Back in '92 I worked as sysadmin at a server farm at Ole Miss (Oxford, MS) crunching numbers from a physics experiment based in Fermilab near Chicago, IL. The initial data set we received was via U-Haul... roughly 2500 8mm 2.2GB Exabyte tapes. Estimated bandwidth of I-55 was 1 gigabit per second for that initial data set. Not too shabby for the late '80s / early '90s.
Incidentally, I think Exabyte hated us... we burned up read/write heads on their drives on a weekly basis... abused their warrenty. heh.
C, Fortran, Ada... they're all pretty much the same thing except for syntax. The only real difference in language comes when you start to use an object oriented language like C++, Objective C, or Java which universally produce code which is less effecient than a lower level language.
Most compiler manufactureres (gnu, DEC, Sun,...) produce one compiler back-end with different language specific front-ends... nothing at all like the olden days where compilers were custom built for each language.
Object oriented languages produce less optimized machine code because they make assumptions for you, the programmer, about how the program is supposed to work. The object oriented view is often more powerful conceptually and programmatically, but the piper will be paid in machine code before it is over.
As languages get higher level, they get less effecient... there are really about 5 levels that I can identify, each level having roughly the same potential code execution speed:
Assembly (assembled, HARD to write/debug, runs like the wind)
C, Fortran, Ada (compiled, easier to write, slightly less effecient)
C++, Objective C (compiled, conceptually more powerful, slightly less effecient)
Perl, Python (dependent on external runtime environment, quite abstract syntax, much less effecient)
Java, Powerbuilder, other 4GL languages...
Before you flame me, I list Java with Powerbuilder only because I really really really hate them both... yes they are quite different, yes java is a supreme example of _________ (fill in whatever mumbo-jumbo you wish).
Anyway, back on focus now with the original question, any language higher level than assembly is going to have ineffeciencies... and it's all user preference when deciding which limitations you are happy with in your application.
As a long time programmer and web developer, I have to say that MSIE is a superior browser when it comes to javascript and DOM.
Now before you flame me, let me say that i hate saying what I just said... but it is the sad honest truth. I am a long time Netscape / Mozilla supporter... and love nothing more than bashing M$... but the truth is the truth.
I recently spent a few days testing the feasability of a web application that uses layers (div objects of DOM)... My findings:
Netscape 4.79, which was one of the 1st browsers to implement layers, was such a pain in the butt to work with that I had to write it off completely. Layers had to be pre-created when the page loaded, redefining the content of a layer occasionally caused browser crashes... it was just unreliable.
Mozilla 1.0, the test case worked as designed. My 50 dynamically created layers could have their content re-defined, resized, and repositioned with no real problem. Well... nearly no real problem... until you watched the Mozilla process from the Windows Task Manager... and you noticed that mozilla was consuming upwards of 80% of the cpu (on a 2ghz test box) when it was repositioning and redefining the test layers... or when you noticed that javascript was leaking memory like a sonofabitch... 10 minutes of testing = 5 - 15 MB of memory... yikes.
IE 6.0.26... similar to Mozilla 1.0, it worked. My 50 test layers could be dynamically created, re-defined, repositioned, and resized. Watching from the Task manager showed low cpu usage (5 - 10%) on the same test as was used for Mozilla. Memory usage remained constant even after running the test for 8 hours solid.
As an afterthought, I fired up NS 6.2 to see how it handled the test... It failed the test outright when it wouldn't resize or reposition the layers using the same code as worked in Mozilla and IE.
What I REALLY want to know is... where is my automatic garbage collection in javascript on NS/Moz?? soooo close... yet sooo far.
My last 2 years of college I learned absolutely nothing useful in class, however I part-timed as unix systems admin for a dept on campus. On the job, I learned unix, c, fortran, network app programming, tcl/tk, postscript, and got a dabbling of www/html experience (gimme a break... it was '90).
It was trial by fire. My grades slipped (in fact I passed my senior project by the skin of my teeth), but my practical (read 'realworld useful') knowledge blossomed. I loved it.
Get a job and stick out the school. A degree will get you in the door of a job, your realworld knowledge will excel you over your peers. Good pay and true opportunity will come later as you build a reputation for kicking binary ass.
bomb them fast. bomb them hard. any terrorist group will do for starters, we can track down the damn fools that actually did it later.
