Please no more about Bill Gates. His evil spam and malware empire is bad enough - he' s just out for world domination any way he can get it.
What? You think Windows is this flawed by coincidence? You really think that Windows-related spam and malware is just an accident? Who was the genius behind DOS and Windows at Microsoft any way? Who micro-managed it to the empire that it is?
Simple: when you're finished reading emails, drag them to a new folder. Call it "All_Emails". Then, have all your sent emails stored in All_Emails. Viola! Instant message threads.
Wow...that would so completely break the entire purpose of having folders and using filter rules. Wonder how well TB3 would handle my 3 GB of data on Yahoo! mail in a single folder...or my 20+GB of back e-mail I have on CDs...
Yeah...I keep everything I get in email; though it's getting harder now to determine when things get backed up. I use to do it whenever I rebuilt Windows (1-2 times a year); but since switching to Linux things just work and keep working and the hard drive doesn't fill up uncontrollably...
That doesn't negate the fact that people do do that, and have done it.
But the greater point is, that when maintaining code something small can have a big effect on the program as a whole. Get someone who doesn't know much about macros, and the problem explodes - especially when you have a program where (for whatever reason) you can't replace the macro with an inline function (and there are cases, though rare).
Also, while I've read a lot of macros - I've never seen anyone wrap it in a loop like you suggest. More likely than not macros are written as follows:
I'm pretty sure almost every broken pipe under cmd.exe is related to just escaping with ^|. One place it always needs to be escaped is in a For loop's 'command string' (above).
I've usually had the issue on command-line issuance, no for-loops, etc. just a plain command-line piping (usually searching using grep and trying to remove some stuff like:
I installed GnuWin32 before, it had a Cygwin dependency (and other dlls) that UnxUtils doesn't have or need. As well it was a much larger install and I didn't see anything I wanted/needed beyond what UnxUtils already
So what's the install size? My GetGNUWin32 install, which basically installs everything from the GNU Win32 toolset runs about 345MB on disk, small compared to most other utilities; and easily compresses to about 160MB, which I can distribute to other computers without a problem. (No registry settings or anything else is needed.)
I found in my internships (all 4 or 5 of them) that it varied quite wildly. In some cases I was way down on the chain; in others I was the software developer for everything and determined how much was billed to customers. It all depends on the organization and what they need. For instance, in one I replaced a senior developer - they needed someone, I fit close enough and was cheap enough; but they were also viewing it as a road to hiring me at a lot higher pay (my pay would have more than tripled) after graduation. In others, I was just another body to do the work that everyone did. In all cases, put forth your best effort with all your integrity, ethics, and morals.
But, as others have said, 8 USD/hour is not enough. Learn to push for what you can get. I was typically able to get 15 USD/hour; though I had a few I took where I knew the organization had a policy of minimum wage for all interns (they didn't want to bias on department over another in their internship program). Determine what you need to get (e.g. how much do need to live on, pay for school, etc), do the math (add 33-40% for taxes just to be safe), and divide it out by hour (figure a 40 hour work week and zero overtime).
Why pay attention to the taxes? It'll greatly determine you take-home pay. I had a couple positions where I had almost nothing taken out, and others where I had a couple hundred dollars taken out each pay check. Tax withholdings are based on your pay-check when it is issued, not the cumulative pay. You may get it back in April/May; but you might not (depends how much you earn over the year); and even if you do - it may be later than you need it.
I mentioned CMD.exe commands vs Linux as that was more a match for the discussion (I thought). I even ran into this recently, I had to make a.tar file to upload to a webserver that refused to unpack a.rar in Cpanel: The --help for tar didn't even have a simple example, and I couldn't recall the proper args. I had to google it. Whereas any actual Windows CMD.exe command I can't recall usage on will have multiple examples of usage.
That's probably due to your using UnxUtils instead of GNU Win32, which is a more direct port though it may rely on some of the CygWin DLLs. The distributables come with any of the CygWin DLLs that are needed.
