Well, writing on DEC hardware, most of the assembly instructions could be morphed by bit shifting into something else, useful, for example a Pointer Jump was just an overflow from a Jump Not Equal, so you could *cough* theoretically write an infinite looking loop that would exit when a strategically placed variable was overflowed. Thank god people don't write like that now, but when you had a 16k address space to work with, tricks like that were, well indispensable. As for the byte shifting, on a PDP, a bitwise shift (because most instructions began with a null byte) was a fast operator, rather than having to run a real decompressor.
Thinking about this, I miss the Good Old Days(tm).
Of course, this would also mean we'd need altars... in the server room, would have to burn the right incenses and make appropriate obeisances to ward off crashes. Of course, when the crashes happen anyway, we could then have the debate over whether the religion was false or if we simply weren't observing it strictly enough and decide to throw a virgin off the roof and see if things improve. (cue jokes about the likeliest department to find virgins in.) You know, it would be kind of cool to have a giant computing pyramid atop which is the altar we tear out the beating hearts of living sacrifices.
You've never worked in a DEC RSTS/E, VMS, or a VAX Mini shop have you? (the alters are there, just behind the serial multiplexers)
I dunno, if you've ever written code for a Palm device, you'd believe your 1K worth something too. The API is horrible interrupt driven, barely multitasking (voluntary model), and had no real memory protection. Writing anything that worked without killing the machine was an endevour in itself. hell, a 1 byte memory leak will end up killing (in a short period of time of use) the phone because there is no real way to terminate applications in most implementations.
(Note: I quite writing Palm OS code at Version 4, so the above might not be true now.)
Just as long as he walks away with the correct reading of "The Prince". I've heard too many idiots discussing Machiavelli already; the last thing we need is another "ends justify the means" manager in the world.
Wow, and I just designed a site that works just like that. Kind of an ADHD navigation system. If you're interested try http://www.worldwakesurf.com. Wow, I feel like a visionary. (Oh, and I have the top Google spot after four days)
"New research indicates that subliminal messages may actually work. In a paper titled Attentional Load Modulates Responses of Human Primary Visual Cortex to Invisible Stimuli, Bahrani et al. demonstrate that even though stimuli may not be available to consciousness, they are processed by the visual cortex. While I'm sure that marketing agencies all over the world are rubbing their hands in - glee at this news, the authors report that there's no evidence that this can make people buy things against their will. So with any luck the use of subliminal messages in advertising will remain an urban legend."
And there weren't any PDP-8 computers as ARPANET hosts
Well, I might be mistaken, but I could have sworn that the UC Berkley node I dialed into was a PDP-8. And you're right, I was in a hurry and Mixed up my DEC busses (I was thinking about the PDP-11/44 that I wrote medical software on)
Probably the easiest computer to rebuild from the classic era as there is only one bus (Unibus), and nothing but traces and some very simple electronics on the backplane. Well that and you could hit them with a hammer.
The PDP-11 series, along with the PDP-8's were some of the first nodes on the ARPANET and you can still get working Ethernet adapters for them.
Hell, I still miss mine (Viper tape drive, RSX/11, RSTS/E 10, BASIC Plus2, 512MB EDSI drive).
(You can still find these things running if you look hard enough... (Try asking old medical/dental offices, most of them ran PDP/11's))
If that's all you currently posses of value, I'd fire you. Seriously, if all you know is passwords, topology, and a little bit of notes you're not very important. Passwords are easy enough to remove/fix with physical access to the box, nmap and htping will tell me all I need to know about the abstract topology, and a fluke will reveal the physical topology. Then all I'm short is a warm body to figure out a better way to do things than you.
So in short, All I'd be out is a few grand for the fluke because whomever I decided on to replace you will probably be cheaper to employ.
(and the moral of the story is, the irreplaceable game is terribly overrated)
Well, as for the library bit, yes If i wanted to use libpng4 in all of my applications, I would need to re-compile all of them, but I'm not really talking about major releases, just the minor ones, like libpng4.0.9999 (now with improved telepathy). In these cases I just compile against the version that I currently have.
And on the second point, not all of the software I use even has a binary package on RedHat or Debian (that I know of). Besides, up until about 3 months ago I hadn't used Linux since 1998, During that period of time I converted to the various BSD's (which honestly are the best of both worlds with the ports system). Now, I honestly don't know how Redhat behaves when you do install something from source, but I can't imagine it being much prettier than when I tried it in 1997 (I assume RPM is still basically the same).
(I still currently prefer FreeBSD and it's binary or source method to Gentoo, but Gentoo was the closest to what I like that supports all of my new laptops hardware.)
