"He was a high-school senior was actually 19. Well from that statement she knew she was meeting someone 3-4 years older than herself, but not 5???"
I knew several 19 year old seniors - not the brightest bulbs on the circuit - but they were 19 at graduation.
He may have been younger when he created his profile and never updated it. And, if she lied about her age, well...it's easy to see how this occurred. Tragic, but understandable.
I don't condone his actions - not in the least. And, I'm 100% in agreement with another poster that the only reason MySpace is being sued for $30M is because Solis doesn't have it. MySpace was not charged because they are not responsible for what occurred. The case should never be allowed in the first place.
Focus should be placed on the parents who may or may not have known their daughter, at age 14, was being wined and dined by someone claiming to be a high school senior. 15/16 year olds are sophopmores (i.e. 10th grade) - she was a best a freshman or still in middle school. Her parents failed her by not taking enough of a role in her life and knowing what she is doing. Some things happen, but it is possible that this could have been prevented.
As someone who's best friend's husband is now serving an all too short 59 months for having a sexual relationship with an underaged girl over a span of 5 years (she was 13/14 when it started - he was in his early 40's - he claimed he didn't know that having sex with a minor was illegal - it was a consentual relationship. Right.), I saw how easy it is for a young teen to get involved in a situation like this. As a result, my children are not permitted on the internet except to visit a few kid oriented game sights or for school oriented research. Even then, my wife and I are keenly aware of what they are doing, where they are going on the internet and who they are communicating with. Eventually, they will be allowed more freedoms as they grow older - but we will still want to take an active involvement in their lives. That's what parents are supposed to do.
"...and may be sued by the copyright holders of any such code."
What a great way to ferret out all the code authors who "stole" from them - make 'em all standup so SCO can get a clean shot at them for the next round of lawsuits.
Personally, I know I will not buy this product if it provides any means of support for such an abomination of a company.
That is not what was said, your cynicism not withstanding. And, it was not about comparing apples to oranges or Delphi vs another environment - It was implied, by ommision most likely, by an earlier post that Delphi is only good for quick GUI database apps.
This one particular tool has been, unfortunately, overlooked simply because it was: a) PASCAL-based b) Windows-based c) Not a Microsoft product d) Misinformation spred by the misinformed. e) All of the above.
This has resulted in a confusion as to what Delphi was/is and what, exactly are it's capabilities.
What was said is that, essentially, Delphi is a really good development environment that has been overlooked because of poor/naive IT management (i.e. not Microsoft and that's what the rag of the week recommends) or simply because of poor marketing (i.e Kylix snafu with the Linux community). But, the tool has evolved over the years and is far more capable than most people give it credit when deriving well constructed and performing applications for the Windows environment. That is all - nothing more.
At my first real software engineering job in the civilian sector (circa 1992), decisions were made based upon what was in the current issue of PC Magazine. I kid you not. We also know who advertized heavily in those magazines - put two and two together - and the better technology/tool loses out.
I, personally, never cared for mySQL. We are an Oracle shop - but I still prefer Firebird for my own applications. I'd love to see it get better adoption.
PHP - Done some work there - it does have limitations and, I guess, it's ability to forgive poor programming technique (stuff still runs - maybe not as expected) is, perhaps, its weakest attribute. If you need to throw something together, it works great. But, I'd prefer to see a truly mature web programming language / framework that kicks ass and akin to the Holy Grail. Anybody know what that is?
"If you want to create a straightforward GUI for a database, use Delphi."
That's a rather limited view on a very powerful tool. But, your statement is accurate as your final sentence indicates.
As a software engineer, I speak a variety of programming languages rather fluently. In the 90's, the choice in the business community was clear - C++ or Visual Basic. Then, a new tool came along and challenged that view - Delphi.
I have been now been programming in Delphi as my primary language since version 1.0 was released. Delphi was not the name of the language - Delphi was and IDE coupled with their version of an O-O PASCAL. While the language syntax is based on PASCAL (hence structured and somewhat verbose), it provided a tremendous amount of power and reliability."Mission Critical" applications became possible because of Dephi's exception handling constructs. I wrote applications in D1-D3 that simply would not break (try that with VB) - Windows (3.1,95/98 were the limitations). It provided excellent database connectivity, exception handling, RTTI, an extensible IDE and, more importantly, an excellent component model that ultimately became the basis for Jave Beans. That same component model provided opportunities for many 3rd party vendors to become successful.
Borland did have the right idea when they created Kylix for Linux - essentially Delphi for Linux. However, they blew the marking and pissed off the OSS developers. But, it is what it is. I would have loved to see them utilize GCC as the backend - oh well.
