"Almost all of the introductory programming books I've looked at focus on syntax, with possible digressions into a bit of semantics. What I haven't found are any great discussions that go beyond syntax and semantics and make it all the way to conceptual models."
It sounds like you want to start with Top-Down Programming or Analysis or Design. The other things you describe are used in a programming language class. A programming class would indeed start with the abstract methods and move to more detailed methods. A programming language might be learned for the examples and homework, but the language is taught as being just one of many tools to implement the design.
"I haven't found flowcharts to be useful recently - they take a lot of space to cover simple things, and they implicitly describe "spaghetti" code - code which uses jumps or gotos for flow control."
Then change your flowchart technique to use structured designs. There are four structured flowchart elements: Sequence (one process follows another), If-Then-Else (one branch can be empty), Do-While (loop with If at top), Do-Until (loop with If at bottom).
While you can make any program with structured flowcharts, look to see if your "flowchart" is actually a "state machine graph". You might find that what you actually have is several modules where program flow depends upon the processed data If that is the case then you can decide between a structured flow between the modules or use a state machine to control what sequence of actions is used.
Yes, the user details database should be on a separate machine. And between the Internet server and details server should be a dedicated wire, whether it is a serial link or an Ethernet cable with only those two machines on it.
That way only the data link is exposed if the Internet server is compromised. You can restrict that data link, such as by having the details server never feed certain info back. To check a password you send the password (or hashed password) over, and get a reply back with the status (OK, not OK). To display a user's data to them a query has to be sent, and some info is not provided -- such as only the last 4 digits of the credit card number are given.
You can be even more obtuse. When the user logs in, use part of the plaintext password to create a hash. Require that this second hash be provided during any queries or the details server won't reply with valid info. Store that hash in a cookie, so it is available when needed but it is not kept in the server. Your Internet server now no longer can request any user data except when the user's machine is making a request. And the details server will complain through a different link if bad requests are made.
It also is not mandatory that this link be TCP/IP. Put your own protocol on it and there won't be accidents with servers accidentally talking to too many Ethernet interfaces.
Of course, the user details server has a separate connection for Billing and other systems which need info such as credit card numbers. And if this is a situation where CC numbers are only needed for billing during a few hours each month, write the CC info on a CD-R and lock it up until it is needed. Updates during the month can be added to another CD-R, then merge them into a single set (yes, "set" in case one CD is not enough). Only the updates would be on disk, until they are written out.
"...maybe we could convince the 1.2 billion Chinese, that you can dump your junk on their soil, if they can dump their junk on your soil.
Come to think of it, the US might still be better off: It is still the world's largest poluter per capita and *not willing to do anything about it*."
ChinaispollutingtheUSAsoil.
Actually, a lot of the pollution is their soil. Fortunately, they have a large population to reduce the pollution per capita.
On weekends, train that AI to try to predict dice, blackjack, poker, and... sports betting. Then its injury predictions have interesting new influences...
" Even spammers should be innocent until proven guilty."
This news article doesn't say if this spammer has already admitted it spams, but won't they have to prove in court that they spam, that their income is from spamming, and thus that blocking email caused them damage?
I hope they do that; I'm sure the defense will be able to produce a number of people who had to waste time each day cleaning up spam and thus that spamming caused them damage.
So, is spamming specifically illegal in Australia yet, or is only its damage illegal?
"You are being sued. This suit has merit because we received your name on a list of people who requested to be subject to this type of suit. If you do not want to be sued in the future you can do so by sending email to make_me_an@example.com or calling 1-900-555-1212."
It's too bad the Pentagon banned Power Point from their network (animated tanks were crushing the bandwidth). They won't be able to follow the DARPA work very weill.
"There is a kind of selection effect for long-lived civilizations," Chyba said in comments to a group of reporters during the STScI conference. "If you want to be long lived, you need to become technical because you need to be able to observe the impact environment around you and respond to that environment in some way to mitigate its effects on your planet."
Notice the all-eggs-in-one-basket mentality here. He's thinking that a technical civilization would stay on a planet where it has to worry so much about an extinction event.
We already know how to get off this planet and in a flash on a historical time scale can be scattered across the Sol's habitable zone (and further out with suitable power sources -- there's a lot of fissionables in a single asteroid).
On an astronomical time scale the leap from technology to living in space is less than miniscule. He should be assuming that any technological civilization would get above the 100Km of atmosphere quickly, and won't be wiped out by impacts on planets. The issue then becomes things such as stellar-scale radiation blasts that sterilize many cubic parsecs.
Bacteria which live in petroleum have been found in many oil fields. Things do grow down into rocks with cracks or porous rocks, so it's not surprising that things would get deep down. (Not that it's hard in situations where the oil was oozing to the surface before drilling began) It's even possible that these microbes actually came up this close to the surface from a deep hot biosphere.
"Firstly, middle aged housewives from all over the world would join up en masse to the enemy country where the spray was going to happen."
"Soldier, clean that weapon! Get your duster, spray cleaner, and maybe a bow and a little poupurri!"
"This grub is as good as..Oh -- Hi, Mom!"
"I don't know, but I've been told, the ladies have more for us to drink just down the road."
"Well, yes, paisley does make the tank a little harder to identify..."
"No, this uniform is not Avocado because that's so out of style."
"He's over by the Hummer Minivan."
Of course, it's much better for all that radioactive rock to have been left in the environment so the radiation damage is completely natural. (One natural nuclear reactor has been identified, so the level of natural radioactive activity can be rather intense...)
