"the tax cuts of the past few years made it possible for me to stay home with my son".
All I can say is wow - I knew that republicans were delusional but this is pretty impressive. I personally used the money from the tax cuts to build a giant orbital mind control laser.
I started working on a mythTV box over the summer. Between getting all the hardware together, building linux, building mythTV and getting the confounded PVR card to work correctly I have not yet finished the project to my satisfaction.
I realized a couple of things with this project: a) I work all day on software and don't want to spend my evening hacking stuff together anymore b) It would have been cheaper to buy a tivo and c) miniITX hardware is very hard to use. The quality of the TV out on my Nehemiah is disappointing.
Yup, I worked at Mango several years ago on the Medley product.
The basic premise behind the product was that when someone copied a file into the Medley drive the data pages were instantly "duplexed", meaning that a second copy of a page was made elsewhere in the network. If a node in the network went down causing only one other computer to have a copy of the page, Medley would automatically reduplex, causing the single copy of the page to be propagated to another node in the network. The basic promise of Medley was availability and fault tollerance on a P2P level.
Very cool concept but the product had a number of severe flaws that are probably obvious to the average slashdot reader.
The product ran as a driver in Windows 95/98 and NT. Debugging Medley was an absolute atrocity; I remember at one point having as many as 8 windbg windows open attempting to debug some network wide crash problem.
Another problem was that in rare cases a crash on a single machine could bring down other machines in the network. Doh!
Servers are cheap, disk is cheap. Once the IT administrator realizes that there is significant complexity in maintaining a Medley network, he or she would realize that it is probably cheaper to buy a RAID enabled server with a ton of disk space.
Marketing. Mango couldn't market this product to save themselves. At one point we used a rather rotund Male model called "Waldo" to push the product. Very bizarre.... the product was so complex that it took a while for technical people to understand let alone the average user.
The 1.0 product was pushed out the door before it was ready.
The company couldn't figure out the appropriate distribution chanel; Vars, direct retail, direct sales, etc. Nothing seemed to work.
Finally, the product was over-engineered (sorry guys!)
The best thing I can say about working on Medley was that it was an opportunity right out of College to work with a number of incredibly excellent engineers on a complex and very interesting problem. Unfortunately, the idea was probably 5 to 10 years ahead of its time.
Yup... I did the same thing. Interesting tid bit about RCN. I live in Somerville MA (right next to Cambridge and Boston) and we can get both RCN and AT&T. Unfortunately, RCN is available for every house on my street except mine! When I call RCN, they say that the service is unavailable and the representative a) can't explain why it is unavailable for my house and b) can take no action to figure out why service is unavailable! Very bizarre.
I go back and read the Chronicles of Amber every year or so. For some reason, Zelazny's writing is completely engrossing and satisfying. It will be interesting to see if the TV version can capture the magic of the books as well as some of the fantastic imagery.
Hmm... I am pretty sure that the IBM researchers stated quite clearly that the NSA did not directly interfere with the DES development (in particular, the S-boxes).
Additionally, the IBM guys knew about differential cryptography but never published. If someone is really interested, they can check out one of the sources in the biography located here. I researched this issue a number of years ago and can't remember some of the details!
"C# borrows much from Java, a debt which Microsoft has not acknowledged, and possibly never will."
At the Microsoft PDC a bunch of the C# developers admitted quite openly that Java was a big influence in C# development and design. Of course, I am not saying that the MS Marketing engine will ever admit java's influence:)
Wow... lots of FUD and ranting so far in this thread.
