I had all but retired Doom when I found that thing. I struggled through the instructions and wandered around the first level looking for the source of the creepy noises. Couldn't find them.
Second level. Wandered around a bit, went down some stairs and found some funky green stuff. All of a sudden something attacks and I fell outta my chair cause it scared me so bad.
I wasn't used to going through a 1 1/2 levels with nothing to fight. The guy that did that was genius in pacing it for maximum scare effect. I didn't play anything as good in that genre until Half-Life.
There are quite a few countries (mostly in the Middle East) where most or all of the internet traffic runs through the government's censor/monitor servers that make CyberPatrol look like freedom. And when they come knocking on your door cause they don't like what you are posting they don't file injunctions, they execute you.
Take a look at this page. You'll see what has to be done to get a secure and free internet connection. Now imagine adding this DNS hack to the arsenel. Until the shortminded people monitoring you catch on, you don't have to worry about losing the open port you've been using and can spend more time covering your tracks and communicating your ideas to the free world (or downloading hot Arabian pr0n).
The issues with 16 bit color have long been known, I've seen it discussed on and personally experimented a little bit at least a year ago and maybe two. It boils down to what is supposed to be the same color for different components of a page isn't always the same color. Techniques for dealing with it for the 'pixel perfect' crowd have already been discussed.
Something they didn't really touch on is the fact that different OS, Browsers, Video Card Drivers and hardware will give different results. Case in point, a buddy of mine made a nice grey gradient for the background on his webpage. Easy on the eyes at 24bit. Bad banding on my old Matrox card at 16bit. We checked it on an old Diamond Stealth card at 16bit and it looked horrible with uneven bands with shades of green and purple in them.
Of course, it all comes down to what half of the replies to this article have said, the web is not print publishing, you cannot have pixel perfect designs for 100% of the audience. Websites that are built for standards compliance and accessibility first and eye candy second will always be more robust in face of alternative browsers and browsing platforms.
Of course, you gotta mention it in context, he goes on to compliment Linus and acknowledge their differences of opinion based on their different abilities and backgrounds. A good read, the interesting part is about 2/3 of the way down that page.
I've benefitted greatly from this book also. I've since recognized some of the authors posting articles and information to the various PHP tutorial sites, indicating that they are aware and involved in the community surrounding PHP.
Table of Contents
I. Introduction
1. About this book
2. Downloading, installing and configuring
3. Programming in a Web Environment
II. The Language
4. Variable and data types.
5. Operators
6. Expressions and statements
7. Functions
8. Arrays
9. Objects and OOP
10. String manipulation and regular expressions
III. Advanced PHP
11. Non-relational databases
12. SQL DBMS engines
13. Using LDAP
14. Serving XML documents
15. Graphic content creation
16. PHP connectivity
17. Sending E-mail
18. Cookies
19. Error handling and debugging
20. Security issues
21. Magic with quotes
22. Templates
IV. Sample Applications
23. A shopping cart application (Databases, ookies)
24. Phorum Case Study (Security)
25. E-mail Case Study (E-mail)
26. Metalloprotein Case Study (Databases)
VI. Appendix
PHP4/Zend
Function Reference
As you can see, this book predated PHP4/Zend, but the material still very much applies. PHP4 didn't change the core language very much at all and goodies like the Zend compiler only extend the capabilities, not really change them.
I wondered for a while "why buy a book when there is so much good stuff on the web". Aside from the obvious, like being able to read while sitting on the porcelain throne and having a dead tree reference handy at the computer, having a well written book like this gives you most of the matierial you need in one spot. It cuts down on rummaging through your bookmarks, going from one PHP site to the next searching for that article you read two months ago.
So, if you get the chance, go down to the local bookstore and peruse all these books and take a look to see which might be most useful to you. The first one mentioned in the review (Web Application Development with PHP 4.0) sounds pretty good, at least worth a look.
I refer you to a recent Ask Slashdot that posed the question, English Language And Its Effect On Programming?
The consensus I got from the discussion (YMMV) was that programming was a universal concept, that even though the labels may differ, the language constructs themselves remain the same.
Given that, how long does it take to learn those labels, even if they are in a different language.
