Comment CrunchZilla (Score 1) 299
There is a site that I showed to my 8-10 year old kids last year to introduce them to JavaScript.
They were able to go through both the Code Monster and Code Maven programs successfully and they had fun.
Comment Every year (Score 1) 139
Cisco lays off about 5% of its workforce every year. They have always done this. It is the corporate culture. 5%ers are generally people that are there for a year to get Cisco on their resume and then they are off to someplace else. A decent percentage of new hires only last one year. They simply aren't re-hired after their probationary period. So if you are constantly hiring 5% and you lose 3% every year to this process, they are only laying off 2% of their poor performers.
They announce these layoffs every year to get a little jump on the stock price from people that thing they are streamlining.
Comment Re:Bullshit (Score 1) 35
Armageddon was an asteroid. Deep Impact was a comet.
Comment Re:Crack (Score 1) 100
Correct, volume isn't always everything. However, that is only the case when there are large differences in profit margin. In this case, there isn't much difference. The Z10 (which I've used a little bit, not every day) is an average device these days with some neat features. Nothing earth shattering. Its as average as an iPhone or any number of Android devices. The sales however, have been disappointing. The largest factor, is that without any large distinguishing feature, most people have already moved on from Blackberry to other smart devices.
However, as I said above, its all about the Q10 for Blackberry. It has a much higher profit margin, and they will sell a ton. There are plenty of people out there just waiting for their "real" keyboard. With very little competition in that market, and a loyal fanbase in that market, they should do well. In the first quarter. They will probably even pull a million or so iPhone/Android users back with the physical keyboard. However, when you consider that Apple is averaging about 30 million units a QUARTER over the last two years or so, that doesn't really make a dent in market share. The Q10 will get most of its sales from people that have waited 2-3 years for the next generation Blackberry, that didn't migrate away to touch platforms. Blackberry's own estimates are that they will sell multiple 10's of millions of Q10's. Apple does that every quarter. Quarter after quarter. They have such a huge installed base, most of their sales at this point are people aging off of their iPhone 3gs/iPhone4.
Comment Re:Crack (Score 1) 100
In a month and a half in the US and 5 months in Canada. The iPhone 4S did that in its first day and the iPhone 5 did 2 million its first day.
The Q10 will be the true metric though. There are a ton of people out that that have been waiting 2-3 years for the next physical keyboard phone. Q2 should be a good one for BB. However, once that initial flood comes through...
Comment Re:$200K ... Uh Oh. (Score 5, Funny) 177
No Air, no Air Miles. Its in the fine print.
Comment Molecular Sieve? (Score 1, Offtopic) 198
If the substance's density could be altered, it would be possible to have one membrane of gel that was more dense than helium and hydrogen, but less dense than every other element. Then have this gel, which is less dense than helium and more dense than hydrogen. Helium and Hydrogen would flow through the first membrane leaving everything else behind, and then only Hydrogen would pass though the second membrane leaving only helium trapped in between. Given the state of the world's current Helium reserves, this might be a very handy technology.
Comment Re:Uhhh... (Score 1) 254
No. Any number 2^n-1 is not prime. It is only prime when n is also prime.
Mp=2^p - 1 is prime where p is prime
Comment Re:WTF is the point of BB Balance? (Score 2) 267
Using the corporate tie in allows the corp to push apps and settings to the phone and wipe them upon termination. If I set my iphone up to pop my corp mail, its on my phone and they can't do anything about it when I quit. With the BB they can nuke the corp data from orbit. Still don't want them in my enterprise though. All of the pointed headed people asking what happened to their email and messaging the next time they have a 4 day world wide outage.
Submission + - Password Cracker Targets Siemens S7 PLCs (threatpost.com)
Trailrunner7 writes: Siemens S7 programmable logic controllers, the same PLC family exploited by the Stuxnet malware, are in the crosshairs of a password-cracking tool that is capable of stealing credentials from industrial control systems.
PLCs are microprocessors that automate mechanical processes inside factories, including critical infrastructure utilities and manufacturers. The S7 protocol in question provides communication between engineering stations, SCADA systems, HMI interfaces and PLCs that is password protected.
