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D-Wave is obviously running an elaborate hoax or scam. In my opinion, any company that claims to have a working quantum computer is either perpetrating a fraud or is fooled by its own crackpottery. Quantum computing is one of the biggest hoaxes in the history of science, second only to anthropogenic global warming. And by the way, Oxford's David Deutsch, the most visible proponent of quantum computing, is a known time travel believing crackpot. You can mod me down as much as you want but it is the truth. No amount of censorship can suppress the truth forever.

GPUs use an SIMD (single instruction, multiple data) configuration. They perform best there is a huge number of independent entities that must be processed in parallel by applying the same operation on all of them simultaneously. Visual processing is a form of signal processing similar to graphics processing in which a stream of parallel data undergo the same transformation. The problem is that the minute you inject any kind of data dependency, your performance takes a major hit. For example, you would not want to use it to implement a parallel quicksort algorithm. So, the answer is no, GPUs are not for general purpose computing but they are fast in what they do and, unlike multithreading which is coarse-grained, they perform fine-grain parallelism. For an easy to read treatment of the two main types of parallel processors (SIMD and MIMD) read Nightmare on Core Street.

Maybe the don't want people writing crappy drivers for NVIDIA cards?

See this blog post. You can call them excuses or rationalizations or whatever you want, you're not breaking anybody's heart. You disagree with their decision, that's all. Don't make it out to be some kind of personal betrayal or something.

Sorry, I missed a link. The end of the first paragraph should be: "In fact, that's almost exactly what Aaron Seigo said..."

Idiotic moves like this is what keeps The linux Hater going.

Not just good PR- If I ran such an unpopular company, and was serious about turning it around, I'd be looking everywhere humans go to vent, or make criticism. Then, I'd try to solve the problems I found.

Then I'd say it's GOOD for Comcast to read my blog. Except that I'd replace Comcast with Microsoft and Ford. But then, they don't need my blog for that -- any of the 10 million other discussions of Sync will say the same thing...

Hmmm, I wonder if volunteering photos will make, hacking NASA a little less likely going forward.

SK: Do you have a copy of this? It came down to your machine.
GM: No, the gr aphical remote viewer works frame by frame. It's a Java application, so there's nothing to save on your hard drive, or at least if it is, only one frame at a time.
SK: So did you get the one frame?
GM: No.
SK: What happened?
GM: Once I was cut off, my picture just disappeared.
SK: You were actually cut off the time you were downloading the picture?
GM: Yes, I saw the guy's hand move across.

He can write a Perl Script and he hasn't heard of printscreen? Or, ya know, a digital camera? Video out?

Ok, I'm taking bets on how many days before NASA slips up some contraversial picture that raises questions about UFOs. You know, like some of these interesting NASA pics.

Hmmm, I wonder if volunteering photos will make, hacking NASA a little less likely going forward.

Please see The Linux Hater's response to your argument.

Your post is so right on target that it hurts.

After Terry finally gave up the passwords, I blogged pretty much your exact sentiments. Documentation shall set you free.

If you can't afford a backup fileserver, do you just hope for the best? No, you document the settings so that it can perform the function of the previous machine.

The network administrator is as much a piece of the network as the router he configures

Your post is so right on target that it hurts.

After Terry finally gave up the passwords, I blogged pretty much your exact sentiments. Documentation shall set you free.

If you can't afford a backup fileserver, do you just hope for the best? No, you document the settings so that it can perform the function of the previous machine.

The network administrator is as much a piece of the network as the router he configures

I've said it before, and I'll say it again (and again (and again))

Document, document, document!

Don't make me start throwing chairs ;-)

As in 100%? Of course not. But I think "innocent man sent to jail" is very, very rare.

Depends on the value of n. IIRC, for low values (e.g., N=1), 50% may be innocent. For a "high" value of 10, 10% maybe innocent. With a million imprisoned, that would be 100,000 innocents in the US. That is probably about right. There are lots of people found innocent only by virtue of DNA retesting. Consider all the people locked up without the benefit of evidence to exonerate them. It is at least 0.3%.

The problem really is that US cities and suburbs were designed ONLY for cars, and not for pedestrians. To buy stuff there aren't local stores (except maybe in big cities like NY) where you can buy misc stuff for your house. No, you have to get in the car, drive for N minutes to the nearest Walmart, park, get your stuff, rinse, repeat.