What do I use Delphi for today? I create mission critical services for the public safety sector. They integrate our company's core product (also written in Delphi) with systems and devices utilized by law enforcement. Our clients, as a general rule, are Windows shops - hence we chose the best tool for that environment. That tool was Delphi combined with some of the powerful 3rd party tools out there (like advanced NT service frameworks, Oracle connectivity tools, and TCP/IP and middle-ware technologies).
Delphi has evolved to the.Net environment as well (although I don't utilize that functionality). However, in an world where.NET is pervasive, being able to leverage code and components written in Delphi for.NET with out.NET tools is an good thing.
Borland has had their uphill battles to fight - they weren't Microsoft and they irked the OSS/Linux community through bad marketing decisions. Too bad.
Is Delphi the best language or tool out there? Probably not - but it is far more capable than most developers have given it credit for. And, I will miss it and the Borland influence when Borland finally sells off their IDE line.
It's not that Slashdot got a language filter - rather, the original poster may have wanted to make a statement but felt awkward about using strong language - nothing wrong with that.
I used to think as you do on this subject. But, let me tell you that my attitude has changed since seeing my brother go through this "syndrome". Whether it's real or not, it's very real to him.
It started for him when he moved into a nice apartment atop a light industrial complex. Almost immediately, he started feeling "vibration" that none of us could feel. We attributed it to where he was living - of course there could be vibration. But, he his initial complaints grew more and more intense. He became irritable, unable to sleep and very depressed. He started complaining about pain that he was experiencing. Eventually, he sunk so low, that he lost his job when he had an argument with another co-worker (non-physical).
He was out of work for almost a year when his money ran out - he couldn't find a job. He was forced to leave his apartment. Rather than living with us (he felt it would cause too much disruption for our family), he moved into a tent in our backyard. Amazingly, he found he could sleep. Then, the weather changed and he moved inside. I've got lots of electrical/electronic equipment going all the time - he started complaining of headaches, irritablity, depression, pain, unable to sleep - the list goes on.
This winter, he moved to Bar Harbor, Maine to concentrate on his writing. First couple of days were good - the the "hum" started. A transformer was less than 50 ft from the place he was staying. He started complaining. Then, it grew in intensity - he thought it was that he had things turned - he turned EVERYTHING off except his computer. He went from being jovial to a really nasty person. His symptoms have gotten worse - comptempating suicide. The electric company came out, said there was a problem with the transformer and replaced it. That was good until the hotel a few hundred feet away reopened. The hum grew in intensity. He becomes irrational when it starts. Nobody else can feel it - but you can hear it if you go outside. At times, when the hum stoppes (somewhat predicatable), he returns to normal. When it's on (most of the time), he can work.
When he's on the cordless phone (supplied by his landlords), if he gets near the window, the hum can be heard in the phone and he loses the connection.
He spent what little he had to go there and work on his writing. There is no place for him to go. He's slowly going crazy - it's very hard to watch. And, it's all documented, in about 10,000 (yes, that's right) email messages. There are definite patterns when he has problems and when he doesn't. He now is complaining of a fiery feeling in his feel - he says he can feel the vibration in his legs and arms. He's counting the days to when he can move back into a tent.
So, while it may be all psychological, it is all very real to him. He wants to move to the middle of the Yukon just so he can get away from electricity.
Actually, they do. The same goes for off-the-shelf products you buy at places such well known computer stores. Did you ever wonder why some companies seem to get better spots for their products than others?
In the early 90's, we (a small startup company...now defunct) were going to bring a product to market for sale in a large computer store. At the time, to get our shrink-wrapped product into consumer's hands, the only place to sell it was in the large computer store chains - the internet was just starting to take off and most people didn't buy online.
The price at the time was about $250,000 year for a decent spot on the shelf - more if we wanted a highly visible end spot. Our business plan had us breaking even around year 5. You do the math. For a small, 2 man startup, that was some serious cash even before we factored in paying ourselves and making a living.
Perhaps, today, the prices have gone down due to competition from online stores. But, at the time, it was THE only way to go.
"Otherwise, Ciphire Labs does not forward, sell, rent, loan, trade, or lease any personal information collected at our web site or via use of Ciphire software, including email lists, to any third party, except Ciphire Labs affiliates, without the expressed consent of the user."
Who, exactly are "Ciphire labs affiliates"?
I would expect to see a full list of affiliates as a condition prior giving them my personal e-mail address.
And, I would want a mechanism to prevent disclosure to new "affiliates" in addition to a way to opt-out.
I think I'd be pretty peeved if Spamford Wallace joined their ranks as an affiliate.
Perhaps, it was just a Freudian slip? Then again...
It's amazing how easy it is to write something, proof it and still overlook basic spelling and grammatical errors. The brain has a way of filling in overt ommissions and making us blind to such things.
Ideally, one should write something, put it away for a few days, and then proof the document. But, hey, it's/. !!!
But, after your bank accounts have been drained and your credit cards taken to their limits, you might wish you were dead.
