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Comment Re:Blame PHP. Blame JavaScript. (Score 1) 87

by 51M02 (#37038758) Attached to: Compromised WordPress Blogs Poison Google Image Searches

The syntax is a shitty imitation of C. The semantics, even for basic things like boolean values and comparisons, are extremely fucked up.

And yet you are posting on a website coded in Perl which, no one will argue with, is a pretty f**ked up language but a powerful one. And Slashdot even use Javascript. Is this site insecure?

A language, in itself is just an abstraction for machine code. Assembler code is just a literal version of machine code. C is a the closest language to machine code and the primary one used everywhere like core OS components to video game. A language in never secure or unsecure, it's its interpretation in machine code that may be more secure with additional code to prevent hazardous events. PHP is just a script engine that use similar semantics to C and is mostly a big wrapper around some well known C libraries like PCRE and cURL. It is open-source and its community is regularly releasing maintenance releases to fix any security flaws, which is a must. On itself it is pretty secure.

That being said and with the majority of computer issues, the problem is most often found between the chair and the keyboard. If developers don't check users input and send that directly to a SQL backend, in any language it will result in a security flaw. Its developers practices that are to blame, not language semantics.

Comment About size... (Score 3, Interesting) 158

by 51M02 (#36808574) Attached to: IE6 Still Going Strong In China

"...about the size of two football fields, or your average restraining order". -- Adam Savage

Why always comparing numbers to the size or anything else? In all media there is always the "it's about the size of ..." quote that always seems it does not mean anything related to the subject discussed.

I know, completely unrelated subject. I missed it by about that much.
Games

Submission + - Valve's Steam Client For Mac Shows Linux Signs (phoronix.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Not only is Valve bringing Steam and their games to Mac OS X (as announced last month), but evidently they will be doing the same for Linux. While the Mac OS X client is in closed testing right now, Phoronix has received a script used to launch Steam on Mac OS X and it shows signs of Linux support. Is the year of the Linux gaming desktop finally approaching?

Submission + - Apple iPad costs $260 to make (itpro.co.uk)

Submitted by nk497
nk497 writes: The Apple iPad costs $260 in parts and manufacturing, with over 40 per cent of that spent on the display alone, according to a teardown by iSuppli. The company said the focus on the user interface is a complete reversal to how most computing products are made, as they tend to be "motherboard-centric." The company said the iPad "represents a radical departure in electronic design compared to conventional products."

Comment Re:Microsoft IS standards (Score 1) 177

by 51M02 (#31707372) Attached to: Standards Expert — "Microsoft Fails the Standards Test"

The "average user" is not the one targeted by Office 2010, if I recall correctly, but the IT dept. whose boss/mayor/president may wants open standards documents.

The "average user" is still running Windows XP to surf the web (watch pr0n) and play video games and he is fine with his copy of Microsoft Office 2003.
Microsoft

Submission + - Linus joins MS as Chief Architect for new OS

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "IT Wire reports that Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux kernel, has signed up as Chief Software Architect with Microsoft to work on the Redmond Giant’s next-generation operating system. Torvalds will be working with Dave Cutler, the chief architect behind Windows NT who Microsoft similarly poached from Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and who was behind the VAX/VMS operating system. “I’m excited about the chance to really innovate and make an operating system with Microsoft,” Torvalds says. "I want to see my work in the hands of the majority this time around.” Asked how he could reconcile working with Microsoft after long being a staunch open source advocate Torvalds said he did not see any conflict of interest. “Linux will continue to exist without me, and that’s the beauty of open source. Meanwhile, I hope to push Microsoft from the inside to make a free entry-level version of the new OS we’re creating." No details about the project are yet available, but given Cutler’s recent work on Windows Azure it’s possible it will be a cloud-centric operating system."