Well, as a Gentoo user, I'll tell you my personal reasons for using portage (speed isn't one of them).
1.) Maintainability: I don't have to fiddle with 30+ binary dependencies when I upgrade a package, nor do I worry about having multiple library versions within the same major release
2.) Simplicity: Well, it's not particularly simple (in fact, until 2006.1 it was a nightmare) to setup, but once everything is in line I simply don't have to worry about be various `gotchas` of any given package, it's all been abstracted away
3.) USE Flags: An extension of the above, USE is like a homogeneous./configure, no more silly --without-some-foo flags, or include paths that I forgot about 30 seconds after I installed a library. It's not so much about making things optional (at least in the real world) but more about keeping things simple (I specify all of my USE flags at install time, and simply add them to my list when new ones are created)
4.) Lack of Binary Packages: As an old slackware user, I got used to not finding package `foo` as a.tbz and having to deal with RPMs that are/were broken and took more time to install properly than to compile. By using a source based distribution, if I have a one-off or patched library I don't have to worry about will feature X work or why Sodipodi crashes, because whatever version I have is (within reason) now the native version to the application
Watermarks do not have to be 100% security though obscurity... It seems to me that a proper system would use a private key of sorts to unencode the information, then the algorithm could be free (as in speech or BSD) and like SSL only they key would need be obscure. If you're using just a simple 256 bit key to decode the watermark, chances are it would be nigh detectable (assuming of course that the actual technology can survive recompression / reencoding).
I think that was supposed to be a joke, but what do I know... I'm just not that funny. Sorry about your troubles... Maybe I'll get funnier, or you'll get your sarcasm detector fixed.
Slashdot Mirror
I see we have a RSTS/E (or RSX) programmer in the house. I hated doing the memory management, but those database routines were, well awe inspiring.
Well, writing on DEC hardware, most of the assembly instructions could be morphed by bit shifting into something else, useful, for example a Pointer Jump was just an overflow from a Jump Not Equal, so you could *cough* theoretically write an infinite looking loop that would exit when a strategically placed variable was overflowed. Thank god people don't write like that now, but when you had a 16k address space to work with, tricks like that were, well indispensable. As for the byte shifting, on a PDP, a bitwise shift (because most instructions began with a null byte) was a fast operator, rather than having to run a real decompressor.
Thinking about this, I miss the Good Old Days(tm).
Then for you, hungarian notation should be equally redundant.
Then you don't understand Hungarian notation... or you don't understand regular expressions. Either is quite sad, if you're a (Unix) programmer
Sometimes the decline is the tipping point that everyone misses.
Of course, this would also mean we'd need altars ... in the server room, would have to burn the right incenses and make appropriate obeisances to ward off crashes. Of course, when the crashes happen anyway, we could then have the debate over whether the religion was false or if we simply weren't observing it strictly enough and decide to throw a virgin off the roof and see if things improve. (cue jokes about the likeliest department to find virgins in.) You know, it would be kind of cool to have a giant computing pyramid atop which is the altar we tear out the beating hearts of living sacrifices.
You've never worked in a DEC RSTS/E, VMS, or a VAX Mini shop have you? (the alters are there, just behind the serial multiplexers)
I dunno, if you've ever written code for a Palm device, you'd believe your 1K worth something too. The API is horrible interrupt driven, barely multitasking (voluntary model), and had no real memory protection. Writing anything that worked without killing the machine was an endevour in itself. hell, a 1 byte memory leak will end up killing (in a short period of time of use) the phone because there is no real way to terminate applications in most implementations.
(Note: I quite writing Palm OS code at Version 4, so the above might not be true now.)
No... bulls dude, bulls.
60% short
Sorry, posting drunk again
But that's only 60% of the cap, but then again, I don't think hotmail users can count to 1010.
Just as long as he walks away with the correct reading of "The Prince". I've heard too many idiots discussing Machiavelli already; the last thing we need is another "ends justify the means" manager in the world.
Wow, and I just designed a site that works just like that. Kind of an ADHD navigation system. If you're interested try http://www.worldwakesurf.com. Wow, I feel like a visionary. (Oh, and I have the top Google spot after four days)
Stupid lysdexia, I wish ./ would make me preview when I'm drunk.
Oh Well, so much for my Karma bonus
"New research indicates that subliminal messages may actually work. In a paper titled Attentional Load Modulates Responses of Human Primary Visual Cortex to Invisible Stimuli, Bahrani et al. demonstrate that even though stimuli may not be available to consciousness, they are processed by the visual cortex. While I'm sure that marketing agencies all over the world are rubbing their hands in - glee at this news, the authors report that there's no evidence that this can make people buy things against their will. So with any luck the use of subliminal messages in advertising will remain an urban legend."