I had my identity stolen a couple of years ago. Buggers were allowed to open up accounts are large department stores without even a cursory check on their ID or validation of the info they put on the applications.
Fortunately, one of the stores called to "verify" that I had opened an account and, as such, I was altered to the problem.
My information quickly travelled ( less than a week) across several states very with one store being a a relatively local store (two towns over). They had a picture of the individual (who is not even the same ethnicity or race as I). At one store, they purchaed $5,500 worth of computer and AV equipment and, of course, a protection plan. They do that to lower the red flag of a high value purchase = seems more legitimate. Wish it had been me who bought the stuff...it was good stuff (HDTV monitor and decent PC's).
Because, in the end, I suffered no actual loss (just a lot of aggravation), the police did a quick investigation and closed it. To my knowledge, they didn't catch the guy(s). But, I put a block on my credit and it didn't take too long to get my credit report straightend out. I now keep the various credit company's fraud help line numbers handy and shred personal and financial correspondance before it goes in the trash.
It could have, easily, been far worse and damaging.
Did they get the info from my PC? Possibly, but not likely. More likely, they got my info from the trash or through a compromised vendor.
Since then, I have been overly compusive about scanning my systems for viruses and spyware. And, I run Firefox. Amazing what a difference THAT makes in reducing spyware.
Actually, Borland did try the $99 personal version a couple of years ago. Like Kylix, it wasn't a profitable revenue stream and so it was dropped for something more lucrative -.Net
With Kylix, I think they erred by not doing a true native port and, instead, used WINE. Their compiler is very good. And, they tried to create (and succeeded) a cross platform library (CLX) that would run on both Win32 and Linux (they used Qt). And, they offered Kylix Personal for free. But, the end product (the IDE) was just too slow.
So, in the end, the market just wasn't there for the product. I have to wonder if they got a whiff of the SCO lawsuit and realized that until IT is resolved, corporations may be less willing to invest money in development tools for Linux.
RD
Re:Languages die for a reason
on
Delphi Renaissance
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· Score: 2, Informative
Why do you assume there are "countless superior" languages out there? Have you ever tried programming in Delphi's dialect of Pascal?
I program in a variety of languages. However, I became a Delphi convert when Delphi was first released. And, I still am a Delphi convert today and it is my tool of choice for Win32 programming.
As another post points out, Delphi is, and still remainds, a superior IDE, a very fast and optimizing compiler, a wide range of tools and components (VCL and CLX based) and decent. The "Delphi" language is merely the latest incarnation of Object Pascal. It is not Turbo Pascal -- it has evolved far beyond that.
The Delphi environment makes RAD programming possible with its compiler, debugger and visual editor symbiotically working together. Other tool developers (even MS) try to mimic the seemlessness of the environment and, for the most part, fail. MS went so far as to recruit the lead developer behind Delphi..Net works because of that move.
Until just recently, Kylix broght the power of the Delphi to the Linux community. Unfortunately, it wasn't a success there..Net, however, is proving to be a very lucrative venture and fit into the Delphi paradime. Borland now offers several languages targeting the.Net environment in Delphi 8/Delphi 2005. The weakness, in my opinion anyway, is that the class libraries are still base on WinForm. That makes it relatively difficult to port to Mono at this time. I hope we see a change there soon.
The bottom line is that Delphi is make resurgence because people see the advantages of such a development environment and the popularity and pervasiveness of.Net.
Just the other day, I read an article regarding research where the tongue was used to provide an alternative sensory input to compensate for the damage caused to a woman's vestibular system. Similar experiments have been done to replace hearing as well as sight (except the back was used).
My son was hit with meningitis when he was 5 months old. As a result of the meningitis, he also suffered many stokes while in the hospital. We didn't know what would sort of permanent damage he sustained. Eventually, we discovered that he lost hearing in one ear, suffers from tongue appraxia (affects his speech) and lost muscle tone in his abdoment (meaning he couldn't do things like a simple situp or sit straight in a chair).
Five years later, he is still deaf in the one ear (that's permanent) his speech is improving and he has regained almost all muscle tone. He has suffered no loss of intelligience (he's actually well above "average"). The brain has an amazing ability to adapt and create new pathways to compensate for damage - especially in a brain that is still forming as his was.
With the sight experiment I mentioned above, the individual, blind from birth, had no activity in the sight center of the brain. However, when using the new sensor input, scientists began see activity in that region when before there had been none. The brain figured out that this was "visual" information and routed it accordingly.
So, given the results of these experiments, it's very possible that the stem cells created new neurons that reconnected the nerves. Then, the brain adapted to the new "wiring" configuration.
Of course, we still need to see if these results can be replicated and stand up to peer review.
Funny that this should come up as the ENIAC was a subject of conversation in our office with one individual stating that it was the first digital computer. It wasn't (there are arguments which actually came first, but it was not the ENIAC).
