I read the Apple link (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1820) and I don't see how it would be equivalent to TRIM on an SSD device.
Zeroing a device, as per the link, just writes zeroes to every block on it. From an SSD's point of view this means that every block is in use and just happens to contain zeros. Next time a request is made to write to a block it requires a (comparatively slow) read-modify-erase-write cycle. It won't make an SSD faster, but it may serve to securely erase the data on it (depending on its absence of wear levelling techniques).
TRIM on the other hand is used by the file system driver to say "I've deleted all data in this block, you can disregard it now." The device will erase it at its leisure. Next time a write is made to that block it's a simple (and fast) write cycle, without the read-modify and costly erase. Saving the erase cycle from interfering with a write is how TRIM-enabled drives gain their performance boost.
TFA's tests were invalid, because the drive was always in a degraded mode (assuming of course the 2008-era Samsung even supported TRIM).
[ACERP] has ruled that D-Star, a amateur radio digital signal mode used world-wide, is illegal because it could allow operators to connect to the Internet.
They've obviously never heard of Packet Radio then, which has been around much longer and enabled digital data packets to be transmitted over any radio link. Hell, it's pretty much how Taxi booking systems and Police response systems work.
When using ExitWindowsEx() at the end of your patch install, don't use the damned EWX_FORCE flag. It doesn't even give users enough time to respond to the "Save? Yes/No/Cancel" dialogs popping-up before the applications are kill -9'd and users lose all their unsaved data.
Wilcard certificates for virtual hosts over SSL is only a "valid way" for a limited set of applications, such as all virtual hosts being sub-domains of *.examplebank.com. It won't help in a hosting environment where customers are on *.foo.com and *.bar.com and on the same IP address.
Apache, as at 2.2.12 (from memory), definitely supports virtual hosts over SSL.
The problem with virtual hosts over SSL is the lack of support client-side. Most browsers now have a version that supports TLSv1.1/SSLv3 with SNI (Server Name Indication), so they can negotiate for a particular certificate when setting-up the SSL connection, but I don't know of any of them that do so on Windows XP. Whether we like it or not, there's still a large number of Windows XP users there, so they don't have browsers that can use SNI properly.
Many moons ago, when I worked for a web hosting company, they had Host Header servers for the low-cost customers.
A given server may have hosted up to 1,000 customer sites all on the one IP address by using the Host header introduced in HTTP/1.1 on tcp/80 (http), but they still had a single SSL certificate representing the server itself on tcp/443 (https). A reverse DNS lookup on the hosting IP returned the server's FQDN, which matched what was on the SSL cert's CN. Apparently this was something commonly done in the web hosting industry due to the ever-decreasing pool of IP addresses (this was in the days before TLS/SSL had mechanisms for clients to request a given certificate CN during the negotiation phase).
I wonder... did the discussed tests perform a reverse-DNS lookup on the web site's IP address before trying to connect to the https port? Was the result of that reverse DNS lookup used to compare against the SSL cert's CN, or did the test blindly assume that the CN must match the original site's FQDN?
When did deflation ever occur to allow for lowered fees?
Actually, about two weeks ago the Queensland state government announced that it was reducing its annual vehicle registration fees by $24.00. The reduction, however, wasn't in a state government portion of the fees - it came from the renegotiated Compulsory Third Party insurance premiums. And it's more than offset by the rising fuel costs after they axed the state fuel subsidy last year. Go figure.
A lot of forums and banking sites written by noob programmers for starters. Notice I said "local part", I haven't found one that cares about -'s and.'s in the domain part.
Most sites are sending challenge e-mails with a hyperlink that you have to click on to validate that it's a current and correct e-mail address. Why have a complex regular expression in front of it as well? Either the person gets the e-mail and clicks the link, or they got it wrong and never receive it.
The regular expression, if one must be used, doesn't need to be any more complex than:
A database MUST treat all of these names the same: McClean, MacClean, MCLean, Mc Clean, Mac Clean. McCleen,...
Are you sure? What if "Mac Clean" is actually somebody's first and last names?
I know plenty of people whose legal name is a single word, such as "Alex", "Max" or "Virgil." Would your system put that in the first_name, middle_name or surname column? Storing names and using them sensibly is hard, as TFA acknowledges.
You'd think that e-mail addresses by comparison would be simpler, but I have a hard time trying to register my e-mail address with sites that won't allow even simple things like "+", "-" or "." characters in the local part.
Yellow Pages Group Co. said last week that it would no longer deliver residential phone books in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa-Gatineau, Montreal and Quebec City, except to customers who request them.
TFA talks about how Beatrix Potter would love the *Kindle*, not just any old reader. I think the author missed the fact that her watercolour illustrations include colour, something the Kindle can't do yet.
