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Comment Re:C is just a Macro Assembler with curly brackets (Score 1) 492

How often I've wished this were true. Here is an example of why C isn't an assembler. How do you access the condition codes maintained by the underlying machine? Try writing C that adds together two 8 (or 16 or 32 or 64 or whatever) bit binary integers while preserving carry out of the high order bit without having to perform additional integer operations to either synthesize the carry or recover it from an addition wider than the operands. C implements a simplified virtual ALU that has no notion of carry or overflow. It is certainly not the only language that does this, but it does make it impossible (or at least extremely inefficient) to do some things that an assembler allows as a matter of course.

Comment My Internet of Things Nightmare (Score 1) 228

The internet of things is getting to be scary crazy. Here's what worries me. Once you put things like your door locks into the internet of things, you're allowing some outside agency to decide whether or not you can enter your home, or worse, leave it. Fail to pay a parking ticket? Get confined to your home. Your ex accuses you of something nasty? Get confined to your home. Fail to make your Visa payment on time? Get confined to your home.

Comment Re:How to prevent it from ruining my backups (Score 1) 181

Would it be possible/effective to mount the drive as write-only, making it impossible to change existing files?

Given the type of backup you are perform (a "push"), there is nothing you can do to prevent an active infection from destroying your backups while the HD is mounted. In theory, a backup to a blind drop may provide some protection, but there is no backup solution that I am aware of that will work without read access to at least its own metadata. Perhaps a developer opportunity?

Comment Remembering the IBM 3850 Mass Storage (Score 1) 110

The IBM 3850 mass storage system, announced in 1974, held up to 472G on strips of magnetic tape. The 3850 was a rectangular box large enough walk into, with the strips stored along its interior walls in a honeycomb arrangement of slots. A pair of robotic pickers took turns running along a set of rails where they would fetch a tape strip, carry it to a device that wrapped it around a drum for read/write access, and later return it to its slot. You could watch it operating through a window in the box (IBM loved to show off their stuff).

My point is that none of this is new. It is neither interesting nor innovative.

Submission + - The Greatest Keyboard Ever Made

HughPickens.com writes: Adi Robertson writes at The Verge that next year, IBM's Model M keyboard turns 30 but to many people, it’s still the only keyboard worth using. Introduced in 1985 as part of the IBM 3161 terminal, the Model M was initially called the "IBM Enhanced Keyboard." A PC-compatible version appeared the following spring, and it officially became standard with the IBM Personal System / 2 in 1987. The layout of the Model M has been around so long that today it’s simply taken for granted but the keyboard’s descendents have jettisoned one of the Model M’s most iconic features — "buckling springs," designed to provide auditory and tactile feedback to the keyboard operator. "Model M owners sometimes ruefully post stories of spouses and coworkers who can’t stand the incessant chatter. But fans say the springs’ resistance and their audible "click" make it clear when a keypress is registered, reducing errors," writes Robertson. "Maybe more importantly, typing on the Model M is a special, tangible experience. Much like on a typewriter, the sharp click gives every letter a physical presence."

According to Robertson, the Model M is an artifact from a time when high-end computing was still the province of industry, not pleasure. But while today's manufacturers have long since abandoned the concept of durability and longevity, refurbished Model M's are still available from aficionados like Brandon Ermita, a Princeton University IT manager who recovers them from supply depots and recycling centers and sells them through his site, ClickyKeyboards. "For the very few that still appreciate the tactile feel of a typewriter-based computer keyboard and can still appreciate the simplicity of black letters on white keys, one can still seek out and own an original IBM model M keyboard — a little piece of early computing history," says Ermita. As one Reddit user recently commented, "Those bastards are the ORIGINAL gaming keyboards. No matter how much you abuse it, you’ll die before it does."

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