I'm curious though - working with GNU Win32[1][2] utils is great; though I find I can necessarily chain things (e.g. ps | grep | cut...) as much as I can under Linux - usually due to it complaining about a broken pipe when it happens - but it's rare that I need to do that much chaining.
and the use of java-style retarded naming conventions in c code is a source of both consternation and bugs.
Uhh...CamelCase (and camelCase) naming conventions existed long before Java. And they do a lot better at minimizing bugs than hungarian notation, which does better than no indications whatsoever.
Also, the longer variable names help quite well with reducing error when searching for the declarations and initializations. For example, using 'rate' might turn up:
struct interestInfo { ... double rate; ... }; ... struct amortizationInfo { ... int rate; ... }; ... struct eFSA {// employee FSA plan info ... short int rate; ... }; ... struct eRetire {// employee IRA or 401K plan info ... long int rate; ... }; ... union accountingInfo { ... struct amortizationInfo amortization; struct interestInfo interest; struct eFSA fsa; struct eRetire retire; ... }; ...
Now which one will you be able to certainly count on being correctly accessed? You'll need to know a lot more about the program, etc.
Note: I'm not saying the structuring naming above is good practice or not; but you'll likely find something like that in legacy programs that are being maintained. Especially programs written by "clever" programmers.
Java is always interpreted - sure, at runtime, it does "just-in-time" compiling and caching of byte-code - but it has to INTERPRET that first. You can't keep the cache between program runs, for security reasons.
GCJ is a portable, optimizing, ahead-of-time compiler for the Java Programming Language. It can compile Java source code to Java bytecode (class files) or directly to native machine code, and Java bytecode to native machine code.
99% of the time yes, Java is JIT compiled to native code. But there are ways to binary compile it. (BTW, I too hate Java.)
You assume wrong. I've had to correct code because people coming from the Windows world NEVER turn on warnings. Many don't even know how to edit a make file. If there's no clicky thingee, they're lost.
This is mostly b/c Microsoft (in their infinite wisdom) only enables Warning Level 1 by default, which catches almost nothing. Now it's not hard to turn on Warning Level 4, but then you also have to go through and fix all the stuff and learning which warnings to ignore from Microsoft's code - headers, etc. - that gets brought in. It's bad enough using MS APIs can cause memory leaks (my favorite being one that caused a 4 byte memory leak whenever used - and no, it there wasn't anything I could do to clean up anything to resolve it at my program's level; only a memory stack analysis was able to find what it was; may be they fixed this for Win7/2k8 with the refactoring they did...hopefully.)
Thankfully I'm mostly doing Qt development now...:->
I look at the language standard. Look at the if() statement. It is followed by one line, and a semicolon. No parenthesis. Parenthesis allow you to group multiple lines (blockify) - and its' always possible to replace any block of code with a one-liner (either a function call, a macro, or even using the comma operator).
Wrong. Such code is just waiting for the following to happen:
#define f(x) (x = x / 3.1459) ... #define f(x) ( x = g(x); x = x / 3.1459) ... if (object.type() == "circle") f(object.radius); ...
Guess what that if statement will look like to the compiler?
Brackets are very much better to use and make code clearer to both the programmer and the compiler for what is going on.
#define f(x) (x = x / 3.1459) ... #define f(x) ( x = g(x); x = x / 3.1459) ... if (object.type() == "circle") { f(object.radius); } ...
Note: While this situation specifically points out the issue with Macros, which are the most susceptible to it - it is by no means the only reason. Just one point why you got it wrong. And I am in no way saying that Macros are not good to use - sometimes they are, most of the time they are not.
Not with the degree of interventionism we've seen over the last decade it isn't.
There is nothing new in the last decade about how the USA has intervened. In fact, it's probably lower in the last decade than it has been in the previous 4 or 5 decades before it. After WWII, the USA took on a greater roll of interventionism, and the world, for the most part, expected it. (Not saying the world should have expected it, or that it was right to, etc. Just that for the duration of the Cold War it was expected.)