I also attended the PDC and I would like to make a couple of points. 1) There is nothing prohibiting a JAVA implementation on top of the MS Common Language Runtime. Since C# is so similar to java it fits nicely in the sphere of the CLR type system (I am not a java expert). Do you think the technical architects at MS don't want to support a Java implementation? Of course they do. It is the business side of MS (as well as the ongoing suit) that is limiting java support. At the runtime type talk the presenter mentioned that there "was not an announced implementation of java." 2) Cross langauge implementation inheritance. This means that I can right a base class in Python, extend it in C++, and then extend it again in C# (or any other of the 15 supported langauges). Of course, I have not seen this work nor has anyone examined the performance limitations. As far as I am concerned, this is a real innovation from MS (has anyone ever implementated anything like this before?). In many ways, it seems to bypass the issue of languages... use what you want because you can always interop with another language. 3) Prevalence of web services. It seems incredibly easy to expose objects on the web via SOAP and have them interoperate. Of course, we are still waiting to discover the limitations:) 4) Tools. Remember boys and girls, one of the ways Microsoft succeeds is making good tools for developers. Visual studio 7 seems really cool and looks like it will speed development of web apps. As long as developers like the tools they will stay with MS. 5). If you are not into web apps, XML, or B2B (biztalk) the conference probably was not that useful (except for the language stuff). If are working in the kernel, forget it:) 6) All of the "managed" languages (i.e. C#, VB, etc) always run in native code. They may be stored in MSIL and JIT compiled before execution, but there is no interpretation.
NT supports core dumps. Whenever you see that Dr. Watson message come up it is trapping the crash of the application and creating a debugging image. Of course, you can only use windbg do debug the crash:(
Read the subject. The whole point of using the Win32 platform at this stage in the game is the massive number of developer tools that Microsoft has been building for the last 15 years. Imaging the Microsoft environment as a pyramid: VB, ASP, ADO on top, COM, MTS, active directory, etc in the middle, and the Win32 API at the base. Of course this is grossly simplified but it exemplifies what is unique to the Windows development environment.
Case in Point:
1) The Win32 API is similar to Linux system calls; create files, threads, events, mutexes, etc. While you can argue that there are major architectural differences, they both provide the same level of support to the developer.
2) COM, MTS. Now the differences start to show. Linux does not have a component model that is widely integrated or used across multiple projects. Of course, newer works like GNOME are very component driven and may end up driving the defacto component model for Linux. However, on Win32 almost anything can be done with COM using a bit of VB script (can you say Melissa virus?). MIS people can tie together a bunch of different packages using COM. In Linux you have to resort to a wide array of command line tools that have different syntax, different configuration file formats, etc. MTS provides easy to write transaction support that is almost too easy to use.
3) VB, ASP. For anybody who has used these tools they are probably very familiar with their limitations. Is VB or ASP superior to other high level scripting languages? NO!! However, VB & ASP can access thousands of objects. You can create a fairly sophisticated UI in VB in a couple of hours. If you want a new control for your UI chances are someone has already written it.
The moral of the story: The application developer has a whole suite of tools they can use to rapidly develop high level apps. It may be a stinking pile of crap but for the most part it works:)
IMO, the java technologies are still the Windows killer for development internet apps. JSP and EJB sounds like it may be much better (and more fun to develop) than using VB and COM.
I have not heard of anyone who has developed a complex project on Windows AND used MSVC as the build environment. We use gmake, bash, perl, etc. to do the builds.
I did a little work in this area in school as well. I agree with an earlier poster that the resources are out there and you should draw your own conclusions. The paper I wrote focused on the influence of the NSA with the development of DES and the growth of the nascent crypto community. I think I can help you by giving you a bibliography:
Brankstand, D.K. et al. "Report on the Workshop on Cryptography in Support of Computer Security." NBSIR 77-1291, National Bureau of Standards, Sep 21-22, 1976, September 1977.
Coppersmith, D. "The Data Encryption Standard (DES) and its strength against attacks." IBM Journal of Research and Development. V. 38, N. 3. May 1994. 243-250.
Denning, Peter J. "Government Classification of Private Ideas." Communications of the ACM. March 1981. 105.
"Encryption Technology, Privacy, and National Security." Technology Review. August September 1986. [get author and page number]
Foerstel, Herbert N. Secret Science: Federal Control of American Science and Technology. Praeger Publishers, Westport CT. 1993.
"The Government's Classification of Private Ideas". Hearings, 96th Congress, February 28, March 21, August 1980. (Washington, DC: U.S. GPO, 1981), 271.
Kinnucan, Paul. "Data Encryption Gurus: Tuchman and Meyer." Cryptologia. V.2 N 4. October 1978. 371-382.
