When this ebay/skype deal went down I mentioned here on SD that is was just a way to get skype into the hands of a company under US jurisdiction. Take that a step further: Put it into the hands of a company that can be bought.
I got modded interesting +3 before -- now maybe I will get +5
OK, I have to put in on this.
This whole 80 character line length is arcane bullshit. 80 character line lengths come from the time of C programming, mainframe punch cards and vt100 displays. Mainframe punch cards had a maximum length of 80 chars. vt100 and VGA disaplays were 80x60 displays and so it made things easier. At the time, many compilers couldn't handle more than 80 char lines.
Fast forward. In java today you have:
public static synchronized List > getSomethingStupid( Map >, Set >) throws LifecycleException.Fatal, IOException {
Don't be a tool. With all the exceptions, qualifiers and generics being used in modern java an 80 character line length is not only a relic of the past, it's counter productive because it produces utterly unnatural code. Oh, and PS, my 1280x768 display can handle a bit more than that
Rest assured your compiler can handle it.
You might say: Well, that is just poorly written code. I would agree, but it's code that's 1) legacy or 2) written by one of my current teammates who is far too impressed with his 2 years of experience and degree from an overpriced university. As it is written by someone self important that I work with I have to simply deal with it since I can't just bitch slap him.
tabs v spaces -- I don't care; my editor displays both nicely. Curly brace on same line as method signature. Again, don't care. All of that I have gotten use to in 10 years. It wasn't until I got to the team I am on that bad code, self-importance AND 80 character Nazis all got rolled into 1 code base.
Every website you visit should start encrypting it's data -- hell, even with self-signed certs. Simply to prevent this kind of tampering. That it also acts as a huge impediment to eavesdropping is a big bonus too.
Google, why don't you take the lead on this?
In 10 years of experience in the IT world I can tell you that the only person who cares that you went to ABC is.... YOU! No one has even once asked me where I went. And the big name guys I have worked with varied from 'ok' to 'smart but can't get past O(N)'
Those later guys have told me the details are more important than the design and always make shit 100x more complicated than it needs to be.
Also, if it isn't tech related they don't know anything about it. I am not sure why that is and it's anecdotal.
And besides, there are WAY more chicks at a LA school. Not all of your lessons wil come from a book. Remember that. Go for an LA school with a big tech program.
What is really costs are inbound packets from transit networks. Reduce those and you drastically reduce costs. Keep it on the same network entirely and it's essentially free.
Also observe that, given a choice, any network client would prefer a 'closer' connection -- less hops, less latency, fewer chance of problems, etc.
The two are NOT mutually exclusive and some carriers are getting the picture. What they need to do is share routing information in some sort of standardized, publicly available way. Think DNS but for network topology.
So, you start up your BT client, it queries the service for routing information before beginning a torrent, and always preferrs closer packets. protocols already exist for selecting routes and hosts based on "priority".
Now, publishing network topology is akin to the RIAA removing DRM. It will make them nervous as hell!
And, ultimately ISPs want a bigger slice of the pie, not to just be better ISPs. They want control because control is what they can charge for.
Amen to that! Stroustrup can go fuck himself. He wrote the language and it's being displaced. No wonder he has his panties in a twist. Here are the fundamental problems with C++ that have zilch to do with memory or speed:
1) Maintainability --
-Modern enterprise software environments grow to dozens of moving systems using all sorts of standards. C++ contains no default implementations for any modern technology. Arguments to "Well, that's not part of the language" is pure crap. No one cares. People care about getting things done fast not reinventing the wheel
-Where I work we have enterprise C++ apps and they are the laughing stock of the company. Sadly, they are also at it's core. All of our C++ apps, without exception, require a nanny process to kill em when they hemorage too much memory. These apps when compiled form a 2gb binary!
-Managing code scalability is a nightmare too. a C++ app with 40 CPP files is all cute and nice for a PhD project, but when they are 2000+ files in size they can't be managed. No one knows how or where anything is or how it works.
-Portability? Forget it! Company wide we are stuck on RHEL 3 because of one of these C++ apps. We finally decided to move to RHEL5 and simply isolate that app in a VM (HA!!)
2)And to agree with the parent of this: WAY too complicated! The syntax is out of control and I have spent days trying to figure out simply why my code won't compile.
To his defense, I offer this: C++ was developed 23 years ago for a completely different computing world. The scale of software we use now had no precedent in 1985. And, it had enormous advantages to C. At the time it was argued C++ would be too slow, now C++ considers itself fast compared to java.
Ok, peace out
Allow your customers unlimited bandwidth -- however, when they hit a cap (determined by their pricing model) their connection does not get shut off and they don't pay extra, however, their bandwidth becomes SERIOUSLY degraded. You can still download movies from iTunes, it will just take 3 times longer; just so long as there is enough bandwidth to support voip. Pay more and the cap goes up. At somepoint you will 1) be annoyed with your restrictions and pay for more or 2) Curb your massive file-swapping habits. Or 3) Just don't care.
