in these type of departments all the computer are on all the time anyways
Completely agreed - the only threat that full-disk encryption really prevents against is someone actually walking out of the data center with the disk. Nice and all, but not a full solution.
The company I work for (www.vormetric.com) has a policy-based file encryption product, so you can say things like "under this directory only user foo can read and write to files, and use this particular encryption key". So other users can't get there, and even if they could it's encrypted. There's no performance hit for everyone else, and it's transparent to applications. You might want to check it out.
I find it ironic that this story was posted at 05:19 PM on a Friday. I'm still at work, but that's because sometimes I'm not quite bright enough to go home.
So, I suggest C++. That may sound appauling at first to some, but here's why.
Yeah, that is appalling. I once taught (one of the) entry-level CS classes a big university. We used C++. Some others were experimenting with using Java. We found that often the students could grasp the basic concepts, but then ran into implementation problems in C++. There were simply too many ways for beginning programmers to innocently screw up. The classes where Java was used were able to focus more on the concepts and not on C++ details.
Once one programming language is learned, then others are picked up easily. I would honestly recommend Pascal as a language to begin with. After all, it was DESIGNED to be a teaching language. But Java isn't too bad, either. Learn C++ as your _second_ language.
Programmers absolutely have to know how to work with memory
Yes. But not until the second semester. There are plenty of other things to learn in the first semester, believe me.
We live in a world of objected oriented abstraction
Yeah...but I don't think it's too hard to transition from a functional-based language into an object-oriented one. It's just a slightly different way of looking at things...
C++ is more relevant by far than *BASIC
Of course. But like I said, who cares about your first programming language? Others are easy to pick up once you've got one down. Of course, the leap from *BASIC may be greater than from other languages.
I have to confess that QuickBasic (version 4.5):-) was one of my first languages. (I got the joke when some other poster mentioned a snake eating numbers.) Then I learned Pascal (my CS intro), then C, then C++, and now in real life I code in C in the depths of a UNIX kernel. Go figure.
This is a pretty neat idea. Assuming, of course, that the weed-recognition and pesticide-aiming devices actually work as advertised. But why not take it to the next level: hook up a robotic hoe! Or a robotic weed-pulling arm. You get the idea. Removes the need for any pesticides. After all, the article seemed to imply that this was a replacement for humans armed with hoes...
Of course, this sort of technology only stands a chance of adoption if it's cheaper to buy than it is to hire migrant workers. Sad but true. I won't hold my breath.
The worst company gift I've ever heard of happened to my cousin's husband. As his wedding gift, his boss got him a Target gift card for $100. Not bad, you think? Well, the next week he noticed that his paycheck was $100 short. The slimeball had docked him $100 of real money to get him a $100 gift card as a "present". Unreal.
My advice is to buy the stone loose, and pay a good jewler to put it on a ring.
Hey, that's almost exactly what I did. My wife and I talked a lot about this beforehand. It boiled down to this: rationally, she saw no need for a diamond, but emotionally she'd been influenced enough by our culture that she felt she needed one. And I wanted to give her some physical token. So we settled on a small diamond. It's 1/3 carat, well cut, almost clear, and almost flawless. Small, but good.
I got the diamond from Mondera.com when they were just starting up (it was probably dumb, but worked out quite well). I then took the rock into a small, local jeweler and said "appraise this and put a ring around it". I got to design the ring - that was pretty cool.
I was able to put enough research and work into the ring to make it unique to us. I felt that it was such a big deal that I couldn't possibly just walk into a store and buy something off the shelf.:-)
-Mike
Re:When comments are more than comments...
on
Pet Bugs?
·
· Score: 1
That's actually a fascinating little niche of code that is basically implementation-dependent: Does the// (or # for perl,shells,etc) have higher or lower precidence than the \ ? Does the fact that it's a line-comment make the \ meaningless, or does the \ bring in the next line, too?
Different compilers do this differently, and perl and shell implementations even vary. It's pretty amazing.
I can assure you that it won't be any sort of kitchen appliance.
I disagree! Or, perhaps, my wife is not quite normal. The first year that we lived together, she kept telling me that she wanted a blender... so for Valentine's I got her a blender. Of course, I'm not a complete idiot - the blender had 6 roses in it. She loved it.
And NO, I didn't blend the roses! Although I must admit, it was tempting...
Now, this setup is out in the middle of the floor - all the wires are laying along the back, in a loose bundle. For power, and my network connection (which goes to a back room in the house), I run the wires up and along the ceiling, then down to the outlets (the wires are bundled in cable split-loom tubing). Anyhow, my speakers are on the wall, up high, each near the corner of the room directly across from me
It's probably radio interference. The rat's nest of wires and the long speaker wires are the problem.
I've got a wire running from the audio out of my computer, 40' under the house, and up to the stereo. Like an idiot, I didn't use shielded wire. When either the stereo or the computer is off, I swear what sounds like a Vietnamese radio station comes in. Pretty bizarre.
Slashdot Mirror
in these type of departments all the computer are on all the time anyways
Completely agreed - the only threat that full-disk encryption really prevents against is someone actually walking out of the data center with the disk. Nice and all, but not a full solution.