A hydrogen peroxide-based decontaminant, Decon Green, is efficacious for the decontamination of chemical agents VX (S-2-(diisopropylamino)ethyl O-ethyl methylphosphonothioate), GD (Soman, pinacolyl methylphosphonofluoridate), and HD (mustard, bis(2-chloroethyl) sulfide); the biological agent anthrax (Bacillus anthracis); and radiological isotopes 137Cs and 60Co; thus demonstrating the ability of this decontamination approach to ameliorate the aftermath of all three types of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).... Decon Green is an EPA-registered sporicide.
Hydrogen peroxide is considered hazardous because of its highly reactive oxidation ability. It varies around the world a little, but generally in concentrations over 3% it should be accompanied by a Material Safety Data Sheet. In the presence of grease it can even become explosive.
To put its oxidation ability into context... Germany was using hydrogen peroxide to fuel rocket planes towards the end of WW-II. Anyone who had the fuel spilt on them MELTED - and that was just liquid fuel that wasn't burning at the time.
I'd like the person who said this was non-toxic to stand in a bucket of the stuff, without wearing a bio hazard suit, to demonstrate just how non-toxic it is.
the link is fake and was never created by our cms.
Are you logging http-referer (typo as per the RFC) headers? You might find that the fictitious link is coming from someone else's page and Goog's just following it.
I was fortunate enough to sit in on a speech in 2009 by Rob McNaught (discoverer of the like-named comet). I was very surprised to learn, in that speech, how vast swathes of the sky are ignored by "professional" comet hunters and how he and a group of friends are helping to fill-in the holes near the poles (no pun intended), even using such simple equipment as arrays of nine second-hand Canon EOS cameras (arranged 3x3) tracking through defined grids under computer control.
There is much useful astronomy that can be done by amateurs on a budget. Besides comet hunting, there is much data that needs to be gathered to correct and flesh-out Variable Star catalogues and likewise with Occultations of stars and asteroids (and can also yield useful information on lunar topography).
Try contacting whatever local astronomy associations you can find and ask them about what programs they are running and need help with.
One of my fantasies is that the entire damn web will collapse under the burden of nutty design and sloppy implementation that is being piled on it (plus tthe failure to address security in any meaningful way). Probably won't happen... but surely I can dream.
Alas I once had a similar dream for MS Windows, yet still it remains alive to taunt me.
Having worked on legacy codebases I can say that "add more features, expect more bloat" doesn't hold as a rule. Adding a new feature often causes a refactoring of code because of the awful way it was written originally. This often leads to a reduction in code complexity and size. Firefox is about as legacy as it gets, with code going back beyond Phoenix into the hallowed halls of Communicator and Navigator. Firefox gets jacked-up occasionally to have entire subsystems replaced, as was the case in FF3.0 when Mork was (thankfully) wheeled out and replaced with SQLite for storage and the Gecko layout engine was upgraded to 1.9.
'We believe that consumers should be able to freely access their favorite content and applications, regardless of what computer they have, what browser they like, or what device suits their needs,' the letter states.
I can't play Flash in the Lynx browser. I can't play Flash on the Atari Lynx either, but that doesn't even have internet connectivity, let alone a web browser. Sorry Adobe, what's you point again?
'No company — no matter how big or how creative — should dictate what you can create, how you create it, or what you can experience on the web.'
Adobe, just so we're clear on this, you are dumb-asses. Your own Flash 10.0 EULA excludes Apple from including Flash on their iPod/iPhone/iPad platform:
3.1 Adobe Runtime Restrictions. You will not use any Adobe Runtime on any non-PC device or with any embedded or device version of any operating system. For the avoidance of doubt, and by example only, you may not use an Adobe Runtime on any (a) mobile device, set top box (STB), handheld, phone, web pad, tablet and Tablet PC (other than with Windows XP Tablet PC Edition and its successors), electronic billboard or other digital signage, Internet appliance or other Internet-connected device, PDA, medical device, ATM, telematic device, gaming machine, home automation system, kiosk, remote control device, or any other consumer electronics device, (b) operator-based mobile, cable, satellite, or television system or (c) other closed system device. For information on licensing Adobe Runtime for use on such systems please visit http://www.adobe.com/go/licensing.
In other words, you're launching a public humiliation campaign against Apple in an effort to extort licensing fees from them. Way to go.
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I read the Apple link (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1820) and I don't see how it would be equivalent to TRIM on an SSD device.
Zeroing a device, as per the link, just writes zeroes to every block on it. From an SSD's point of view this means that every block is in use and just happens to contain zeros. Next time a request is made to write to a block it requires a (comparatively slow) read-modify-erase-write cycle. It won't make an SSD faster, but it may serve to securely erase the data on it (depending on its absence of wear levelling techniques).