You know, as I typed that I realized that won't work either. Because, while they will cap you for data outside their network, you can download shows from their network at anytime without a problem.
Everyone hates the status quo, but how many are helping politically? Why not send some cash to the EFF? 1 dollar for every slashdotter? Put your money where you mouth is. And yes, I have donated. Several times
PC hardware sales and sales of Windows are intentionally tied together. Hardware vendors attempt to use the news version of windows to improve sales. And, they also want to sell the newest, fastest laptop because they won't make any money selling you only the HW you need. Hell, it would run forever, silent and cool and they couldn't charge you nearly as much
OH man, I so get Tech Oracle points for this. I said this didn't make sense here. You know, I may be wrong about the conspiracy-- perhaps it was just sheer stupidity.
To tail on to the parent, this is a total Google buy. Google has been trying to get more interactive for their Korean and Chinese units. Imagine if when you are looking for information on 'breast cancer' not only do you get your links but you get "Talk to others now live on Skype about breast cancer". Yeah yeah, they can make a killing on porn too:)
I think it would actually be better to NOT settle. The problem with a settlement is that no precedent is set in court (lawyers correct me). What we need is CLEAR settlement. I mean, a nasty punitive award is a major detterant but can't be considered by a judge in a future case
All true. However, there is at least legal recourse that can be pursued. Politicians are the ones crafting and signing laws. They are the ones constantly trying to pander to the whims of their constituents. The supreme court is a bunch of educated, old men whose tenure LONG outlives the tenure of those who placed them their. Rehnquist served for over 20 years. Initially they are placed their as political tools. But because their jobs are never in jeopardy they are free to take the time to make the most prudent decisions they can radically change history. You may argue that they don't always, but it was this supreme court that rejected the original Gitmo plan. Brown vs. the Board of education was another seminal case. The Australians try to be snobbish and compare themselves to America and proclaim they are better (I experienced this first hand). Americans could care less about Australian politics -- I am waiting for something news worthy to occur there besides censorship, but apparently John Howard thinks he is both wise an learned enough to judge the rest of us.
In the Gang of Four Design Patterns book, they deal with a specific windowing example exactly like this using a bridge pattern. I don't remember the details, but it definitely deals with interfacing specific GUI widgets on different platforms
I had speakeasy for a year. Their customer service is 100% amazing. Live person answers everytime. Dude knows what he is talking about and can handle anything you can throw at him technically. 1 person start-to-finish resolution. They even call you back if needed!!!
best part, absolutely no restrictions on what you use your connection for. No port filtering, no bandwidth caps, no packet shaping.
The downside: 6m/768k was $105/month. Cox 15m/5m $56.
And, I was not even close enough to get the top connection they had. if Speakeasy could offer service through Verizon fiber, I would sign back up, even at double the price.
It's not that the tires needs replacing on the x86, it's that it's a 3 speed manual with a 12 cylinder inline design. You can increase the compression, improve the bearings, get really good at shifting, but the the entire design is handicapping progress. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" -- a cliche with no place in technology. Technology is about change. Is the internal combustion engine "broken"? No, of course not. Is it even close in efficiency to a turbine engine? Not a chance.
netvibes anyone
on
Yahoo Pipes
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Doesn't anyone else think this is way similar to netvibes
I am gonna repeat my grand conspiracy theory:
It is my belief that eBay's purchase of Skype was somehow coaxed by the NSA/CIA and here is why: Ebay's purchase of Skype never made sense. Ebay could have included skypeout:// links in their auctions without spending a penny. That would be like saying slashdot can't use IM unless they buy AOL. Skype spent way above considered market value for Skype and their share holders have applied no real pressure to have it turn a profit. This makes the transaction suspicious.
The reason of course if because prior to the eBay's purchase Skype was owned in Luxembourg and definitely not an ideal partner for eavesdropping on "terra'rists" (given those crazy European privacy laws). Given that the calls are encrypted, and that Skype does maintain the keys to decrypt those session, getting Skype under US subpeona power is a powerful tool for eavesdropping. Infact, because it is VoIP for most if not all of the calls, it can easily route traffic into the US were it can be picked up, decoded and monitored. Or, since it is known that open IP's become super nodes, Skype can naturally be coaxed into steering packets toward a super-node that can easily be monitored.
I use to work for the company that wrote Carnivore. People got worked up over that? It was only the prototype.
