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Comment So, what does the in-memory database option do? (Score 0) 97

In the dark days of computing history before AJAX was even conceived and Mad Men were still crazies, "in-memory databases" meant that the database INDEX was in RAM (ideally if you DB admin was worth their salary), but then people wanted to pretend their were the next Google, famous for their massive search index in the pentabytes of storage, so hipsters started the NoSQL fad to be awkward like middle-aged men in skinny jeans as a vain attempt to self-proclaim their importance.

Now Oracle is making money by selling RDBM to organizations that spent more money and time on hookers and coke than doing real IT management. The Old is New, yet again.

Rinse, Lather, Repeat.

Comment Re:20 year old antique?? (Score 2) 212

Am I the only one laughing at the thought something from the early 90s is now considered antique?

Ha, darn kids probably can't fathom the idea that there were real computers in use by companies and organizations before those flashy single chip microprocessor based PCs were all the rage.

No mention of minis like PDP, VAX/VMS (RIP DEC), CDC Cyber (12-bit bytes), Data General, or IBM & Unisys mainframes.

Thankfully there was at least mention of Zilog's Z80, terminal servers, RS-422/485, and green screens.

Bunch of whiny kids. Next they'll complain their first automobile or hand-me-down cathode ray tube colour television doesn't have WiFi and a web browser. Get old my lawn.

Heck, I develop, maintain, and extend software that's over 20 years old. I've worked on software written before I was born. Software approaching 50 years old is more like what I would consider ancient. Like much of the insurance and banking industry in Europe and North America.

So. my serious bit: Learn about industrial computer market, products, and vendors. Use industrial USB to RS-232C converter in most cases (where timing or bit banging isn't used), not the $5 USB-to-serial adapter from the big box electronics store. Take a class from your local community college if PLC or ladder logic is relevant to your environment.

Comment Re:Public is Public (Score 1) 220

For example, a lot of research in computer graphics

Which is a very young field (first article published in late 1960's? the term was coined in 1960, Ivan Sutherland started in 1959 or so on MIT's TX-2), so is not necessarily indicative of all fields. The researchers mean age also tends to be lower, with many professors and professionals not being as badly affected by the greying of labour force in general (or in tenured professorship).

I don't think it's my imagination: the number of recent graphics papers with substantial contributions behind ACM paywalls seems to be dwindling fast.

Reference? Not disputing at all, just haven't noticed such a trend personally. I do know that many academic comp.graphics types do make their papers available, but industry contributors are still mixed, I imagine in part due to their companies own damn lawyers who don't want to lose a potential patent or revenue stream. I don't believe Ken Penlin, Ed Catmull, or Ivan Sutherland's papers are (officially) freely available.

While Computer Science itself is modern field, and computer graphics has a short history, they also are computing pioneers in personality, of whom most are early adopters of Internet technology and culture.

Comment The risk of false positives outweight the risks... (Score 1) 253

The change in policy stems from good mathematics, namely good statistics. Where the number of people who are subjected to a test may suffer from one of two failures,

a) false negative - that is the test fails to detect the presence of a disease and thus incorrectly reports a negative results, and
b) false positive, the test incorrectly reports a positive result, but the disease is not actually present.

The problem is that with a large pool of test population and a small affected sub-population, the misleading results are counter-intuitive, and can end up causing more harm (otherwise healthy individuals undergoing unnecessary biopsies, radiation, and chemotherapy increase mortality rate) to the overall population.

See The dangers of false positives by Dr. Dave Richeson, don't take my word on it.

Comment Re:Digital Signatures (from distributions) (Score 1) 147

this is entirely and precisely why distros such as debian go to such lengths to place GPG digital signatures on the downloads; why they go to such lengths to enact extensive GPG key-signing web-of-trust exchanges etc. etc.

And Microsoft has gone to considerable lengths to promote and strongly encourage the usage of code signing for installers of Windows software. In fact many if not most of the larger Open Source projects that have a large Windows community sign their code too.

The problem is that people are use to ignoring the security warnings from Microsoft, compared to most administrators (or root/sudo users) read and heed security warnings in Linux and *BSD package management.

Comment I grab my soldering iron... (Score 1) 422

and build retro micro-computer kits, like the Replica 1 (Apple I clone, MOS Tech 6502), and Spare Time Gizmo's COSMAC Elf 2000 (RCA CDP1802 CPU). I also have an unfinished N8VEM Z80 single board computer (SBC) with an optional S-100 like backplane called ECB, and multiple expansion boards

Who needs more than 4 MHz, I can't type 50wpm anyhow; :-)

Comment Re:Apple has almost always been worse than MS (Score 1) 297

I'm sure Stallman and the FSF / GNU had a serious hate-on towards Apple years ago when Macintosh were still running on 68x00 and PowerPC CPUs (i.e. 1990s).

Apple was walled garden back then too, it was just that they were merely the size of most PC clone manufacturers / OEMs so no one else really cared.

Comment Re:This will turn off some portion of students (Score 1) 169

You did note that it is an education program for teachers, designed to give them material to teach to public school (primary / elementary and secondary school) level students, that is under 18.

And because it is important to stress this point, this material is intended to be taught by teachers, not programmers, to any student. The goal of such a program should be basically to look behind the curtain of prepackaged applications and understand the basics, in general terms, of how computer systems (hardware and software) work. Whether they become programmers (or do other IT job) is irrelevant, the first goal of education is knowledge. It is also an opportunity for students to try to experiment, and to be creative, where students with strong mathematics, logic and analytic skills may find easier to express themselves creatively rather than in essay writing assignments in English (or other language) classes where linguistic and writing skills are more ambiguous and subjective when it comes to evaluation.

Motivational agents for children include: social contact (& status), monetary, and entertainment. Most kids don't have much real-work that needs to be done / automated. Of course there are exceptions, but they are just that, exceptions.

Comment Re:He will shortly find himself in court... (Score 1) 236

Not true. Canada does it's on clinical trials and usually takes a little longer in their process which is why you'll see the same drugs approved in Canada a year or two later.

The government (Health Canada or FDA) does not do their own clinical trials, (phase III, IV in US parlance IIRC), though the pharmaceutical company may do them in Canada, as an adjunct or alternative to US, as the test subjects have free basic (normally not drugs) health care, which can reduce the cost to underwrite the study and potentially raise the averge health of test subjects (i.e. not necessarily just looking for free health care), thereby improving their results (healthy subjects will normally tolerate side effects better, and with fewer complications). I don't know if a weak Canadian dollar was a secondary benefit (to reduce cost), but that's not true currently.

The clinic trials are done (through a contractor, hired by the manufacturer) as evidence submitted to the regulator agencies requesting approval to market the drugs. This is what allows so many "dirty tricks" to be played by manufacturers against the regulators; who's rank and file, in general, try their best to act in the public good.

Most often drugs from major manufacturers are available in the US for 1-2 years before being finally approved in Canada. Europe is often slightly slower than Canada, I believe; I don't watch availability there in general, but that statement is based on comments of medical researchers, and my own doctors.

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