IMO, the language barrier to the programming languages themselves is only a minor speedbump. When you start to consider the documentation and manuals, though, it becomes a larger obstacle. But you cannot write off the value of a like minded community, Linux being a formost example. Who needs manuals when you can ask your buddy or hop on IRC and get answers?
The only other obstacle for non-English speakers is the technology that is widely available. But many countries are closing the gap at a surprising pace.
How long before The Seminal Programming text for the language / paradigm of your choice is in a language you don't speak and you have to rely on babelfish until someone decides to translate it?
OK, by benchmarking by the electrical specs we find out which type of hardware COULD be faster, but really, we're benchmarking because we're interested in real-world performance. We're interested in the quirky behaviour the rest of the hardware and the operating system introduces. Thats why application based benchmarks gain some degree of respect in benchmarks such as SPEC or TPC.
Obviously, the most useful benchmarks would then provide detailed information on the entire configuration, possibly contrasting various configurations to point out slight differences that arise because of hardware, operating system and the like.
In the case you mention, I'd be extremely interested in knowing how DDR and Rambus work with different operating systems or different motherboards. And I'd be interested in seeing the differences with different types of applications. Most useful would be details on WHY the differences arise. Of course, that brings us full circle, back to the hardware details that you are interested in.
and they are trying to stem the tide from the very beginning.
They see that the Music Industry acted too little too late and they don't want that to happen to them. Sure, now you can't find a download, but over the next few years when fiber starts arriving curbside and into the house, hundreds of MBs seems small. They realize its inevitable and see the need to stop it before its too late. And they'll use all their firepower to do so. Problem is, it already is too late.
... since GnuPG suupports the version 4 keys that are vulnerable, it supports the continued use of software that is vulnerable. I got the strong impression from the conclusion of the article that PGP Classic (2.6.x) was the only reccomended solution to use.
I know I'm going to get that baby back on my machines ASAP. Of course, I've got a feeling lots of things are going to change in another month with the patent expiration on RSA and with this discovery. But until there is a clear solution, PGP Classic works as good as ever for me.
Oh, and for you command line whimps, there are assorted PGP shells that make the entire process of key management and message signing and encryption as pointy and clicky as the current PGP for windows.
The worst was the retired electrical engineer that took a job at RS. I came in and picked out an odd assortment of parts for a couple of different projects and he wanted to interrogate me as to why I was buying each and every part. And given a vague explanation of the various projects, he needed to tell me why what I was trying to do wasn't going to work. Now obviously he was a knowledgeable guy (a general exception for most RS employees) and was trying to be helpful but I don't go shopping to explain myself. And I neither need nor want the same level of customer care that someone buying overpriced CD players needs.
I've gotta echo the sentiments of others who've already posted and said this is a stupid question for Ask Slashdot. Predictably, you've received a bunch of wrong answers from ill-informed people.
Historically intersting is this commentary on this very topic from John Carmack from December 1996. This article at Gamecenter rehashes Carmack's comments and adds some other game programmer's comments.
Another spoon-fed link will be GameDev.net's 3D API forum, where there is a
discussion on this very topic between people who actually use the APIs in question.
Could there be GPL violations here?
on
Gnutella Vs. SPAM
·
· Score: 2
Cause most of the gnutella clients are gpl'd, right? And they obviously wrote a version with the search stuff modified. So what are the chances that whatever they are selling is just modified GPL software. I mean, anyone that would generate spam would probably have no problems with the GPL, right?
Unless, of course, they are also doing this to point out some of the problems with the distributed system. Helluva way to point them out though.
hey, how about providing a cache server that convieniently has these sites in memory? Web cache's apparantly don't have the legal issues that mirroring a site, I can access all kinds of anonymizing proxies.
Hey, there is a business plan here, slashcache.org or something of the sort... People would just have to set their browser proxy settings. And if was fast enough, they wouldn't change them back. So now you'd have to proxy all sorts of interesting stuff to the technical minded opensource crowd along with the hot grits freaks.
IE seems to use its dlls smarter than Netscape. First of all, it doesn't load a mailer/newsreader/page composer when it loads. Second, some of the more esoteric features are loaded in additional dlls only when needed.
Note I'm just going from memory here so this could all be slightly off, but I do remember something about this.
