Just consider that email addresses are a public affair.
Sometimes you want a new email address for each service you register to and by that be able to track mail harvesters if you feel like that.
The easiest way is to have a junk email address that you already get spam on when you register at various sites and then let the junk filter take care of the worst.
And expect spammers to use a lot of various techniques to circumvent obfuscation. It's all about pattern matching - and adding a lot of standard names like 'john' when flooding a site.
iPhone is the LAST phone that I would select for that. And I also suspect that if you succeed in porting Java to the iPhone Apple will blacklist that really soon since it will be in conflict with the developer license.
SonyEricsson, Nokia or any Windows Mobile phone should be fine. Operator branded phones may be lobotomized from the prospect of installing apps on them.
Why do you want a Microsoft SQL server anyway? (/ducks/)
Anyway - by using an application frontend to the database you will be able to do sanity checks on the access to the database thereby lowering the risk of inappropriate access to the database.
I once worked at a site where they had the old teletype console, classic phosphorous tektronix terminals and an IBM System 7 computer. It was so old that it had hex wheels and bulbs (not LED:s) as indicators.
The last 10 years or so of the service of that machine they weren't even able to get a good answer from IBM when they asked for help.
Considering the speed at which the interfaces of computers comes and goes I suspect that even SATA (or compatible variant) will be obsolete by a decade when it's time to read the disks.
And even if the electrical specification is the same will the command level be compatible?
Who remembers or have worked with ST412/ST506, IPI-2, SASI or ESDI?
Sounds like the old scam that occurred in the end of the 80's.
A piece of software that was installed on MS-DOS claiming to increase the amount of available memory but all it did was to change how much free memory that was reported.
You will get better bang for the bucks with better written applications.
The only reasons that they may build a chip for x86 (64-bit or not) would be to either use it for a special application or as a proof of concept.
A GPU and a CPU are different, but it may be a way to test if a GPU architecture can be applied to a CPU with a classic instruction set. The next step is to sell the knowledge to the highest bidder.
But sure - our ordinary computers are relatively standardized today, so why can't the mobile phones be standardized at least on a hardware interface level.
Of course it's claimed to be about money - each manufacturer wants to make extra money from additional gadgets to the phone. (or like Apple and the iPod). This was the same with early computer systems, up to about the beginning of the 80's.
As I see it - we are still in the beginning of the mobile phone era. The computer era is maturing while the mobile phone era is in it's teens. In a few decades we will probably have only two or three mobile phone manufacturers left and one or two major operating systems on them.
A contributing factor is that the telecom operators does not want an open platform for us to use, which means that we as consumers are less in control of what we get than we are of our computers. But unfortunately our computers seems to have a tendency to also become a lot more closed by the use of TPM chips and integration of them with operating systems that essentially can allow a hardware manufacturer to enforce which operating system we shall use.
From all that I predict that many manufacturers sees the remaining world as pure consumers of their products and don't really care about how to let us adapt our devices to what we really want or need. Just look at Apple and the iPhone.
It really makes sense, and it is also possible that insects can play a role too. Cows does suffer from flies and other insects that are more bloodthirsty and by facing in a specific direction they may actually be less disturbed by the insects.
But as usual - there are many issues that can influence the pattern, and it may well be a combination of issues.
A version control system is critical to have, and to document what your processes are when developing software is the second part of the process.
Impose a coding standard where some outlines for coding style is provided, but more for the sake of how to maintain the code quality. Compiler warnings shall be at an absolute minimum, utilization of compiler safeguards shall be used whenever possible. Enforcing "Option Explicit" in VB for example.
For version control - go for a simple solution like CVS or SVN. SourceSafe isn't really safe... It has a tendency to drop files if the area where you check in files on suffers from a full disk.
But there is no support at all from management when it comes to safe software development it may be time to drop the issue and say that "we need to buy some software here" and hire a consultant company for that. Then it starts to get expensive and wrong unless you get the right people...
Last option is to leave ship and leave the sources in an unstructured order without any useful documentation. Then wait and see if someone comes back asking you politely for help. If you aren't alone bring your coworkers with you too. There are always companies looking for people with skills.
The CEO/President shall be ultimately responsible for all legal trouble that a company finds itself in or are contributing to.
The board of directors may also take the punch.
Heads of IT department may or may not be responsible, but it is important for that person to get his/her back clean by requiring things in writing whenever security is relaxed by directive from above. This is also something for employees to be concerned with.
Considering that LED:s are encapsulated items and the amount of GaAs in them is very small it will be an issue first when they are destructed in large numbers.