Kolata, Gina Bari. "Cryptography: A New Clash Between Academic Freedom and National Security". Science. August 29th, 1980. 995-996.
Massey, J.L. "An Introduction to Contemporary Cryptology." Proceedings of the IEEE. V. 76, N. 5. May 1988. 533-549.
Schneier, Bruce. Applied Cryptography. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York, New York. 1996.
Shapley, Deborah and Kolata, Gina Bari. "Cryptology: Scientists Puzzle over Threat to Open Research, Publication." Science. September 30, 1977. 1345-46.
Shaker, Richard. "The Agency that came in from the Cold: exceprts from an address at the Joint Mathematics Meeting in Baltimore on January 8, 1992." Notices of the American Mathematical Society. V. 39, N. 5. May 1, 1992. 408-411.
U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. "Unclassified Summary: Involvement of the NSA in the development of the Data Encryption Standard." Cryptologia. October 1978, pp 387-389.
I appreciate a good philosophical discussion as much as any well educated (or not so well educated) person. However, there is no need to write in such a high style when it does not add any content. Sure, fancy phrases like "That knowledge engine rearranged data into forms that coupled effortlessly with my perceptual apparatus" are a little more appealing that "The graphical web browser interface was WAY cool", but it sounds pompous and full of a lot of hot air. The problem with Thiemes and Katz is that they don't connect to the Slashdot reader who sees computers in a more down to earth perspective.
And frankly, anyone who connects more with the virtual world than the "real" world scares me. I mean, get out a lithe! Take a walk, go hiking, go to a museum, etc.
Donating Hardware and providing monetary support are all important issues to the OSS community. However, another issue brought to light by this article is the high cost of membership of standard's organization. Essentially, the only organizations that will pony up the cash for Irda membership are large companies like Microsoft, HP, Compaq, etc. The $1500 fee sounds like it is used not only to cover costs, but to make it hard for small organizations or individuals to participate in standards development. I think OSS advocates inside IRda supporting lower membership fees or a grass roots effort to pressure IRda is needed , before someone creates a bureaucratic OSS charity organization.
I've been using linux for 6 or 7 years now and I have rarely done what I consider hacking. IMO, these are traditionally valid hacks:
modifying source code for a particularly arcane or personal purpose
writing a really cool program that does something interesting in a particularly bizarre way. example: soda machines on the web, fish cams, CGI front ends to zork,etc.
working on complicated / sophisticated code; i.e. kernel hacker.
Any unique or off the cuff solution to a problem: The solutions that NASA developed during the Apollo 13 missions were definately hacks.
Wvdail (available here) solved all my ppp problems. When my ISP went from Ascend to Bay Networks hardware, I couldn't figure out for the life of me why my ppp script stopped working. wvdial generated a script that works with my ISP and configured ppp & my modem correctly.
BTW, I am not some linux newbie who doesn't know how to write scripts, configure software, etc. However, ppp under linux can be MUCH harder to configure than W95/98/NT. Tools like wvdial help linux become easier for people to use.
My company employs around 40 engineers where the median age is 35-40. I am by far the youngest engineer at 24. Perhaps this is because I work on kernel level code or perhaps the average New England SE is older than the average SE on the west coast.
This kinda sucks for Ron Howard. I know that he was the CEO of Access Beyond and somehow after either merging or being bought out by Hayes he ended up in control. He gave a talk at a WPI entrepreneurship class a couple of years ago and was very inspirational. I would expect to see him active in the remote access business in the future.
Slashdot Mirror
"the tax cuts of the past few years made it possible for me to stay home with my son".
All I can say is wow - I knew that republicans were delusional but this is pretty impressive. I personally used the money from the tax cuts to build a giant orbital mind control laser.
I started working on a mythTV box over the summer. Between getting all the hardware together, building linux, building mythTV and getting the confounded PVR card to work correctly I have not yet finished the project to my satisfaction.
I realized a couple of things with this project: a) I work all day on software and don't want to spend my evening hacking stuff together anymore b) It would have been cheaper to buy a tivo and c) miniITX hardware is very hard to use. The quality of the TV out on my Nehemiah is disappointing.