The difference is that most of the interventionism was done by covert ops - CIA, etc. - as opposed to the military directly. So you didn't know how much the USA was truly involved until far later.
Where's my market in non-carrier branded devices for the Verizon network?
Go to a phone manufacturer's website - e.g. http://www.store.motorola.com/ and you'll find plenty of phones you can buy completely unlocked and working on Verizon's (or any other carrier's) network. You'll pay a bit more; but you'll get exactly what you are looking for.
Works great for GSM based networks. Don't know how well for CDMA-based networks like Verizon's though since CMDA doesn't use SIM cards to switch easily between phones...
BTW - on http://www.store.motorola.com/ you can get phones with or without contracts. You just likely have to search a bit more to find what you want without a contract. And phones marked for one carrier may work on another carrier's network as well (e.g. T-mobile vs. AT&T/Cingular) but they don't guarantee it.
Slashdot is nice in that in condenses news articles from hundreds of sources. It is quite possible that there is someone in the FCC that reads/. It is also possible that said person does not read the NYT.
I also don't get why you're talking about tv cabinets when LCD's are typically just mounted straight on a wall - it's essentially replaced the "look at this lovely picture over the fireplace" with "look at my badass tv over the fireplace".
I don't want a TV visible period; and I don't want to raise kids in front of a TV either. For all I care, they can just assume we don't have one.
The nice thing about a project is (i) it is or can be easily hidden with no signs of visibility, and you don't have to clutter furniture around to make it disappear; and (ii) the screen size is pretty much whatever you want it to be - 40" or 120", no difference in price.
Actually one of the big reasons I want the projector is b/c it can be mounted away where you don't necessarily see it WITHOUT having a big piece of furniture (e.g. TV Cabinet, Console, etc.) taking up the wall. PLUS you can use it for far more. I'd rather hid it in the wall entirely.
True, a lot of TV now come with a PC video connection (VGA, DVI, etc.); but it's not really that big of a deal.
Also you can pick up a cheap projects for about the same price or less than an LCD TV. The really cheap ones are $100 - don't know how long they last though; and a half-way decent one runs around $500. Sure you can go top of the line and spend $2k or $5k. $500 to $1k is probably the sweet spot though.
I'm sure life was better in black-and-white as well.
Than splotchy images with no sound? Even with a bit of static - yes, black-and-white is better. With DTV it's pretty much all-or-nothing. Analog at least degraded graciously - you might have a little static, or have the image go black-and-white; but at least you had a signal you could watch.
DVDs sales are going down, but some of that gap is Amazon Unbox, Netflix, iTunes, DVRs, Hulu, etc.
...
BluRay sales aren't huge because some retailers keep insisting on charging $35 for BluRay movies. We all know the cost of the disc is minimal. Amazon can sell BluRays for $10-$20. I'm not going to pay $35 for a movie, and I'm not alone on that issue.
It'll be along time until a buy a Blu-Ray player if ever. More likely, I'll have a DVD-compatible drive in a computer dedicated to a home theater with a projector when my DVD player dies. I have zero interest in Blu-Ray except as a storage medium for backups. DVD is more than good enough. (I also have zero interest in buying an LCD or Plasma TV; HDTV, etc.) My TV is pretty much for watching my DVDs and playing the Wii; and watching a couple over-the-air TV shows, when the DTV signal is good enough. (Analog TV was so much better for reception.)
My company spews out X amount of carbon a year. My Government puts a limit to Y amount of Carbon a year. Since it's detrimental to my business (reducing client base) to reduce my carbon output, I can purchase Carbon offsets so that some of my money goes towards greener projects. Thus I keep my clients Happy and I meet government regulation.
Depends on the industry. Some industries you can only trade the offsets between other players in the industry - i.e. the government sets a max for the amount of carbon offsets issued; so everyone trades until they are happy. People not producing much in terms of carbon can get extra funding by selling (or leasing out) their spare carbon offsets to those that need it for whatever reason.
