Comment affect/effect? (Score 1) 119
"Dire affect"? Like someone's expression is really serious or something?
Best Browser For Using Complex Web Applications? 347
yanyan writes "I'm fairly new to the field of web application development. Currently I'm working on a big online ticketing system for passage and freight for a local shipping company. It's a one-man show and the system is written in Ruby and uses Rails. Aside from the requisite functionality of creating bookings the system must also print reports and tickets, and this is where I've discovered (the hard way) that most, if not all, browsers fall short. I've had to switch from Firefox 3.6.3 to Opera 10.53 because of a major printing bug in Firefox, but the latest stable Opera is also giving me its own share of problems. To complicate things, an earlier version of Opera (10.10) doesn't appear to have 10.53's printing problems, but I'm wary. What browsers and specific versions do you end up deploying for use with big, complex web apps that include printing? Also consider CSS accuracy and consistency."
Submission + - Two Chinese Schools Tied to Google Hacks (nytimes.com)
Hapless Hero writes: A series of online attacks on Google and dozens of other American corporations have been traced to computers at two educational institutions in China, including one with close ties to the Chinese military, say people involved in the investigation.
They also said the attacks, aimed at stealing trade secrets and computer codes and capturing e-mail of Chinese human rights activists, may have begun as early as April, months earlier than previously believed. Google announced on Jan. 12 that it and other companies had been subjected to sophisticated attacks that probably came from China.
The Chinese schools involved are Shanghai Jiaotong University and the Lanxiang Vocational School, according to several people with knowledge of the investigation who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the inquiry.
They also said the attacks, aimed at stealing trade secrets and computer codes and capturing e-mail of Chinese human rights activists, may have begun as early as April, months earlier than previously believed. Google announced on Jan. 12 that it and other companies had been subjected to sophisticated attacks that probably came from China.
The Chinese schools involved are Shanghai Jiaotong University and the Lanxiang Vocational School, according to several people with knowledge of the investigation who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the inquiry.
Comment Re:So... (Score 1) 204
I'm reminded of the saying, "Do stateways change folkways or do folkways change stateways?"
This is probably a bastardization of the quote, whose author is now lost to me, but there ya go.
Comment Re:Best is... (Score 1) 457
Yeah. Real chocolate is really what I like. I actually collect and rate ~70%s. :)
Comment Re:Best is... (Score 1) 457
Hahahah okay well I (original poster) happen to be Asian, and I happened to pick the first thing that popped into my head so I could get a quick first post and vote in. :)
Comment Re:Best is... (Score 1) 457
Any chocolate variety - the regular chocolate or the Men's. I don't like fruity, almondy...etc.
Comment Best is... (Score 5, Insightful) 457
Pocky.
Submission + - Is love just a chemical cocktail? (bbc.co.uk)
Hapless Hero writes: A professor of neuroscience at Emory University theorizes that romantic love, despite the myriad ways poets have been describing the most written-about emotion for centuries, is nothing more profound than a series of chemical reactions. From the BBC.co.uk article:
Professor Young argues that love can be explained by a series of neurochemical events that are happening in specific brain areas. If that is true then, he says, one would no longer have to rely on oysters or chocolates to create a loving mood. Instead, it will be possible for scientists to develop aphrodisiacs — chemicals that would make people fall in love with the first person they see. And for those who have fallen in love with someone they shouldn't have fallen in love with, an antidote to unrequited love. There is even the prospect of a genetic "love test" to assess whether two potential love birds are predisposed to a happy married life.
Are we headed towards our very own real-life love potions? Or is there something deeper going on in true love?
Why Does the US Have a Civil Space Program? 308
BDew writes "The Presidents of the National Academy of Science and the National Academy of Engineering have commissioned a study on the Rationale and Goals of the US Civil Space Program. In short, the Academies are asking why the nation has a civil space program (including human, robotic, commercial, and personal spaceflight). The study is intended to provide a strategic framework for the nation's activities in space that can provide consistent guidance in an increasingly interconnected world. The members of the study committee are interested in the views (positive or negative) of the general public, particularly those people with a scientific and/or technological interest."
The Exact Cause of the Zune Meltdown 465
An anonymous reader writes "The Zune 30 failure became national news when it happened just three days ago. The source code for the bad driver leaked soon after, and now, someone has come up with a very detailed explanation for where the code was bad as well as a number of solutions to deal with it. From a coding/QA standpoint, one has to wonder how this bug was missed if the quality assurance team wasn't slacking off. Worse yet: this bug affects every Windows CE device carrying this driver."
Comment Re:What do you want to program? (Score 1) 997
Okay, I didn't mean they were "fake." I just meant they were unwieldy, in my experience, for writing something like a web browser or some other major desktop app. I wholeheartedly support shell scripting! It's very important.
I still mean to say that you need to know what you are looking to write before you go choosing a language. Certain languages are suited to some things and not others.
Comment What do you want to program? (Score 4, Interesting) 997
That is the first question you should ask yourself, actually.
One thing you might learn, from a tinkering-with-Linux point-of-view, is shell scripts. Surprised no one mentioned them yet. They aren't really "programming" in the sense of creating apps, but they are fun and a cool part of Linux.