The ENIAC officially made the history books as becoming fully operational in 1946. For those not knowing their history, this is AFTER WWII (which ended Sept. 2, 1945 with Japnan surrendering on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay).
"The ENIAC was placed in operation at the Moore School, component by component, beginning with the cycling unit and an accumulator in June 1944. This was followed in rapid succession by the initiating unit and function tables in September 1945 and the divider and square-root unit in October 1945. Final assembly took place during the fall of 1945." see http://ftp.arl.army.mil/~mike/comphist/eniac-story.html
The question is whether or not it was completed and sctually used for meaningful work during WWII (supposedly, it was used to calculate ballistic trajectory tables). According to the Army's story, it was not. Differential Engines and calculators where the state of the art during the war. The teams that programmed those devices most certainly were then chosen to program the ENIAC. And, this is not to say that progamming the ENIAC did not begin prior to its completion.
We configure our development environments within VMWare sessions running Windows 2000. Very little is running in the base OS. By putting our work into VMWare sessions, it allows us to roll-back our environments to a known state if necessary. Source code is kept on another server using CVS.
We bring the source down each day, do our work, then commit the changes to the CVS repository. Additionally, we back up our development VMs to the network. These same (stored) VMs can be access remotely when uploaded to our VMWare GSX server through the VPN.
"Why does the password need to be 'stored' anyway? One word: support. "
Alternatively, it was placed there for law enforcement access and serves a function similar to the LEA value used with the Skipjack algorithm.
In the late 1990's, Skipjack was well on its way to finding it's way into just about everything as it provided encryption capabiity but allowed law enforcement to recover the encryption key with a court order. Then, somebody discovered a way to spoof the LEA value...the encryption remains strong, but law enforcement could not recover the key. The system died a quiet death.
By providing a mechanism to recover the password, the contents (i.e kiddie porn, illegal drug traffic, terror activities, etc) can be accessed without violating a suspects right against self incrimination.
The weakest link in a secret key encryption system is the method by which the key is stored or transmitted. If you didn't know that your password is stored on the device using Rot-13, you'd assume your data was protected by AES-256.
It might be suggested they use two rounds of ROT-13 followed by a round of ROT-26 in their next version of the product.
Trust me...it hurt..alot. Right before we retailiated by firing 10 D-powered ESTES rockets at the greenskeeper's pickup truck and unloading our freon powered BB guns at him.
Yeah..I was a kid who pissed off a golf course groundskeeper by playing "Army" on the practice green. Lucky he didn't call the cops. Still have a scar where the salt went into my hand.
Agreed. From what I've seen, health diagnostic systems typically run QNX.
This whole thing reminds me of when I worked for a small engineering firm that was developing a new device for the blood product industry. They wanted to migrate away from the tried and trust analog systems to digit. The CPUs available at the time were 8080A, 6800 and COPS. They decided to hire two "experts" and use the COPS devices.
The "experts" developed a system that met the decided functionality. But, regardless of what they tried, the systems eventually locked up and had to be powered off. After spending thousands of dollars, the asked me (a lowly Co-Op) to see what I can do with it. I wrote a COPS 400 cross compiler and emulation system. Then, I went to work. Several days later, I had removed most of the bugs in the software. The system would still lock up, it just took a lot longer.
Frustrated, we called National and spoke with an engineer who was intimately familiar with the devices. When we told him what was going on, he asked why we were using that CPU. Then, he told us that that chip series was never intended for mission critical systems - they were designed for electric car seats and talking teddybears.
Meeting the standards necessary for mission critical or life saving equipment is a costly proposition. Vendors have to choose their hardware and software carefully. And, they have to certify all components in order to meet FDA guidelines. I would venture that most diagnostic equipment companies use proved components and proven OSs such as QNX or even OS/2 - It improves reliability and eases the certification process.
The fact that ANY medical diagnostic company would develop mission critical / life saving equipment using Windows scares the hell out of me. It's like the Navy deciding to build their new DDX class using Windows NT as the OS that drives all systems. Yup, like I'd want to be on a such as ship during combat and suffer a software failure -- Adds a whole new meaning to "Blue Screen of Death".
Slashdot Mirror
"He was a high-school senior was actually 19. Well from that statement she knew she was meeting someone 3-4 years older than herself, but not 5???"
I knew several 19 year old seniors - not the brightest bulbs on the circuit - but they were 19 at graduation.
He may have been younger when he created his profile and never updated it. And, if she lied about her age, well...it's easy to see how this occurred. Tragic, but understandable.
I don't condone his actions - not in the least. And, I'm 100% in agreement with another poster that the only reason MySpace is being sued for $30M is because Solis doesn't have it. MySpace was not charged because they are not responsible for what occurred. The case should never be allowed in the first place.