I feel alot better about warning people about trying out this exploit. They didn't make it too obvious that not only were you confirming it works on your configuration, but putting yourself on a list of computers to exploit. Furthermore, their default choice of C:\Program Files\ is a very vulnerable directory for most Windows users. Sure, it effectively demonstrates the problem but unsuspecting idiots who have most of their apps and data under that tree could be screwed.
They publish a list of people who are trying it out.
So right now I'm surfing through some dude's C:\Program Files\. I was considering ganking his ICQ database file but he must have shut it down.
I'm glad I put my temp directory as the directory to serve. C:\Program Files\ just has too much, imagine the fun you could have with a bunch of ICQ and email archives.
I've been loosly following SVG for the past year or so. It does have great promise as an open solution to vector graphics.
First of all, authoring programs all have SVG support NOW. So the chicken and egg problem is solved. Second, many of the other advantages have already been pointed out - open format, hand editable, XML and other stuff.
Since its main competition is Flash, lets compare. XML is easily indexable by search engines, although some may have to make changes to do so. Flash doesn't, although some of the changes in Flash 5 seem to make it easier to integrate with HTML content. Flash has only just added decent scripting support with version 5, so I feel they are neck and neck in that category. Flash does have the advantage of being widely adopted. However, this isn't quite the advantage that one may think it is. I bet a good percentage of the Flash support is v3, with no support for any of the later versions. Furthermore, without an easy mechanism for upgrading these are going to stay that way, negating some of the advantages the newer Flash offers. Still, it is way ahead in this area.
Someone from the print design field was looking forward to SVG because it afforded them the nearly seamless transition from the world they are in to the web. We'll all argue that the web is not a brochure, but there are always going to be those that see it that way. Fortunatley, instead of messy HTML we can look forward to SVG sites only, but at least Lynx could be able to get the textual content out of the page.
Um, I could keep going, but others have covered some other pros and cons. SVG has some pretty good momentum behind it and it will be a useful addition to the web. You should check it out, if nothing else IBMs Developer Works has a java viewer that should work across most platforms, if you're running windows there are all kinds of programs (including free as in beer) that offer some kind of SVG support.
OK, no matter how many times I tried to fix it I couldn't submit a fixed version with that link tag properly fixed. Either there is something wrong with our proxy or this browser (being IE, more than likely) or some new funk in the slashcode.
How about a web based interface to a particular news server? See, sometimes I'm behind a proxy and only have web access, but I'd like to connect to certain nntp servers that are carrying specialized topics (news.php.net and forums.macromedia.com are two examples). I have looked and couldn't find anything, either it isn't really out there or I was using the completely wrong way to search.
There was a PHP portal thing that kind of included the feature as an afterthought but I didn't get it working very good. Maybe I should re-evaluate that or figure out the code and fix it myself.
But then again, IANAKD (I am not a KDE developer).
I parsed that as I Am Naked.
Re:Does spam actually work?
on
MAPS vs. ORBS
·
· Score: 1
Well, yeah, every time I saw an 800 number I'd definately call it. I'd wind my way through the automated menus (theres no way they'd put a live human on the other end of that number) and make animal noises on their voice mail.
Then I got clever and started leaving other spam 800 numbers as my number. So hopefully they would waste their time calling each other.
See, I figured this was one way to hurt them because an 800 number costs someone a little bit of money somewhere.
Slashdot Mirror
Second level. Wandered around a bit, went down some stairs and found some funky green stuff. All of a sudden something attacks and I fell outta my chair cause it scared me so bad.
I wasn't used to going through a 1 1/2 levels with nothing to fight. The guy that did that was genius in pacing it for maximum scare effect. I didn't play anything as good in that genre until Half-Life.
Take a look at this page. You'll see what has to be done to get a secure and free internet connection. Now imagine adding this DNS hack to the arsenel. Until the shortminded people monitoring you catch on, you don't have to worry about losing the open port you've been using and can spend more time covering your tracks and communicating your ideas to the free world (or downloading hot Arabian pr0n).
So it does have a use. And it is a nift hack.
Something they didn't really touch on is the fact that different OS, Browsers, Video Card Drivers and hardware will give different results. Case in point, a buddy of mine made a nice grey gradient for the background on his webpage. Easy on the eyes at 24bit. Bad banding on my old Matrox card at 16bit. We checked it on an old Diamond Stealth card at 16bit and it looked horrible with uneven bands with shades of green and purple in them.