Right now I just googled for "pedestrian unfriendly" and got to this blog:

http://nishantkashyap.blogspot.com/2007/07/pedestrian-and-poor-unfriendly-us.html

The first thing that strikes you about any US suburb is the landscaping - beautifully manicured patches of green all along the road and absolutely no sign of dust - perfect settings to take a stroll or if your office is close enough may be take a walk to the office. But lo and behold, where do you walk? There are absolutely no footpaths, no pedestrian crossings and as if that was not enough you have absolutely no public transport as well- a total anti-thesis of a city like NYC and that is true for all such places in US - a lesson for those who get mesmerized by cities likes NYC and Chicago and start cursing our poor cities. Any day I am happy taking a cycle-rick in hot and dusty Lucknow or Amritsar than risking my life walking on the side of the picturesque road here where traffic may be moving at 100 kmps minimum. Everyone here keeps a car and absolutely no one walks - there are some crossing which have a no pedestrian sign - something which I saw for the very first time in my life.

With absolutely no provisions for pedestrians or public transport - I wonder what do the poor do here. Everyone is forced to buy a car - no wonder US is the biggest contributor to greenhouse emissions and also leveraged 3 time over because you absolutely have to buy and maintain a car. Moreover, due to lack of basic exercise like walking US is also facing obesity crisis and has been forced to spend a good amount of funds on health care and low cal diets.

Then I googled for "car free cities" and got to this website:
http://www.carfree.com/cft/i003_qz.html

After reading that, you'll begin to understand what really is wrong with car pollution in the U.S.

The Blog ( http://mpdenforcer20.blogspot.com/ ) makes the Memphis Police department look just like the fictional Baltimore police department depicted in the TV show "The Wire".

The Blog ( http://mpdenforcer20.blogspot.com/ ) makes the Memphis Police department look just like the fictional Baltimore police department depicted in the TV show "The Wire".

though, if I could have one thing added, it'd be GPS

Can you wait a couple months?

Apple kit is shiney but try typing an email on a touch screen hmmm nice.

This works absolutely fine; I can confirm this having used it myself.

As for GPS, there's always this guy: http://iphone-gps.blogspot.com/

The iPhone 3G can be jailbroken as of quite recently. This more or less makes it a totally non-locked-down device; to the point that the kernel isn't checked by the bootloader anymore and can run custom kexts.

Nevertheless, because of its superior capabilities, IF the N810 had a GSM radio like the iPhone, I would absolutely get one of them instead -- and also, I wouldn't have to worry about dancing around the manufacturer to be able to do what I wanted.

I think he has far less to fear from the police and prison inmates than from certain mentally disturbed individuals.

Then again I'm sure there are people on /. who've fantasized about beating the living shit out of a guy like him, a guy whose role in life is all about making a selfish profit at the cost of making another man's life more miserable.

And frankly, can you blame them?

People talk about "inhumane" prison systems such as those in Iran (they cut your hands off!) or Saudi Arabia (they have public hangings and beheadings!) but we have gang-rape that is basically sanctioned by the state.

These aren't state-sanctioned. At all. The ass-holes (pun intended), who "sanction" it are the prison guards — represented and defended by very powerful trade-union, whom even the toughest politicians are wary of.

Now cue-in the union-apologists, who go as far as claim credit for weekends for the unions (which existed, apparently, when Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays became holy days for different religions), and you have a complete picture.

Compared to what these pigs do to civilian fellow Americans, the much-derided Guantanamo, where Military is holding enemy combatants, is, indeed, more like a piece of Caribbean paradise...

I notice that they haven't even linked the blog directly.

Does anyone care about the stories, or it it just "another libertarian story that they'll love"?

Granted, it wasn't hard to click through from the article, but it's not as if blogspot as going to get slashdotted, and free speech needs examples, not just meta-waffling.

to the actual blog: http://mpdenforcer20.blogspot.com/

Blogger is popular for spam redirects, because it's possible to turn a Blogger page into a redirect. Typical example: "Looking for a R0lex repl1ca? ... Where? At http://www.mitch83393.blogspot.com/" (Google already got this one as a TOS violation, but they're throwaway blogs generated by programs. There will be a new one in a few minutes.) Spammers do this to get their message through filters that check for spam links.