Focus should be placed on the parents who may or may not have known their daughter, at age 14, was being wined and dined by someone claiming to be a high school senior. 15/16 year olds are sophopmores (i.e. 10th grade) - she was a best a freshman or still in middle school. Her parents failed her by not taking enough of a role in her life and knowing what she is doing. Some things happen, but it is possible that this could have been prevented.
As someone who's best friend's husband is now serving an all too short 59 months for having a sexual relationship with an underaged girl over a span of 5 years (she was 13/14 when it started - he was in his early 40's - he claimed he didn't know that having sex with a minor was illegal - it was a consentual relationship. Right.), I saw how easy it is for a young teen to get involved in a situation like this. As a result, my children are not permitted on the internet except to visit a few kid oriented game sights or for school oriented research. Even then, my wife and I are keenly aware of what they are doing, where they are going on the internet and who they are communicating with. Eventually, they will be allowed more freedoms as they grow older - but we will still want to take an active involvement in their lives. That's what parents are supposed to do.
RD
"...and may be sued by the copyright holders of any such code."
What a great way to ferret out all the code authors who "stole" from them - make 'em all standup so SCO can get a clean shot at them for the next round of lawsuits.
Personally, I know I will not buy this product if it provides any means of support for such an abomination of a company.
RD
http://www.walottery.com/
Last I checked, playing the lottery is a form of gambling. Their own site gives info on how to play, winning numbers, etc.
Does the law not apply to them as well?
RD
That is not what was said, your cynicism not withstanding. And, it was not about comparing apples to oranges or Delphi vs another environment - It was implied, by ommision most likely, by an earlier post that Delphi is only good for quick GUI database apps.
This one particular tool has been, unfortunately, overlooked simply because it was:
a) PASCAL-based
b) Windows-based
c) Not a Microsoft product
d) Misinformation spred by the misinformed.
e) All of the above.
This has resulted in a confusion as to what Delphi was/is and what, exactly are it's capabilities.
What was said is that, essentially, Delphi is a really good development environment that has been overlooked because of poor/naive IT management (i.e. not Microsoft and that's what the rag of the week recommends) or simply because of poor marketing (i.e Kylix snafu with the Linux community). But, the tool has evolved over the years and is far more capable than most people give it credit when deriving well constructed and performing applications for the Windows environment. That is all - nothing more.
RD
Oh, dont' even get me started!!! :-)
At my first real software engineering job in the civilian sector (circa 1992), decisions were made based upon what was in the current issue of PC Magazine. I kid you not. We also know who advertized heavily in those magazines - put two and two together - and the better technology/tool loses out.
I, personally, never cared for mySQL. We are an Oracle shop - but I still prefer Firebird for my own applications. I'd love to see it get better adoption.
PHP - Done some work there - it does have limitations and, I guess, it's ability to forgive poor programming technique (stuff still runs - maybe not as expected) is, perhaps, its weakest attribute. If you need to throw something together, it works great. But, I'd prefer to see a truly mature web programming language / framework that kicks ass and akin to the Holy Grail. Anybody know what that is?
RD
"If you want to create a straightforward GUI for a database, use Delphi."
.Net environment as well (although I don't utilize that functionality). However, in an world where .NET is pervasive, being able to leverage code and components written in Delphi for .NET with out .NET tools is an good thing.
That's a rather limited view on a very powerful tool. But, your statement is accurate as your final sentence indicates.
As a software engineer, I speak a variety of programming languages rather fluently. In the 90's, the choice in the business community was clear - C++ or Visual Basic. Then, a new tool came along and challenged that view - Delphi.
I have been now been programming in Delphi as my primary language since version 1.0 was released. Delphi was not the name of the language - Delphi was and IDE coupled with their version of an O-O PASCAL. While the language syntax is based on PASCAL (hence structured and somewhat verbose), it provided a tremendous amount of power and reliability."Mission Critical" applications became possible because of Dephi's exception handling constructs. I wrote applications in D1-D3 that simply would not break (try that with VB) - Windows (3.1,95/98 were the limitations). It provided excellent database connectivity, exception handling, RTTI, an extensible IDE and, more importantly, an excellent component model that ultimately became the basis for Jave Beans. That same component model provided opportunities for many 3rd party vendors to become successful.
Borland did have the right idea when they created Kylix for Linux - essentially Delphi for Linux. However, they blew the marking and pissed off the OSS developers. But, it is what it is. I would have loved to see them utilize GCC as the backend - oh well.
What do I use Delphi for today? I create mission critical services for the public safety sector. They integrate our company's core product (also written in Delphi) with systems and devices utilized by law enforcement. Our clients, as a general rule, are Windows shops - hence we chose the best tool for that environment. That tool was Delphi combined with some of the powerful 3rd party tools out there (like advanced NT service frameworks, Oracle connectivity tools, and TCP/IP and middle-ware technologies).
