Image a virus that infects Word documents at a large organization that goes unnoticed for a year because it doesn't actually do anything but replicate itself quietly and subtly, and infects any document it can over the course of the year. Slowly, all the backups of files will be infected as well. It doesn't have to do anything malicious, just prevent a document from being viewed or opened easily.
Every place I have seen Office being used, there are huge volumes of files which everyone can share and update. Boom! Nobody can do anything with the information they have because Office won't work....
errrrm.... wait. I see the flaw in my argument. Office does that all on it's own already.
Re:Most annoying 'feature' of MS Excel
on
Gnumeric Turns 5
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· Score: 1
The default size is the same as MS Excel (256x64k). That helps ensure that all the funky xls files out there that depend on those limits work out of the box. However, those values are simple #defines. All coordinates are 32 bits internally. A quick edit and a recompile will change the bounds.
I have found that working technical jobs (programming, sysadmin) is not compatible with my condition. I could take the drugs and be able to do it, but I don't think I want to. I have found that it is sometimes a blessing. I have problems concentrating, focusing, motivating, etc., but I am driven to find activities that help balance out the chemicals. Not possessing insurance means that roller coasters, sky diving, rock climing, near accidents, hard physical labor and such are a lot cheaper than the medication. It's a stuggle with or without the drugs.
It is very stressful and unhealthy to have ADD/ADHD and work in front of a computer. There is very little stimulation and, at least in me, reinforces the cycle that drains the energy to concentrate. Add incompetent manangement and you have something explosive. ADHD has taught me that there are more dignifying and enjoyable careers than programming, like scrubbing toilets and washing sidewalks.
- Probably questionable legality and ethics on that one, being a real tool in the battle against what some call 'free speech'.
Probably 'Free Speech,' but the activity consumes the finite resources of a computer that costs the operator money in electricity, bandwidth, maintenance and access by customers and/or employees.
There is nothing about 'free speech' that allows one entity to force another to be the carrier or reciever of the idea or message.
I am guessing that it would be an amonia-water cycle like in a refrigeration system or a Kalina cycle engine. I will wait until things are not slashdoted before I look deeper into it.
From that description I could easily claim prior art. If my code is still around from one of my jobs where I did this it would be easy. I created a shopping cart system that allows the saving of carts and the ability to change the active cart, combining carts, and the ability to checkout more than one cart at a time. Add to that the capabilities of a quote system for related items, I should have been able to apply for a patent. You know, I may even have a back up of all that somewhere on one of my computers...
At the time, I was creating something completely new. I had never seen or used anything like it before, but I never thought it worthy enough of a patent. It is plainly obvious to anyone with some database, perl and apache experience.
Re:Server down for obvious reasons
on
Blender Is GPL
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· Score: 1
Even though this is somewhat offtopic I am going to comment on it anyway.
I doubt that the problem is with MySQL. If the problem occurs on the database end, however, it is, guaranteed, a problem with the organization of the data (poor data modeling, lazy design, poor indexing).
I have done my own database design coupled with web development. I have done work on an e-commerce site where 20 queries per page were not uncommon. I was able to obtain 30 page views per second on a single processor machine with even the most query laden pages.
The problem is with the programmers, web designers and db developers; I am pretty sure of it.
The moon is a lot better place to search for asteroids. There is no atmosphere to complicate matters, no light polition from cities, and lower gravity to support bigger telescopes if need be.
I have a Contax 645, and the digital backs available for that camera [ Kodak and Phase one ] are 16 megapixel. That is more than adequate to rival film resolution, but no digital solution will rival the contrast range of film and the low light performance and shadow detail of film.
That's what I would do--real photography, film. As if I don't do a lot of it already. I would do what I have always wanted to do: No computers, no phones, no gatgets, just a dark room and some chemistry. I would travel the world and take pictures.
I wonder if it would be possible to setup a few processes to ping a range of IP addresses to cause accounts to run over their quota. Would they distinguish real traffic from garbage such as that?
Might be able to do it with a medium format camera. The thing to do would be to get a 35mm motion-picture camera and use that. There should be plenty of frames to take a picture every mile.
I so wanted to mod some computers, hell, my workspace, to look like the setups they had in Brazil. I think that having a bunch of terminals like that in a cafe would be really cool. Damn it! I need a good drill press, some welding equipment and materials, but it could definately be done. I talked about this with a few friends a year or so ago, but they thought I was crazy. I didnt disagree.
Advertising I want to get on a regular basis. They should also put the technology into a watch that can also detect stress levels and then direct you to the nearest watering hole. I wonder if anyone who uses Northstar ever called in to find out where the nearest pub is.
I am going to bookmark this post.
on
Loki Games Closing?