Slashdot Mirror
When this ebay/skype deal went down I mentioned here on SD that is was just a way to get skype into the hands of a company under US jurisdiction. Take that a step further: Put it into the hands of a company that can be bought. I got modded interesting +3 before -- now maybe I will get +5
OK, I have to put in on this. This whole 80 character line length is arcane bullshit. 80 character line lengths come from the time of C programming, mainframe punch cards and vt100 displays. Mainframe punch cards had a maximum length of 80 chars. vt100 and VGA disaplays were 80x60 displays and so it made things easier. At the time, many compilers couldn't handle more than 80 char lines. Fast forward. In java today you have: public static synchronized List > getSomethingStupid( Map >, Set >) throws LifecycleException.Fatal, IOException { Don't be a tool. With all the exceptions, qualifiers and generics being used in modern java an 80 character line length is not only a relic of the past, it's counter productive because it produces utterly unnatural code. Oh, and PS, my 1280x768 display can handle a bit more than that Rest assured your compiler can handle it. You might say: Well, that is just poorly written code. I would agree, but it's code that's 1) legacy or 2) written by one of my current teammates who is far too impressed with his 2 years of experience and degree from an overpriced university. As it is written by someone self important that I work with I have to simply deal with it since I can't just bitch slap him. tabs v spaces -- I don't care; my editor displays both nicely. Curly brace on same line as method signature. Again, don't care. All of that I have gotten use to in 10 years. It wasn't until I got to the team I am on that bad code, self-importance AND 80 character Nazis all got rolled into 1 code base.
Shut your hole. Until you have worked there you just can't even comprehend
No, it's true. I can confirm
OMA! OMA! Ah yes, a C++ app so large that is takes 3 hours to link and occupies 4gb in memory!
Actually, we did notice. Particularly, performance.amazon.com needed to have hundreds of host added to account for the added slashdot traffic
Actually, we had to ADD hosts to our vips just to accomodate the slashdotting!
Every website you visit should start encrypting it's data -- hell, even with self-signed certs. Simply to prevent this kind of tampering. That it also acts as a huge impediment to eavesdropping is a big bonus too. Google, why don't you take the lead on this?
In 10 years of experience in the IT world I can tell you that the only person who cares that you went to ABC is.... YOU! No one has even once asked me where I went. And the big name guys I have worked with varied from 'ok' to 'smart but can't get past O(N)' Those later guys have told me the details are more important than the design and always make shit 100x more complicated than it needs to be. Also, if it isn't tech related they don't know anything about it. I am not sure why that is and it's anecdotal. And besides, there are WAY more chicks at a LA school. Not all of your lessons wil come from a book. Remember that. Go for an LA school with a big tech program.
What is really costs are inbound packets from transit networks. Reduce those and you drastically reduce costs. Keep it on the same network entirely and it's essentially free. Also observe that, given a choice, any network client would prefer a 'closer' connection -- less hops, less latency, fewer chance of problems, etc. The two are NOT mutually exclusive and some carriers are getting the picture. What they need to do is share routing information in some sort of standardized, publicly available way. Think DNS but for network topology. So, you start up your BT client, it queries the service for routing information before beginning a torrent, and always preferrs closer packets. protocols already exist for selecting routes and hosts based on "priority". Now, publishing network topology is akin to the RIAA removing DRM. It will make them nervous as hell! And, ultimately ISPs want a bigger slice of the pie, not to just be better ISPs. They want control because control is what they can charge for.
Amen to that! Stroustrup can go fuck himself. He wrote the language and it's being displaced. No wonder he has his panties in a twist. Here are the fundamental problems with C++ that have zilch to do with memory or speed: 1) Maintainability -- -Modern enterprise software environments grow to dozens of moving systems using all sorts of standards. C++ contains no default implementations for any modern technology. Arguments to "Well, that's not part of the language" is pure crap. No one cares. People care about getting things done fast not reinventing the wheel -Where I work we have enterprise C++ apps and they are the laughing stock of the company. Sadly, they are also at it's core. All of our C++ apps, without exception, require a nanny process to kill em when they hemorage too much memory. These apps when compiled form a 2gb binary! -Managing code scalability is a nightmare too. a C++ app with 40 CPP files is all cute and nice for a PhD project, but when they are 2000+ files in size they can't be managed. No one knows how or where anything is or how it works. -Portability? Forget it! Company wide we are stuck on RHEL 3 because of one of these C++ apps. We finally decided to move to RHEL5 and simply isolate that app in a VM (HA!!) 2)And to agree with the parent of this: WAY too complicated! The syntax is out of control and I have spent days trying to figure out simply why my code won't compile. To his defense, I offer this: C++ was developed 23 years ago for a completely different computing world. The scale of software we use now had no precedent in 1985. And, it had enormous advantages to C. At the time it was argued C++ would be too slow, now C++ considers itself fast compared to java. Ok, peace out
Allow your customers unlimited bandwidth -- however, when they hit a cap (determined by their pricing model) their connection does not get shut off and they don't pay extra, however, their bandwidth becomes SERIOUSLY degraded. You can still download movies from iTunes, it will just take 3 times longer; just so long as there is enough bandwidth to support voip. Pay more and the cap goes up. At somepoint you will 1) be annoyed with your restrictions and pay for more or 2) Curb your massive file-swapping habits. Or 3) Just don't care. You know, as I typed that I realized that won't work either. Because, while they will cap you for data outside their network, you can download shows from their network at anytime without a problem.
