Comment The Cracker Problem? (Score 1) 1
WTF is the Cracker Problem?
First Self-Replicating Creature Spawned In Conway's Game of Life 241
Calopteryx writes "New Scientist has a story on a self-replicating entity which inhabits the mathematical universe known as the Game of Life. 'Dubbed Gemini, [Andrew Wade's] creature is made of two sets of identical structures, which sit at either end of the instruction tape. Each is a fraction of the size of the tape's length but, made up of two constructor arms and one "destructor," play a key role. Gemini's initial state contains three of these structures, plus a fourth that is incomplete. As the simulation progresses the incomplete structure begins to grow, while the structure at the start of the tape is demolished. The original Gemini continues to disassemble as the new one emerges, until after nearly 34 million generations, new life is born.'"
US Plans To Bulldoze 50 Shrinking Cities 806
chrb writes "Two days ago Slashdot discussed broke counties grinding their tarmac roads into gravel. Now the Telegraph reveals plans to raze huge sections of at least 50 US cities to the ground. The resulting smaller cities will be more economical to run, and the recovered land will be returned to nature."
Comment iSeries Reliablility, Flexibility (Score 1) 125
My employer is moving from one ERP system to another one on iSeries. If your Co. has expertise with iSeries' systems then stay with it. There are very few systems with the security and reliablity of an iSeries. OS/400 (and i5/OS) is object oriented by design and that contributes enormously to it's security. One idea is to keep the iSeries and use it as a DB2 server. That way you aren't locked into it if your company decides to move to another platform and are taking advantage of the iSeries' strengths. By the way, you can run X applications from i5/OS and OS/400 natively as well as running Linux, AIX, etc. in logical partitions.