This is a generic problem with Google's free services. Spammers and scammers now use GMail to get throwaway mail accounts, Blogger for an open redirector, YouTube to host advertising videos, AdWords to advertise scams, and Google Checkout to collect the money. It's full-service evil.

For the last two, Google has a business relationship, but doesn't seem to be validating their customers well enough. The use of Google Checkout for spam and attack tools is especially disturbing. Try, for example, searching for "craiglist posting". Note the ads with Google Checkout links. There, Google is an active participant in collecting the money and is profiting from the transaction.

According to some guy on blogspot: http://myloongson.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html

In SPECmark, it's about the same performance as a P3 at the same clock speed.

This actually puts it on par with a Core2 Solo at the same speed, but uses better than 1/6th the power. (I don't know northbridge power usage for Core2.)

I recall reading that Conroe at 1.2Ghz uses up 19W WITHOUT the northbridge. And Godson/Loongson at 1.0Ghz uses 4W INCLUDING the Northbridge. This also put Loongson at better (within 10%) power consumption than the Freescale e600, the latest iteration of the PowerPC G4 (released after the Apple-Intel transition).

Overall, it shows:
1) how much of a slacker Motorola was with the G4 (in that Loongson achieved identical performance per watt and performance per clock in less time)
2) how little impact Core2 makes on the overall picture in the history of processor design (in that Loongson achieved much better performance per watt and performance per clock in much less time, and much less money)

Dream on! The simple answer was that gas was way cheaper than electricity. On a different thread, a guy showed that a plug-in costs the equivalent of about $3.20 a gallon to operate. When gas was anything less than that number, electric made no sense. On to your Iraq war issue. Govt. shouldn't be the funding engine of technology. By its nature, govt. is slow and inefficient. Look at the space program. Burt Rutan managed to build a space craft and successfully launch and recover it, twice! with no govt. money. Markets and individuals know how best to spend their money. Washington bureaucrats know only how to waste it. I have read a good series of articles about hybrids, like "Hummer Hybrid Hums" at http://www.economicefficiency.blogspot.com/ It has some really good, and funny articles about this kind of stuff.

Are you not running XP - its tiny on XP.

Vista.. well, read about it on Google:

http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1173190&SiteID=17
http://www.vistaheads.com/forums/microsoft-public-windows-vista-general/30395-what-winsxs-folder.html
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=590216&view=getnewpost
http://www.vistax64.com/vista-general/53906-what-winsxs-folder.html

Also note that Microsoft provided a special tool (VSP1CLN.exe) to remove the files replaced by SP1, its part of your SP1 install and will clean up about 2 Gb. (yep, 2GB). There are plenty of instructions on its use on the web

If you want to know more about the hammer file system, check http://bsdtalk.blogspot.com/2008/07/bsdtalk154-matthew-dillon.html

Here's a blog covering it.

Links to news articles are embedded in the blog post.

I wonder if that rifle will be called non lethal as they did with tasers.
That list is likely the most updated one about death by tasers. That's 361 people dead, since 1999 to July 22, 2008. Yesterday.

Good post. That's why I like the hydraulic hybrid, as they store much more energy than batteries. The details are in my post "Hybrid Hummer Hums" found on http://www.economicefficiency.blogspot.com/ Thanks for the Ultracaps nod. I am just learning about them.

First, thanks to all of you for the quality of discussion. I agree with all of your points. I would love to see more nuclear power. Regarding the NiMH batteries, Toyota is shipping them, I think, to Italy to be recycled. You know that process is complex and full of costs. Regarding hydraulic hybrids, pilots are underway at UPS. I actually saw one of their trucks in Sterling, VA. Ford is doing test on a Lincoln Towncar, as well as on the Montego. They have been pleased with the results. I wrote about hydraulic hybrids on http://www.economicefficiency.blogspot.com/

No kidding, with GM's luck. Things might work better if they used ultra capacitors. Even better, use hydraulic hybrids instead of these expensive batteries that are a bear to recycle. One last point, won't charging a bunch of cars require all of the coal plants to go into overdrive? I read a great article about this at http://www.economicefficiency.blogspot.com/

It's not just about readability. Take a look at this.