Poorly Dubbed Browser
on
Netscape 6.1
·
· Score: 1
Imagine, if you could, a poorly dubbed foreign film... where the actors look like they are speaking english, but the words don't exactly sync up with the lips. Thats the feeling I get when Using NS6 / Mozilla. Press a button and get an ever-so-slight delay before it does anything. Not much, but just enough to be annoying and give you time to think "Go, Damnit, Go!"
Ahhh yes. Kinda brings a tear to my eye thinking about the old systems. I can still remember when my father brought home a Northstar Horizon kit computer... spent the next few weeks on the kitchen table with his soldering iron putting it together (yes, resistor by resistor, capacitor by capacitor, chip by chip). The kit came complete with a wooden outer case... very shiek. We had a full height 5.25" hard sector floppy drive and a teletype terminal. CP/M hummed along pretty well on that old box.
Later upgrades included 32k of RAM (which is, incidentally, half of what the lunar lander had), an additional half height 5.25" hard sector floppy drive, a 8" hard sector floppy drive, a 9-pin dot matrix printer, and... a green screen CRT! That was some serious technology for the '70s.
Nowdays, MS recommends 128MB of RAM... just to boot. *sigh*
QUICK! somebody run the DECSS source thru this thing 30 words at a time... tack all the individual files together into one huge wave and broadcast it over a pirate radio station!!!
...errr... i mean... DON'T... yeah... DON'T do that...
How can they say that this is the worlds fastest Mac cluster when they haven't benchmarked my cluster of 2,000 derelict Mac 68020s strung together with Appletalk and Duct Tape??
This guy stole my idea!!!... well, not exactly... my idea was the sphincter phone... lets just hope that he doesn't make a move on my butt mouse idea, too!
I believe that politics, as we know it, can't be snuffed out. Our current political machine is self-sustaining... really it's more than just self-sustaining, it's picking up steam as it goes because politicians breed politicans.
At some point in the distant past someone discovered that elections could be won based on popularity alone, that political agenda really had little to do with an election. Tell a voter what he wants to hear, smile a lot, maybe throw in a little saxaphone playing, and you'll get a vote. They key to winning an election is really marketing, and we ALL know that marketing works... the computer industry is a great example of marketing driving votes(read sales) for substandard product... e.g.: Micro$oft, Oracle, and Sun.
The realization that elections were nothing more than popularity contests begat career politicians. You need 2 things to be a career politician: charisma and marketing capital... and who has marketing capital? Industry. A match made in heaven. A politician needs votes, so he/she must pander to the public at large... but, as a general rule, poeple are stupid, so they'll believe what they are told to believe (especially if they are told in a new or clever way). Once in office the focus shifts drastically away from the issues that got them votes, and on to the agendas of the people / bodies that funded their election.
The end result is our current political system. One in which a "truth" spoken by a politician is more rare than an alien abduction story. One in which a multi-[mb]illion dollar popularity contest is held every four years to decide who has the privilige of being able to lob a nuke at another country! It's really quite absurd when you think about it.
A couple of whacked out guys (that i work with) decided to ride the wave of fuckedcompany.com... they registered phuckedcompany.com and have just put it up on ebay.
Anybody know what the current record ebay bid spread is? I mean, hell, this auction started at $1 and is now at $10,000,000. If that's not a record, I'd be impressed.
OpenSSL can use (if you find it, download it, and compile it separately) RSA, and Apache can use OpenSSL (either through mod_ssl or apache+ssl). BSAFE is a product sold by RSA Security Inc which performs much the same as the OpenSSL libraries. BSAFE is, I believe, used by Stronghold and other 'supported' Apache based SSL servers.
I've never used the BSAFE libraries myself, but believe that the major advantage to using them seems to be the RSA License you recieve when you purchase BSAFE.
I maintain that Unix does not suck, but rather that it is beautiful in it's flexability. This bozo claims that it's weakness is "not deciding policy"... what kinda horseshit is that? That is it's strength! If I'm working on a server, the last thing that I want to do is get bogged down in boneheaded system policies which were put in place by some software engineer who had NO idea what I was attempting to do.
Go program for M$, Miguel.
Unix (and for that matter the entire Open Source movement) is about freedom, not about having mission-critical decisions made by some corporate suit who, incidentally, is only interested in making their company more $$.
I repeat, Go program for M$, Miguel.