TRIM on the other hand is used by the file system driver to say "I've deleted all data in this block, you can disregard it now." The device will erase it at its leisure. Next time a write is made to that block it's a simple (and fast) write cycle, without the read-modify and costly erase. Saving the erase cycle from interfering with a write is how TRIM-enabled drives gain their performance boost.
TFA's tests were invalid, because the drive was always in a degraded mode (assuming of course the 2008-era Samsung even supported TRIM).
You both need to read up on TRIM (and I'll leave it at that)... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIM
[ACERP] has ruled that D-Star, a amateur radio digital signal mode used world-wide, is illegal because it could allow operators to connect to the Internet.
They've obviously never heard of Packet Radio then, which has been around much longer and enabled digital data packets to be transmitted over any radio link. Hell, it's pretty much how Taxi booking systems and Police response systems work.
that or an Asgaard.
When using ExitWindowsEx() at the end of your patch install, don't use the damned EWX_FORCE flag. It doesn't even give users enough time to respond to the "Save? Yes/No/Cancel" dialogs popping-up before the applications are kill -9'd and users lose all their unsaved data.
Actually, my friend, you are so out of date. Read up on TLS and SSL and you'll find mention of Server Name Indication.
Wilcard certificates for virtual hosts over SSL is only a "valid way" for a limited set of applications, such as all virtual hosts being sub-domains of *.examplebank.com. It won't help in a hosting environment where customers are on *.foo.com and *.bar.com and on the same IP address.
Apache, as at 2.2.12 (from memory), definitely supports virtual hosts over SSL.
The problem with virtual hosts over SSL is the lack of support client-side. Most browsers now have a version that supports TLSv1.1/SSLv3 with SNI (Server Name Indication), so they can negotiate for a particular certificate when setting-up the SSL connection, but I don't know of any of them that do so on Windows XP. Whether we like it or not, there's still a large number of Windows XP users there, so they don't have browsers that can use SNI properly.
Many moons ago, when I worked for a web hosting company, they had Host Header servers for the low-cost customers.
A given server may have hosted up to 1,000 customer sites all on the one IP address by using the Host header introduced in HTTP/1.1 on tcp/80 (http), but they still had a single SSL certificate representing the server itself on tcp/443 (https). A reverse DNS lookup on the hosting IP returned the server's FQDN, which matched what was on the SSL cert's CN. Apparently this was something commonly done in the web hosting industry due to the ever-decreasing pool of IP addresses (this was in the days before TLS/SSL had mechanisms for clients to request a given certificate CN during the negotiation phase).
I wonder... did the discussed tests perform a reverse-DNS lookup on the web site's IP address before trying to connect to the https port? Was the result of that reverse DNS lookup used to compare against the SSL cert's CN, or did the test blindly assume that the CN must match the original site's FQDN?
Let's not forget that Brisbane had Lord Mayor Salary Anne Atkinson way back in the '80s. I guess that predates a lot of people around here, though.
Ever wondered why you can't find the perfect 802.11n router? You know, the one with dual band, great range, USB print server and storage?
Because you've got myopia and you're only looking at the D-Link range? D-Link hardware's ok, as far as cheap goes, but their tech support is the pits.
When did deflation ever occur to allow for lowered fees?
Actually, about two weeks ago the Queensland state government announced that it was reducing its annual vehicle registration fees by $24.00. The reduction, however, wasn't in a state government portion of the fees - it came from the renegotiated Compulsory Third Party insurance premiums. And it's more than offset by the rising fuel costs after they axed the state fuel subsidy last year. Go figure.
A lot of forums and banking sites written by noob programmers for starters. Notice I said "local part", I haven't found one that cares about -'s and .'s in the domain part.
Proper email validation is not trivial
Beg to differ.
Most sites are sending challenge e-mails with a hyperlink that you have to click on to validate that it's a current and correct e-mail address. Why have a complex regular expression in front of it as well? Either the person gets the e-mail and clicks the link, or they got it wrong and never receive it.
The regular expression, if one must be used, doesn't need to be any more complex than:
^[^@]+@[^@]+$
A database MUST treat all of these names the same: McClean, MacClean, MCLean, Mc Clean, Mac Clean. McCleen, ...
Are you sure? What if "Mac Clean" is actually somebody's first and last names?
I know plenty of people whose legal name is a single word, such as "Alex", "Max" or "Virgil." Would your system put that in the first_name, middle_name or surname column? Storing names and using them sensibly is hard, as TFA acknowledges.
You'd think that e-mail addresses by comparison would be simpler, but I have a hard time trying to register my e-mail address with sites that won't allow even simple things like "+", "-" or "." characters in the local part.
TFA talks about how Beatrix Potter would love the *Kindle*, not just any old reader. I think the author missed the fact that her watercolour illustrations include colour, something the Kindle can't do yet.
But they are also non-toxic, based on ingredients found in foods, cosmetics, and other consumer products.