Verizon has indeed released information and it is as we thought. Giving away customer information like they are crazy eddie.
Everyone hates the status quo, but how many are helping politically? Why not send some cash to the EFF? 1 dollar for every slashdotter? Put your money where you mouth is. And yes, I have donated. Several times
PC hardware sales and sales of Windows are intentionally tied together. Hardware vendors attempt to use the news version of windows to improve sales. And, they also want to sell the newest, fastest laptop because they won't make any money selling you only the HW you need. Hell, it would run forever, silent and cool and they couldn't charge you nearly as much
OH man, I so get Tech Oracle points for this. I said this didn't make sense here. You know, I may be wrong about the conspiracy-- perhaps it was just sheer stupidity. To tail on to the parent, this is a total Google buy. Google has been trying to get more interactive for their Korean and Chinese units. Imagine if when you are looking for information on 'breast cancer' not only do you get your links but you get "Talk to others now live on Skype about breast cancer". Yeah yeah, they can make a killing on porn too :)
Come up with a new division algorithm for sampling RF? Like, divide 3 instead of 2? I am not an EE but I remember reading it
I think it would actually be better to NOT settle. The problem with a settlement is that no precedent is set in court (lawyers correct me). What we need is CLEAR settlement. I mean, a nasty punitive award is a major detterant but can't be considered by a judge in a future case
The tighter you squeeze, the more star systems will slip through your fingers
All true. However, there is at least legal recourse that can be pursued. Politicians are the ones crafting and signing laws. They are the ones constantly trying to pander to the whims of their constituents. The supreme court is a bunch of educated, old men whose tenure LONG outlives the tenure of those who placed them their. Rehnquist served for over 20 years. Initially they are placed their as political tools. But because their jobs are never in jeopardy they are free to take the time to make the most prudent decisions they can radically change history. You may argue that they don't always, but it was this supreme court that rejected the original Gitmo plan. Brown vs. the Board of education was another seminal case. The Australians try to be snobbish and compare themselves to America and proclaim they are better (I experienced this first hand). Americans could care less about Australian politics -- I am waiting for something news worthy to occur there besides censorship, but apparently John Howard thinks he is both wise an learned enough to judge the rest of us.
In the Gang of Four Design Patterns book, they deal with a specific windowing example exactly like this using a bridge pattern. I don't remember the details, but it definitely deals with interfacing specific GUI widgets on different platforms
I had speakeasy for a year. Their customer service is 100% amazing. Live person answers everytime. Dude knows what he is talking about and can handle anything you can throw at him technically. 1 person start-to-finish resolution. They even call you back if needed!!! best part, absolutely no restrictions on what you use your connection for. No port filtering, no bandwidth caps, no packet shaping. The downside: 6m/768k was $105/month. Cox 15m/5m $56. And, I was not even close enough to get the top connection they had. if Speakeasy could offer service through Verizon fiber, I would sign back up, even at double the price.
It's not that the tires needs replacing on the x86, it's that it's a 3 speed manual with a 12 cylinder inline design. You can increase the compression, improve the bearings, get really good at shifting, but the the entire design is handicapping progress. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" -- a cliche with no place in technology. Technology is about change. Is the internal combustion engine "broken"? No, of course not. Is it even close in efficiency to a turbine engine? Not a chance.
Doesn't anyone else think this is way similar to netvibes
I am gonna repeat my grand conspiracy theory: It is my belief that eBay's purchase of Skype was somehow coaxed by the NSA/CIA and here is why: Ebay's purchase of Skype never made sense. Ebay could have included skypeout:// links in their auctions without spending a penny. That would be like saying slashdot can't use IM unless they buy AOL. Skype spent way above considered market value for Skype and their share holders have applied no real pressure to have it turn a profit. This makes the transaction suspicious. The reason of course if because prior to the eBay's purchase Skype was owned in Luxembourg and definitely not an ideal partner for eavesdropping on "terra'rists" (given those crazy European privacy laws). Given that the calls are encrypted, and that Skype does maintain the keys to decrypt those session, getting Skype under US subpeona power is a powerful tool for eavesdropping. Infact, because it is VoIP for most if not all of the calls, it can easily route traffic into the US were it can be picked up, decoded and monitored. Or, since it is known that open IP's become super nodes, Skype can naturally be coaxed into steering packets toward a super-node that can easily be monitored. I use to work for the company that wrote Carnivore. People got worked up over that? It was only the prototype.