I recently read a book that pointed out that speculative booms, and crashes, have followed every major advance in technology. Two of the examples given were railroads and radio. Investors threw money at everything that moved, in the hope of getting rich. Most of the new companies failed or were acquired at cheap prices.
Ada is very popular with companies that write software for avionics, both civilian and military, and medical devices. I've heard that Boeing uses it in all their new aircraft.
There was a short-lived mandate at NASA to use Ada for new software. I thought it was a good idea. It died a quick death when people asked for funding for training and compilers. This was before GNAT, when compilers were very expensive.
I still think there is a need for a language with strong type checking, range checks, platform independence and good bindings to the OS and GUI.
One feature that I would like to see in new compilers is better run-time diagnostics. I used to use a DEC FORTRAN compiler that produced programs that would print out useful error messages, such as "divide by zero error at line 330 in module FOO", instead of just crashing.
If I inadvertently buy a stolen television set from a retailer, and the police seize it as stolen property, is it the retailer's fault? Shouldn't the retailer have an obligation to replace the television set or refund my money? A retailer should be required to take reasonable care in purchasing goods, to ensure that they are not stolen, counterfeit or remarked. If they buy chips off the back of a truck, they have nobody to blame but themselves.
Many new hardware designs use FPGAs for substantial portions of the board logic. The source code, in the form of a schematic or other high-level representation, is compiled into a binary file that is loaded into the FPGA when the board is initialized, either from a PROM or by the system's CPU.
I would be asking 3COM why they are not supporting their own products, even if they were acquired in a merger, and if this indicates the level of support that customers can expect when current product lines are discontinued. Why should the customers be expected to take over the sustaining engineering? Even with source code and schematics, are the customers going to have the software and hardware tools needed to generate updates?
Besides the Win32 API, I would like to see Microsoft document the native NT API. This is the actual interface to the NT executive that is called by the Win32 subsystem. Who knows what undocumented goodies are hidden in there.
I've lived in neighborhoods where most people would consider you at least partially at fault, and stupid, for not having bars over the windows. People adapt to the threats in their environment. Maybe Microsoft should do the same thing.
Pretend that you are the CIO of a large corporation. You have 10,000 users. Due to the amazingly skilled people in HR, 99% of the users are not idiots. Congratulations, 100 users just double clicked on ILOVEYOU and took down the mail server.
Complain all you want, the Outlook Web Client and the Calendar/Tasks/Contacts integration is REALLY clean.
One of the companies that I work with gave everyone Exchange mail accounts that are accessed with the Outlook Web Client. The almost universal reaction from the users was highly negative. They hate it and avoid using it whenever possible. Most of them prefer to use the normal versions of Eudora or Outlook.
I think 2 cm is only possible with special surveyor receivers and post-processing. My civilian GPS receiver has been reporting a estimated probable error of approximately 6 meters since SA was turned off.
Nobody should expect perfection in software, but it isn't unreasonable to expect a certain level of quality and functionality.
A new car may have parts that fail during the warranty period. That isn't unusual. However, if the car is in the repair shop more than it is on the road, the dealer and manufacturer have a responsibility to remedy the situation.
There are implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for the intended purpose. Vendors should not be allowed to disclaim these warranties. Any claims made in advertising about features and performance should be legally binding on the vendor. It is disingenuous to disclaim all warranties and simultaneously market the product as a cure for all ills.
I hate the concept of shrink wrap licenses. Unfortunately, there is a precedent in those contracts that are printed on the backs of sports, entertainment and airplane tickets. Those have all been upheld in the courts.
What worries me, and I like to have this explained, is why people continue to use Outlook.
That's simple. They work for one of the many corporations whose CIO has been assimilated by Microsoft, resulting in the mandatory use of Microsoft Windows, Office and Exchange. If you use Exchange for a mail server, you need Outlook on the client machines. My company recently "upgraded" from MS Mail to Exchange. The LAN Admins installed Outlook on every user's PC. I asked them why they didn't install some UNIX POP3 servers and save a ton of money. They said the deployment of Exchange was corporate policy, at the highest level.
