...the Casino Virus. Perhaps because of the similar concept of "holding data hostage".
The virus takes your FAT and stores it in RAM. Then lets you play a slot-machine game. If you win, you get your data back. If you lose, you lose your data. Some other combination of characters (in the slot machine) gives you the virus-writer's phone number.
Very true. I started learning assembly on the Motorola 6811, then the 6800. My final semester at college, I took a graduate course where we wrote a small OS for the Motorola 68k. The 68k was a delight to code for. Beautifully orthogonal and intuitive. The Motorola instruction set was what really got me into assembly. I tried many times to write assembly for the x86, but I simply couldn't get around the ugliness, the endianness (backwards for me), and the reversed format for source and destination... and don't even talk about those ugly segmented registers. Ugh.
Or something... that's what it's called. Essentially a glorified computer game. The first time I got to train on it was during my pre-mobilization training before I deployed to Iraq in 2005. The second time I got to train on it was a few months ago during weekend drill.
You basically have actual M-16's, M-4's, 240-B's, M-249's and 50 cals hooked up to the system. When you fire, the weapon shoots a laser to the screen in front of you. (It's a really big projector screen). You have different scenes (one was an oil-refinery scene of some kind, and the other was an urban setting) where you have to engage the enemy.
The graphics aren't all that great, but it's still pretty fun. I wanted to hook up Halo or GoW to that big-ass screen. That would have been pretty sweet.
I just started at a new job at the beginning of this year after quitting from my last job where I barely got to do any programming. The place where I work now is a Java shop. I was getting back to Java programming after a hiatus of a few years. For the last few years I mostly doing Perl with a smattering of C (PHP and Javascript on occasion). My experience with Java was mainly from college and a few odd projects I did here and there. The language had changed quite a bit over the last few years and to be honest, I surprised myself by being happy to get back to it (I had some sort of vague dislike for it for a period of time).
The company sponsored a trip to JavaOne at San Francisco earlier this month, for the Dev Team. I also got to go. This was my first time at JavaOne. It was amazing, exciting, and I learnt a LOT of new stuff. The main thing I got from there was that Java, far from being a programming language, is also a platform. There are a lot of new things being built on TOP of Java. For example, Groovy, and JavaFX. Java now has excellent support and frameworks to roll your OWN domain-specific languages.
Python and Ruby are not going to push Java out of the way. For example, you have mergers of Java with these languages (Jython and JRuby). Essentially you have Python and Ruby using Java resources and libraries. I think instead of "dying", Java is just going to evolve into a stable platform that lets you build stuff on top of it.
Does this mean I will eventually not be able to use "try rebooting the system" (to try and solve a problem)? In all seriousness, I think this will make us rethink our problem-solving approach. Powering-off is a great way to "wipe the slate clean" as it were.
Would this also inspire new forms of malware/viruses/trojans that persist in memory even after the system is powered off?
And another thing... forensic computer evidence. I guess you could sort of tell what the user was last doing before they turned off the machine.
Depends on how all of this is going to be implemented anyways. Still, some interesting points to consider.
By Open Source, they unfortunately mean only "Linux". I use FreeBSD. I have Marvell chipset on my Dell that FreeBSD doesn't recognize. Marvell's own FreeBSD driver doesn't recognize it either.
Instead of having just Open Source drivers, how about they open up the specs for their hardware? No one is asking them to give us their trade secrets they so jealously guard. Just enough information to let the open source folks write a decent driver instead of painstakingly reverse-engineering Windows drivers, or inspecting the hardware.
Linux gets a lot of attention, but there are other open OSes out there that would also benefit. I'm not jealous or anything. I use Linux from time to time, but I just happen to fancy BSD more. I think opening up the specs would actually benefit open source instead of just creating "open source" (Linux) drivers.
I guess one could examine the Linux drivers to figure out what they're doing and then port it over to [insert your flavour of OS here]. But if you have the open specs, you don't have to do that extra step.
... that this may not see the light of day? I want to see this come to fruition as much as (most) anybody else and I don't want to be this cynical and/or conspiratorial. But I wonder how the oil companies would react to this, or even the US government - would it be apathetic. I mean... remember the Electric Car?
My more optimistic side hopes for this to actually come true.
Like Seti@Home or Folding@home? We could have people sign up and join the Phalanx network.