It is quite readable, logical, easy to follow. It is still an abominable example of really bad/broken code. Especially since it is presented as an example of good code.

Right -- Phosphate free soaps have been on the market for environmentally minded people for years: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/03/ask_treehugger_whats_the_dirt_on_phosphate-free_soaps.php

The City of Chicago even banned (but can't enforce) phosphates in soap since the 70's: http://whoshomewithyourkids.blogspot.com/2007/07/dish-washing-detergents.html

I would go with python was well it is really easy to mess around with and has pretty good documentation online.

One cool thing that encourages even me to learn new aspects of a language is combine it with other things you enjoy. I did that with learning about xml and python so I could parse the World of Warcraft armory. http://jerdking.blogspot.com/

If he enjoys working with his hands and likes robotics. I would suggest the http://www.arduino.cc/ It is a little standardized open source hardware platform that has a neat IDE and uses a modified C++ language. I think it is cool to show kids that programming can cause real world actions not just something on your PC screen(not that there is anything wrong with that)

If there was ever a semi-mindless task that brings home the bacon, integration is it.

Make this work with that and that work with this.

Ok.

*scratches ass*
*does it*
*gets paid then laid*

http://mpdenforcer20.blogspot.com/2008/07/gonna-get-paid.html

Buckminster had the idea of floating cities, where each city would be half a mile in radius and constructed using geodesic dome technology. The outside surface area of the sphere would completely enclose the volume of the sphere. If the internal temperature of the sphere volume were one degree above the surrounding air, that would create enough buoyancy to counteract the weight of the structure and make the sphere float in the surrounding atmosphere like a hot air balloon.

The Cloud Nine project

If you're a PHP programmer, you're irresponsible if you're not already aware of its flaws, because you have not educated yourself by reading any of the following well publicized articles. Once you understand the flaws of PHP, you can't honestly make the statement that it's a well designed language suitable for teaching programming to kids.

First there is this classic article, Edwin Martin's "What I don't Like about PHP", which goes into detail about the following fundamental flaws:

1. Bad recursion
2. Many PHP-modules are not thread safe
3. PHP is crippled for commercial reasons
4. No namespaces
5. Non-standard date format characters
6. Confusing licenses
7. Inconsequent function naming convention
8. Magic quotes hell
9. Framework seldom used
10. No Unicode
11. Slow

Then there is the mind-set of the PHP language designers and community, which is deeply flawed. Ian Bicking's "PHP Ghetto" article sums up the problem with PHP's design and community pretty well:

I think the Broken Windows theory applies here. PHP is such a load of crap, right down to the standard library, that it creates a culture where it's acceptable to write horrible code. The bugs and security holes are so common, it doesn't seem so important to keep everything in order and audited. Fixes get applied wholesale, with monstrosities like magic quotes. It's like a shoot-first-ask-questions-later policing policy -- sure some apps get messed up, but maybe you catch a few attacks in the process. It's what happened when the language designers gave up. Maybe with PHP 5 they are trying to clean up the neighborhood, but that doesn't change the fact when you program in PHP you are programming in a dump.

Jonathan Ellis' "Why PHP sucks" article makes a lot of good points and links to many other sites with more information to back up the claim that PHP sucks.

He perfectly summarizes the yapping of the PHP apologists when he says: Basically these all boil down to, "I don't have enough experience to recognize PHP's flaws because I haven't used anything better."

He summarizes:

In short, PHP sucks because, PHP's authors are prone to confuse "pragmatism" (a fine design goal, if done well) with "adding random features without considering how they impact the language as a whole." Thus, its authors have found it necessary to correct obvious flaws in both minor and major releases, with the result that the recent PHP5 breaks with the past to an unprecedented degree while still leaving many fundamental flaws un-addressed. I don't know if this is because they didn't recognize those flaws, or more likely, because they were willing to impose "requires a lot of pain to upgrade" but not "requires a complete re-write."

There is also a lot of great stuff about why PHP is so bad on http://www.ranting-wolf.info/category/technology/programming/php/ including a concise description of why the "Smarty" templating system is such a horribly ill conceive and terribly implemented idea.