Hard drives contain air at normal atmospheric pressure, not a vacuum. Most of them are not completely sealed, there is a small air filter that allows for pressure equalization. You would need to mount the hard drive inside a pressurized container on the spacecraft.
This one actually exists. Travel around town, buying and selling illegal drugs, run away from the cops or try to kill them with your gun. See how much money you can make in a month. A free Windows version is available from Beer Mat Software. Politically incorrect but a lot of fun.
The Microsoft Word file format has been documented. An HTML version can be found here. The problem is that it is complicated, ugly, and dependent on OLE 2.0.
It was an interesting architecture. It had plenty of general purpose registers but they were stored off-chip in RAM. The CPU had a Workspace Pointer register that contained the base address of the general purpose registers. This allowed the programmer to switch register sets by reloading the Workspace Pointer register.
It'll probably soon be illegal to sit around a campfire singing spice girls songs (actually, if it was just spice girls songs that it was illegal to sing, I probably wouldn't mind so much;-).
It already is. ASCAP went after the Girl Scouts, a well known organization of copyright terrorists, for unauthorized campfire performances.
I've been told that German used to a requirement for chemistry students, since most of the literature was in German. Similarly, Latin was required for students in the medical and pharmacy schools.
Someone once showed me a ~1900 yearbook from the University of Wisconsin, a land grant school in the United States. It looked like every student was expected to learn Greek and Latin, with a heavy dose of classic literature. Their idea of a proper education was very different from the modern one.
German and Norwegian used to be common languages in Wisconsin. Church services were often given in German instead of English. The use of these languages has almost vanished, along with the immigrants who used them as their primary language.
How are you going to differentiate between a legitimate user on a dialup and a spammer on a dialup? Add an AI to sendmail that looks for spam-like content?
The only good solution is to authenticate users before allowing them to send mail. As a temporary kludge, you could setup sendmail to listen to a non-standard port.
The ABM treaty restricts the deployment of an ABM system, not research and development. The treaty also has a termination clause that allows either party to withdraw from the treaty after giving six months notice. A limited ABM system that would protect the USA against a small scale attack is not a threat to Russia, which still has thousands of ICBM warheads.
I've been told that the U.S. Air Force is still pissed off about the cancellation of DynaSoar, Blue Gemini, and the "Blue Shuttle". They had a great program when they were flying the X-15. After that, all of their manned space programs were repeatedly cancelled in favor of NASA programs.
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I recently read a book that pointed out that speculative booms, and crashes, have followed every major advance in technology. Two of the examples given were railroads and radio. Investors threw money at everything that moved, in the hope of getting rich. Most of the new companies failed or were acquired at cheap prices.
Ada is very popular with companies that write software for avionics, both civilian and military, and medical devices. I've heard that Boeing uses it in all their new aircraft.
I still think there is a need for a language with strong type checking, range checks, platform independence and good bindings to the OS and GUI.
One feature that I would like to see in new compilers is better run-time diagnostics. I used to use a DEC FORTRAN compiler that produced programs that would print out useful error messages, such as "divide by zero error at line 330 in module FOO", instead of just crashing.
If I inadvertently buy a stolen television set from a retailer, and the police seize it as stolen property, is it the retailer's fault? Shouldn't the retailer have an obligation to replace the television set or refund my money? A retailer should be required to take reasonable care in purchasing goods, to ensure that they are not stolen, counterfeit or remarked. If they buy chips off the back of a truck, they have nobody to blame but themselves.
Many new hardware designs use FPGAs for substantial portions of the board logic. The source code, in the form of a schematic or other high-level representation, is compiled into a binary file that is loaded into the FPGA when the board is initialized, either from a PROM or by the system's CPU.
Microsoft wrote substantial portions of OS/2 1.X, such as the HPFS file system (Gordon Letwin).
I would be asking 3COM why they are not supporting their own products, even if they were acquired in a merger, and if this indicates the level of support that customers can expect when current product lines are discontinued. Why should the customers be expected to take over the sustaining engineering? Even with source code and schematics, are the customers going to have the software and hardware tools needed to generate updates?