Or create a similar "open" network? People could then sign up for the service. I guess you could make it to where when you sign up, your computer becomes part of the network, and is also protected by the network. I don't know how feasible this is... just throwing out ideas.
... and I recall during company meetings we would be told that Intel was "keeping an eye on nVidia". AMD not so much. Intel looks at nVidia to be a new and strong threat.
Nice. But how about getting Flash to work natively on FreeBSD also? Petition here. There are over 5,600 signatures. FreeBSD currently uses the linux emulation layer to run flash, but it's not perfect.
"x86 assembler put me off, though. I haven't done any serious assembler programming since my Amiga days largely for that reason - when you've done M68k assembler, x86 assembler looks about as fun as poking your eyes out with a fork."
I couldn't agree more. I started off with the 6811 in college, followed by the 6800. Then my professor invited me to take his graduate class where we used the M68k. I was blown away by the beauty of the thing. It was almost completely orthogonal. We wrote a simple pre-emptive multi-tasking OS for the final project. I tried to do x86 assembly, but the whole thing looked like such an ugly hack that I could never get into it.
I once got KDE running on Windows under Cygwin. It was really, really slow though. But I was also wasn't doing it on an high-end machine. I'm going to try and do this again, and also maybe see if I can get Compiz-Fusion running. Just for fun.
When I saw this first on Johnny Chung Lee's site, I had the same idea (gloves et al). I was thinking how cool it would be if this could be combined with Compiz-Fusion or something like that (imagine manipulating the cube with your gloves!). I wouldn't mind trying to write something like this (but I don't have very much knowledge about writing code for X so not really sure where to start at all). I think it would be really neat. I was thinking that you could use gestures to manipulate the desktop.
Either that or have a completely custom environment/desktop (sort of like in the video).
I program because I love it and I am passionate about it. I enjoy what I do. I don't simply do it as a 9-to-5 job. But a lot of people get a CS(E) degree just to make money. I went to college at Arizona State. The CS and CSE program there was pretty good. I took a class called CSE 225 and CSE 421. 225 was introduction to assembly programming. We used the Motorola 6811. 421 was advanced assembly and we used the 6800. Both classes were extremely hard, especially the second one where we had quizzes and labs where you really had to think hard about your logic. You were graded on efficiency and timing. 421 was the definitive CSE course at ASU. Sometime in my junior year the university tried to "dumb down" the program. They wanted to use the 68000 and replace the professor. The started with removing the professor who taught 225. A new professor started teaching the class, using the 68k. It was a terrible idea. The 6811, though old, was simple and gradually introduced assembly programming concepts. The 68k had a lot of features which made it very difficult for a lot of the students. Some students who came into 421 after taking 225 didn't even know what condition codes were. The university then tried to "dumb down" 421 and change the professor, but there was a huge student outcry and basically the class stayed and the professor wasn't replaced. In my final semester, I took 521 with the same professor. This class was even more difficult than 421 and used the 521. We wrote a basic OS for the 68k as our final project. It was an amazing class and I learnt a lot. I talk to new students who are taking classes now. I honestly feel the curriculum has been dumbed down a whole lot. A lot of them don't even know how to use any sort of unix system. When I was going to university we had to do a lot of our labs on the unix servers. Now they only use windows.
It describes obvious efforts by the administration to suppress findings that go against its political agenda. The most insidious tactic used is the muddying of waters. Especially using an amazing term known as "junk science". "Junk Science" basically means any scientific finding that doesn't agree with the administration.
I hear this argument about "my dusty Wii" all the time. Nintendo didn't make the Wii for you. Nintendo doesn't care if you don't like the Wii. Nintendo made the Wii for Casual Gamers and Families. Not hardcore gamers. So it was novel for you initially, and now it's boring. Fine. Good for you. You can play your PS3/XBOS360. But a casual gamer who really doesn't care about the super-extreme technical goodness offered by the PS3/XBOX360 is satisfied by the Wii, because it is FUN and it is something that the whole family can enjoy. My parents and my aunt and uncle, who never play games actually enjoy playing the Wii. This is more than I can say for any console that I have ever owned.
Slashdot Mirror
...the Casino Virus. Perhaps because of the similar concept of "holding data hostage".
The virus takes your FAT and stores it in RAM. Then lets you play a slot-machine game. If you win, you get your data back. If you lose, you lose your data. Some other combination of characters (in the slot machine) gives you the virus-writer's phone number.