"Chaos Theory" is movie chatter to avoid an explanation. We engineers just say "Murphy's Law" as an abbreviation for what can happen. Particularly when millions/billions of things (bacteria) are available for various things to go wrong.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm sure the ISS workers have had proper safety training so nobody will get hurt when working with this deadly clock.
Slashdot readers in the USA: You have violated US law by reading this article, which is an attempt to bypass a protection device.
dBase module
Or a $75 service. Password Crackers Inc.
And if they don't both come to the safe for a month, the safe pops open because one of them is dead.
I wonder how much help they would get if they simply posted a reward and the data. Or maybe they don't want the world to have a copy of the data.
You think the dead guy's hand or eye would still be recognized by the biometric identification device?
Maybe you'll be part of history. The article does not name the guy who died.
Is this a job for Beowulf?
It sounds like you want to start with Top-Down Programming or Analysis or Design. The other things you describe are used in a programming language class. A programming class would indeed start with the abstract methods and move to more detailed methods. A programming language might be learned for the examples and homework, but the language is taught as being just one of many tools to implement the design.
Then change your flowchart technique to use structured designs. There are four structured flowchart elements: Sequence (one process follows another), If-Then-Else (one branch can be empty), Do-While (loop with If at top), Do-Until (loop with If at bottom).
While you can make any program with structured flowcharts, look to see if your "flowchart" is actually a "state machine graph". You might find that what you actually have is several modules where program flow depends upon the processed data If that is the case then you can decide between a structured flow between the modules or use a state machine to control what sequence of actions is used.
That way only the data link is exposed if the Internet server is compromised. You can restrict that data link, such as by having the details server never feed certain info back. To check a password you send the password (or hashed password) over, and get a reply back with the status (OK, not OK). To display a user's data to them a query has to be sent, and some info is not provided -- such as only the last 4 digits of the credit card number are given.
You can be even more obtuse. When the user logs in, use part of the plaintext password to create a hash. Require that this second hash be provided during any queries or the details server won't reply with valid info. Store that hash in a cookie, so it is available when needed but it is not kept in the server. Your Internet server now no longer can request any user data except when the user's machine is making a request. And the details server will complain through a different link if bad requests are made.
It also is not mandatory that this link be TCP/IP. Put your own protocol on it and there won't be accidents with servers accidentally talking to too many Ethernet interfaces.
Of course, the user details server has a separate connection for Billing and other systems which need info such as credit card numbers. And if this is a situation where CC numbers are only needed for billing during a few hours each month, write the CC info on a CD-R and lock it up until it is needed. Updates during the month can be added to another CD-R, then merge them into a single set (yes, "set" in case one CD is not enough). Only the updates would be on disk, until they are written out.
China is polluting the USA soil. Actually, a lot of the pollution is their soil. Fortunately, they have a large population to reduce the pollution per capita.
On weekends, train that AI to try to predict dice, blackjack, poker, and ... sports betting. Then its injury predictions have interesting new influences...
<price>5</price>
"It's in U.S. Dollars!"
"No, it's Francs!"
"Yen!"
"It's Reals!"
"It's Cruzados!"
"It's Cruzeiros!"
Global namespace indeed.
This news article doesn't say if this spammer has already admitted it spams, but won't they have to prove in court that they spam, that their income is from spamming, and thus that blocking email caused them damage?
I hope they do that; I'm sure the defense will be able to produce a number of people who had to waste time each day cleaning up spam and thus that spamming caused them damage.
So, is spamming specifically illegal in Australia yet, or is only its damage illegal?
"You are being sued. This suit has merit because we received your name on a list of people who requested to be subject to this type of suit. If you do not want to be sued in the future you can do so by sending email to make_me_an@example.com or calling 1-900-555-1212."
Aww, and I was going to figure out the fresnel angle for a beam over the Rockies to San Francisco...
It's too bad the Pentagon banned Power Point from their network (animated tanks were crushing the bandwidth). They won't be able to follow the DARPA work very weill.
Notice the all-eggs-in-one-basket mentality here. He's thinking that a technical civilization would stay on a planet where it has to worry so much about an extinction event.
We already know how to get off this planet and in a flash on a historical time scale can be scattered across the Sol's habitable zone (and further out with suitable power sources -- there's a lot of fissionables in a single asteroid).
On an astronomical time scale the leap from technology to living in space is less than miniscule. He should be assuming that any technological civilization would get above the 100Km of atmosphere quickly, and won't be wiped out by impacts on planets. The issue then becomes things such as stellar-scale radiation blasts that sterilize many cubic parsecs.
...and will Slashcode allow Unicode in a new Hemos or timothy user?
Slashdot: The "Star Wars" of RocketGuy.Com.
Bacteria which live in petroleum have been found in many oil fields. Things do grow down into rocks with cracks or porous rocks, so it's not surprising that things would get deep down. (Not that it's hard in situations where the oil was oozing to the surface before drilling began) It's even possible that these microbes actually came up this close to the surface from a deep hot biosphere.
"Soldier, clean that weapon! Get your duster, spray cleaner, and maybe a bow and a little poupurri!"
"This grub is as good as..Oh -- Hi, Mom!"
"I don't know, but I've been told, the ladies have more for us to drink just down the road."
"Well, yes, paisley does make the tank a little harder to identify..."
"No, this uniform is not Avocado because that's so out of style."
"He's over by the Hummer Minivan."
Of course, it's much better for all that radioactive rock to have been left in the environment so the radiation damage is completely natural. (One natural nuclear reactor has been identified, so the level of natural radioactive activity can be rather intense...)
"Chaos Theory" is movie chatter to avoid an explanation. We engineers just say "Murphy's Law" as an abbreviation for what can happen. Particularly when millions/billions of things (bacteria) are available for various things to go wrong.