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Comment Re:In a good team (Score 1) 508

Thank you for writing my viewpoint for me.

My jobs seem to be increasingly about solving problems with bright colleagues rather than stomping away untested code.

Then again, when you have your problems solved and only tests and code to write, I've found commuting most effective. Hands free, no-one requiring your attention. I'd rather not drive a car (not even a cdr) to work, that would slow me down tremendously.

Comment You lag way behind (Score 4, Interesting) 352

Here in Finland our family is burning through our 4th digital TV device. Analog broadcast was shutdown way back when. Our first was an ok converter box for cable, had to drop it when we moved to a house with terrestrial antenna. Second was some small windows-only USB stick. Third was Topfield with hard drive, best so far. Fourth is MiniMac+42" FullHD "monitor" with Elgato EyeTV Diversity USB stick, which unfortunately comes with software with some drawbacks and unreliability. Works great for skype, browsing and email for the whole family though. Not to mention replacing stereos, DVD players etc. Oh and once I tried to get a Linux box working with some PCI digiTV card but the video signal never got through. Going to try that again if we get seriously fed up with the Mac.
It's funny.  Laugh.

Submission + - Why should you despise geeks?

Rockgod writes: "Here goes the rambling of a suit...
From the article:

If you observe him closely, you will find that a geek approaches non-computer avocations in a fanatical way and always with the certainty (in keeping with an outsized opinion of himself) that he can master any subject with a dilettante's effort. In fact that seems to be the whole point of the rare excursion into non-computerized activity. Once his shallow sense of mastery is satisfied he ceases to progress in the avocation because really hard work bores him.

This is the geek as you might find him on Slashdot and in other forums arguing about Firefox or Linux or whatever his latest petty obsession is, and as I find him walking past my office day-in and day-out acting like a child. I tell you these people make feminists seem charming.
"
Security

Submission + - Windows Animated Cursor 0-Day being exploited

An anonymous reader writes: On a limited scale, people who use Outlook Express get send self-executing e-mails containing animated cursors. This is due to a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows since W2k. There is little one can do to mitigate this problem at this time, except to stop using Outlook Express, or to hope that a virus scanner catches the e-mail. Outlook 2003 and Vista Mail are also vulnerable using their default settings, and Microsoft Internet Explorer is yet another attack vector. I guess it is only a matter of time before a mail-worm will pop up.
Networking

Submission + - CPUShare: Grid Computing On The Cheap

Diablo-D3 writes: "Andrea Arcangeli, famed kernel hacker, has decided to take on all the grid computing systems out there and has created CPUShare. As he describes it, "CPUShare allows the home users to profit from the significant power of their hardware that otherwise would be wasted every day," allowing us geeks with a thousand idle computers to profit for other people's need of CPU power."
It's funny.  Laugh.

Submission + - RIAA Lawsuit Decision Matrix

davidwr writes: Brian Biggs found this secret document while dumpster-diving at RIAA headquarters.
Enjoy :).
Security

Submission + - Should Security be optional

An anonymous reader writes: Interesting story on how web 2.0 vendors fail to understand security:
Excerpt:
Why does security always have to be optional?
It certainly creates additional revenue in the short term. But what about the long term, things like brand image, loss of customer confidence. Imagine a customer account gets compromised and confidential customer records get exposed. Not the kind of information you want to lose. And trust me, at one point someone will ask "What software did they use?".
http://hackreport.net/2007/03/29/should-security-b e-optional/
Security

Submission + - Secure Programming Exams launched

An anonymous reader writes: The SANS Institute, in conjunction with organizations such as Siemens, Symantec, Juniper, OWASP, and Virginia Tech, has announced a program for testing whether programmers know how to write secure code. The Secure Programming Skills Assessment is split into separate language families (C/C++, Java/J2EE, Perl/PHP, and ASP/.NET). Director of research Alan Paller says "This assessment and certification program will help programmers learn what they don't know, and help organizations identify programmers who have solid security skills." The pilot exam will be held in Washington DC in August, followed by a "global rollout."

http://www.sans-ssi.org/

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2007/03 /post_4.html
Programming

Submission + - Delphi for PHP

jbohumil writes: Borland is rolling out Delphi for PHP.
According to the press release ...

Important features of Delphi for PHP include:
  • RAD environment for PHP
  • VCL for PHP — Open source PHP 5 visual component library with more than 50 extendable and reusable components with seamless AJAX integration
  • Out-of-the-box database integration with InterBase, MySQL, Oracle®, Microsoft SQL Server, and other popular databases Integrated PHP debugger
  • Deployment of PHP applications on Windows, Linux, Solaris and other platforms
  • Internationalization support for applications
  • Drag and drop database application development using the Data Explorer for InterBase and MySQL
  • Code editor with Code Insight, Code Explorer, and Code Templates, making it easier and faster to write PHP code
VCL for PHP is based on the most popular open source PHP scripts and libraries, including Qooxdoo, Adodb, DynAPI, Smarty, XAjax and JSCalendar. Inspired by VCL for Delphi, the component architecture is 100 percent written in PHP. Developers can create and integrate components into the IDE and extend the existing components to fit their needs. VCL for PHP is an open source library available on SourceForge at http://sourceforge.net/projects/vcl4php

This sounds pretty cool, I loved Delphi for win32 up until version 3. What do you all think? Does this have the potential to take web applications to a higher level of sophistication by using reusable components and drag and drop ajax controls?
Books

Submission + - link between religion and violence.

niloroth writes: This study finds a link between violence and scripture. "Even among our participants who were not religiously devout, exposure to God-sanctioned violence increased subsequent aggression. That the effect was found in such a sample may attest to the insidious power of exposure to literary scriptural violence." What does this say about fundamentalists of all religions, and for the atheists that responded in the same way? Does this mean that religious scripture should have a 18+ rating? Does this mean that a video game with a religious theme is the most dangerous thing in the world?
Programming

Submission + - Five common Ajax patterns

sarkeizen writes: Jack Herrington provides an interesting (and honest — he calls Ajax a buzzword) description of the five most common usages of Ajax he has come across in web development. It's a worthwhile read if you are considering using this technology on your website.

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