Google is datamining everywhere and everything already.
When I first read about this, I immediately thought about datamining. But after another second, I figured that I would prefer Google to have this information than Verizon (where my caching DNS server currently forwards to). It is true that Google is better at datamining, but do keep in mind that whoever is providing your DNS service has the information about your DNS requests.
Another difference between Google and your ISP is that your ISP knows who you are from your IP address. So they can link DNS resolution requests to specific, named, customers. Google can't do that directly.
Why not set your caching server directly to the root name servers? It works pretty darned well, and you avoid all the redirect, data mining, etc.
Yes. And no, I don't see many ads either. No ad blocker installed on Windows or Linux, or as an extension if Firefox. Honestly don't see the need to hit my computer's performance for something so small.
man pages and info documentation typically give you a lot more information about any single command. (Though I have yet to figure out exactly how 'info' is suppose to work or how to find something in it like I can with man pages.)
Further, the -h and --help parameters are pretty standard (with a few exceptions) on the Linux platform and especially the GNU toolset; and they typically at least rival if not surpass the/? help for the command-line tools provided by Microsoft.
Furthermore, the -h, --help, man pages, info, and others are pretty well supported by most projects in the Linux platform. On Windows, you have no central source for documentation. Windows Help will give you only documentation on Windows help - you can' t drill even into other MS products let alone 3rd party products. Also, 3rd party programs don't typically support/? any more; and most Windows programs may or may not - some do; many don't - even when they take command-line parameters.
Comparatively, the vast majority of software under Linux/Unix/BSD/etc supports command-line options even when they are typically used on as a graphical program.
That's not to say that Documentation for Windows programs is typically better and more up-to-date - but it also is typically written by companies employing technical documentation writers to write it and keep it up to date. F/OSS software under Windows tends to run in the same state as it does under Linux/Unix/BSD/etc - only, man and info no longer work unless you have Cygwin installed with the software under Cygwin; but there are a lot of F/OSS programs that don't need Cygwin any more (e.g. GNUWin32) or never did (e.g. TortoiseCVS, TortoiseSVN).
And in any case, the anagram approach would be only useful if the manuscript is written as notes to self. It takes an unusual mind to make and decode anagrams on the fly. Most people would be struggling with each word even if they understand the script.
It's not very hard to learn to write in reverse that way - a little training, true; but nothing you can't pick up to a natural degree. For example, if I started typing words in reverse after about 1/2 hour it becomes a lot easier for most words.
BTW, I've spent a few hours in IM conversations doing just that. I do end up having to pick it up again each time I do so, but only b/c I don't do it with any frequency. The same can be said for other word arrangements.
Now if the manuscript is ever decoded, a hell of a lot more than two pages is going to make sense. In fact, when someone figures it out, 99% of the manuscript will make sense.
I agree that it will take a lot more than 2 or 3 pages to declare it has been decoded.
What will be interesting though is if it was originally encrypted in numerous methods - a few pages of one method, then on to another method. It'd be like switching SSH keys in the middle of an SSH session - and very hard to decipher if you didn't know it was happening - especially if the period of switching was irregular.
Slashdot Mirror
Please no more about Bill Gates. His evil spam and malware empire is bad enough - he' s just out for world domination any way he can get it.
What? You think Windows is this flawed by coincidence? You really think that Windows-related spam and malware is just an accident? Who was the genius behind DOS and Windows at Microsoft any way? Who micro-managed it to the empire that it is?
Wow...that would so completely break the entire purpose of having folders and using filter rules. Wonder how well TB3 would handle my 3 GB of data on Yahoo! mail in a single folder...or my 20+GB of back e-mail I have on CDs...
Yeah...I keep everything I get in email; though it's getting harder now to determine when things get backed up. I use to do it whenever I rebuilt Windows (1-2 times a year); but since switching to Linux things just work and keep working and the hard drive doesn't fill up uncontrollably...