And since electronics shall be recycled at special plants this is not too hard to handle. Electronics also contains a lot of other nasty chemicals that are far more likely to be dangerous. Flame retardant materials in PCB:s, electrolytic capacitors, lead in solder and other items (it's just lately we did get lead-free solder), the liquid in our LCD:s is poisonous to name a few issues that are of more concern.
The most important thing about a president is to recognize that that person is a figurehead. The transition from Nixon to Ford changed the president from being a colorful driving person to a gray eminence - but on the other hand, it was probably a good idea to not stand out too much after the Watergate event.
Personally I think that the government of the US has been overdoing it's way after 9/11 by being far too paranoid. This with a no-fly list that also traps innocent people (at least innocent of terrorism, they may have other things to be guilty about, but that's a different issue) just because they happen to have the same name as another person suspected of involvement with terrorism.
The big problem with McCain will be that a lot of the advisors and other people behind the scene will remain the same or continue in the same tracks as before. A change of government party will at least shave off a bit and also make some people think twice before acting.
It's very easy for a state to grow into a police state. Just be aware about the laptop searches and a lot of other things that will affect many of us. It's called democracy but sometimes I start to doubt it when I hear and see what is going on. Laws are made to be used as excuses for actions that were unthinkable 20 years ago. (Patriot act, DMCA...)
And if nothing else - you can always call on the pedophile scare and blow the reputation of a person completely.
So even if Obama has his faults he also have the advantage of being flexible and relatively unblemished by scandals. Experience is something you build by time, but by selecting Joe Biden he will have someone that's really experienced behind him.
As for Hillary Clinton, I suspect that she can do a good work in another prominent position, like secretary of state. But that has of course to be decided after the election, given that Obama is elected.
For McCain it's also likely that he will only be in office for one term, but it's of course not certain. His age is a disadvantage here, and even if he is healthy now (or at least appears to be) things can deteriorate quickly at his age.
And Obama is also running the risk of being a one term president, mostly since there are a lot of cleaning to do after Bush. A lot of uncomfortable decisions to make, and a lot of people to piss off. I have a suspicion that there will be changes when it comes to taxes to clean up the shortcomings of the Iraq events. It's not a task that I would like to have on my desk, but some things just have to be done. Maybe he should hire Mike Rowe and make a Dirty Jobs episode of it?:-)
And regardless of who becomes president - you will have to accept that that person can embarrass himself on some occasions. But don't let that be something to decide who to vote for, just accept it and let it be a good joke afterwards. Like someone said about the Lewinsky affair - "I'd rather have my president happy than frustrated".
Considering the vast variety of conditions where life exists on earth I would consider it likely that there is life elsewhere too.
And with life - it may be completely different from the life we know about, but if there is life it is single-cell organisms that we should expect.
Even here on earth we have bacteria that actually thrives in environments that would kill most other forms of life. All the way from extremely acid environment that easily would tear through human flesh to high temperatures well above the boiling point and radiation so hard that it cracks the DNA in the cells - which the bacteria resolves by joining it together again with processes still unknown. And freezing bacteria will just suspend them or make them behave in slow motion.
In any atmosphere where there is complex molecules - especially amino acids - there is a potential for life remotely similar to us on a cellular level. But of course - there may be life in completely different forms with completely different timespans, maybe so long that we wouldn't recognize it as life.
The article is really a nerd article, and now we all have a challenge!
What is YOUR software solution to solve Soduku puzzles? Think outside the box, or go for the classic brute force method.
I would think about using languages like Erlang or Prolog to solve the problem, but classic languages with iterating over the alternatives will do also. Pick your poison!
I have only one reasonable application where it may be useful, and that is in info kiosks like the ones you can find at malls and in some shops like Barnes&Noble.
Some kid's games may also benefit from the touch screen, but that's a different issue. And for kids you will need a computer resilient against just about anything a kid can do to the computer which means that it has to be able to withstand being run over by a truck or a tank and still have a working touchscreen.
But as you say - the need for precision makes touchscreens very inconvenient. That's why most PDA:s have a pen for input control.
Slashdot Mirror
Just consider that email addresses are a public affair.
Sometimes you want a new email address for each service you register to and by that be able to track mail harvesters if you feel like that.
The easiest way is to have a junk email address that you already get spam on when you register at various sites and then let the junk filter take care of the worst.
And expect spammers to use a lot of various techniques to circumvent obfuscation. It's all about pattern matching - and adding a lot of standard names like 'john' when flooding a site.