Miguel claims that a weakness of Unix is in not sharing more code between applications. M$ shares code extensively betwen applications... Lets put this to a poll... which is more stable: Unix or M$ Windows (choose your flavour). M$ products are so tightly bound together, in the biggest cluster-f*** of shared code, that an "upgrade" in MS Word brings out a security exploit in Outlook. The patch for Outlook then breaks certain macros in Excel... which is then addressed in the next round of patches. Meanwhile the poor outside company that is developing application on the M$ platform (lets say Dreamweaver for example) are left behind... their product simply ceases to work as a result of the upgrade (and subsequent patches) to the M$ shared code base. Please... tell me... when was the last time upgrading StarOffice on a Unix platform conflicted with a previously installed Apache?
Miguel obviously has a LOT of trust in M$... I suggest that, in the spirit of that trust, he get duplicate credit cards made and drop off the copies at the nearest M$ office.
that and... Go program for M$, Miguel!
The Unix approach of not deciding policy is "a defense system for hackers," since that way nobody has to take responsibility for a bad decision.
Making decisions (good or bad) and taking responsibility for them is part of being an functioning adult. The ability to make decisions is essential. To have the decisions already made and have no control over them is unacceptable. Any competent Unix sysadmin knows that security is his responsibility. A Unix sysadmin who has his boxes repeatedly compromised is likely to be out of a job before too long. When a M$ box gets compromised, it is no great shock, in fact the sysadmin of that box can't be held accountable for a system in which he has no control... and you're only solution is to continue deeper down the M$ path. Who decides system policies on your server?
I can't believe this idiot sucked me in and made me waste time stating the obvious... </rant>
Simple. Assign each encryption algorithm a number between 1 and 20... stand at least 20 feet from the dartboard (further if you are a skilled player), and let 'er rip. A bullseye means you implement multiple encryption algorithms...
Note: This method works best when performed down at your neighborhood bar after at least 3 rounds drinks.
I can relate to many of the stories posted in this thread. At my last job (with a large company), I witnissed a good friend in his transformation from technical to management roles. I then realized that I, too, was being pushed more and more into managerial roles... weeks went by where I would get nothing accomplished but senseless meetings, reports, and e-mail trails. I looked forward to digging into C code at every opportunity during those days.
One day another job opportunity with a SMALL company (and a solely technical track) landed in my lap and I jumped on it. Since then, I'm proud to say, I've coded every day and made a difference to the bottom line of my new company. When I look back, I'm glad I made the jump.
As to the benefits of being in the management track, my previous experience leads me to believe that even the lowest grade management is financially rewarded far beyond most career technical track employees, with advancements in management grade leading only to absurd levels of financial compensation... but then again, my previous company was nothing more than a glorified old-boys club where 'who' was significantly more important then 'what' you knew.
"Standards are set by markets, not by standards bodies," Skip Pizzi, technical manager of worldwide television standards and strategy at Microsoft, said at the World Television Forum here in early June.
Would somebody PLEASE just drop a nuke on Seattle and get it over with... -
Slashdot Mirror
I can't catch nearly the same number of viruii running linux, therefore it sux.
Back in '92 I worked as sysadmin at a server farm at Ole Miss (Oxford, MS) crunching numbers from a physics experiment based in Fermilab near Chicago, IL. The initial data set we received was via U-Haul ... roughly 2500 8mm 2.2GB Exabyte tapes. Estimated bandwidth of I-55 was 1 gigabit per second for that initial data set. Not too shabby for the late '80s / early '90s.
... we burned up read/write heads on their drives on a weekly basis ... abused their warrenty. heh.
Incidentally, I think Exabyte hated us
does the javascript engine still leak memory like a seive? thats one of my biggest complaints about 1.0.
Most compiler manufactureres (gnu, DEC, Sun,
Object oriented languages produce less optimized machine code because they make assumptions for you, the programmer, about how the program is supposed to work. The object oriented view is often more powerful conceptually and programmatically, but the piper will be paid in machine code before it is over.
As languages get higher level, they get less effecient
- Assembly (assembled, HARD to write/debug, runs like the wind)
- C, Fortran, Ada (compiled, easier to write, slightly less effecient)
- C++, Objective C (compiled, conceptually more powerful, slightly less effecient)
- Perl, Python (dependent on external runtime environment, quite abstract syntax, much less effecient)
- Java, Powerbuilder, other 4GL languages...