Of course, it all comes down to what half of the replies to this article have said, the web is not print publishing, you cannot have pixel perfect designs for 100% of the audience. Websites that are built for standards compliance and accessibility first and eye candy second will always be more robust in face of alternative browsers and browsing platforms.
Of course, you gotta mention it in context, he goes on to compliment Linus and acknowledge their differences of opinion based on their different abilities and backgrounds. A good read, the interesting part is about 2/3 of the way down that page.
Table of Contents
I. Introduction 1. About this book 2. Downloading, installing and configuring 3. Programming in a Web Environment II. The Language 4. Variable and data types. 5. Operators 6. Expressions and statements 7. Functions 8. Arrays 9. Objects and OOP 10. String manipulation and regular expressions III. Advanced PHP 11. Non-relational databases 12. SQL DBMS engines 13. Using LDAP 14. Serving XML documents 15. Graphic content creation 16. PHP connectivity 17. Sending E-mail 18. Cookies 19. Error handling and debugging 20. Security issues 21. Magic with quotes 22. Templates IV. Sample Applications 23. A shopping cart application (Databases, ookies) 24. Phorum Case Study (Security) 25. E-mail Case Study (E-mail) 26. Metalloprotein Case Study (Databases) VI. Appendix PHP4/Zend Function Reference
As you can see, this book predated PHP4/Zend, but the material still very much applies. PHP4 didn't change the core language very much at all and goodies like the Zend compiler only extend the capabilities, not really change them.
I wondered for a while "why buy a book when there is so much good stuff on the web". Aside from the obvious, like being able to read while sitting on the porcelain throne and having a dead tree reference handy at the computer, having a well written book like this gives you most of the matierial you need in one spot. It cuts down on rummaging through your bookmarks, going from one PHP site to the next searching for that article you read two months ago.
So, if you get the chance, go down to the local bookstore and peruse all these books and take a look to see which might be most useful to you. The first one mentioned in the review (Web Application Development with PHP 4.0) sounds pretty good, at least worth a look.
And I thought I was special becuase no one else caught it. I just didn't read it close enough.
Where can I get one of these? I thought I was lucky if all three pipelines issued at once in my processor...
The consensus I got from the discussion (YMMV) was that programming was a universal concept, that even though the labels may differ, the language constructs themselves remain the same.
Given that, how long does it take to learn those labels, even if they are in a different language.
IMO, the language barrier to the programming languages themselves is only a minor speedbump. When you start to consider the documentation and manuals, though, it becomes a larger obstacle. But you cannot write off the value of a like minded community, Linux being a formost example. Who needs manuals when you can ask your buddy or hop on IRC and get answers?
The only other obstacle for non-English speakers is the technology that is widely available. But many countries are closing the gap at a surprising pace.
How long before The Seminal Programming text for the language / paradigm of your choice is in a language you don't speak and you have to rely on babelfish until someone decides to translate it?
Obviously, the most useful benchmarks would then provide detailed information on the entire configuration, possibly contrasting various configurations to point out slight differences that arise because of hardware, operating system and the like.
In the case you mention, I'd be extremely interested in knowing how DDR and Rambus work with different operating systems or different motherboards. And I'd be interested in seeing the differences with different types of applications. Most useful would be details on WHY the differences arise. Of course, that brings us full circle, back to the hardware details that you are interested in.
They see that the Music Industry acted too little too late and they don't want that to happen to them. Sure, now you can't find a download, but over the next few years when fiber starts arriving curbside and into the house, hundreds of MBs seems small. They realize its inevitable and see the need to stop it before its too late. And they'll use all their firepower to do so. Problem is, it already is too late.
I know I'm going to get that baby back on my machines ASAP. Of course, I've got a feeling lots of things are going to change in another month with the patent expiration on RSA and with this discovery. But until there is a clear solution, PGP Classic works as good as ever for me.
Oh, and for you command line whimps, there are assorted PGP shells that make the entire process of key management and message signing and encryption as pointy and clicky as the current PGP for windows.