I know this guy named Donnie no wait Frank, that might be able to help you out.
You're welcome, However I still feel like a dirty karma whore because I forgot to 'Post Anonymously'.
Sorry for the off thread/topic reply, but in the intrest of visibility, here you go:
7 7bdad8bc9387b4177d dc76778cee3ba9d7b
Part 1: http://momoshare.com/file.php?file=1911bc82417793
Part 2: http://momoshare.com/file.php?file=f88b489ca8f1dc
SHA1 Sums
b14f5b17f2284823cd803d2c1c01970ffe88684d seceng1.zip
740a0de7f86893326b074862abdf377c881734b3 seceng2.zip
Well, I might be mistaken, but I could have sworn that the UC Berkley node I dialed into was a PDP-8. And you're right, I was in a hurry and Mixed up my DEC busses (I was thinking about the PDP-11/44 that I wrote medical software on)
A DEC PDP-11/73, my personal favorite.
Probably the easiest computer to rebuild from the classic era as there is only one bus (Unibus), and nothing but traces and some very simple electronics on the backplane. Well that and you could hit them with a hammer.
The PDP-11 series, along with the PDP-8's were some of the first nodes on the ARPANET and you can still get working Ethernet adapters for them.
Hell, I still miss mine (Viper tape drive, RSX/11, RSTS/E 10, BASIC Plus2, 512MB EDSI drive).
(You can still find these things running if you look hard enough... (Try asking old medical/dental offices, most of them ran PDP/11's))
If that's all you currently posses of value, I'd fire you. Seriously, if all you know is passwords, topology, and a little bit of notes you're not very important. Passwords are easy enough to remove/fix with physical access to the box, nmap and htping will tell me all I need to know about the abstract topology, and a fluke will reveal the physical topology. Then all I'm short is a warm body to figure out a better way to do things than you.
So in short, All I'd be out is a few grand for the fluke because whomever I decided on to replace you will probably be cheaper to employ.
(and the moral of the story is, the irreplaceable game is terribly overrated)
Well, as for the library bit, yes If i wanted to use libpng4 in all of my applications, I would need to re-compile all of them, but I'm not really talking about major releases, just the minor ones, like libpng4.0.9999 (now with improved telepathy). In these cases I just compile against the version that I currently have.
And on the second point, not all of the software I use even has a binary package on RedHat or Debian (that I know of). Besides, up until about 3 months ago I hadn't used Linux since 1998, During that period of time I converted to the various BSD's (which honestly are the best of both worlds with the ports system). Now, I honestly don't know how Redhat behaves when you do install something from source, but I can't imagine it being much prettier than when I tried it in 1997 (I assume RPM is still basically the same).
(I still currently prefer FreeBSD and it's binary or source method to Gentoo, but Gentoo was the closest to what I like that supports all of my new laptops hardware.)
Well, as a Gentoo user, I'll tell you my personal reasons for using portage (speed isn't one of them).
1.) Maintainability: I don't have to fiddle with 30+ binary dependencies when I upgrade a package, nor do I worry about having multiple library versions within the same major release
2.) Simplicity: Well, it's not particularly simple (in fact, until 2006.1 it was a nightmare) to setup, but once everything is in line I simply don't have to worry about be various `gotchas` of any given package, it's all been abstracted away
3.) USE Flags: An extension of the above, USE is like a homogeneous ./configure, no more silly --without-some-foo flags, or include paths that I forgot about 30 seconds after I installed a library. It's not so much about making things optional (at least in the real world) but more about keeping things simple (I specify all of my USE flags at install time, and simply add them to my list when new ones are created)
4.) Lack of Binary Packages: As an old slackware user, I got used to not finding package `foo` as a .tbz and having to deal with RPMs that are/were broken and took more time to install properly than to compile. By using a source based distribution, if I have a one-off or patched library I don't have to worry about will feature X work or why Sodipodi crashes, because whatever version I have is (within reason) now the native version to the application
Hope that helps
Maybe it's that I've been working for 23 hours, but that was the funniest thing I've read all week. Thanks, I needed that.
Watermarks do not have to be 100% security though obscurity... It seems to me that a proper system would use a private key of sorts to unencode the information, then the algorithm could be free (as in speech or BSD) and like SSL only they key would need be obscure. If you're using just a simple 256 bit key to decode the watermark, chances are it would be nigh detectable (assuming of course that the actual technology can survive recompression / reencoding).
I think that was supposed to be a joke, but what do I know... I'm just not that funny. Sorry about your troubles... Maybe I'll get funnier, or you'll get your sarcasm detector fixed.
If so, would anything with product activation be considered Spyware?