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· Score: 2, Insightful
When someone asks me why there are no linux games (my little brother does), I can refer to this. I hear a lot of people complain that software costs too much or that they didnt get this thing or that thing for free. I sometimes wonder if these people can balance their checkbooks.
Although, fuel cells are a door into a world of cleaner, more abundant energy, it must be said that with every great inovation and evolution in technology comes with an even greater responsibility. If the hydrogen economy is here, then we have to consider where that hydrogen is coming from. Is it going to come from hydrocarbons like oil? Is all that hydrogen going to be generated from the electrolysis of water? Are we going to use bimass? If its oil, then we may be in just as bad a situation. The refinement of oil leaves a tremendouos number of nasty by products, not to mention our continued dependance on a non-renewable resource. If we get it from water, then what generates t he electricity? Solar and wind are options, but will require tremendous investement to fulfill the requirements to generate the amount of hydrogen necessary to replace the internal combustion engine. If its biomass, I havent seen the numbers to indicate the amount of byproducts to make harvesting economical, although I know it had been done on a limited scale. There is a give and a take. There are no free lunches. I want to know if we are going to decrease the amount of pollution we are dumping into the environment, or make the situation worse. Fuel cells, and hydrogen power in general, have proved themselves efficient and clean on a small scale, but untested on a large scale. I still see the same unanswered questions of production, distribution, maintenance and disposal.
I used a smaller ISP (drizzle ) in Seattle, and although you can get whatever ISP you want, they do make it as difficult as hell. It can take a month to get everything working right. Drizzle has a person that works there whose job it is to deal with Qwest. If you get Qwest.net, and now MSN, it goes smoothly. If it wasnt for the fact that I know the technology, I know the business and that both of my brothers install their equipment, I would find it too much of a pain in the ass to bother. I forst got connected to drizzle through Covad DSL and they were much better to deal with. They treated DSL exactly like it was supposed to be treated: like a T1. You get your circuit and then you get your ISP. Qwest is the local loop provider. That's it, and I make sure they know it.
I would rather see IBM buy RedHat. Why? Because they know technology. And it seems, that they have learned from their own mistakes and the mistakes of others. A large media company will only be able to do what it does best: leverage mind-share and sell it's content. A company like IBM is the nuts and bolts behind so much technology and infrastructure. They know what they are doing. Well, maybe not completely; but Ted Turner is going to have a lot harder time adapting to selling something they dont even create, let alone control.
A lot of the debate about global warming reminds me about all the Y2K talk a few years ago. Its one of those things that unless it happens no one is going to believe that its real, but if it is real and something wasnt dont about it and disaster resulted, then enough wasnt being done, but then again if something was done to prevent the disaster, then all that money and time was spent for nothing because there was nothing to worry about in the first place.
Also, the only thing that anyone involved in the science of the whole thing is that global warming will have an effect on the climate. Its anybody's guess, really. I could mean that in the sort term temperatures rise a little allowing snow to fall in places in which it used to be too cold to snow in large quantities resulting in more sun light being reflected back. Who knows? The problem as I see it is not climate change itself. The climate will change with or without our pollution. The problem it seems is our unwillingness to deal with the fact that we will face problems. Again, contingency is seen as a waste, and disaster is seen as the failure of those who were supposed to have the contingency that was so wasteful. Shit happens. Seas rise, lakes dry up, rocks fall from the sky and stars explode.
I guess its a matter of symantics vs. context. The context being a 'production environment'. 1.3.22 is what one puts into 'production'. 1.2.x is depreciated and 2.0 is not yet suitible to put into a production environment. If the apache had used the Linux numbering scheme, 1.3.x would have been the 'development' tree and when it became stable it would have become 1.4.x. 2.0 would have become 1.5.x, to then become 2.0 when it was 'stable'. I guess that is the nature of these projects. Version numbers really dont matter. It's all about what works. 2.4.x didnt really work for a while after it was released, but being that, for linux anyway, an even number minor version means that it is stable and ready for production (which it wasnt). It may have gotten better a lot faster if they just kept it in the 2.3.xxx state for a while.
How many people are running a version of Apache in the 1.3.x tree? Well if you are that's a development tree and not necessariliy stable. Yes there are stable versions, but you must test!
Um... 1.3.x is, indeed, the stable version. From the website:
The Apache Group is pleased to announce the release of the 1.3.22 version of the Apache HTTP server.
Apache 1.3.22 is the best version of Apache currently available.
Reading LKML has been one of the most enlightening experiences. Following the conversations, reports, complaints and rants you can really piece together a very lucid picture of the very complex nature of large open-source projects. The whole process of kernel development demonstrates why open-source works; how hundreds, if not thousands, of people scattered accross the globe can work on a project; how cooperating with fierce competition produces results.
