Just what Slashdot needs: redundant "Snakes on a Plane" jokes.
Disclaimer: I am not responsible for the 100+ Snakes on a Plane jokes that follow this post
well on the stock Linux configuration my systems use that would take about 1-2 minutes. do your startup scripts do anything to the kernel at all to speed that up?
I know it's popular to knock Vista here but I'd like to point out Linux isn't all that fast deleting files either. Specifically, the design of the ext2/ext3 filesystem requires that for large files the kernel sit there and thrash your disk painstakingly deleting inodes. For really large files in fact (13GB or more!) deleting the file can take over a minute on most IDE based disks!
What I'm saying here is that maybe there's something in Vista's new version of NTFS that has a similar limitation. Or perhaps the Windows 2000 behavior of zeroing sectors when deleting files has been expanded to overwriting with bit patterns randomly to make it more "secure".
Aside from the obvious popularity contest this will turn into with nothing of real interest to watch, I wonder what legal implications this will have for those of us who use downloading tools for You Tube. All the server sees is a video download, and it couldn't easily tell from the legitmate Flash Player or Video Downloader, right?
Also, as someone who actually wrote a program to crawl YouTube and download what it finds (in Perl no less), what legal implications does that have for me? Am I now a criminal for "falsibly generating views"?
And what about various tricks I've seen on other sites like this where people just watch the first 2 seconds then exit out, knowing that that counts as a "view" and therefore inflates the view counter and enables the voting box?
Big corporations LOVE regulation. Regulation creates fixed costs, that corporations can easily afford but prices out smaller competitors. Also, big corporations are well connected enough to make sure that the regulations are selectivly enforced only on their competitors
Perhaps if the government were not accepting of bribes there would be less incentive for corporations to do this?
If telcos DO manage to get this through, and the internet becomes more expensive to do anything beyond what they want or whatever pricey schemes they do, how long until we have the tiered internet equivalent of "phone phreakers"?
It seems like in this net neutraility argument, nobody considers that some people don't care about having equal bandwidth to all sites out there, or prioritization. Why don't we insist instead that if your ISP/telco offers a plan with prioritization for HD video and etc. they must explicitly say so in the plan, in unofuscated language that anyone can understand: "premium services included in this plan take priority over general web browsing. use of premium services may cause slowdown or interruption of general internet connectivity.". Then say that people can buy this if they want. Then insist that they must offer an alternative plan that does NOT have "premium services" (i.e. internet connection just like we have now) so that people who don't want "premium services" can browse the way they want to. Make it so that your ISP cannot throttle unless your plan says so, and make sure that a plain internet connection plan is at least a choice for the consumer.
how long until Slashdot posts another story about similar technology in another file format?
Any file format that allows scripting and connection to the net will eventually be subverted to accomplish tracking, right?
I once experimented with Macromedia Flash movies that are trackable because the first thing they do is use ActionScript to load a static JPEG or SWF (very small) on a known server. After that tracking the movie is as simple as watching for HTTP requests for that particular JPEG.
My experience with this is that with dumber C compilers, if (!ptr) will generate assembly like:
mov ax,ptr
or ax,ax
jz _skip_if
but if (ptr == NULL) will generate:
mov ax,ptr
cmp ax,0
jz _skip_if
For most compilers it's about the same. With compilers for 386/486/Pentium there can actually be a speed advantage when using !ptr along with other logical operators because the compiler will use assembly language instructions like SETZ which sets AL to either 0 or 1 depending on the Z flag in one instruction instead of 3.
I think previous posts have a point about how NULL isn't necessarily (void*)0, but I have yet to see such a compiler (Can anyone name one?) so I'm generally in the habit of using !ptr.
I have however used an old DOS compiler where !ptr doesn't detect NULL pointers properly when used with far pointers and I must explicitly compare against NULL (Mix C compiler v2.x if I remember correctly).
Not if you do it right. The point is to abstract things into classes, libraries, or small #ifdefs so that you can generally use the same code for all platforms, then write the platform-specific stuff in code that is only included for a particular OS or platform. For example, look at open-source projects like cdrdao where there is a general C++ class to send SCSI commands, and the C++ class itself (chosen by platform) handles the low-level details of getting there. This allows you to compile cdrdao for Linux (using the SG_IO ioctls directly to/dev/cdrom) but you could easily port it to Windows (using WNASPI32.DLL).
I regularly do this all the time: I write a basic main() routine for both platforms (these are usually console apps) then add #ifdef WIN32...#endif and #ifdef LINUX....#endif for each case. If necessary, complex functions are split off into subroutines, internal libraries, or C++ classes (and #ifdefd like so). Then just make a Makefile for each platform (For Win32, the usual.DSP.DSW duo as I use MSVC 6, and Linux a simple Makefile that includes -DLINUX in the CFLAGS) and compile for each.
The same can be applied to GUIs, though for Windows you'll have to write a WinMain wrapper.
A University of Utah study claims that drivers who use a cell phone will be 'more impaired than drunken drivers with blood alcohol levels exceeding 0.08.'