The basic premise behind the product was that when someone copied a file into the Medley drive the data pages were instantly "duplexed", meaning that a second copy of a page was made elsewhere in the network. If a node in the network went down causing only one other computer to have a copy of the page, Medley would automatically reduplex, causing the single copy of the page to be propagated to another node in the network. The basic promise of Medley was availability and fault tollerance on a P2P level.
Very cool concept but the product had a number of severe flaws that are probably obvious to the average slashdot reader.
The best thing I can say about working on Medley was that it was an opportunity right out of College to work with a number of incredibly excellent engineers on a complex and very interesting problem. Unfortunately, the idea was probably 5 to 10 years ahead of its time.
Yup... I did the same thing. Interesting tid bit about RCN. I live in Somerville MA (right next to Cambridge and Boston) and we can get both RCN and AT&T. Unfortunately, RCN is available for every house on my street except mine! When I call RCN, they say that the service is unavailable and the representative a) can't explain why it is unavailable for my house and b) can take no action to figure out why service is unavailable! Very bizarre.
I go back and read the Chronicles of Amber every year or so. For some reason, Zelazny's writing is completely engrossing and satisfying. It will be interesting to see if the TV version can capture the magic of the books as well as some of the fantastic imagery.
Hmm... I am pretty sure that the IBM researchers stated quite clearly that the NSA did not directly interfere with the DES development (in particular, the S-boxes).
Additionally, the IBM guys knew about differential cryptography but never published. If someone is really interested, they can check out one of the sources in the biography located here. I researched this issue a number of years ago and can't remember some of the details!
My guess is this is the first and last time you will see the words "Dwarven Cleric" anywhere in the ESPN archives.
"C# borrows much from Java, a debt which Microsoft has not acknowledged, and possibly never will."
:)
At the Microsoft PDC a bunch of the C# developers admitted quite openly that Java was a big influence in C# development and design. Of course, I am not saying that the MS Marketing engine will ever admit java's influence
Wow... lots of FUD and ranting so far in this thread.
:) :)
I also attended the PDC and I would like to make a couple of points.
1) There is nothing prohibiting a JAVA implementation on top of the MS Common Language Runtime. Since C# is so similar to java it fits nicely in the sphere of the CLR type system (I am not a java expert). Do you think the technical architects at MS don't want to support a Java implementation? Of course they do. It is the business side of MS (as well as the ongoing suit) that is limiting java support. At the runtime type talk the presenter mentioned that there "was not an announced implementation of java."
2) Cross langauge implementation inheritance. This means that I can right a base class in Python, extend it in C++, and then extend it again in C# (or any other of the 15 supported langauges). Of course, I have not seen this work nor has anyone examined the performance limitations. As far as I am concerned, this is a real innovation from MS (has anyone ever implementated anything like this before?). In many ways, it seems to bypass the issue of languages... use what you want because you can always interop with another language.
3) Prevalence of web services. It seems incredibly easy to expose objects on the web via SOAP and have them interoperate. Of course, we are still waiting to discover the limitations
4) Tools. Remember boys and girls, one of the ways Microsoft succeeds is making good tools for developers. Visual studio 7 seems really cool and looks like it will speed development of web apps. As long as developers like the tools they will stay with MS.
5). If you are not into web apps, XML, or B2B (biztalk) the conference probably was not that useful (except for the language stuff). If are working in the kernel, forget it
6) All of the "managed" languages (i.e. C#, VB, etc) always run in native code. They may be stored in MSIL and JIT compiled before execution, but there is no interpretation.
NT supports core dumps. Whenever you see that Dr. Watson message come up it is trapping the crash of the application and creating a debugging image. Of course, you can only use windbg do debug the crash :(
Hey people,
Read the subject. The whole point of using the Win32 platform at this stage in the game is the massive number of developer tools that Microsoft has been building for the last 15 years. Imaging the Microsoft environment as a pyramid: VB, ASP, ADO on top, COM, MTS, active directory, etc in the middle, and the Win32 API at the base. Of course this is grossly simplified but it exemplifies what is unique to the Windows development environment.