I'm moderating this +
Very true. I started learning assembly on the Motorola 6811, then the 6800. My final semester at college, I took a graduate course where we wrote a small OS for the Motorola 68k. The 68k was a delight to code for. Beautifully orthogonal and intuitive. The Motorola instruction set was what really got me into assembly. I tried many times to write assembly for the x86, but I simply couldn't get around the ugliness, the endianness (backwards for me), and the reversed format for source and destination... and don't even talk about those ugly segmented registers. Ugh.
Or something... that's what it's called. Essentially a glorified computer game. The first time I got to train on it was during my pre-mobilization training before I deployed to Iraq in 2005. The second time I got to train on it was a few months ago during weekend drill.
You basically have actual M-16's, M-4's, 240-B's, M-249's and 50 cals hooked up to the system. When you fire, the weapon shoots a laser to the screen in front of you. (It's a really big projector screen). You have different scenes (one was an oil-refinery scene of some kind, and the other was an urban setting) where you have to engage the enemy.
The graphics aren't all that great, but it's still pretty fun. I wanted to hook up Halo or GoW to that big-ass screen. That would have been pretty sweet.
I just started at a new job at the beginning of this year after quitting from my last job where I barely got to do any programming. The place where I work now is a Java shop. I was getting back to Java programming after a hiatus of a few years. For the last few years I mostly doing Perl with a smattering of C (PHP and Javascript on occasion). My experience with Java was mainly from college and a few odd projects I did here and there. The language had changed quite a bit over the last few years and to be honest, I surprised myself by being happy to get back to it (I had some sort of vague dislike for it for a period of time).
The company sponsored a trip to JavaOne at San Francisco earlier this month, for the Dev Team. I also got to go. This was my first time at JavaOne. It was amazing, exciting, and I learnt a LOT of new stuff. The main thing I got from there was that Java, far from being a programming language, is also a platform. There are a lot of new things being built on TOP of Java. For example, Groovy, and JavaFX. Java now has excellent support and frameworks to roll your OWN domain-specific languages.
Python and Ruby are not going to push Java out of the way. For example, you have mergers of Java with these languages (Jython and JRuby). Essentially you have Python and Ruby using Java resources and libraries. I think instead of "dying", Java is just going to evolve into a stable platform that lets you build stuff on top of it.
Does this mean I will eventually not be able to use "try rebooting the system" (to try and solve a problem)? In all seriousness, I think this will make us rethink our problem-solving approach. Powering-off is a great way to "wipe the slate clean" as it were.
Would this also inspire new forms of malware/viruses/trojans that persist in memory even after the system is powered off?
And another thing... forensic computer evidence. I guess you could sort of tell what the user was last doing before they turned off the machine.
Depends on how all of this is going to be implemented anyways. Still, some interesting points to consider.
By Open Source, they unfortunately mean only "Linux". I use FreeBSD. I have Marvell chipset on my Dell that FreeBSD doesn't recognize. Marvell's own FreeBSD driver doesn't recognize it either. Instead of having just Open Source drivers, how about they open up the specs for their hardware? No one is asking them to give us their trade secrets they so jealously guard. Just enough information to let the open source folks write a decent driver instead of painstakingly reverse-engineering Windows drivers, or inspecting the hardware. Linux gets a lot of attention, but there are other open OSes out there that would also benefit. I'm not jealous or anything. I use Linux from time to time, but I just happen to fancy BSD more. I think opening up the specs would actually benefit open source instead of just creating "open source" (Linux) drivers. I guess one could examine the Linux drivers to figure out what they're doing and then port it over to [insert your flavour of OS here]. But if you have the open specs, you don't have to do that extra step.
... that this may not see the light of day? I want to see this come to fruition as much as (most) anybody else and I don't want to be this cynical and/or conspiratorial. But I wonder how the oil companies would react to this, or even the US government - would it be apathetic. I mean... remember the Electric Car? My more optimistic side hopes for this to actually come true.
Like Seti@Home or Folding@home? We could have people sign up and join the Phalanx network. Or create a similar "open" network? People could then sign up for the service. I guess you could make it to where when you sign up, your computer becomes part of the network, and is also protected by the network. I don't know how feasible this is... just throwing out ideas.
... and I recall during company meetings we would be told that Intel was "keeping an eye on nVidia". AMD not so much. Intel looks at nVidia to be a new and strong threat.
