Common Lisp is my favorite language. I learned it a very long time ago. It was a struggle at first, but once I understood The Lisp Way Of Doing Things there was no turning back.
I'm waiting for the same epiphany with Erlang, but so far it's eluded me.
I very much doubt that C++11 heralds any kind of new interest in native code. Rather, native code in general has been getting more attention recently and C++11 just happened to be finalized around the same time. (Disclaimer: C++ is my second-favorite language. I want it to be liked and used, but I'm realistic.)
Nearly off-topic in the article is this gem of a paragraph:
But the most important thing to remember is to always choose the right tool for the job. No one wants to go back to the bad old days of wrangling text data for the Web using CGI scripts written in C. On the other hand, shoehorning every application into the same interpreted language or managed code environment, irrespective of the task at hand, isn't the right way to go, either.
This is most certainly not news, but I find it refreshing to see the blindingly obvious repeated again. IT shops that "standardize" on one language (or framework, even) are simply zapping themselves with low-voltage-yet-eventually-lethal tasers. Managers, take note. Again.
Can [Comet Elenin] influence us from where it is, or where it will be in the future? Can this celestial object cause shifting of the tides or even tectonic plates here on Earth?
... comets are not the most densely-packed objects out there. They usually have the density of something akin to loosely packed icy dirt. "So you've got a modest-sized icy dirtball that is getting no closer than 35 million kilometers (about 22 million miles)," said [Don Yeomans, a scientist at NASA JPL]. "It will have an immeasurably miniscule influence on our planet. By comparison, my subcompact automobile exerts a greater influence on the ocean's tides than comet Elenin ever will.
Oh, those wacky people at JPL. Always finding new ways to make Joe Average understand science.
Fluidinfo is a database of metadata. But since metadata is really just data, Fluidinfo is really a database of data. Which is to say, it's a database. But there's a twist. You can make new "objects" at will. Kind of like most other databases, actually. But with even more of a twist, anyone can do that! Like what happens when you forget to secure your firewall. Then the excitement starts: You can add arbitrary key/value data -- metadata! -- to the object! Like a JOIN with another SQL table but with different semantics. But since the actual usage of the key/value pairs is not governed, you will have to collaborate with other users and applications through some external channel. The shared keys could be coordinated in an external database, for example.
Sarcasm aside, I'm sure this project is really cool and stuff, but the cynic in me thinks otherwise.
So: Are you twice as productive as two average 25 year olds?
By the time any decent-sized project ends, why yes, he is probably twice as productive. He has also created half as many problems for everyone else, gone down dead-end paths much less often, and is the one person the QA department likes.
I wish I had mod points. I've been writing software for over 30 years and completely understand where Number6.2 is coming from. Plus, I'm in kind of the same boat, facing many of the same decisions. I opted to jump to mobile development, which is new/great/fun, but the company I'm working for is getting cold feet. Makes one wonder about the future.
Google can -- and probably should -- know who each user is. Targeted advertising can still be preserved. What Google needs to do is allow a user to represent herself anonymously to the rest of the Google+ user base.
With these mobile car apps, the phone connects to a server that then sends secret numerical keys to the car in order to authenticate itself, but the iSec researchers figured out ways to get around this by looking at the messages sent between the server and the car over the mobile network, Bailey said in an interview. "We reverse-engineer the protocol and then we build our own tools to use that protocol to contact that system," he said.
Without knowing the details, this sounds a lot like a replay attack. Or possibly a version of one of the attacks used against ATMs, back when ATMs were new and relatively unguarded. You could tap into an ATM line and basically send commands like, "eject five $20 bills" over and over again, without too much trouble.
I have a 2010 Camaro SS, which has the older version of the OnStar firmware that is not compatible with their mobile app. Now I'm relatively happy about that. One less attack vector to worry about.
I skimmed the paper. These guys seem to be testing a universe where only two "opinions" exist to choose from. I don't know about you, but those types of scenarios don't exist in my world. Reality is always more complicated than that.
While oftentimes there is use in examining a simplified version of something, this doesn't appear to be one of those times.
When my doorbell rings and the Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons are on the doorstop, I tell them "No, thanks."
When the TSA offers to restore a small bit of the freedom I used to have anyway, but only after forcing me to give up something else, I say, "No, thanks, you intrusive motherfucking bastards."
You don't need a list of device IDs for enterprise distribution. An enterprise-level development account, with the appropriate distribution provisioning, is sufficient.
Using OTA enterprise distribution, I set up something similar for the place I work. An added benefit is that our in-house apps automatically check for updates when they're launched and prompt to update themselves if necessary. As far as I can tell, this "private-label app store" thing is pure media hype. As others have said, this is simply enterprise distribution, not distribution for the general public.
All that yammering about privacy that can't be provided by Google+ but no actual references. Here is the full excerpt from TFA:
"Google Plus is clearly designed to give people better control over their privacy with respect to their family, co-workers and friends, [but] there are other types of privacy that it simply can't provide. If you want a communications tool where the information you're sharing can't be read by Google, or by governments or lawyers in western countries, Google Plus isn't the service to use. Nobody has succeeded in building a social network that can offer those kinds of privacy protections yet," [Peter Eckersley] said.