And you have to buy a Mac to develop them.
iPhone is the LAST phone that I would select for that. And I also suspect that if you succeed in porting Java to the iPhone Apple will blacklist that really soon since it will be in conflict with the developer license.
SonyEricsson, Nokia or any Windows Mobile phone should be fine. Operator branded phones may be lobotomized from the prospect of installing apps on them.
Why do you want a Microsoft SQL server anyway? (/ducks/)
Anyway - by using an application frontend to the database you will be able to do sanity checks on the access to the database thereby lowering the risk of inappropriate access to the database.
I once worked at a site where they had the old teletype console, classic phosphorous tektronix terminals and an IBM System 7 computer. It was so old that it had hex wheels and bulbs (not LED:s) as indicators.
The last 10 years or so of the service of that machine they weren't even able to get a good answer from IBM when they asked for help.
Considering the speed at which the interfaces of computers comes and goes I suspect that even SATA (or compatible variant) will be obsolete by a decade when it's time to read the disks.
And even if the electrical specification is the same will the command level be compatible?
Who remembers or have worked with ST412/ST506, IPI-2, SASI or ESDI?
And then you have the Jack PC that fits into an ordinary wall outlet box. (Round type, not the rectangular type)
Sounds like the old scam that occurred in the end of the 80's.
A piece of software that was installed on MS-DOS claiming to increase the amount of available memory but all it did was to change how much free memory that was reported.
You will get better bang for the bucks with better written applications.
The only reasons that they may build a chip for x86 (64-bit or not) would be to either use it for a special application or as a proof of concept.
A GPU and a CPU are different, but it may be a way to test if a GPU architecture can be applied to a CPU with a classic instruction set. The next step is to sell the knowledge to the highest bidder.
To compete with Intel would just be futile.
"ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ"
is what I get...
But sure - our ordinary computers are relatively standardized today, so why can't the mobile phones be standardized at least on a hardware interface level.
Of course it's claimed to be about money - each manufacturer wants to make extra money from additional gadgets to the phone. (or like Apple and the iPod). This was the same with early computer systems, up to about the beginning of the 80's.
As I see it - we are still in the beginning of the mobile phone era. The computer era is maturing while the mobile phone era is in it's teens. In a few decades we will probably have only two or three mobile phone manufacturers left and one or two major operating systems on them.
A contributing factor is that the telecom operators does not want an open platform for us to use, which means that we as consumers are less in control of what we get than we are of our computers. But unfortunately our computers seems to have a tendency to also become a lot more closed by the use of TPM chips and integration of them with operating systems that essentially can allow a hardware manufacturer to enforce which operating system we shall use.
From all that I predict that many manufacturers sees the remaining world as pure consumers of their products and don't really care about how to let us adapt our devices to what we really want or need. Just look at Apple and the iPhone.
Cows are extremely curious so just by showing up in the perimeter of where they are located you will influence the pattern you want to study.
It really makes sense, and it is also possible that insects can play a role too. Cows does suffer from flies and other insects that are more bloodthirsty and by facing in a specific direction they may actually be less disturbed by the insects.
But as usual - there are many issues that can influence the pattern, and it may well be a combination of issues.
Just make sure that we add a few names to the list, George Bush, Dick Cheney etc... And we'll see what happens!
That's not unique for Canada. We have it here in Europe too.
But it is also possible to use it to track back to the owner of the car.
Hardly surprising for anybody in the business of computers and wireless devices.
If it's possible to hack - it will be hacked.
Another way to keep under the radar is to pay cash.
There are cameras at the toll booths, but they aren't a big problem for anybody with some simple skills.
If the user has control over what's blocked or not then it can be a really good feature to block a lot of junk on the net.
But if the control is in the hands of Microsoft it may result in a lot of strange things and biased results.
A version control system is critical to have, and to document what your processes are when developing software is the second part of the process.
Impose a coding standard where some outlines for coding style is provided, but more for the sake of how to maintain the code quality. Compiler warnings shall be at an absolute minimum, utilization of compiler safeguards shall be used whenever possible. Enforcing "Option Explicit" in VB for example.
For version control - go for a simple solution like CVS or SVN. SourceSafe isn't really safe... It has a tendency to drop files if the area where you check in files on suffers from a full disk.
But there is no support at all from management when it comes to safe software development it may be time to drop the issue and say that "we need to buy some software here" and hire a consultant company for that. Then it starts to get expensive and wrong unless you get the right people...
Last option is to leave ship and leave the sources in an unstructured order without any useful documentation. Then wait and see if someone comes back asking you politely for help. If you aren't alone bring your coworkers with you too. There are always companies looking for people with skills.
