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Domain: cafeshops.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to cafeshops.com.
Stories · 12
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Learning Computer Science via Assembly Language
johnnyb writes " A new book was just released which is based on a new concept - teaching computer science through assembly language (Linux x86 assembly language, to be exact). This book teaches how the machine itself operates, rather than just the language. I've found that the key difference between mediocre and excellent programmers is whether or not they know assembly language. Those that do tend to understand computers themselves at a much deeper level. Although unheard of today, this concept isn't really all that new -- there used to not be much choice in years past. Apple computers came with only BASIC and assembly language, and there were books available on assembly language for kids. This is why the old-timers are often viewed as 'wizards': they had to know assembly language programming. Perhaps this current obsession with learning using 'easy' languages is the wrong way to do things. High-level languages are great, but learning them will never teach you about computers. Perhaps it's time that computer science curriculums start teaching assembly language first." -
Resume Spamming Creates Storage, Legal Snags
selan writes "Did you know that federal law requires companies to store a copy of every single resume they receive? This applies to emailed resumes too, regardless of whether the applicant got the company's name wrong or is applying for a job that doesn't exist at the company. Employers not in compliance risk being fined and could lose government contracts. The resulting storage problems are creating massive headaches at companies who are overwhelmed with bulk-emailed resumes. The Baltimore Sun has the story." -
Cyberbees Score MIT Prize
DeAshcroft writes "The Boston Globe has a nice story on the winner of this year's Lemelson-MIT Student Prize. 125 infrared-communicating 4.5-inch swarming bee-like robots. Businessweek even covered this one here. Next year's prize may go to the creator of 4.5-inch long swarming cockroaches." -
Life-Saving Baseballs
DeAshcroft writes "Researchers at the Penn State Acoustics Lab have developed life-saving baseballs. As described in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, the team put microphones and wireless transmitters into baseballs, which they toss into piles of rubble to find the (noise-making) survivors. The advantage with baseballs is that they apparently don't have to stop work on the pile to listen for survivors. So, remember, if you're ever trapped in a collapsed building, the basball is your friend. The college paper has a story." -
A Unified Calculus?
DeAshcroft writes "Science Daily is reporting that one Martin Bohner's work, "Asymptotic Behavior of Dynamic Equations on Time Scales," has made significant waves (ahem) in the mathematical community. The work is "part of a fairly new and exciting effort to unify continuous and discrete calculus" I guess it's time to re-learn long division." -
SmartDust Sensorwebs 'Real Soon Now'
DeAshcroft writes "EE Times has a piece on progress with the four-year-old DARPA-conceived Smart Dust self-organizing sensor networks. Based on Berkeley's TinyOS and TinyDB open-source projects, the article reports several companies are demonstrating both military and civilian applications. Ars Technica adds background and commentary on issues not discussed in the EET article." -
How High is Your AP?
DeAshcroft writes "The New York Times has a piece [give up your data] on the wiring of Everest. Tsering Gyaltsen, the grandson of one of Sir Edmund Hillary's orignal summit-conquering Sherpas is bringing the net to the mountain (presumably bringing the mountain to the net was even more difficult). He's attracted a great set of 'technologists' to make this happen, and, best of all, it means the locals get access (including a school of about 250 students), not just the rich geeks who come to town to climb the thing." -
MonsterHut Jammed for Spam
DeAshcroft writes "Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lottie E. Wilkins has ordered MonsterHut, its CEO Todd Pelow and CTO Gary Hartl to stop behaving badly. The New York Post has a story on the ruling. The suit, brought by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in May 2002, alleges that MonsterHut sent over 500 million messages, fraudulently claiming that they were opt-in, and ignored at least 750,000 requests by consumers to be taken off their lists. Newsday also has coverage. The AG has an official release on the case. Penalty hearing is scheduled for Feb 11, 2003." -
Starshine 3 is Toast
DeAshcroft writes "The Project Starshine page has the announcement that Starshine 3 reentered the atmosphere at 0540 hours UTC, Jan 21. They are asking anyone who saw the reentry to send their observations (and pictures). Starshine 3 carried 1500 mirrors, polished by students at 1000 schools in 30 countries, and came down about two years ahead of schedule because the sun has been making trouble. Starshine 4 and 5 are waiting for space on a shuttle (ahem), mid-2004 at the earliest." -
Dissecting the Roomba
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Ferroelectric Storage Density Tops 20KDVDs/Cubit^2
DeAshcroft writes "As reported in Technology Research News, researchers from Tohoku University, the Japanese National Institute for Materials Science, and Pioneer Corporation have demonstrated a prototype ferroelectric (as opposed to ferromagnetic) storage mechanism with density of 1.5 trillion dots per square inch. No word on why Japanese researchers are using square inches, but the new storage benchmark is the DVD. This is 47 DVD's in a square inch, or over 20KiloDVD's per square cubit. Original paper appeared in the Applied Physics Letters." In related memory news, an Anonymous Coward writes "It appears the the ever present pause between photo's on a digital camera might finally be fixed. A company now claims http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/102/C1396/ ) to have kicked up the write speed on a compact flash card up to 4MB/sec. This means we lesser photographers can now get the right action shot just by volume alone ;-)" -
ACLU Weighs In On Surveillance Society
DeAshcroft writes "In the wake of the TIA (and logo-morphing attempts to be less scary), the ACLU has issued a report discussing the increased use of technology to erode privacy and the decreased use of law to defend it. Take your own spin. Not a light read (24 pages), but it includes some points to ponder. I haven't seen a response from Poindexter on the John Poindexter Awareness Office, but maybe the ACLU will come to his aid when he's had enough. Then again, they don't seem to be collecting much information."