But the greater point is, that when maintaining code something small can have a big effect on the program as a whole. Get someone who doesn't know much about macros, and the problem explodes - especially when you have a program where (for whatever reason) you can't replace the macro with an inline function (and there are cases, though rare).
Also, while I've read a lot of macros - I've never seen anyone wrap it in a loop like you suggest. More likely than not macros are written as follows:
I've usually had the issue on command-line issuance, no for-loops, etc. just a plain command-line piping (usually searching using grep and trying to remove some stuff like:
c:\my\path> grep -R -n something * | grep -v \.svn | grep -v ^Binary...
So what's the install size? My GetGNUWin32 install, which basically installs everything from the GNU Win32 toolset runs about 345MB on disk, small compared to most other utilities; and easily compresses to about 160MB, which I can distribute to other computers without a problem. (No registry settings or anything else is needed.)
I found in my internships (all 4 or 5 of them) that it varied quite wildly. In some cases I was way down on the chain; in others I was the software developer for everything and determined how much was billed to customers. It all depends on the organization and what they need. For instance, in one I replaced a senior developer - they needed someone, I fit close enough and was cheap enough; but they were also viewing it as a road to hiring me at a lot higher pay (my pay would have more than tripled) after graduation. In others, I was just another body to do the work that everyone did. In all cases, put forth your best effort with all your integrity, ethics, and morals.
But, as others have said, 8 USD/hour is not enough. Learn to push for what you can get. I was typically able to get 15 USD/hour; though I had a few I took where I knew the organization had a policy of minimum wage for all interns (they didn't want to bias on department over another in their internship program). Determine what you need to get (e.g. how much do need to live on, pay for school, etc), do the math (add 33-40% for taxes just to be safe), and divide it out by hour (figure a 40 hour work week and zero overtime).
Why pay attention to the taxes? It'll greatly determine you take-home pay. I had a couple positions where I had almost nothing taken out, and others where I had a couple hundred dollars taken out each pay check. Tax withholdings are based on your pay-check when it is issued, not the cumulative pay. You may get it back in April/May; but you might not (depends how much you earn over the year); and even if you do - it may be later than you need it.
That's probably due to your using UnxUtils instead of GNU Win32, which is a more direct port though it may rely on some of the CygWin DLLs. The distributables come with any of the CygWin DLLs that are needed.
...) as much as I can under Linux - usually due to it complaining about a broken pipe when it happens - but it's rare that I need to do that much chaining.
I'm curious though - working with GNU Win32[1][2] utils is great; though I find I can necessarily chain things (e.g. ps | grep | cut
How does the Unx Utils compare that way?
[1]GNU Win32 Utils
[2]Get GNU Win32 Utils - scripted retriever/installer
Uhh...CamelCase (and camelCase) naming conventions existed long before Java. And they do a lot better at minimizing bugs than hungarian notation, which does better than no indications whatsoever. Also, the longer variable names help quite well with reducing error when searching for the declarations and initializations. For example, using 'rate' might turn up:
Now which one will you be able to certainly count on being correctly accessed? You'll need to know a lot more about the program, etc.
Note: I'm not saying the structuring naming above is good practice or not; but you'll likely find something like that in legacy programs that are being maintained. Especially programs written by "clever" programmers.
Please see the GNU Java Compiler. To quote from the site:
GCJ is a portable, optimizing, ahead-of-time compiler for the Java Programming Language. It can compile Java source code to Java bytecode (class files) or directly to native machine code, and Java bytecode to native machine code.
99% of the time yes, Java is JIT compiled to native code. But there are ways to binary compile it. (BTW, I too hate Java.)
This is mostly b/c Microsoft (in their infinite wisdom) only enables Warning Level 1 by default, which catches almost nothing. Now it's not hard to turn on Warning Level 4, but then you also have to go through and fix all the stuff and learning which warnings to ignore from Microsoft's code - headers, etc. - that gets brought in. It's bad enough using MS APIs can cause memory leaks (my favorite being one that caused a 4 byte memory leak whenever used - and no, it there wasn't anything I could do to clean up anything to resolve it at my program's level; only a memory stack analysis was able to find what it was; may be they fixed this for Win7/2k8 with the refactoring they did...hopefully.)