Like here.
Thank you. My keyboard is now highly caffeinated.
Traffic Waves
Nice. But how about getting Flash to work natively on FreeBSD also? Petition here. There are over 5,600 signatures. FreeBSD currently uses the linux emulation layer to run flash, but it's not perfect.
Good point. Also, atoms are much smaller than the wavelength of visible light. So they cannot reflect color.
How about
Barbie
or
OMGPONIES
but make it l33t like:
b4rb13
or
0mgp0n135!!!11!!
"x86 assembler put me off, though. I haven't done any serious assembler programming since my Amiga days largely for that reason - when you've done M68k assembler, x86 assembler looks about as fun as poking your eyes out with a fork."
I couldn't agree more. I started off with the 6811 in college, followed by the 6800. Then my professor invited me to take his graduate class where we used the M68k. I was blown away by the beauty of the thing. It was almost completely orthogonal. We wrote a simple pre-emptive multi-tasking OS for the final project. I tried to do x86 assembly, but the whole thing looked like such an ugly hack that I could never get into it.
$100 Billion is an inconceivable sum.
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means... *duck
I use sshblack on my FreeBSD machine.
I once got KDE running on Windows under Cygwin. It was really, really slow though. But I was also wasn't doing it on an high-end machine. I'm going to try and do this again, and also maybe see if I can get Compiz-Fusion running. Just for fun.
When I saw this first on Johnny Chung Lee's site, I had the same idea (gloves et al). I was thinking how cool it would be if this could be combined with Compiz-Fusion or something like that (imagine manipulating the cube with your gloves!). I wouldn't mind trying to write something like this (but I don't have very much knowledge about writing code for X so not really sure where to start at all). I think it would be really neat. I was thinking that you could use gestures to manipulate the desktop. Either that or have a completely custom environment/desktop (sort of like in the video).
I program because I love it and I am passionate about it. I enjoy what I do. I don't simply do it as a 9-to-5 job. But a lot of people get a CS(E) degree just to make money. I went to college at Arizona State. The CS and CSE program there was pretty good. I took a class called CSE 225 and CSE 421. 225 was introduction to assembly programming. We used the Motorola 6811. 421 was advanced assembly and we used the 6800. Both classes were extremely hard, especially the second one where we had quizzes and labs where you really had to think hard about your logic. You were graded on efficiency and timing. 421 was the definitive CSE course at ASU. Sometime in my junior year the university tried to "dumb down" the program. They wanted to use the 68000 and replace the professor. The started with removing the professor who taught 225. A new professor started teaching the class, using the 68k. It was a terrible idea. The 6811, though old, was simple and gradually introduced assembly programming concepts. The 68k had a lot of features which made it very difficult for a lot of the students. Some students who came into 421 after taking 225 didn't even know what condition codes were. The university then tried to "dumb down" 421 and change the professor, but there was a huge student outcry and basically the class stayed and the professor wasn't replaced. In my final semester, I took 521 with the same professor. This class was even more difficult than 421 and used the 521. We wrote a basic OS for the 68k as our final project. It was an amazing class and I learnt a lot. I talk to new students who are taking classes now. I honestly feel the curriculum has been dumbed down a whole lot. A lot of them don't even know how to use any sort of unix system. When I was going to university we had to do a lot of our labs on the unix servers. Now they only use windows.
The Republican War on Science, by Chris Mooney
WARNING: This book will make you very pissed off.
It describes obvious efforts by the administration to suppress findings that go against its political agenda. The most insidious tactic used is the muddying of waters. Especially using an amazing term known as "junk science". "Junk Science" basically means any scientific finding that doesn't agree with the administration.
I hear this argument about "my dusty Wii" all the time. Nintendo didn't make the Wii for you. Nintendo doesn't care if you don't like the Wii. Nintendo made the Wii for Casual Gamers and Families. Not hardcore gamers. So it was novel for you initially, and now it's boring. Fine. Good for you. You can play your PS3/XBOS360. But a casual gamer who really doesn't care about the super-extreme technical goodness offered by the PS3/XBOX360 is satisfied by the Wii, because it is FUN and it is something that the whole family can enjoy. My parents and my aunt and uncle, who never play games actually enjoy playing the Wii. This is more than I can say for any console that I have ever owned.
I, for one, welcome our 3000 lb, twice-as-tall-as-a-man, giant dinosaur bird overlords.