The HRID/PIN Service uses the AT&T Common Security Platform (CSP) to provide all password enforcement and password management functions. The CSP policy enforcement servers are web proxy servers that straddle the public networks (i.e., UGN, Internet) and the CSP secure network. All HRID/PIN Service content is located within the CSP secure network. When the CSP proxies detect that you want to access a secure page within the CSP secure network (e.g., the HRID logon page), the CSP proxy prompts you for HRID and PIN. If the CSP proxy validates your PIN, the proxy connects your browser to a page that generates an encrypted cookie that is shared with participating HRID applications. The encrypted cookie contains your HRID, your employment status, group membership, Social Security Number, etc BUT not your PIN. Your PIN and the values in your Personal Security Profile are never sent outside of the CSP secure network.

.1 What is the purpose of the HRID/PIN? The purpose of the AT&T HRID/PIN is to verify the user's identity so that he or she (if authorized) can access secure information on AT&T and partner web sites. All AT&T web applications are encouraged to use the AT&T HRID/PIN process so that AT&T associates only have to remember one password (the PIN) for many applications. There are currently over 200 AT&T applications that have integrated the HRID/PIN service into their software. AT&T associates also enjoy a single sign-on experience between all participating HRID/PIN applications. The AT&T HRID/PIN Service is planned to be marketed to external companies as an AT&T Managed Security Service. In an "eat-your-own-dog-food" approach, the Service is being first deployed to all AT&T associates.

The HRID/PIN Service uses the AT&T Common Security Platform (CSP) to provide all password enforcement and password management functions. The CSP policy enforcement servers are web proxy servers that straddle the public networks (i.e., UGN, Internet) and the CSP secure network. All HRID/PIN Service content is located within the CSP secure network. When the CSP proxies detect that you want to access a secure page within the CSP secure network (e.g., the HRID logon page), the CSP proxy prompts you for HRID and PIN. If the CSP proxy validates your PIN, the proxy connects your browser to a page that generates an encrypted cookie that is shared with participating HRID applications. The encrypted cookie contains your HRID, your employment status, group membership, Social Security Number, etc BUT not your PIN. Your PIN and the values in your Personal Security Profile are never sent outside of the CSP secure network.

.1 What is the purpose of the HRID/PIN? The purpose of the AT&T HRID/PIN is to verify the user's identity so that he or she (if authorized) can access secure information on AT&T and partner web sites. All AT&T web applications are encouraged to use the AT&T HRID/PIN process so that AT&T associates only have to remember one password (the PIN) for many applications. There are currently over 200 AT&T applications that have integrated the HRID/PIN service into their software. AT&T associates also enjoy a single sign-on experience between all participating HRID/PIN applications. The AT&T HRID/PIN Service is planned to be marketed to external companies as an AT&T Managed Security Service. In an "eat-your-own-dog-food" approach, the Service is being first deployed to all AT&T associates.

The HRID/PIN Service uses the AT&T Common Security Platform (CSP) to provide all password enforcement and password management functions. The CSP policy enforcement servers are web proxy servers that straddle the public networks (i.e., UGN, Internet) and the CSP secure network. All HRID/PIN Service content is located within the CSP secure network. When the CSP proxies detect that you want to access a secure page within the CSP secure network (e.g., the HRID logon page), the CSP proxy prompts you for HRID and PIN. If the CSP proxy validates your PIN, the proxy connects your browser to a page that generates an encrypted cookie that is shared with participating HRID applications. The encrypted cookie contains your HRID, your employment status, group membership, Social Security Number, etc BUT not your PIN. Your PIN and the values in your Personal Security Profile are never sent outside of the CSP secure network.

Not the best site to find a lot of information, but the FAQ on Bjarne Stroustrup's homepage has a lot of good answers to some more arcane C++ questions.

For a more comprehensive resource, also in FAQ format, check out the C++ FAQ-lite by Marshall Cline.

can't help with the first and third points, but i'm not sure exactly what you're talking about with the second. are you looking for a specific remote desktop display? VNC, an efficient cross-platform remote desktop program, is available for free. it's done by AT&T's UK research labs. there's a pair of clients available, and servers both for X11-only and native Aqua (although that one, at osxvnc.com, seems to have gone away; the vnc site has an email address for the author. there's another at mdimension.com that i've not sued, but should work fine.). check it out.

Peek-a-booty seems to be simply reinventing the Crowds project. Why?

What is an HRID?

An HRID is a unique Human Resources Identification number assigned to each employee. It is used to log on to retiree pension and benefit sites. If you do not know your HRID, contact the Pension Services Center at 1-800 736-7779.

source

I wonder if the folks at the Pension Services Center got this memo?

We're extremely co-located here at my current job. In fact the closest server is two hours from me. (This is for security reasons) Anyway, we do it all with just a few terminals and a whole lot of VNC. I think the best answer for you is to set up a few simple boxen that exist to only run VNC sessions for guests and the like, and then hook up a tunnel encryption to the servers if you are worried about it. I can honestly say that Zebedee has been the easiest thing to set up. It runs over port 11965 if you want to push it out the firewalls as well.

KVM switches rock, but tie you to one location, and then you fight over the terminal with the other admins. When you can do it all from your desk with just a click, why not?