Case in Point:
1) The Win32 API is similar to Linux system calls; create files, threads, events, mutexes, etc. While you can argue that there are major architectural differences, they both provide the same level of support to the developer.
2) COM, MTS. Now the differences start to show. Linux does not have a component model that is widely integrated or used across multiple projects. Of course, newer works like GNOME are very component driven and may end up driving the defacto component model for Linux. However, on Win32 almost anything can be done with COM using a bit of VB script (can you say Melissa virus?). MIS people can tie together a bunch of different packages using COM. In Linux you have to resort to a wide array of command line tools that have different syntax, different configuration file formats, etc. MTS provides easy to write transaction support that is almost too easy to use.
3) VB, ASP. For anybody who has used these tools they are probably very familiar with their limitations. Is VB or ASP superior to other high level scripting languages? NO!! However, VB & ASP can access thousands of objects. You can create a fairly sophisticated UI in VB in a couple of hours. If you want a new control for your UI chances are someone has already written it.
The moral of the story: The application developer has a whole suite of tools they can use to rapidly develop high level apps. It may be a stinking pile of crap but for the most part it works
IMO, the java technologies are still the Windows killer for development internet apps. JSP and EJB sounds like it may be much better (and more fun to develop) than using VB and COM.
I have not heard of anyone who has developed a complex project on Windows AND used MSVC as the build environment. We use gmake, bash, perl, etc. to do the builds.
hmm...
Don't forget Diffie-Hellman(sp?) key Exchange, DES, etc.
These crypto algorithms pretty much made secure e-commerce of the 90's possible.
Hey Plasmoid,
I did a little work in this area in school as well. I agree with an earlier poster that the resources are out there and you should draw your own conclusions. The paper I wrote focused on the influence of the NSA with the development of DES and the growth of the nascent crypto community. I think I can help you by giving you a bibliography:
Bamford, James. The Puzzle Palace. Penguin Books Ltd., Middlesex England. 1983.
Brankstand, D.K. et al. "Report on the Workshop on Cryptography in Support of Computer Security." NBSIR 77-1291, National Bureau of Standards, Sep 21-22, 1976, September 1977.
Coppersmith, D. "The Data Encryption Standard (DES) and its strength against attacks." IBM Journal of Research and Development. V. 38, N. 3. May 1994. 243-250.
Denning, Peter J. "Government Classification of Private Ideas." Communications of the ACM. March 1981. 105.
"Encryption Technology, Privacy, and National Security." Technology Review. August September 1986. [get author and page number]
Foerstel, Herbert N. Secret Science: Federal Control of American Science and Technology. Praeger Publishers, Westport CT. 1993.
"The Government's Classification of Private Ideas". Hearings, 96th Congress, February 28, March 21, August 1980. (Washington, DC: U.S. GPO, 1981), 271.
Kinnucan, Paul. "Data Encryption Gurus: Tuchman and Meyer." Cryptologia. V.2 N 4. October 1978. 371-382.
Kolata, Gina Bari. "Cryptography: A New Clash Between Academic Freedom and National Security". Science. August 29th, 1980. 995-996.
Massey, J.L. "An Introduction to Contemporary Cryptology." Proceedings of the IEEE. V. 76, N. 5. May 1988. 533-549.
Schneier, Bruce. Applied Cryptography. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York, New York. 1996.
Shapley, Deborah and Kolata, Gina Bari. "Cryptology: Scientists Puzzle over Threat to Open Research, Publication." Science. September 30, 1977. 1345-46.
Shaker, Richard. "The Agency that came in from the Cold: exceprts from an address at the Joint Mathematics Meeting in Baltimore on January 8, 1992." Notices of the American Mathematical Society. V. 39, N. 5. May 1, 1992. 408-411.
U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. "Unclassified Summary: Involvement of the NSA in the development of the Data Encryption Standard." Cryptologia. October 1978, pp 387-389.
hmmm...
...