Submission + - Midnight Commander 5.0 turns to Mono

Submitted by jjohn_h
jjohn_h writes: Midnight Commander was taken over by a group of young Russians two years ago. 'Taken over' means that they just appropriated the trade mark and developed the code. In the meantime a couple of programmers in E. Europe and Germany have joined the team but the status of the project has not changed. Unclear it was, unclear it is. Founding father and official maintainer Miguel de Icaza was silent on the trade mark issue and appears rarely on the mailing list http://mail.gnome.org/archives/mc-devel/ But now an experimental release 5.0 is out http://www.midnight-commander.org/ and it is a Mono application with a little README from Miguel stating: >>> This is a C# version of the Midnight Commander that I am using as a testbed for Mono-Curses. Do we have to look at the calendar? If it is serious, is MC's end nigh?

Submission + - Google changes its name

Submitted by mcgrew
mcgrew writes: As of Today, Google has officially changed its name to 'Topeka', which, as Eric Schmidt's blog notes, is a word used by the Kansa and Ioway tribes to refer to 'a good place to dig for potatoes. The change came about because Topeka, Kansas officially changed its name to 'Google'.

As they say in the former city of Topeka, 'we're not in Kansas any more'.

There's a map on the blog showing proper useage of Topeka:

Green: Before our blind date I did a Topeka search on him
Yellow: Before our blind date I Topeka'ed him
Red: Before our blind date I Topeka'd him
NO NO NO!!! :Before our blind date I Topeka'ed him with Alta Vista

Don't believe me just because it's April Fool's day and I'm an asshat? Go see for yourself!
Slashdot.org

Slashdot Discussions Now Include Roulette Video Chat 192

Posted by CmdrTaco from the let's-keep-this-rated-pg dept.
It's been a long time coming, but we're pleased to announce the latest updates to our discussion software. We've been paying a lot of attention to what other websites have been doing in the space, and as we are only too happy to steal good ideas, from now on all Slashdot stories will now be accompanied by a Roulette-style webcam video chat. In testing, we've discovered that Slashdot users are amazingly likely to engage in informative, troll-free discussion when presented with the video image of one of their peers. This new addition to Slashdot nicely rounds out and improves the discussion experience for all users.

Submission + - MIT media lab brings food to your RPG experience

Submitted by boneglorious
boneglorious writes: Cynthia Breazeal's robotics group at MIT, long known for such things as the robotic flower garden, has switched their attention to non-traditional printing media. Using a sugar solution that is fused together during the printing process, they have created such goodies as Batwing Crunching (Everquest) and Crispy Bat Wings (World of Warcraft). For the moment, they all just taste like sugar, but Breazeal has plans for adding sound, smell, and an appealing swaying motion to improve user's experience of the product.
Government

Submission + - Labour MP Backs Petition To Ban VAT On IT Repairs (eweekeurope.co.uk)

Submitted by geek4
geek4 writes: A green petition designed to boost repair work has received political backing — but will it be enough?

A Labour MP has backed a campaign to lift value-added tax (VAT) from computer and communications repairs, in order to boost re-use and reduce the country’s environmental footprint.

Submission + - President Obama announces Cash for Consoles plan

Submitted by ccgr
ccgr writes: This program will be an overwhelming success, allowing consumers to trade in their obsolete systems to buy more energy efficient new models. This will help offset the amount of waste in our landfills and we can donate the systems to third world countries and to those who have lost systems in recent earthquakes. Read more

Comment It's Wine, people. (Score 1) 110

by 51M02 (#31637942) Attached to: SoftMaker Office 2010 For Linux Nearing Release

I just installed the 64-bit deb on my Ubuntu machine and launch it just to see that it's just a Wine application.

It also brings integration into KDE and Gnome

My ass. It's just the Windows version compiled with winelib and on my Ubuntu desktop it is really looking ugly. And I mean more than usual for a wine application. It's all "Windows 2000" greyish.

Look for yourself http://twitpic.com/1b8ds2.

Not free, not native and really ugly. Don't bother with it.

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