Delphi has evolved to the
Borland has had their uphill battles to fight - they weren't Microsoft and they irked the OSS/Linux community through bad marketing decisions. Too bad.
Is Delphi the best language or tool out there? Probably not - but it is far more capable than most developers have given it credit for. And, I will miss it and the Borland influence when Borland finally sells off their IDE line.
Well, that's my $0.02 worth.
Cheers,
RD
It's not that Slashdot got a language filter - rather, the original poster may have wanted to make a statement but felt awkward about using strong language - nothing wrong with that.
RD
That theory hasn't been discounted yet.
Any idea how he can minimize that?
RD
I used to think as you do on this subject. But, let me tell you that my attitude has changed since seeing my brother go through this "syndrome". Whether it's real or not, it's very real to him.
It started for him when he moved into a nice apartment atop a light industrial complex. Almost immediately, he started feeling "vibration" that none of us could feel. We attributed it to where he was living - of course there could be vibration. But, he his initial complaints grew more and more intense. He became irritable, unable to sleep and very depressed. He started complaining about pain that he was experiencing.
Eventually, he sunk so low, that he lost his job when he had an argument with another co-worker (non-physical).
He was out of work for almost a year when his money ran out - he couldn't find a job. He was forced to leave his apartment. Rather than living with us (he felt it would cause too much disruption for our family), he moved into a tent in our backyard. Amazingly, he found he could sleep. Then, the weather changed and he moved inside. I've got lots of electrical/electronic equipment going all the time - he started complaining of headaches, irritablity, depression, pain, unable to sleep - the list goes on.
This winter, he moved to Bar Harbor, Maine to concentrate on his writing. First couple of days were good - the the "hum" started. A transformer was less than 50 ft from the place he was staying. He started complaining. Then, it grew in intensity - he thought it was that he had things turned - he turned EVERYTHING off except his computer. He went from being jovial to a really nasty person. His symptoms have gotten worse - comptempating suicide. The electric company came out, said there was a problem with the transformer and replaced it. That was good until the hotel a few hundred feet away reopened. The hum grew in intensity. He becomes irrational when it starts. Nobody else can feel it - but you can hear it if you go outside. At times, when the hum stoppes (somewhat predicatable), he returns to normal. When it's on (most of the time), he can work.
When he's on the cordless phone (supplied by his landlords), if he gets near the window, the hum can be heard in the phone and he loses the connection.
He spent what little he had to go there and work on his writing. There is no place for him to go. He's slowly going crazy - it's very hard to watch. And, it's all documented, in about 10,000 (yes, that's right) email messages. There are definite patterns when he has problems and when he doesn't. He now is complaining of a fiery feeling in his feel - he says he can feel the vibration in his legs and arms. He's counting the days to when he can move back into a tent.
So, while it may be all psychological, it is all very real to him. He wants to move to the middle of the Yukon just so he can get away from electricity.
RD
We're talking about the Patent Office, right?
Actually, they do. The same goes for off-the-shelf products you buy at places such well known computer stores. Did you ever wonder why some companies seem to get better spots for their products than others?
In the early 90's, we (a small startup company...now defunct) were going to bring a product to market for sale in a large computer store. At the time, to get our shrink-wrapped product into consumer's hands, the only place to sell it was in the large computer store chains - the internet was just starting to take off and most people didn't buy online.
The price at the time was about $250,000 year for a decent spot on the shelf - more if we wanted a highly visible end spot. Our business plan had us breaking even around year 5. You do the math. For a small, 2 man startup, that was some serious cash even before we factored in paying ourselves and making a living.
Perhaps, today, the prices have gone down due to competition from online stores. But, at the time, it was THE only way to go.
RD
From their Privacy Policy
"Otherwise, Ciphire Labs does not forward, sell, rent, loan, trade, or lease any personal information collected at our web site or via use of Ciphire software, including email lists, to any third party, except Ciphire Labs affiliates, without the expressed consent of the user."
Who, exactly are "Ciphire labs affiliates"?
I would expect to see a full list of affiliates as a condition prior giving them my personal e-mail address.
And, I would want a mechanism to prevent disclosure to new "affiliates" in addition to a way to opt-out.
I think I'd be pretty peeved if Spamford Wallace joined their ranks as an affiliate.
RD
Wouldn't it suck to be out there for 139 days, only to arrive at the ticket window, and realize you spent all your money on Snickers and Coke.
--
Oh...the pain....the pain...
Dr. Zachary Smith
Require encrypted e-mail to have a digital signature. If the sender is who they say they are, then you will be able to verify the signature.
If they aren't, the signature is bad and you can just delete it.
Or, if the signature matches but is on your black list, again, you can just delete it.
Best part is never having to see what it was they were sending you in the first place as it is encrypted (unless you want to).
SPAM problem solved.
Maybe.