If it's killing Anthrax just how non-toxic can it be, hmm? From the original All-Weather Hydrogen Peroxide-Based Decontamination of CBRN Contaminants paper:
A hydrogen peroxide-based decontaminant, Decon Green, is efficacious for the decontamination of chemical agents VX (S-2-(diisopropylamino)ethyl O-ethyl methylphosphonothioate), GD (Soman, pinacolyl methylphosphonofluoridate), and HD (mustard, bis(2-chloroethyl) sulfide); the biological agent anthrax (Bacillus anthracis); and radiological isotopes 137Cs and 60Co; thus demonstrating the ability of this decontamination approach to ameliorate the aftermath of all three types of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). ... Decon Green is an EPA-registered sporicide.
Hydrogen peroxide is considered hazardous because of its highly reactive oxidation ability. It varies around the world a little, but generally in concentrations over 3% it should be accompanied by a Material Safety Data Sheet. In the presence of grease it can even become explosive.
To put its oxidation ability into context... Germany was using hydrogen peroxide to fuel rocket planes towards the end of WW-II. Anyone who had the fuel spilt on them MELTED - and that was just liquid fuel that wasn't burning at the time.
I'd like the person who said this was non-toxic to stand in a bucket of the stuff, without wearing a bio hazard suit, to demonstrate just how non-toxic it is.
This reminds me of that one time Jeff Goldblum apparently died in New Zealand.
the link is fake and was never created by our cms.
Are you logging http-referer (typo as per the RFC) headers? You might find that the fictitious link is coming from someone else's page and Goog's just following it.
I would cast a vote for astronomy as well.
I was fortunate enough to sit in on a speech in 2009 by Rob McNaught (discoverer of the like-named comet). I was very surprised to learn, in that speech, how vast swathes of the sky are ignored by "professional" comet hunters and how he and a group of friends are helping to fill-in the holes near the poles (no pun intended), even using such simple equipment as arrays of nine second-hand Canon EOS cameras (arranged 3x3) tracking through defined grids under computer control.
There is much useful astronomy that can be done by amateurs on a budget. Besides comet hunting, there is much data that needs to be gathered to correct and flesh-out Variable Star catalogues and likewise with Occultations of stars and asteroids (and can also yield useful information on lunar topography).
Try contacting whatever local astronomy associations you can find and ask them about what programs they are running and need help with.
One of my fantasies is that the entire damn web will collapse under the burden of nutty design and sloppy implementation that is being piled on it (plus tthe failure to address security in any meaningful way). Probably won't happen ... but surely I can dream.
Alas I once had a similar dream for MS Windows, yet still it remains alive to taunt me.
The ability to play back .mp3 and .wav files, it seems, along with a lack of list attributes. Important? Probably not.
Having worked on legacy codebases I can say that "add more features, expect more bloat" doesn't hold as a rule. Adding a new feature often causes a refactoring of code because of the awful way it was written originally. This often leads to a reduction in code complexity and size. Firefox is about as legacy as it gets, with code going back beyond Phoenix into the hallowed halls of Communicator and Navigator. Firefox gets jacked-up occasionally to have entire subsystems replaced, as was the case in FF3.0 when Mork was (thankfully) wheeled out and replaced with SQLite for storage and the Gecko layout engine was upgraded to 1.9.
And to file repeatable bug reports, preferably detailed.
There, I fixed that for you.
Although I think Apple can truly be a-holes...
'We believe that consumers should be able to freely access their favorite content and applications, regardless of what computer they have, what browser they like, or what device suits their needs,' the letter states.
I can't play Flash in the Lynx browser. I can't play Flash on the Atari Lynx either, but that doesn't even have internet connectivity, let alone a web browser. Sorry Adobe, what's you point again?
'No company — no matter how big or how creative — should dictate what you can create, how you create it, or what you can experience on the web.'
Adobe, just so we're clear on this, you are dumb-asses. Your own Flash 10.0 EULA excludes Apple from including Flash on their iPod/iPhone/iPad platform:
3.1 Adobe Runtime Restrictions. You will not use any Adobe Runtime on any non-PC device or with any embedded or device version of any operating system. For the avoidance of doubt, and by example only, you may not use an Adobe Runtime on any (a) mobile device, set top box (STB), handheld, phone, web pad, tablet and Tablet PC (other than with Windows XP Tablet PC Edition and its successors), electronic billboard or other digital signage, Internet appliance or other Internet-connected device, PDA, medical device, ATM, telematic device, gaming machine, home automation system, kiosk, remote control device, or any other consumer electronics device, (b) operator-based mobile, cable, satellite, or television system or (c) other closed system device. For information on licensing Adobe Runtime for use on such systems please visit http://www.adobe.com/go/licensing.
In other words, you're launching a public humiliation campaign against Apple in an effort to extort licensing fees from them. Way to go.