With that clarified: I thought that some of the distributed social networking projects offered exactly that (superb privacy capabilities). Regardless, Google+ seems to be a step in the right direction. Maybe not what everyone wants or needs, but a decent start.
While I utterly agree with your statements (and I've been programming for almost 35 years) the reality is that management usually gives coders virtually no time to clean things up. There is constant pressure to move on to the next task or project, with little thought to hardening or refactoring something that already seems to "work."
Then, you wind up with the code you see around you and someone decides to write a book about how to "fix it."
If they get maps non-Elite players can't get, it's a major no-go indeed.
I think that depends on the gamer. My step son, who is squarely within CoD's target audience at the age of 16, will probably not care about the Elite subscription unless the majority of his friends subscribe. Assuming the subscribers won't be able to lord it over the non-subscribers within the same game via better weaponry or whatever, that is.
Think about this from his point of view, as a current CoD player: MW3 will give him new maps, better graphics, different guns, etc. to play with as compared to what he's playing with now. All this by making a one-time purchase and without an Elite subscription. I'd wager that his current friends will all upgrade to MW3, without the subscription. They'll all see new stuff in the base game and be relatively happy (assuming the game itself doesn't suck, of course). If, however, my step son's friends start subscribing to Elite and playing on maps he can't get to at home, he'll feel the need to subscribe. It's a critical mass or chicken-and-egg problem.
Einhorn's Greenlight Capital hedge fund has been a recent buyer of Microsoft stock, which at under 10 times expected earnings is regarded by many as undervalued.
So, this guy's company buys a bunch of Microsoft stock, then utters a (probably popular) opinion that the head of Microsoft should resign. Is Einhorn just pissed that the stock hasn't moved, or is he trying to manipulate the price through the media?
You want to see photos of nerds? You're crazy! Better leave them uu or base64 encoded.
There's way too much information to decode.... You get used to it, though. Your brain does the translating. I don't even see the encoding. All I see is coder, geek, fanboy. Hey, uh, you want a drink?
According to the paper, Fabric is an extension of Jif:
Jif is a security-typed programming language that extends Java with support for information flow control and access control, enforced at both compile time and run time.
Fabric adds distributed programming and transactions.
Pretty cool stuff, even if it doesn't work everywhere and under all circumstances right now. It would be interesting to see how this kind of design matures.
The microchip amplifies signals, called neural action potentials, produced by the neurons in one part of the brain and uses an algorithm to separate these signals — brain spike activity — from noise and other artifacts.
In the context of the brain -- which operates in a manner we're still trying to figure out -- please define "noise" and "other artifacts."
This little gizmo could be throwing away the parity bits used to keep everything coherent.
If you include taxes and whatnot, I pay only slightly less than that now for a dedicated T1 with a four-hour downtime SLA. I'd trade the SLA for those kinds of speeds.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm curious. What's your favorite?
Common Lisp is my favorite language. I learned it a very long time ago. It was a struggle at first, but once I understood The Lisp Way Of Doing Things there was no turning back.
I'm waiting for the same epiphany with Erlang, but so far it's eluded me.
I very much doubt that C++11 heralds any kind of new interest in native code. Rather, native code in general has been getting more attention recently and C++11 just happened to be finalized around the same time. (Disclaimer: C++ is my second-favorite language. I want it to be liked and used, but I'm realistic.)
Nearly off-topic in the article is this gem of a paragraph:
This is most certainly not news, but I find it refreshing to see the blindingly obvious repeated again. IT shops that "standardize" on one language (or framework, even) are simply zapping themselves with low-voltage-yet-eventually-lethal tasers. Managers, take note. Again.
Great answer (emphasis mine):
Can [Comet Elenin] influence us from where it is, or where it will be in the future? Can this celestial object cause shifting of the tides or even tectonic plates here on Earth?
Oh, those wacky people at JPL. Always finding new ways to make Joe Average understand science.
Fluidinfo is a database of metadata. But since metadata is really just data, Fluidinfo is really a database of data. Which is to say, it's a database. But there's a twist. You can make new "objects" at will. Kind of like most other databases, actually. But with even more of a twist, anyone can do that! Like what happens when you forget to secure your firewall. Then the excitement starts: You can add arbitrary key/value data -- metadata! -- to the object! Like a JOIN with another SQL table but with different semantics. But since the actual usage of the key/value pairs is not governed, you will have to collaborate with other users and applications through some external channel. The shared keys could be coordinated in an external database, for example.
Sarcasm aside, I'm sure this project is really cool and stuff, but the cynic in me thinks otherwise.
So: Are you twice as productive as two average 25 year olds?
By the time any decent-sized project ends, why yes, he is probably twice as productive. He has also created half as many problems for everyone else, gone down dead-end paths much less often, and is the one person the QA department likes.