Oh no! Now cell phones have been shown to cause increased blood alchcol levels as well as brain rot!
The study also says that use will turn a driver who is age 20 into age 70.
So if I want to grow older I should use a cell phone?
Slashdot Mirror
Just what Slashdot needs: redundant "Snakes on a Plane" jokes. Disclaimer: I am not responsible for the 100+ Snakes on a Plane jokes that follow this post
well on the stock Linux configuration my systems use that would take about 1-2 minutes. do your startup scripts do anything to the kernel at all to speed that up?
I know it's popular to knock Vista here but I'd like to point out Linux isn't all that fast deleting files either. Specifically, the design of the ext2/ext3 filesystem requires that for large files the kernel sit there and thrash your disk painstakingly deleting inodes. For really large files in fact (13GB or more!) deleting the file can take over a minute on most IDE based disks!
What I'm saying here is that maybe there's something in Vista's new version of NTFS that has a similar limitation. Or perhaps the Windows 2000 behavior of zeroing sectors when deleting files has been expanded to overwriting with bit patterns randomly to make it more "secure".
Just sayin'
Also, as someone who actually wrote a program to crawl YouTube and download what it finds (in Perl no less), what legal implications does that have for me? Am I now a criminal for "falsibly generating views"?
And what about various tricks I've seen on other sites like this where people just watch the first 2 seconds then exit out, knowing that that counts as a "view" and therefore inflates the view counter and enables the voting box?
Perhaps if the government were not accepting of bribes there would be less incentive for corporations to do this?
Just a thought.
If telcos DO manage to get this through, and the internet becomes more expensive to do anything beyond what they want or whatever pricey schemes they do, how long until we have the tiered internet equivalent of "phone phreakers"?
It seems like in this net neutraility argument, nobody considers that some people don't care about having equal bandwidth to all sites out there, or prioritization. Why don't we insist instead that if your ISP/telco offers a plan with prioritization for HD video and etc. they must explicitly say so in the plan, in unofuscated language that anyone can understand: "premium services included in this plan take priority over general web browsing. use of premium services may cause slowdown or interruption of general internet connectivity.". Then say that people can buy this if they want. Then insist that they must offer an alternative plan that does NOT have "premium services" (i.e. internet connection just like we have now) so that people who don't want "premium services" can browse the way they want to. Make it so that your ISP cannot throttle unless your plan says so, and make sure that a plain internet connection plan is at least a choice for the consumer.
this isn't "simplification" like when the IRS "simplified" tax forms.
Who here quickly glanced at the title and saw "munchkin RAM"?
Any file format that allows scripting and connection to the net will eventually be subverted to accomplish tracking, right?
I once experimented with Macromedia Flash movies that are trackable because the first thing they do is use ActionScript to load a static JPEG or SWF (very small) on a known server. After that tracking the movie is as simple as watching for HTTP requests for that particular JPEG.
First Post!
Seperate things out into functions and get it to work first. When your program works then worry about optimizing it, one subroutine at a time.
mov ax,ptr
or ax,ax
jz _skip_if
but if (ptr == NULL) will generate:
mov ax,ptr
cmp ax,0
jz _skip_if
For most compilers it's about the same. With compilers for 386/486/Pentium there can actually be a speed advantage when using !ptr along with other logical operators because the compiler will use assembly language instructions like SETZ which sets AL to either 0 or 1 depending on the Z flag in one instruction instead of 3.
I think previous posts have a point about how NULL isn't necessarily (void*)0, but I have yet to see such a compiler (Can anyone name one?) so I'm generally in the habit of using !ptr.
I have however used an old DOS compiler where !ptr doesn't detect NULL pointers properly when used with far pointers and I must explicitly compare against NULL (Mix C compiler v2.x if I remember correctly).
Not if you do it right. The point is to abstract things into classes, libraries, or small #ifdefs so that you can generally use the same code for all platforms, then write the platform-specific stuff in code that is only included for a particular OS or platform. For example, look at open-source projects like cdrdao where there is a general C++ class to send SCSI commands, and the C++ class itself (chosen by platform) handles the low-level details of getting there. This allows you to compile cdrdao for Linux (using the SG_IO ioctls directly to /dev/cdrom) but you could easily port it to Windows (using WNASPI32.DLL).
Heck, what if they start using a thesarus to pick complicated sound names that sound cool?
The same can be applied to GUIs, though for Windows you'll have to write a WinMain wrapper.
Yes it does exist in glibc.
When I port code in fact I often add at the beginning of the source file:
#ifndef WIN32
#define strcmpi strcasecmp
#define strncmpi strncasecmp
So far it works well.
In other words, no change whatsoever! Whoo-hoo!
Oh no! Now cell phones have been shown to cause increased blood alchcol levels as well as brain rot!
The study also says that use will turn a driver who is age 20 into age 70.
So if I want to grow older I should use a cell phone?
Maybe they should rephrase this.... :)