Before you flame me, I list Java with Powerbuilder only because I really really really hate them bothAnyway, back on focus now with the original question, any language higher level than assembly is going to have ineffeciencies
1 word ... BSOD
As a long time programmer and web developer, I have to say that MSIE is a superior browser when it comes to javascript and DOM.
... but it is the sad honest truth. I am a long time Netscape / Mozilla supporter ... and love nothing more than bashing M$ ... but the truth is the truth.
... My findings :
... it was just unreliable.
... nearly no real problem ... until you watched the Mozilla process from the Windows Task Manager ... and you noticed that mozilla was consuming upwards of 80% of the cpu (on a 2ghz test box) when it was repositioning and redefining the test layers ... or when you noticed that javascript was leaking memory like a sonofabitch ... 10 minutes of testing = 5 - 15 MB of memory... yikes.
... similar to Mozilla 1.0, it worked. My 50 test layers could be dynamically created, re-defined, repositioned, and resized. Watching from the Task manager showed low cpu usage (5 - 10%) on the same test as was used for Mozilla. Memory usage remained constant even after running the test for 8 hours solid.
... It failed the test outright when it wouldn't resize or reposition the layers using the same code as worked in Mozilla and IE.
... where is my automatic garbage collection in javascript on NS/Moz?? soooo close ... yet sooo far.
Now before you flame me, let me say that i hate saying what I just said
I recently spent a few days testing the feasability of a web application that uses layers (div objects of DOM)
Netscape 4.79, which was one of the 1st browsers to implement layers, was such a pain in the butt to work with that I had to write it off completely. Layers had to be pre-created when the page loaded, redefining the content of a layer occasionally caused browser crashes
Mozilla 1.0, the test case worked as designed. My 50 dynamically created layers could have their content re-defined, resized, and repositioned with no real problem. Well
IE 6.0.26
As an afterthought, I fired up NS 6.2 to see how it handled the test
What I REALLY want to know is
Warning: Personal Experience Ahead!
... it was '90).
My last 2 years of college I learned absolutely nothing useful in class, however I part-timed as unix systems admin for a dept on campus. On the job, I learned unix, c, fortran, network app programming, tcl/tk, postscript, and got a dabbling of www/html experience (gimme a break
It was trial by fire. My grades slipped (in fact I passed my senior project by the skin of my teeth), but my practical (read 'realworld useful') knowledge blossomed. I loved it.
Get a job and stick out the school. A degree will get you in the door of a job, your realworld knowledge will excel you over your peers. Good pay and true opportunity will come later as you build a reputation for kicking binary ass.
bomb them fast. bomb them hard. any terrorist group will do for starters, we can track down the damn fools that actually did it later.
Imagine, if you could, a poorly dubbed foreign film ... where the actors look like they are speaking english, but the words don't exactly sync up with the lips. Thats the feeling I get when Using NS6 / Mozilla. Press a button and get an ever-so-slight delay before it does anything. Not much, but just enough to be annoying and give you time to think "Go, Damnit, Go!"
That's my reason for using NS4.x.
Ahhh yes. Kinda brings a tear to my eye thinking about the old systems. I can still remember when my father brought home a Northstar Horizon kit computer ... spent the next few weeks on the kitchen table with his soldering iron putting it together (yes, resistor by resistor, capacitor by capacitor, chip by chip). The kit came complete with a wooden outer case ... very shiek. We had a full height 5.25" hard sector floppy drive and a teletype terminal. CP/M hummed along pretty well on that old box.
... a green screen CRT! That was some serious technology for the '70s.
... just to boot. *sigh*
Later upgrades included 32k of RAM (which is, incidentally, half of what the lunar lander had), an additional half height 5.25" hard sector floppy drive, a 8" hard sector floppy drive, a 9-pin dot matrix printer, and
Nowdays, MS recommends 128MB of RAM
QUICK! somebody run the DECSS source thru this thing 30 words at a time ... tack all the individual files together into one huge wave and broadcast it over a pirate radio station!!!
...errr ... i mean ... DON'T ... yeah ... DON'T do that...
How can they say that this is the worlds fastest Mac cluster when they haven't benchmarked my cluster of 2,000 derelict Mac 68020s strung together with Appletalk and Duct Tape??
This guy stole my idea!!! ... well, not exactly ... my idea was the sphincter phone... lets just hope that he doesn't make a move on my butt mouse idea, too!
I believe that politics, as we know it, can't be snuffed out. Our current political machine is self-sustaining ... really it's more than just self-sustaining, it's picking up steam as it goes because politicians breed politicans.