Researchers at SCADA Strangelove presented at the recent Digital Bond SCADA Security Scientific Symposium (S4) a new offline brute force password cracker for S7 PLCs, along with proof of concept code.
PLCs are microprocessors that automate mechanical processes inside factories, including critical infrastructure utilities and manufacturers. The S7 protocol in question provides communication between engineering stations, SCADA systems, HMI interfaces and PLCs that is password protected.
Researchers at SCADA Strangelove presented at the recent Digital Bond SCADA Security Scientific Symposium (S4) a new offline brute force password cracker for S7 PLCs, along with proof of concept code.
Submission + - Nokia Confirms PureView as last Symbian Device (paritynews.com)
hypnosec writes: Nokia has finally made the official statement about the last Symbian phone – The PureView and has put an end to speculations as to when will the Finnish company’s famous operating system breath its last. Declared through an earnings announcement the PureView which was released back in 2012 was the last device that was powered by Symbian. "The Nokia 808 PureView, a device which showcases our imaging capabilities and which came to market in mid-2012, was the last Symbian device from Nokia", read one of the statements in the interim report.
Submission + - Intel gets go-ahead for $4 billion chip plant in Ireland (engadget.com)
alancronin writes: Intel has been planning to make its Ireland base one of three global manufacturing sites for its 14nm chips since May last year, and its now been given the okay by Ireland's lead planning agency. The new $4 billion plant will create around 4,300 jobs for the region in Co. Kildare, where Intel already has around 4,000 on staff. The two-year plan involves redeveloping its existing operation, expanding and shifting to make its smaller, more efficient 14nm process. Intel's plans don't stop there, however. It still plans to roll out 10nm products sometime in 2015.
Submission + - Expulsion Exposes CS Departments Stuck in "Pre Internet Era" (securityledger.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The Security Ledger writes that the expulsion of Ahmed Al-Khabaz, a 20 year-old computer sciences major at Dawson College in Montreal, has exposed a yawning culture gap between academic computer science programs and the contemporary marketplace for software engineering talent.
In an opinion piece in the Montreal Gazette on Tuesday, Dawson computer science professor Alex Simonelis said his department forbids hacking as an “extreme example” of “behavior that is unacceptable in a computing professional.” And, in a news conference on Tuesday, Dawson's administration stuck to that line, saying that Al-Khabaz's actions show he is "no longer suited for the profession."
In the meantime, Al-Khabaz has received more than one job offer from technology firms, including Skytech, the company that makes Omnivox.
Chris Wysopal, the CTO of Veracode, said that the incident shows that "most computer science departments are still living in the pre-Internet era when it comes to computer security." “Computer Science is taught in this idealized world separate from reality. They’re not dealing with the reality that software has to run in a hostile environment,” he said. Teaching students how to write applications without taking into account the hostile environment of the Internet is like teaching architects how to make buildings without taking into account environmental conditions like earthquakes, wind and rain, Wysopal said.
In an opinion piece in the Montreal Gazette on Tuesday, Dawson computer science professor Alex Simonelis said his department forbids hacking as an “extreme example” of “behavior that is unacceptable in a computing professional.” And, in a news conference on Tuesday, Dawson's administration stuck to that line, saying that Al-Khabaz's actions show he is "no longer suited for the profession."
In the meantime, Al-Khabaz has received more than one job offer from technology firms, including Skytech, the company that makes Omnivox.
Chris Wysopal, the CTO of Veracode, said that the incident shows that "most computer science departments are still living in the pre-Internet era when it comes to computer security." “Computer Science is taught in this idealized world separate from reality. They’re not dealing with the reality that software has to run in a hostile environment,” he said. Teaching students how to write applications without taking into account the hostile environment of the Internet is like teaching architects how to make buildings without taking into account environmental conditions like earthquakes, wind and rain, Wysopal said.
Comment Re:Sad, really (Score 1) 56
Nothing like writing MIPS assembly on an SGI using XSPIM
Comment VMWare (Score 1) 330
I'd settle for being able to install OS X on VMWare without hosting the VMWare hypervisor on a Mac Server 3.1 which they haven't made since Jan 2011. Yes, I understand that its possible, but not without violating EULAs of both VMWare and Apple.
I'd love to be able to run OS X in my VDI cluster.