Stroustrup wrote an april fool paper on some future directions of C++ in which he said that unicode would allow all variables and names to be single pictogram characters, so you could have lines like

[Telephone].[Receiver]();

AT&T's TOS also prohibits you from using any servers (httpd, sshd, etc) at all. And they even block port 80 at their routers (incoming).

Given that only a few days ago I was in dialog with Mr Stroustrup regarding publicising some work he is publishing at
http://www.research.att.com/~bs/applications.htm l it would be surprising to me if he had made plans to abandon his post at AT&T so suddenly.

On the other hand, AT&T research did recently shed a large number of staff, including Matt Austern, author of the fine book "Generic Programming and the STL" (fear not, Matt is now working for Apple), so who knows what's going on there.

Teaching is something Bjarne feels very strongly about, and indeed his "directions for C++0x" thoughts emphasize the importance of making C++ easier to teach.

Ah well, if this is true, a lot of FAQs will need to have updated URLs...

Granted, X11 on Windows is very cool. However, you should consider how (un)stable your Windows box is. Do you really want all your Unix apps dying when your X display goes down with your Windows box? If not, consider VNC.

VNC lets you run an X server on your Unix box that you can connect to remotely from just about any platform, including Windows. When the client dies, the server just keeps on running; the mouse cursor is even in the same spot you left it in.

Does anybody know of other free (either or both) X servers are for Windows?

The only other one i've been able to find is the GPLed WeirdX, which has a usable but slightly buggy rootless mode (where you use Windows as your window manager). I've been pretty happy using it to run my linux boxes (mostly xterm), and I could run some things (like xscreensaver) locally using U/WIN...

--
Benjamin Coates

I used to use Exceed and Reflection X, but once I found out about VNC I switched and never looked back. VNC has the added benefit of leaving my stuff where I left it on my linux box when my windows machine needs a reboot.

One could also use WordsEye and maybe add a speech frontend.

In fact, Neil, Buzz, and Mike did go through all the proper customs paperwork when they brough their moon rocks back. You can see the actual customs declaration here

graphviz is a set of graph drawing tools for Unix or MS-Windows (win32), including a web service interface (webdot). Source code and binary executables for common platforms are available. Graph drawing addresses the problem of visualizing structural information by constructing geometric representations of abstract graphs and networks. Automatic generation of graph drawings has important applications in key technologies such as database design, software engineering, VLSI and network design and visual interfaces in other domains.

Check it out... It might be what you're after.

If you want something like pcAnywhere, try VNC. There are servers and clients available for a variety of platforms, all free. I used this for a presentation on Linux at my school (had a VNC server running at home, and brought the client in on a floppy so I could show them Linux on the projector). Worked rather well, even with the limited upstream bandwidth of my home connection.

Citrix has a client for Pocket PC, and there's a VNC client for PalmOS.

Is it just me or does the four years these guys spent perfecting the code they "stumbled upon" seem like a huge waste of time?

So a portable device has to be a phone. It also has to be (across the same cellphone link) a web browser - a web browser complying with normal Web standards, not a WAP device. And it has to be able to run something equivalent to VNC over SSH across the same link.

What does it look like? It needs to be small, to fit comfortably in a pocket. But at the same time to have the largest possible display. Provided the display is touch sensitive, it doesn't need any keyboard, jog-wheel, cursor keys or whatever implemented in hardware - all these can be soft. Handwriting recognition would be good, but isn't critical. It may be a one-piece unit with a flip-over keypad like the Sony/Ericsson P800; it could even be a clamshell like the Nokia 9120; but frankly it doesn't need either.

And the good news is that thanks to those very clever people in Scandinavia, it's all available now.

You want something more authoritative?

How about this where AT&T says:

The suit began in 1974 and was settled in January 1982 when AT&T agreed to divest itself of the wholly owned Bell operating companies that provided local exchange service. This would, the government believed, separate those parts of AT&T (the local exchanges) where the natural monopoly argument was still seen as valid from those parts (long distance, manufacturing, research and development), where competition was appropriate.

Clearly the suit in 1974 precipitated the breakup.

Or, you can read here where Joel Klein, head of Antitrust litigation for the DOJ talks about the 1974 suit:

• • "While the Justice Department can't promise any consumer benefits that might result from its suit to break up [the company], it is sure of one thing: This is the largest antitrust action ever filed. So much for the mentality of modern-day trustbusters. As long as they can tackle the biggest of all 'big businesses,' what is the difference whether the massive expenditure of federal money and effort is likely to cut anyone's . . . bills?"

    "Where is the problem that justifies risking possible damage to the efficiency of a vital part of the U.S. infrastructure; damage to the investments of innumerable small investors and pension fund beneficiaries; possible damage to an important research and development enterprise? If there is a problem that justifies all this we can't find it. Maybe it is because we prefer to deal in economics, rather than politics in such matters."

  By now, you may have guessed that this is an editorial about the Department's monopoly maintenance case against AT&T, a 1974 editorial as a matter of fact; ...

So, clearly the 1974 suit was aimed at a breakup of the AT&T monopoly.

Which is the whole point. The Government, through the anti-trust suit, intiated the breakup of AT&T. Not some libertarian fantasy where monopolies voluntarily disperse under the control of the unseen hand.

There is a language called Cyclone . It aims to be as compatible as possible to C, but it has some language constructs to avoid buffer overflows, dangling pointers etc. Does anyone have experience using this?

An equally interesting question is: Are the SunRays compatible with vnc?