Some days it's like going to the pub and discussing politics. Other days its a horse track where betting takes place on patches. Still, other days its a battlefield where someone has to prove that he can match wits with his adversaries who are also hacking the kernel. Linux kernel development shows that when you embrace all those human traits (competitiveness, arrogance, violence, love, friendship, shame, curiosity, idolitry, desire, hate, intelligence, stupidity, humor, spite, disgust, altruism), and apply them in the appropriate places at the appropriate times you can achieve much more than if you listened to what you were supposed to do. Like all of life it is a seathing, organic process that becomes what it becomes through relentless change and its ability to fulfill a particular niche. The chemestry is the drive of the hacker; the elements are the lines of code: a primordial soup of abstract ideas.
Slashdot Mirror
Image a virus that infects Word documents at a large organization that goes unnoticed for a year because it doesn't actually do anything but replicate itself quietly and subtly, and infects any document it can over the course of the year. Slowly, all the backups of files will be infected as well. It doesn't have to do anything malicious, just prevent a document from being viewed or opened easily.
Every place I have seen Office being used, there are huge volumes of files which everyone can share and update. Boom! Nobody can do anything with the information they have because Office won't work....
errrrm.... wait. I see the flaw in my argument. Office does that all on it's own already.
Why is this not a run-time feature?
It is very stressful and unhealthy to have ADD/ADHD and work in front of a computer. There is very little stimulation and, at least in me, reinforces the cycle that drains the energy to concentrate. Add incompetent manangement and you have something explosive. ADHD has taught me that there are more dignifying and enjoyable careers than programming, like scrubbing toilets and washing sidewalks.
Probably 'Free Speech,' but the activity consumes the finite resources of a computer that costs the operator money in electricity, bandwidth, maintenance and access by customers and/or employees.
There is nothing about 'free speech' that allows one entity to force another to be the carrier or reciever of the idea or message.
Don't get so excited. It's April Fools Day, remember?
I am guessing that it would be an amonia-water cycle like in a refrigeration system or a Kalina cycle engine. I will wait until things are not slashdoted before I look deeper into it.
From that description I could easily claim prior art. If my code is still around from one of my jobs where I did this it would be easy. I created a shopping cart system that allows the saving of carts and the ability to change the active cart, combining carts, and the ability to checkout more than one cart at a time. Add to that the capabilities of a quote system for related items, I should have been able to apply for a patent. You know, I may even have a back up of all that somewhere on one of my computers... At the time, I was creating something completely new. I had never seen or used anything like it before, but I never thought it worthy enough of a patent. It is plainly obvious to anyone with some database, perl and apache experience.
I doubt that the problem is with MySQL. If the problem occurs on the database end, however, it is, guaranteed, a problem with the organization of the data (poor data modeling, lazy design, poor indexing).
I have done my own database design coupled with web development. I have done work on an e-commerce site where 20 queries per page were not uncommon. I was able to obtain 30 page views per second on a single processor machine with even the most query laden pages.
The problem is with the programmers, web designers and db developers; I am pretty sure of it.
The moon is a lot better place to search for asteroids. There is no atmosphere to complicate matters, no light polition from cities, and lower gravity to support bigger telescopes if need be.
I have a Contax 645, and the digital backs available for that camera [ Kodak and Phase one ] are 16 megapixel. That is more than adequate to rival film resolution, but no digital solution will rival the contrast range of film and the low light performance and shadow detail of film.
That's what I would do--real photography, film. As if I don't do a lot of it already. I would do what I have always wanted to do: No computers, no phones, no gatgets, just a dark room and some chemistry. I would travel the world and take pictures.
I wonder if it would be possible to setup a few processes to ping a range of IP addresses to cause accounts to run over their quota. Would they distinguish real traffic from garbage such as that?
One word: Inertia.
Accelerate the 20 tonne payload to 5mph and then decelerate it. Where is that energy going to go? It just doesn't evaporate into space.
Might be able to do it with a medium format camera. The thing to do would be to get a 35mm motion-picture camera and use that. There should be plenty of frames to take a picture every mile.
I so wanted to mod some computers, hell, my workspace, to look like the setups they had in Brazil. I think that having a bunch of terminals like that in a cafe would be really cool. Damn it! I need a good drill press, some welding equipment and materials, but it could definately be done. I talked about this with a few friends a year or so ago, but they thought I was crazy. I didnt disagree.
Advertising I want to get on a regular basis. They should also put the technology into a watch that can also detect stress levels and then direct you to the nearest watering hole. I wonder if anyone who uses Northstar ever called in to find out where the nearest pub is.
When someone asks me why there are no linux games (my little brother does), I can refer to this. I hear a lot of people complain that software costs too much or that they didnt get this thing or that thing for free. I sometimes wonder if these people can balance their checkbooks.