Thankfully I'm mostly doing Qt development now...:->
I look at the language standard. Look at the if() statement. It is followed by one line, and a semicolon. No parenthesis. Parenthesis allow you to group multiple lines (blockify) - and its' always possible to replace any block of code with a one-liner (either a function call, a macro, or even using the comma operator).
Wrong. Such code is just waiting for the following to happen:
Guess what that if statement will look like to the compiler? Brackets are very much better to use and make code clearer to both the programmer and the compiler for what is going on.
Note: While this situation specifically points out the issue with Macros, which are the most susceptible to it - it is by no means the only reason. Just one point why you got it wrong. And I am in no way saying that Macros are not good to use - sometimes they are, most of the time they are not.
There is nothing new in the last decade about how the USA has intervened. In fact, it's probably lower in the last decade than it has been in the previous 4 or 5 decades before it. After WWII, the USA took on a greater roll of interventionism, and the world, for the most part, expected it. (Not saying the world should have expected it, or that it was right to, etc. Just that for the duration of the Cold War it was expected.)
The difference is that most of the interventionism was done by covert ops - CIA, etc. - as opposed to the military directly. So you didn't know how much the USA was truly involved until far later.
Go to a phone manufacturer's website - e.g. http://www.store.motorola.com/ and you'll find plenty of phones you can buy completely unlocked and working on Verizon's (or any other carrier's) network. You'll pay a bit more; but you'll get exactly what you are looking for.
Works great for GSM based networks. Don't know how well for CDMA-based networks like Verizon's though since CMDA doesn't use SIM cards to switch easily between phones...
BTW - on http://www.store.motorola.com/ you can get phones with or without contracts. You just likely have to search a bit more to find what you want without a contract. And phones marked for one carrier may work on another carrier's network as well (e.g. T-mobile vs. AT&T/Cingular) but they don't guarantee it.
Slashdot is nice in that in condenses news articles from hundreds of sources. It is quite possible that there is someone in the FCC that reads /. It is also possible that said person does not read the NYT.
And very likely their boss does read the NYT
I don't want a TV visible period; and I don't want to raise kids in front of a TV either. For all I care, they can just assume we don't have one.
The nice thing about a project is (i) it is or can be easily hidden with no signs of visibility, and you don't have to clutter furniture around to make it disappear; and (ii) the screen size is pretty much whatever you want it to be - 40" or 120", no difference in price.
Actually one of the big reasons I want the projector is b/c it can be mounted away where you don't necessarily see it WITHOUT having a big piece of furniture (e.g. TV Cabinet, Console, etc.) taking up the wall. PLUS you can use it for far more. I'd rather hid it in the wall entirely.
True, a lot of TV now come with a PC video connection (VGA, DVI, etc.); but it's not really that big of a deal.
Also you can pick up a cheap projects for about the same price or less than an LCD TV. The really cheap ones are $100 - don't know how long they last though; and a half-way decent one runs around $500. Sure you can go top of the line and spend $2k or $5k. $500 to $1k is probably the sweet spot though.
I'm sure life was better in black-and-white as well.
Than splotchy images with no sound? Even with a bit of static - yes, black-and-white is better. With DTV it's pretty much all-or-nothing. Analog at least degraded graciously - you might have a little static, or have the image go black-and-white; but at least you had a signal you could watch.
DVDs sales are going down, but some of that gap is Amazon Unbox, Netflix, iTunes, DVRs, Hulu, etc.
...
BluRay sales aren't huge because some retailers keep insisting on charging $35 for BluRay movies. We all know the cost of the disc is minimal. Amazon can sell BluRays for $10-$20. I'm not going to pay $35 for a movie, and I'm not alone on that issue.