... the computer industry is a great example of marketing driving votes(read sales) for substandard product ... e.g.: Micro$oft, Oracle, and Sun.
... but, as a general rule, poeple are stupid, so they'll believe what they are told to believe (especially if they are told in a new or clever way). Once in office the focus shifts drastically away from the issues that got them votes, and on to the agendas of the people / bodies that funded their election.
At some point in the distant past someone discovered that elections could be won based on popularity alone, that political agenda really had little to do with an election. Tell a voter what he wants to hear, smile a lot, maybe throw in a little saxaphone playing, and you'll get a vote. They key to winning an election is really marketing, and we ALL know that marketing works
The realization that elections were nothing more than popularity contests begat career politicians. You need 2 things to be a career politician: charisma and marketing capital... and who has marketing capital? Industry. A match made in heaven. A politician needs votes, so he/she must pander to the public at large
The end result is our current political system. One in which a "truth" spoken by a politician is more rare than an alien abduction story. One in which a multi-[mb]illion dollar popularity contest is held every four years to decide who has the privilige of being able to lob a nuke at another country! It's really quite absurd when you think about it.
A couple of whacked out guys (that i work with) decided to ride the wave of fuckedcompany.com ... they registered phuckedcompany.com and have just put it up on ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.co m/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=436332963
Anybody know what the current record ebay bid spread is? I mean, hell, this auction started at $1 and is now at $10,000,000. If that's not a record, I'd be impressed.
OpenSSL can use (if you find it, download it, and compile it separately) RSA, and Apache can use OpenSSL (either through mod_ssl or apache+ssl). BSAFE is a product sold by RSA Security Inc which performs much the same as the OpenSSL libraries. BSAFE is, I believe, used by Stronghold and other 'supported' Apache based SSL servers.
I've never used the BSAFE libraries myself, but believe that the major advantage to using them seems to be the RSA License you recieve when you purchase BSAFE.
Create a T-Shirt, on which is printed the URL of a web site which contains a picture of the T-Shirt that contains the DeCSS code...
When will the MPAA admit defeat? Just how absurd is this case going to get before it ends?
I maintain that Unix does not suck, but rather that it is beautiful in it's flexability. This bozo claims that it's weakness is "not deciding policy"
Go program for M$, Miguel.
Unix (and for that matter the entire Open Source movement) is about freedom, not about having mission-critical decisions made by some corporate suit who, incidentally, is only interested in making their company more $$.
I repeat, Go program for M$, Miguel.
Miguel claims that a weakness of Unix is in not sharing more code between applications. M$ shares code extensively betwen applications
Miguel obviously has a LOT of trust in M$
that and
Making decisions (good or bad) and taking responsibility for them is part of being an functioning adult. The ability to make decisions is essential. To have the decisions already made and have no control over them is unacceptable. Any competent Unix sysadmin knows that security is his responsibility. A Unix sysadmin who has his boxes repeatedly compromised is likely to be out of a job before too long. When a M$ box gets compromised, it is no great shock, in fact the sysadmin of that box can't be held accountable for a system in which he has no control
I can't believe this idiot sucked me in and made me waste time stating the obvious...
</rant>
Simple. Assign each encryption algorithm a number between 1 and 20 ... stand at least 20 feet from the dartboard (further if you are a skilled player), and let 'er rip. A bullseye means you implement multiple encryption algorithms...
Note: This method works best when performed down at your neighborhood bar after at least 3 rounds drinks.
I can relate to many of the stories posted in this thread. At my last job (with a large company), I witnissed a good friend in his transformation from technical to management roles. I then realized that I, too, was being pushed more and more into managerial roles ... weeks went by where I would get nothing accomplished but senseless meetings, reports, and e-mail trails. I looked forward to digging into C code at every opportunity during those days.
One day another job opportunity with a SMALL company (and a solely technical track) landed in my lap and I jumped on it. Since then, I'm proud to say, I've coded every day and made a difference to the bottom line of my new company. When I look back, I'm glad I made the jump.
As to the benefits of being in the management track, my previous experience leads me to believe that even the lowest grade management is financially rewarded far beyond most career technical track employees, with advancements in management grade leading only to absurd levels of financial compensation... but then again, my previous company was nothing more than a glorified old-boys club where 'who' was significantly more important then 'what' you knew.
Smell-U-Smell-Me is one step closer...
-