The trick is get a distributed key respository so that one doesn't get abused or subject to a DDOS.
Who's willing to fund that?
It's better than having Internet access *TO* the CIA...
RD
Perhaps, it was just a Freudian slip? Then again...
/. !!!
It's amazing how easy it is to write something, proof it and still overlook basic spelling and grammatical errors. The brain has a way of filling in overt ommissions and making us blind to such things.
Ideally, one should write something, put it away for a few days, and then proof the document. But, hey, it's
Cheers!
RD
Spyware won't kill you directly.
But, after your bank accounts have been drained and your credit cards taken to their limits, you might wish you were dead.
I had my identity stolen a couple of years ago. Buggers were allowed to open up accounts are large department stores without even a cursory check on their ID or validation of the info they put on the applications.
Fortunately, one of the stores called to "verify" that I had opened an account and, as such, I was altered to the problem.
My information quickly travelled ( less than a week) across several states very with one store being a a relatively local store (two towns over). They had a picture of the individual (who is not even the same ethnicity or race as I). At one store, they purchaed $5,500 worth of computer and AV equipment and, of course, a protection plan. They do that to lower the red flag of a high value purchase = seems more legitimate. Wish it had been me who bought the stuff...it was good stuff (HDTV monitor and decent PC's).
Because, in the end, I suffered no actual loss (just a lot of aggravation), the police did a quick investigation and closed it. To my knowledge, they didn't catch the guy(s). But, I put a block on my credit and it didn't take too long to get my credit report straightend out. I now keep the various credit company's fraud help line numbers handy and shred personal and financial correspondance before it goes in the trash.
It could have, easily, been far worse and damaging.
Did they get the info from my PC? Possibly, but not likely. More likely, they got my info from the trash or through a compromised vendor.
Since then, I have been overly compusive about scanning my systems for viruses and spyware. And, I run Firefox. Amazing what a difference THAT makes in reducing spyware.
RD
Actually, Borland did try the $99 personal version a couple of years ago. Like Kylix, it wasn't a profitable revenue stream and so it was dropped for something more lucrative - .Net
With Kylix, I think they erred by not doing a true native port and, instead, used WINE. Their compiler is very good. And, they tried to create (and succeeded) a cross platform library (CLX) that would run on both Win32 and Linux (they used Qt). And, they offered Kylix Personal for free. But, the end product (the IDE) was just too slow.
So, in the end, the market just wasn't there for the product. I have to wonder if they got a whiff of the SCO lawsuit and realized that until IT is resolved, corporations may be less willing to invest money in development tools for Linux.
RD
Why do you assume there are "countless superior" languages out there? Have you ever tried programming in Delphi's dialect of Pascal?
.Net works because of that move.
.Net, however, is proving to be a very lucrative venture and fit into the Delphi paradime. Borland now offers several languages targeting the .Net environment in Delphi 8/Delphi 2005. The weakness, in my opinion anyway, is that the class libraries are still base on WinForm. That makes it relatively difficult to port to Mono at this time. I hope we see a change there soon.
.Net.
I program in a variety of languages. However, I became a Delphi convert when Delphi was first released. And, I still am a Delphi convert today and it is my tool of choice for Win32 programming.
As another post points out, Delphi is, and still remainds, a superior IDE, a very fast and optimizing compiler, a wide range of tools and components (VCL and CLX based) and decent. The "Delphi" language is merely the latest incarnation of Object Pascal. It is not Turbo Pascal -- it has evolved far beyond that.
The Delphi environment makes RAD programming possible with its compiler, debugger and visual editor symbiotically working together. Other tool developers (even MS) try to mimic the seemlessness of the environment and, for the most part, fail. MS went so far as to recruit the lead developer behind Delphi.
Until just recently, Kylix broght the power of the Delphi to the Linux community. Unfortunately, it wasn't a success there.
The bottom line is that Delphi is make resurgence because people see the advantages of such a development environment and the popularity and pervasiveness of
RD
Just the other day, I read an article regarding research where the tongue was used to provide an alternative sensory input to compensate for the damage caused to a woman's vestibular system. Similar experiments have been done to replace hearing as well as sight (except the back was used).
My son was hit with meningitis when he was 5 months old. As a result of the meningitis, he also suffered many stokes while in the hospital. We didn't know what would sort of permanent damage he sustained. Eventually, we discovered that he lost hearing in one ear, suffers from tongue appraxia (affects his speech) and lost muscle tone in his abdoment (meaning he couldn't do things like a simple situp or sit straight in a chair).
Five years later, he is still deaf in the one ear (that's permanent) his speech is improving and he has regained almost all muscle tone. He has suffered no loss of intelligience (he's actually well above "average"). The brain has an amazing ability to adapt and create new pathways to compensate for damage - especially in a brain that is still forming as his was.