It'll be along time until a buy a Blu-Ray player if ever. More likely, I'll have a DVD-compatible drive in a computer dedicated to a home theater with a projector when my DVD player dies. I have zero interest in Blu-Ray except as a storage medium for backups. DVD is more than good enough. (I also have zero interest in buying an LCD or Plasma TV; HDTV, etc.) My TV is pretty much for watching my DVDs and playing the Wii; and watching a couple over-the-air TV shows, when the DTV signal is good enough. (Analog TV was so much better for reception.)
No no no. Do you know how Carbon offsets work?
My company spews out X amount of carbon a year. My Government puts a limit to Y amount of Carbon a year. Since it's detrimental to my business (reducing client base) to reduce my carbon output, I can purchase Carbon offsets so that some of my money goes towards greener projects. Thus I keep my clients Happy and I meet government regulation.
Depends on the industry. Some industries you can only trade the offsets between other players in the industry - i.e. the government sets a max for the amount of carbon offsets issued; so everyone trades until they are happy. People not producing much in terms of carbon can get extra funding by selling (or leasing out) their spare carbon offsets to those that need it for whatever reason.
Google is datamining everywhere and everything already.
When I first read about this, I immediately thought about datamining. But after another second, I figured that I would prefer Google to have this information than Verizon (where my caching DNS server currently forwards to). It is true that Google is better at datamining, but do keep in mind that whoever is providing your DNS service has the information about your DNS requests.
Another difference between Google and your ISP is that your ISP knows who you are from your IP address. So they can link DNS resolution requests to specific, named, customers. Google can't do that directly.
Why not set your caching server directly to the root name servers? It works pretty darned well, and you avoid all the redirect, data mining, etc.
Yes. And no, I don't see many ads either. No ad blocker installed on Windows or Linux, or as an extension if Firefox. Honestly don't see the need to hit my computer's performance for something so small.
okay - use gvim.
man pages and info documentation typically give you a lot more information about any single command. (Though I have yet to figure out exactly how 'info' is suppose to work or how to find something in it like I can with man pages.) Further, the -h and --help parameters are pretty standard (with a few exceptions) on the Linux platform and especially the GNU toolset; and they typically at least rival if not surpass the /? help for the command-line tools provided by Microsoft.
/? any more; and most Windows programs may or may not - some do; many don't - even when they take command-line parameters.
Furthermore, the -h, --help, man pages, info, and others are pretty well supported by most projects in the Linux platform. On Windows, you have no central source for documentation. Windows Help will give you only documentation on Windows help - you can' t drill even into other MS products let alone 3rd party products. Also, 3rd party programs don't typically support
Comparatively, the vast majority of software under Linux/Unix/BSD/etc supports command-line options even when they are typically used on as a graphical program.
That's not to say that Documentation for Windows programs is typically better and more up-to-date - but it also is typically written by companies employing technical documentation writers to write it and keep it up to date. F/OSS software under Windows tends to run in the same state as it does under Linux/Unix/BSD/etc - only, man and info no longer work unless you have Cygwin installed with the software under Cygwin; but there are a lot of F/OSS programs that don't need Cygwin any more (e.g. GNUWin32) or never did (e.g. TortoiseCVS, TortoiseSVN).
It's not very hard to learn to write in reverse that way - a little training, true; but nothing you can't pick up to a natural degree. For example, if I started typing words in reverse after about 1/2 hour it becomes a lot easier for most words.
BTW, I've spent a few hours in IM conversations doing just that. I do end up having to pick it up again each time I do so, but only b/c I don't do it with any frequency. The same can be said for other word arrangements.
I agree that it will take a lot more than 2 or 3 pages to declare it has been decoded.
What will be interesting though is if it was originally encrypted in numerous methods - a few pages of one method, then on to another method. It'd be like switching SSH keys in the middle of an SSH session - and very hard to decipher if you didn't know it was happening - especially if the period of switching was irregular.
Personally BillGate would have been better - it probably is related to Windows after all...