The worst was the retired electrical engineer that took a job at RS. I came in and picked out an odd assortment of parts for a couple of different projects and he wanted to interrogate me as to why I was buying each and every part. And given a vague explanation of the various projects, he needed to tell me why what I was trying to do wasn't going to work. Now obviously he was a knowledgeable guy (a general exception for most RS employees) and was trying to be helpful but I don't go shopping to explain myself. And I neither need nor want the same level of customer care that someone buying overpriced CD players needs.
But, since you've asked, we're all gonna answer.
A quick search on Google gets us some answers.
Historically intersting is this commentary on this very topic from John Carmack from December 1996. This article at Gamecenter rehashes Carmack's comments and adds some other game programmer's comments.
Another spoon-fed link will be GameDev.net's 3D API forum, where there is a discussion on this very topic between people who actually use the APIs in question.
Unless, of course, they are also doing this to point out some of the problems with the distributed system. Helluva way to point them out though.
Hey, there is a business plan here, slashcache.org or something of the sort... People would just have to set their browser proxy settings. And if was fast enough, they wouldn't change them back. So now you'd have to proxy all sorts of interesting stuff to the technical minded opensource crowd along with the hot grits freaks.
Just include me when you get it rolling, OK?
Note I'm just going from memory here so this could all be slightly off, but I do remember something about this.
I feel alot better about warning people about trying out this exploit. They didn't make it too obvious that not only were you confirming it works on your configuration, but putting yourself on a list of computers to exploit. Furthermore, their default choice of C:\Program Files\ is a very vulnerable directory for most Windows users. Sure, it effectively demonstrates the problem but unsuspecting idiots who have most of their apps and data under that tree could be screwed.
Fits better, don't you think?
They publish a list of people who are trying it out. So right now I'm surfing through some dude's C:\Program Files\. I was considering ganking his ICQ database file but he must have shut it down. I'm glad I put my temp directory as the directory to serve. C:\Program Files\ just has too much, imagine the fun you could have with a bunch of ICQ and email archives.
I've been loosly following SVG for the past year or so. It does have great promise as an open solution to vector graphics. First of all, authoring programs all have SVG support NOW. So the chicken and egg problem is solved. Second, many of the other advantages have already been pointed out - open format, hand editable, XML and other stuff. Since its main competition is Flash, lets compare. XML is easily indexable by search engines, although some may have to make changes to do so. Flash doesn't, although some of the changes in Flash 5 seem to make it easier to integrate with HTML content. Flash has only just added decent scripting support with version 5, so I feel they are neck and neck in that category. Flash does have the advantage of being widely adopted. However, this isn't quite the advantage that one may think it is. I bet a good percentage of the Flash support is v3, with no support for any of the later versions. Furthermore, without an easy mechanism for upgrading these are going to stay that way, negating some of the advantages the newer Flash offers. Still, it is way ahead in this area. Someone from the print design field was looking forward to SVG because it afforded them the nearly seamless transition from the world they are in to the web. We'll all argue that the web is not a brochure, but there are always going to be those that see it that way. Fortunatley, instead of messy HTML we can look forward to SVG sites only, but at least Lynx could be able to get the textual content out of the page. Um, I could keep going, but others have covered some other pros and cons. SVG has some pretty good momentum behind it and it will be a useful addition to the web. You should check it out, if nothing else IBMs Developer Works has a java viewer that should work across most platforms, if you're running windows there are all kinds of programs (including free as in beer) that offer some kind of SVG support.
OK, no matter how many times I tried to fix it I couldn't submit a fixed version with that link tag properly fixed. Either there is something wrong with our proxy or this browser (being IE, more than likely) or some new funk in the slashcode.
I just read an article about using user style sheets to deconstruct web pages and easily determine table alignments, find web bugs and transparent shims, images missing alt attributes and more. Very useful to anyone debugging someone else's layout or for finding stuff that isn't readily apparent on the page.
There was a PHP portal thing that kind of included the feature as an afterthought but I didn't get it working very good. Maybe I should re-evaluate that or figure out the code and fix it myself.
I parsed that as I Am Naked.
Then I got clever and started leaving other spam 800 numbers as my number. So hopefully they would waste their time calling each other.
See, I figured this was one way to hurt them because an 800 number costs someone a little bit of money somewhere.
As a side benefit, its alot of fun too.