The CEO/President shall be ultimately responsible for all legal trouble that a company finds itself in or are contributing to.
The board of directors may also take the punch.
Heads of IT department may or may not be responsible, but it is important for that person to get his/her back clean by requiring things in writing whenever security is relaxed by directive from above. This is also something for employees to be concerned with.
Another issue is then - was he really aware of the fact that the game devices contained illegally loaded games.
Considering that LED:s are encapsulated items and the amount of GaAs in them is very small it will be an issue first when they are destructed in large numbers.
And since electronics shall be recycled at special plants this is not too hard to handle. Electronics also contains a lot of other nasty chemicals that are far more likely to be dangerous. Flame retardant materials in PCB:s, electrolytic capacitors, lead in solder and other items (it's just lately we did get lead-free solder), the liquid in our LCD:s is poisonous to name a few issues that are of more concern.
The most important thing about a president is to recognize that that person is a figurehead. The transition from Nixon to Ford changed the president from being a colorful driving person to a gray eminence - but on the other hand, it was probably a good idea to not stand out too much after the Watergate event.
Personally I think that the government of the US has been overdoing it's way after 9/11 by being far too paranoid. This with a no-fly list that also traps innocent people (at least innocent of terrorism, they may have other things to be guilty about, but that's a different issue) just because they happen to have the same name as another person suspected of involvement with terrorism.
The big problem with McCain will be that a lot of the advisors and other people behind the scene will remain the same or continue in the same tracks as before. A change of government party will at least shave off a bit and also make some people think twice before acting.
It's very easy for a state to grow into a police state. Just be aware about the laptop searches and a lot of other things that will affect many of us. It's called democracy but sometimes I start to doubt it when I hear and see what is going on. Laws are made to be used as excuses for actions that were unthinkable 20 years ago. (Patriot act, DMCA...)
And if nothing else - you can always call on the pedophile scare and blow the reputation of a person completely.
So even if Obama has his faults he also have the advantage of being flexible and relatively unblemished by scandals. Experience is something you build by time, but by selecting Joe Biden he will have someone that's really experienced behind him.
As for Hillary Clinton, I suspect that she can do a good work in another prominent position, like secretary of state. But that has of course to be decided after the election, given that Obama is elected.
For McCain it's also likely that he will only be in office for one term, but it's of course not certain. His age is a disadvantage here, and even if he is healthy now (or at least appears to be) things can deteriorate quickly at his age.
And Obama is also running the risk of being a one term president, mostly since there are a lot of cleaning to do after Bush. A lot of uncomfortable decisions to make, and a lot of people to piss off. I have a suspicion that there will be changes when it comes to taxes to clean up the shortcomings of the Iraq events. It's not a task that I would like to have on my desk, but some things just have to be done. Maybe he should hire Mike Rowe and make a Dirty Jobs episode of it? :-)
And regardless of who becomes president - you will have to accept that that person can embarrass himself on some occasions. But don't let that be something to decide who to vote for, just accept it and let it be a good joke afterwards. Like someone said about the Lewinsky affair - "I'd rather have my president happy than frustrated".
Considering the vast variety of conditions where life exists on earth I would consider it likely that there is life elsewhere too.
And with life - it may be completely different from the life we know about, but if there is life it is single-cell organisms that we should expect.
Even here on earth we have bacteria that actually thrives in environments that would kill most other forms of life. All the way from extremely acid environment that easily would tear through human flesh to high temperatures well above the boiling point and radiation so hard that it cracks the DNA in the cells - which the bacteria resolves by joining it together again with processes still unknown. And freezing bacteria will just suspend them or make them behave in slow motion.
In any atmosphere where there is complex molecules - especially amino acids - there is a potential for life remotely similar to us on a cellular level. But of course - there may be life in completely different forms with completely different timespans, maybe so long that we wouldn't recognize it as life.
The article is really a nerd article, and now we all have a challenge!
What is YOUR software solution to solve Soduku puzzles? Think outside the box, or go for the classic brute force method.
I would think about using languages like Erlang or Prolog to solve the problem, but classic languages with iterating over the alternatives will do also. Pick your poison!
I have only one reasonable application where it may be useful, and that is in info kiosks like the ones you can find at malls and in some shops like Barnes&Noble.
Some kid's games may also benefit from the touch screen, but that's a different issue. And for kids you will need a computer resilient against just about anything a kid can do to the computer which means that it has to be able to withstand being run over by a truck or a tank and still have a working touchscreen.
But as you say - the need for precision makes touchscreens very inconvenient. That's why most PDA:s have a pen for input control.
That will be something to see on CSI.