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Comment Re:Those aren't "programming" mistakes... (Score 1) 213

Well, sure, and that's why in more recent Drupal versions they switched to using PHP's PDO, which is much more explicit about what you need to do.

The point was, the tool works if you use it correctly. Using the car lock analogy from above, the place for the lock was there but the developer failed to put a lock in the hole.

Comment Re:Those aren't "programming" mistakes... (Score 1) 213

I half agree. Some of the items in the list are indeed design mistakes, but others really are programmer mistakes.

The SQL injection one is the primary one I'm thinking is really a programmer error. Take this case from Drupal/PHP:

db_query("SELECT * FROM {foo} WHERE bar='" . $_GET['bar'] . "'");

That is totally incorrect and SQL can easily be injected into the statement from outside. When the API is used *correctly* this is not an issue:

db_query('SELECT * FROM {foo} WHERE bar="%s"', $_GET['bar']);

The difference is pretty subtle here and can easily be lost on newbies. As parameters to the db_query function, untrusted inputs are cleaned. I have seen the former code on several sites that I took over from a former developer, they are certainly NOT design errors.

Comment Re:I heard LuLzSec was going to rig the elections. (Score 1) 412

We're getting offtopic here, but Bush wining the second time does NOT Prove that elections are rigged. What it actually caused Bush to get re-elected was a swift-boat campaign http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiftboating on John Kerry right before the election.

I'm replying not to just be pedantic and correct you, I just want to raise awareness of the power of lying TV advertisements - if you know what swiftboating is, you will have the mental tools to recognise it when it happens and respond accordingly.

Do democracy a favor and forward that Wiki article around ;-)

Comment Re:WebGL getting worse not better :( (Score 1) 282

I could see many games and tools for making games running in a web browser. Having done both - native apps and web dev, I have to disagree.

The text handling capabilities alone put the browser WAY ahead of the alternatives. Not to mention you can make the flat parts of your UI in HTML, SVG, whatever. It's a handy environment with a lot of facilities that make app dev simpler.

Comment WebGL getting worse not better :( (Score 1) 282

The WebGL news is pretty depressing. Found this recently (explained here)

I'm still very excited about having a real drawing API in the browser to work with that's not tied to MS or Adobe. Guess it'll still be a while until this tech is ready for prime time (sigh, been waiting YEARS already).

It's not helping that MS is slinging as much FUD as possible. Claiming that IE is "more secure than Chrome or Firefox" is laughable, but crap like this is not helping our case to the casual observer.

Comment MythTV / Input Dev (Score 1) 697

I installed MythTV because the interface is designed to be used with just a few keyboard commands. At first, the goal was to replace a dead TiVo with it, but we quickly realized that we had plenty to watch without capturing TV. So now we just use the streaming features of it, and access DVD images and downloads from a closet server.

Streaming in MythTV is a bit weak on this slightly older setup (about a year old) - the flash player loves to steal input focus, so I have to go over and click to get the remote working again. I'm hoping that irritation is fixed now. Browsing for streaming content isn't so great in the MythTV interface, might as well launch a browser really, you need to use a keyboard to accomplish anything - and the OSK is slow and clumsy. Hulu isn't working on this slightly older Ubuntu, though it is fine in my desktop's 11.04 (probably will update the TV box soon). Netflix actively refuses to work in Linux.

Input devices seem to be a weak point to me if you just want to plug in a random PC. Get yourself a remote that works like a keyboard. Personally, being a nerd, I used a micro-controller (Atmel USB capable AVR) and an IR receiver to fake a USB PC keyboard with my Sony TV remote - so everything (volume, TV power, full MythTV control) is available with one simple remote.

So, fair warning, you'll probably have an all around easier experience by buying a PC remote control and installing Windows Media Center on it, if you can stomach running such a thing.

Comment Missing option (Score 1) 266

All my files are under version control, you insensitive clod!

For a while now, I've been using a private git repository on a VPS (~$20 month). The only things I could possibly lose are only a few days old - the latest revisions. Worst possible case: I have to reinstall OS and a few free programs and lose ~2-3 days work. Since it's a private repo I can be sloppy and commit half-working branches, which I do when a patch is growing unwieldy.

Comment Re:HTML compliance is for wankers (Score 0) 298

Hah yeah except for the huge stupid hack you have to use for IE ;-)

http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/2004/xhtml-faq#ie

Not long ago (within the past year) I've seen people *strongly* recommend targeting HTML 4.01, the most widely set of tags currently supported.

XHTML never really seemed to live up to the hype for me. Sure, it's easier to parse XHTML than HTML. But who cares? You should not be parsing web pages, it's the road to madness ;-) Always look for an API or a feed first.

Comment What's with all the hate? (Score 3, Informative) 298

Last I checked, anyone could submit ideas, corrections, feature requests *RIGHT THERE ON THE HTML5 WORKING DRAFT*. "Feedback Comments" right at the top of http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/

Now, if they ignore your idea, that's almost certainly because it sucks and is badly written. No really, it does suck. Follow the instructions there *carefully*, really think about this feature or tag or whatever you're requesting, and your ideas will get consideration.

Movies

3D Cinema Doesn't Work and Never Will 436

circletimessquare writes "Walter Murch, one of the most technically knowledgeable film editors and sound designers in the film industry today, argues, via Rogert Ebert's journal in the Chicago Sun-Times, that 3D cinema can't work, ever. Not just today's technology, but even theoretically. Nothing but true holographic images will do. The crux of his argument is simple: 600 million years of evolution has designed eyes that focus and converge in parallel, at the same distance. Look far away at a mountain, and your eyes focus and converge far away, at the same distance. Look closely at a book, and your eyes focus and converge close, at the same distance. But the problem is that 3D cinema technology asks our eyes to converge at one distance, and focus at another, in order for the illusion to work, and this becomes very taxing, if not downright debilitating, and even, for the eyes of the very young, potentially developmentally dangerous. Other problems (but these may be fixable) include the dimness of the image, and the fact that the image tends to 'gather in,' even on Imax screens, ruining the immersive experience."
Privacy

Domestic Use of Aerial Drones By Law Enforcement 299

PatPending writes "Aerial drones are now used by the Texas Department of Public Safety; the Mesa County Sheriff's Office, Colorado; the Miami-Dade County, Florida, Police Department; and the Department of Homeland Security. But what about privacy concerns? 'Drones raise the prospect of much more pervasive surveillance,' said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project. 'We are not against them, absolutely. They can be a valuable tool in certain kinds of operations. But what we don't want to see is their pervasive use to watch over the American people.'"

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