I wish I had mod points. I've been writing software for over 30 years and completely understand where Number6.2 is coming from. Plus, I'm in kind of the same boat, facing many of the same decisions. I opted to jump to mobile development, which is new/great/fun, but the company I'm working for is getting cold feet. Makes one wonder about the future.
For those of you who don't RTFA -- you do exist, right? -- here are the "broader reasons:"
Mind boggling, I know. Even more so when you consider than an entire article was written around those three points.
Google can -- and probably should -- know who each user is. Targeted advertising can still be preserved. What Google needs to do is allow a user to represent herself anonymously to the rest of the Google+ user base.
I thought the archaeologist found Phssthpok, a Pak Protector. That would have been news.
From TFA:
Without knowing the details, this sounds a lot like a replay attack. Or possibly a version of one of the attacks used against ATMs, back when ATMs were new and relatively unguarded. You could tap into an ATM line and basically send commands like, "eject five $20 bills" over and over again, without too much trouble.
I have a 2010 Camaro SS, which has the older version of the OnStar firmware that is not compatible with their mobile app. Now I'm relatively happy about that. One less attack vector to worry about.
I skimmed the paper. These guys seem to be testing a universe where only two "opinions" exist to choose from. I don't know about you, but those types of scenarios don't exist in my world. Reality is always more complicated than that.
While oftentimes there is use in examining a simplified version of something, this doesn't appear to be one of those times.
The phrase that leaps to mind is "like herding cats".
In the case of LulzSec, it would be more like herding LOLCats. Probably this one, specifically.
When my doorbell rings and the Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons are on the doorstop, I tell them "No, thanks."
When the TSA offers to restore a small bit of the freedom I used to have anyway, but only after forcing me to give up something else, I say, "No, thanks, you intrusive motherfucking bastards."
Mom did try to raise a polite child, you know.
You don't need a list of device IDs for enterprise distribution. An enterprise-level development account, with the appropriate distribution provisioning, is sufficient.
Using OTA enterprise distribution, I set up something similar for the place I work. An added benefit is that our in-house apps automatically check for updates when they're launched and prompt to update themselves if necessary. As far as I can tell, this "private-label app store" thing is pure media hype. As others have said, this is simply enterprise distribution, not distribution for the general public.
All that yammering about privacy that can't be provided by Google+ but no actual references. Here is the full excerpt from TFA:
With that clarified: I thought that some of the distributed social networking projects offered exactly that (superb privacy capabilities). Regardless, Google+ seems to be a step in the right direction. Maybe not what everyone wants or needs, but a decent start.
While I utterly agree with your statements (and I've been programming for almost 35 years) the reality is that management usually gives coders virtually no time to clean things up. There is constant pressure to move on to the next task or project, with little thought to hardening or refactoring something that already seems to "work."
Then, you wind up with the code you see around you and someone decides to write a book about how to "fix it."
If they get maps non-Elite players can't get, it's a major no-go indeed.
I think that depends on the gamer. My step son, who is squarely within CoD's target audience at the age of 16, will probably not care about the Elite subscription unless the majority of his friends subscribe. Assuming the subscribers won't be able to lord it over the non-subscribers within the same game via better weaponry or whatever, that is.
Think about this from his point of view, as a current CoD player: MW3 will give him new maps, better graphics, different guns, etc. to play with as compared to what he's playing with now. All this by making a one-time purchase and without an Elite subscription. I'd wager that his current friends will all upgrade to MW3, without the subscription. They'll all see new stuff in the base game and be relatively happy (assuming the game itself doesn't suck, of course). If, however, my step son's friends start subscribing to Elite and playing on maps he can't get to at home, he'll feel the need to subscribe. It's a critical mass or chicken-and-egg problem.
From TFA (emphasis mine):
So, this guy's company buys a bunch of Microsoft stock, then utters a (probably popular) opinion that the head of Microsoft should resign. Is Einhorn just pissed that the stock hasn't moved, or is he trying to manipulate the price through the media?
Just think of it as an opportunity for Darwinism.
Slated for the next four years are ....
Don't count your weasels before they pop, dink.
-- The Tick
The Feds should allow us to sign up for a few more lists:
We could all then, of course, profit!
You want to see photos of nerds? You're crazy! Better leave them uu or base64 encoded.
There's way too much information to decode .... You get used to it, though. Your brain does the translating. I don't even see the encoding. All I see is coder, geek, fanboy. Hey, uh, you want a drink?
According to the paper, Fabric is an extension of Jif:
Fabric adds distributed programming and transactions.
Pretty cool stuff, even if it doesn't work everywhere and under all circumstances right now. It would be interesting to see how this kind of design matures.
In the context of the brain -- which operates in a manner we're still trying to figure out -- please define "noise" and "other artifacts."
This little gizmo could be throwing away the parity bits used to keep everything coherent.
If you include taxes and whatnot, I pay only slightly less than that now for a dedicated T1 with a four-hour downtime SLA. I'd trade the SLA for those kinds of speeds.
In 2006, four years ago, did Gartner predict the success of the Android operating system in the mobile market? No?
I didn't think so. No reason to start believing them now, either.