And if you're still not convinced the design of PHP is deeply flawed, because language design is HARD and should only be attempted on purpose by experienced people, here's what the Father of PHP Rasmus Lerdorf himself said in an ITConversations interview, quoted in "Why PHP sucks, Part III":

"I don't know how to stop it, there was never any intend to writ

I can't tell if you're being a smart-ass or you're Vietnamese. Just in case it's the former...

According to the "confirmed" post by Thomas Dullien aka Halvar Flake (found via this PCWorld article), the problem might be even simpler than that. He issues requests for some non-existent domain in .com, instead of a non-existent subdomain in the domain you're attacking. Can anyone confirm, or must it be subdomains?

LONG REPLY, you seem like nice person (unlike some around here), & I think you'll enjoy the read (geek speek):

"We had this kid in my research lab who was a fabulous hacker and pretty solid scripter, but didn't know what a for loop was." - by story645 (1278106) * on Monday July 21, @09:09PM (#24283013)

One of the faster loop types, generally.

MAINLY because you have the number of elements 'hardcoded in' & you're starting to see the 'faint glimmerings' I think of WHY/HOW you can speed up loops, especially unbound ones on datasets you have NO init. idea of their size in RAM for instance, in an array/dynamic structure/list-string list, recordset, you name it (all basically link lists, or trees, or arrays) etc. et al.

(In having an initially unknown # of elements - for loops, rock)

See here, if need be (you probably do a LOT of java nowadays, seems to be the trend, multiplatform interpreted SLOW, but works multiplatform) & READ TO THE END, because it's interesting & some "proof" here, of the commonly accepted FOR loop speed (deceiving @ first though, so do read to the end):

http://cosminb.blogspot.com/2004/09/performance-tweaking-for-vs-while-vs.html

Anyhow, with that midpoint of an array? You can & will be able to actually MAKE THEM FASTER LOOP TYPES, if you think about it (instead of using EOF markers in SLOWER "While" loops, etc.), via finding the total # of elements, first (per that question I asked the network techs in fact)...

IMO? Pretty simple but more-than-potentially USEFUL stuff, fundamental for code optimizations imo, w/ just a touch more work: 2 pointers, one always double the size of the others' position, & once the larger one can't advance? There ya go - midpoint of array!

Great for sorts & searches (think btrees etc.) + more, IF you think about it, AND you have total # of elements too (got that - double the midpoint, you have total elements too? You have a FAST FOR LOOP, vs. slow WHILE loop, waiting on something to occur to trigger quit time).

----

Sorry if that's review - it's just an example of the systems of THOUGHT you'll have, over networkers, for example (& certainly managers in this field who can't do the job hands on... why they are there? NO IDEA! Boggles the mind, imo - non productive dead weight).

----

Anyhow, from what you stated, above?

Well, congratulations for seconding me:

You've ALREADY encountered that which I spoke of & seen it, too (trust me, don't "devalue" your degree, especially courses like datastructures!) - believe me, because of your training, you know a LOT more than network folks/techs do, by far. You've actually got weapons of understanding of how this stuff works, @ a nuts & bolts level (& there is always that you will run into)... not just using prebuilt tools, IF they exist either - you can MAKE them the tools needed, where they can't in MANY a circumstance, period.

Don't doubt it, because not only THAT will come easier for you, & put you that 'shade above the competition' for coding, but, also for debugging OS hassles or other code related hassles - you're NOT "playing via tableture" using others' tools, like say, PING... you can BUILD PING, easily enough, + understand the parms (& thus, what data it takes & can use) for ICMP.DLL or other OS libs (NIX is good example), & the whole 9 yards in sockets eventually... for example!

(Hey - by now? YOU KNOW THIS -> Its all files, lol (Open-Read/Write-Close, like ALL else, inclusive of device contexts, etc.) if need be & specifically how YOU need it to be, building your own 'harleys/tools' - you can, they most likely, never WILL be able to (certainly not in the levels of code you'll be working with (ala pointers/arrays/link lists etc.) & rely on "prebuilt turnkey solutions" - sure, some code EVEN FOR %% loops in say, batchfiles for