With the sight experiment I mentioned above, the individual, blind from birth, had no activity in the sight center of the brain. However, when using the new sensor input, scientists began see activity in that region when before there had been none. The brain figured out that this was "visual" information and routed it accordingly.
So, given the results of these experiments, it's very possible that the stem cells created new neurons that reconnected the nerves. Then, the brain adapted to the new "wiring" configuration.
Of course, we still need to see if these results can be replicated and stand up to peer review.
RD
Funny that this should come up as the ENIAC was a subject of conversation in our office with one individual stating that it was the first digital computer. It wasn't (there are arguments which actually came first, but it was not the ENIAC).
y .html
The ENIAC officially made the history books as becoming fully operational in 1946. For those not knowing their history, this is AFTER WWII (which ended Sept. 2, 1945 with Japnan surrendering on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay).
"The ENIAC was placed in operation at the Moore School, component by component, beginning with the cycling unit and an accumulator in June 1944. This was followed in rapid succession by the initiating unit and function tables in September 1945 and the divider and square-root unit in October 1945. Final assembly took place during the fall of 1945." see http://ftp.arl.army.mil/~mike/comphist/eniac-stor
The question is whether or not it was completed and sctually used for meaningful work during WWII (supposedly, it was used to calculate ballistic trajectory tables). According to the Army's story, it was not. Differential Engines and calculators where the state of the art during the war. The teams that programmed those devices most certainly were then chosen to program the ENIAC. And, this is not to say that progamming the ENIAC did not begin prior to its completion.
RD
We're a Borland Delphi / Oracle shop.
We configure our development environments within VMWare sessions running Windows 2000. Very little is running in the base OS. By putting our work into VMWare sessions, it allows us to roll-back our environments to a known state if necessary. Source code is kept on another server using CVS.
We bring the source down each day, do our work, then commit the changes to the CVS repository. Additionally, we back up our development VMs to the network. These same (stored) VMs can be access remotely when uploaded to our VMWare GSX server through the VPN.
This configuration has worked really well for us.
"Why does the password need to be 'stored' anyway?
One word: support. "
Alternatively, it was placed there for law enforcement access and serves a function similar to the LEA value used with the Skipjack algorithm.
In the late 1990's, Skipjack was well on its way to finding it's way into just about everything as it provided encryption capabiity but allowed law enforcement to recover the encryption key with a court order. Then, somebody discovered a way to spoof the LEA value...the encryption remains strong, but law enforcement could not recover the key. The system died a quiet death.
By providing a mechanism to recover the password, the contents (i.e kiddie porn, illegal drug traffic, terror activities, etc) can be accessed without violating a suspects right against self incrimination.
The weakest link in a secret key encryption system is the method by which the key is stored or transmitted. If you didn't know that your password is stored on the device using Rot-13, you'd assume your data was protected by AES-256.
It might be suggested they use two rounds of ROT-13 followed by a round of ROT-26 in their next version of the product.
Trust me...it hurt..alot. Right before we retailiated by firing 10 D-powered ESTES rockets at the greenskeeper's pickup truck and unloading our freon powered BB guns at him.
Yeah..I was a kid who pissed off a golf course groundskeeper by playing "Army" on the practice green. Lucky he didn't call the cops. Still have a scar where the salt went into my hand.
Agreed. From what I've seen, health diagnostic systems typically run QNX.
This whole thing reminds me of when I worked for a small engineering firm that was developing a new device for the blood product industry. They wanted to migrate away from the tried and trust analog systems to digit. The CPUs available at the time were 8080A, 6800 and COPS. They decided to hire two "experts" and use the COPS devices.
The "experts" developed a system that met the decided functionality. But, regardless of what they tried, the systems eventually locked up and had to be powered off. After spending thousands of dollars, the asked me (a lowly Co-Op) to see what I can do with it. I wrote a COPS 400 cross compiler and emulation system. Then, I went to work. Several days later, I had removed most of the bugs in the software. The system would still lock up, it just took a lot longer.
Frustrated, we called National and spoke with an engineer who was intimately familiar with the devices. When we told him what was going on, he asked why we were using that CPU. Then, he told us that that chip series was never intended for mission critical systems - they were designed for electric car seats and talking teddybears.
Meeting the standards necessary for mission critical or life saving equipment is a costly proposition. Vendors have to choose their hardware and software carefully. And, they have to certify all components in order to meet FDA guidelines. I would venture that most diagnostic equipment companies use proved components and proven OSs such as QNX or even OS/2 - It improves reliability and eases the certification process.
The fact that ANY medical diagnostic company would develop mission critical / life saving equipment using Windows scares the hell out of me. It's like the Navy deciding to build their new DDX class using Windows NT as the OS that drives all systems. Yup, like I'd want to be on a such as ship during combat and suffer a software failure -- Adds a whole new meaning to "Blue Screen of Death".
RD