I am originally from Pittsburgh... graduated from HS in 1993. I went to school in Massachusetts at WPI (CMU was a
little too close to home). I worked in Pittsburgh for the first two summers during college in local software
companies. I now work and live near Boston. Here are a few positive and negative things about Pittsburgh:
Negatives:
* small high tech industry. At least in the software industry (the only industry I am proficient to write about)
Pittsburgh does not have many places to work. The companies that do exist usually are very specialized or cater to
the older industrial Pittsburgh roots.
* lack of core educational institutions. CMU should be to Pittsburgh what MIT is to Cambridge and Stanford is to
Silicon Valley. However, most of the students from CMU don't seem to stay in Pittsburgh but instead seem to go
other high tech hubs. The companies that have come out of CMU and have stayed in Pittsburgh have been of
questionable success (FORE for example). Lycos, CMU's most recent successful spin-off, moved out of the City to
Waltham MA.
* lack of venture capital. The Pittsburgh banks have historically been very stingy about giving out VC money. This
may be changing.
* weather. If you don't like overcast weather, don't move to Pittsburgh or Seattle or Vancouver or
* blue color climate: lets face it, you are not going to meet as many highly educated people in Pittsburgh as you
are in Boston or the bay area. However, Pittsburghers are usually not as snobby or stuck up.
Positives:
* Real Estate. A lot cheaper than Boston or the Bay Area
* Culture. Pittsburgh has the same amount of cultural activities (or more) than Boston IMO. Pittsburgh has a great
symphony, a great opera and ballet, a new public theatre building, is in the process of building new stadiums for
the Pirates and Steelers, and a bunch of great clubs in the strip. the Carnegie museum complex kicks the pants off
the MFA.
* Traffic. I used to think traffic was bad on the Parkway but after driving Route 128 Pittsburgh looks pretty
good.
* Quality of life. I have this sneaking suspicion that the quality of life in Pittsburgh is higher than Boston. If
I were looking to start a family I might seriously think about moving back to Pittsburgh.
I appreciate a good philosophical discussion as much as any well educated (or not so well educated) person. However, there is no need to write in such a high style when it does not add any content. Sure, fancy phrases like "That knowledge engine rearranged data into forms that coupled effortlessly with my perceptual apparatus" are a little more appealing that "The graphical web browser interface was WAY cool", but it sounds pompous and full of a lot of hot air. The problem with Thiemes and Katz is that they don't connect to the Slashdot reader who sees computers in a more down to earth perspective.
And frankly, anyone who connects more with the virtual world than the "real" world scares me. I mean, get out a lithe! Take a walk, go hiking, go to a museum, etc.
Donating Hardware and providing monetary support are all important issues to the OSS community. However, another issue brought to light by this article is the high cost of membership of standard's organization. Essentially, the only organizations that will pony up the cash for Irda membership are large companies like Microsoft, HP, Compaq, etc. The $1500 fee sounds like it is used not only to cover costs, but to make it hard for small organizations or individuals to participate in standards development. I think OSS advocates inside IRda supporting lower membership fees or a grass roots effort to pressure IRda is needed , before someone creates a bureaucratic OSS charity organization.
I've been using linux for 6 or 7 years now and I have rarely done what I consider hacking.
IMO, these are traditionally valid hacks:
Wvdail (available here) solved all my ppp problems. When my ISP went from Ascend to Bay Networks hardware, I couldn't figure out for the life of me why my ppp script stopped working. wvdial generated a script that works with my ISP and configured ppp & my modem correctly.
BTW, I am not some linux newbie who doesn't know how to write scripts, configure software, etc. However, ppp under linux can be MUCH harder to configure than W95/98/NT. Tools like wvdial help linux become easier for people to use.
My company employs around 40 engineers where the median age is 35-40. I am by far the youngest engineer at 24. Perhaps this is because I work on kernel level code or perhaps the average New England SE is older than the average SE on the west coast.
This kinda sucks for Ron Howard. I know that he was the CEO of Access Beyond and somehow after either merging or being bought out by Hayes he ended up in control.
He gave a talk at a WPI entrepreneurship class a couple of years ago and was very inspirational. I would expect to see him active in the remote access business in the future.