Besides the Win32 API, I would like to see Microsoft document the native NT API. This is the actual interface to the NT executive that is called by the Win32 subsystem. Who knows what undocumented goodies are hidden in there.
I've lived in neighborhoods where most people would consider you at least partially at fault, and stupid, for not having bars over the windows. People adapt to the threats in their environment. Maybe Microsoft should do the same thing.
Pretend that you are the CIO of a large corporation. You have 10,000 users. Due to the amazingly skilled people in HR, 99% of the users are not idiots. Congratulations, 100 users just double clicked on ILOVEYOU and took down the mail server.
One of the companies that I work with gave everyone Exchange mail accounts that are accessed with the Outlook Web Client. The almost universal reaction from the users was highly negative. They hate it and avoid using it whenever possible. Most of them prefer to use the normal versions of Eudora or Outlook.
I think 2 cm is only possible with special surveyor receivers and post-processing. My civilian GPS receiver has been reporting a estimated probable error of approximately 6 meters since SA was turned off.
A new car may have parts that fail during the warranty period. That isn't unusual. However, if the car is in the repair shop more than it is on the road, the dealer and manufacturer have a responsibility to remedy the situation.
There are implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for the intended purpose. Vendors should not be allowed to disclaim these warranties. Any claims made in advertising about features and performance should be legally binding on the vendor. It is disingenuous to disclaim all warranties and simultaneously market the product as a cure for all ills.
I hate the concept of shrink wrap licenses. Unfortunately, there is a precedent in those contracts that are printed on the backs of sports, entertainment and airplane tickets. Those have all been upheld in the courts.
That's simple. They work for one of the many corporations whose CIO has been assimilated by Microsoft, resulting in the mandatory use of Microsoft Windows, Office and Exchange. If you use Exchange for a mail server, you need Outlook on the client machines. My company recently "upgraded" from MS Mail to Exchange. The LAN Admins installed Outlook on every user's PC. I asked them why they didn't install some UNIX POP3 servers and save a ton of money. They said the deployment of Exchange was corporate policy, at the highest level.
Mission operations, such as tracking, telemetry and command, are on a private Internet. You can't get there from here.
Hard drives contain air at normal atmospheric pressure, not a vacuum. Most of them are not completely sealed, there is a small air filter that allows for pressure equalization. You would need to mount the hard drive inside a pressurized container on the spacecraft.
This one actually exists. Travel around town, buying and selling illegal drugs, run away from the cops or try to kill them with your gun. See how much money you can make in a month. A free Windows version is available from Beer Mat Software. Politically incorrect but a lot of fun.
The Microsoft Word file format has been documented. An HTML version can be found here. The problem is that it is complicated, ugly, and dependent on OLE 2.0.
It was an interesting architecture. It had plenty of general purpose registers but they were stored off-chip in RAM. The CPU had a Workspace Pointer register that contained the base address of the general purpose registers. This allowed the programmer to switch register sets by reloading the Workspace Pointer register.
It already is. ASCAP went after the Girl Scouts, a well known organization of copyright terrorists, for unauthorized campfire performances.
Some people are easily amazed.
Someone once showed me a ~1900 yearbook from the University of Wisconsin, a land grant school in the United States. It looked like every student was expected to learn Greek and Latin, with a heavy dose of classic literature. Their idea of a proper education was very different from the modern one.
German and Norwegian used to be common languages in Wisconsin. Church services were often given in German instead of English. The use of these languages has almost vanished, along with the immigrants who used them as their primary language.
The only good solution is to authenticate users before allowing them to send mail. As a temporary kludge, you could setup sendmail to listen to a non-standard port.
The ABM treaty restricts the deployment of an ABM system, not research and development. The treaty also has a termination clause that allows either party to withdraw from the treaty after giving six months notice. A limited ABM system that would protect the USA against a small scale attack is not a threat to Russia, which still has thousands of ICBM warheads.
I've been told that the U.S. Air Force is still pissed off about the cancellation of DynaSoar, Blue Gemini, and the "Blue Shuttle". They had a great program when they were flying the X-15. After that, all of their manned space programs were repeatedly cancelled in favor of NASA programs.