The company I work for (www.vormetric.com) has a policy-based file encryption product, so you can say things like "under this directory only user foo can read and write to files, and use this particular encryption key". So other users can't get there, and even if they could it's encrypted. There's no performance hit for everyone else, and it's transparent to applications. You might want to check it out.
-Mike
You should have a look at Vormetric: http://www.vormetric.com/
It's got OS-level encryption, centralized key management, flexible policies, and more. It works on both Windows and Unix. Disclaimer: I'm an employee.
-Mike
I find it ironic that this story was posted at 05:19 PM on a Friday. I'm still at work, but that's because sometimes I'm not quite bright enough to go home.
-Mike
So, I suggest C++. That may sound appauling at first to some, but here's why.
:-) was one of my first languages. (I got the joke when some other poster mentioned a snake eating numbers.) Then I learned Pascal (my CS intro), then C, then C++, and now in real life I code in C in the depths of a UNIX kernel. Go figure.
Yeah, that is appalling. I once taught (one of the) entry-level CS classes a big university. We used C++. Some others were experimenting with using Java. We found that often the students could grasp the basic concepts, but then ran into implementation problems in C++. There were simply too many ways for beginning programmers to innocently screw up. The classes where Java was used were able to focus more on the concepts and not on C++ details.
Once one programming language is learned, then others are picked up easily. I would honestly recommend Pascal as a language to begin with. After all, it was DESIGNED to be a teaching language. But Java isn't too bad, either. Learn C++ as your _second_ language.
Programmers absolutely have to know how to work with memory
Yes. But not until the second semester. There are plenty of other things to learn in the first semester, believe me.
We live in a world of objected oriented abstraction
Yeah...but I don't think it's too hard to transition from a functional-based language into an object-oriented one. It's just a slightly different way of looking at things...
C++ is more relevant by far than *BASIC
Of course. But like I said, who cares about your first programming language? Others are easy to pick up once you've got one down. Of course, the leap from *BASIC may be greater than from other languages.
I have to confess that QuickBasic (version 4.5)
-Mike
This is a pretty neat idea. Assuming, of course, that the weed-recognition and pesticide-aiming devices actually work as advertised. But why not take it to the next level: hook up a robotic hoe! Or a robotic weed-pulling arm. You get the idea. Removes the need for any pesticides. After all, the article seemed to imply that this was a replacement for humans armed with hoes...
Of course, this sort of technology only stands a chance of adoption if it's cheaper to buy than it is to hire migrant workers. Sad but true. I won't hold my breath.
-Mike
You are absolutely correct. The Onion makes a similar point, in their usual over-the-top manner:
Military Promies 'Huge Numbers' for Gulf War II: The Vengeance
-Mike
That's basically what I told him, too. But he didn't... and I live 2000 miles away and don't know him all that well, so I let it drop.
-Mike
-Mike
But you see, this one is different. It goes up to 11.
(With apologies to Spinal Tap)
-Mike
I gave one to her... 1/3 ct, near-flawless
:-)
My advice is to buy the stone loose, and pay a good jewler to put it on a ring.
Hey, that's almost exactly what I did. My wife and I talked a lot about this beforehand. It boiled down to this: rationally, she saw no need for a diamond, but emotionally she'd been influenced enough by our culture that she felt she needed one. And I wanted to give her some physical token. So we settled on a small diamond. It's 1/3 carat, well cut, almost clear, and almost flawless. Small, but good.
I got the diamond from Mondera.com when they were just starting up (it was probably dumb, but worked out quite well). I then took the rock into a small, local jeweler and said "appraise this and put a ring around it". I got to design the ring - that was pretty cool.
I was able to put enough research and work into the ring to make it unique to us. I felt that it was such a big deal that I couldn't possibly just walk into a store and buy something off the shelf.
-Mike
That's actually a fascinating little niche of code that is basically implementation-dependent: Does the // (or # for perl,shells,etc) have higher or lower precidence than the \ ? Does the fact that it's a line-comment make the \ meaningless, or does the \ bring in the next line, too?
Different compilers do this differently, and perl and shell implementations even vary. It's pretty amazing.
-Mike
Browsing Slashdot for hours on end often helps me...
:-))
(yeah, right
-Mike
I disagree! Or, perhaps, my wife is not quite normal. The first year that we lived together, she kept telling me that she wanted a blender... so for Valentine's I got her a blender. Of course, I'm not a complete idiot - the blender had 6 roses in it. She loved it.
And NO, I didn't blend the roses! Although I must admit, it was tempting...
-Mike
Now, this setup is out in the middle of the floor - all the wires are laying along the back, in a loose bundle. For power, and my network connection (which goes to a back room in the house), I run the wires up and along the ceiling, then down to the outlets (the wires are bundled in cable split-loom tubing). Anyhow, my speakers are on the wall, up high, each near the corner of the room directly across from me
It's probably radio interference. The rat's nest of wires and the long speaker wires are the problem.
I've got a wire running from the audio out of my computer, 40' under the house, and up to the stereo. Like an idiot, I didn't use shielded wire. When either the stereo or the computer is off, I swear what sounds like a Vietnamese radio station comes in. Pretty bizarre.
-Mike