He goes on to explain (do we know this is a male? I hate to assume) how technically it's a bad thing that Linux gets no viruses: ****You see, a virus needs to make certain assumptions about your platform. Certain libraries existing, with particular ABI's. Certain data being accessible through particular API's. In other words, a common set of core components that are available on every install of your system so that the virus's code can be small and compact and yet infect as many machines as possible. Wait, this sounds familiar. Oh yea, that's right: real software needs that too. Why is there no proprietary software for Linux? because for all practical purposes DEPLOYMENT IS IMPOSSIBLE.**** Here's the link if you want to follow this logic further http://linuxhaters.blogspot.com/2008/06/at-least-we-dont-have-any-viruses.html Wait, if prorietary software is impossible, why does proprietary software exist? He's really repeating the old chest nut about how its' not worth a vendor's while to make rpm and deb packages, but he's worked out a rather convoluted way to use it denigrate the no viruses arguement. He's attacking Linux's strength. It's the Karl Rove treatment. And, again, why does proprietary software for Linux exist if Deployment is impossible? Does the word impossible actually mean anything? When I mentioned in the comments that I had installed the same propietary Linux driver on five different distros, I was asked (by one of his fans) "Yes but how intuitive was it? That's what really matters." So "impossible" has nothing to do with possibility, it has to do with intuitveness? I kept pressing on te fact that words mean something. I really thought I was making points. And I must have been right, because my posts have deleted out. He's a charleton, and his adoring dittohead posters are the ultimate whiners. Typically they have tried Linux and failed with it, and they are too dull to accept it as a learning experience and not adult enough to accept responsibility for their own choices. I'm not as knowledgable as some people, but I don't see a lot of genuine insight in these posts. I see over-abstractions, I see endless straw man arguments, and the posters are downright right morbid in their fascist conviction that an OS with a few percentage points of the desktop share is oppressing them. There have been posts comparing Linux (or its users) to Hitler, and to a Rapist. There are creative slurs like "luser" and "Freetard" used exactly as a skinhead might use more traditional slurs like "faggot" and "nigger". If there is any insight in there, I for one don't need it that much. I don't subscribe to the idea of education through cyberbullying.-- blackbelt_jones

If you have used Linux for any length of time, you will LOVE the Linux Haters blog!!
http://linuxhaters.blogspot.com/

It's simply hilarious and amazing at the same time!

Fav quotes
1. gnutls
"Hey check it, I got this great idea: I want to clone a useful and carefully developed library(openssl) just so that nobody can tell me how to give the authors credit. Who's with me?"
2. KDE4
"Wow. Choice is great. Except none of these are what I want. What does "Use with care" mean? Why is there no "Use memory efficiently (and just work)" option?"

I've been using Linux since 1996 and I endorse this site wholeheartedly!!!

...is an example of "scientific misconduct" masquerading as mass hysteria.

Famous quote: "I might not be able to define it, but I can recognise it when I see it."

Bad code is the same, especially when it is used as an example of good code. Just take a look at this.

Let's hope this guy's employer doesn't pay him to code.

I agree with the 3 man team idea. It's the same idea as the surgical team from the Mythical Man Month. However, as is proposed here the original idea of the surgical team has changed. The best way to make a surgical team these days is to follow OOP and section of your product in manageable packages with everyone knowing what vaguely goes on in each package, but have a designated person that is known as an 'owner' or 'maintainer'. At least that's what works best for our group at work. I work on an embedded system at John Deere. We have 3 Programmers (one EE, one CE, and one CS), a Control Theory/MechE/Systems (Group Lead), and one Testing Technician (functional hardware testing). This works out really well for us. YMMV

For the love of Dog, please don't move from SVN to CVS.

SVN was designed as a "compelling replacement" for CVS. And it succeeds.

I've yet to see a compelling reason to move to SVN.

That doesn't mean that there's a reason to move back. If you don't see the benefits of atomic commits, keeping version history over file moves an renames, and rapid branching then by all means, stay with your CVS. Just don't drag other people back down with you.

If nothing else, CVS is pretty much a dead end. The next version of CVS is SVN. SVN has a development roadmap, CVS has migration-to-svn utilities.

I like how Windows arranges it's GUI, start button, quicklaunch, then task list, >>then systray and clock. Less real estate, all the same functionality, but without a top AND bottom bar.

I just love that everyone talks about the blog, particular posts etc., but nobody puts any links to them. Here you have three rants (with links):

How to write a Gnome application
How to write a KDE application
on sound