Money does not abide by the laws of thermodynamics.
Although, fuel cells are a door into a world of cleaner, more abundant energy, it must be said that with every great inovation and evolution in technology comes with an even greater responsibility. If the hydrogen economy is here, then we have to consider where that hydrogen is coming from. Is it going to come from hydrocarbons like oil? Is all that hydrogen going to be generated from the electrolysis of water? Are we going to use bimass? If its oil, then we may be in just as bad a situation. The refinement of oil leaves a tremendouos number of nasty by products, not to mention our continued dependance on a non-renewable resource. If we get it from water, then what generates t he electricity? Solar and wind are options, but will require tremendous investement to fulfill the requirements to generate the amount of hydrogen necessary to replace the internal combustion engine. If its biomass, I havent seen the numbers to indicate the amount of byproducts to make harvesting economical, although I know it had been done on a limited scale. There is a give and a take. There are no free lunches. I want to know if we are going to decrease the amount of pollution we are dumping into the environment, or make the situation worse. Fuel cells, and hydrogen power in general, have proved themselves efficient and clean on a small scale, but untested on a large scale. I still see the same unanswered questions of production, distribution, maintenance and disposal.
I used a smaller ISP (drizzle ) in Seattle, and although you can get whatever ISP you want, they do make it as difficult as hell. It can take a month to get everything working right. Drizzle has a person that works there whose job it is to deal with Qwest. If you get Qwest.net, and now MSN, it goes smoothly. If it wasnt for the fact that I know the technology, I know the business and that both of my brothers install their equipment, I would find it too much of a pain in the ass to bother. I forst got connected to drizzle through Covad DSL and they were much better to deal with. They treated DSL exactly like it was supposed to be treated: like a T1. You get your circuit and then you get your ISP. Qwest is the local loop provider. That's it, and I make sure they know it.
I would rather see IBM buy RedHat. Why? Because they know technology. And it seems, that they have learned from their own mistakes and the mistakes of others. A large media company will only be able to do what it does best: leverage mind-share and sell it's content. A company like IBM is the nuts and bolts behind so much technology and infrastructure. They know what they are doing. Well, maybe not completely; but Ted Turner is going to have a lot harder time adapting to selling something they dont even create, let alone control.
Also, the only thing that anyone involved in the science of the whole thing is that global warming will have an effect on the climate. Its anybody's guess, really. I could mean that in the sort term temperatures rise a little allowing snow to fall in places in which it used to be too cold to snow in large quantities resulting in more sun light being reflected back. Who knows? The problem as I see it is not climate change itself. The climate will change with or without our pollution. The problem it seems is our unwillingness to deal with the fact that we will face problems. Again, contingency is seen as a waste, and disaster is seen as the failure of those who were supposed to have the contingency that was so wasteful. Shit happens. Seas rise, lakes dry up, rocks fall from the sky and stars explode.
I guess its a matter of symantics vs. context. The context being a 'production environment'. 1.3.22 is what one puts into 'production'. 1.2.x is depreciated and 2.0 is not yet suitible to put into a production environment. If the apache had used the Linux numbering scheme, 1.3.x would have been the 'development' tree and when it became stable it would have become 1.4.x. 2.0 would have become 1.5.x, to then become 2.0 when it was 'stable'. I guess that is the nature of these projects. Version numbers really dont matter. It's all about what works. 2.4.x didnt really work for a while after it was released, but being that, for linux anyway, an even number minor version means that it is stable and ready for production (which it wasnt). It may have gotten better a lot faster if they just kept it in the 2.3.xxx state for a while.
Um... 1.3.x is, indeed, the stable version. From the website:
2.0.x is the unstable tree at the moment.
Reading LKML has been one of the most enlightening experiences. Following the conversations, reports, complaints and rants you can really piece together a very lucid picture of the very complex nature of large open-source projects. The whole process of kernel development demonstrates why open-source works; how hundreds, if not thousands, of people scattered accross the globe can work on a project; how cooperating with fierce competition produces results.
Some days it's like going to the pub and discussing politics. Other days its a horse track where betting takes place on patches. Still, other days its a battlefield where someone has to prove that he can match wits with his adversaries who are also hacking the kernel. Linux kernel development shows that when you embrace all those human traits (competitiveness, arrogance, violence, love, friendship, shame, curiosity, idolitry, desire, hate, intelligence, stupidity, humor, spite, disgust, altruism), and apply them in the appropriate places at the appropriate times you can achieve much more than if you listened to what you were supposed to do. Like all of life it is a seathing, organic process that becomes what it becomes through relentless change and its ability to fulfill a particular niche. The chemestry is the drive of the hacker; the elements are the lines of code: a primordial soup of abstract ideas.
Just a couple of my thoughts at 5:00am.