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Programming

Submission + - Are you proud of your code? 6

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I have a problem and I am hoping /. group therapy is the cure, so get on with the +5 comments, post haste! I am downright embarrassed by the quality of my work; specifically, my code. It is buggy, slow, fragile, and a nightmare to maintain. Documentation, requirements, automated tests? Does not exist. Do you feel the same way? If so, then what is holding you back from realizing your full potential? More importantly, what if anything are you planning to do about it? This picture, which many of you have already seen, captures several project failure modes. It would be humorous if it weren't so depressingly true. I enjoy programming and have from a young age (cut my teeth on BASIC on an Apple IIe). I have worked for companies large and small in a variety of languages and platforms. Sadly the one constant in my career is that I am assigned to projects that drift, seemingly aimlessly, from inception to a point where the client runs out of funding and the project is abandoned. Like many young and idealistic university graduates I hoped to spend my life programming passionately, but ten years later I look in the mirror and see a whore. I'm just doing it for the money. Have any developers here successfully lobbied their company to stop or cut back on 'cowboy coding' and adopt best practices? I'm not talking about the methodology-of-the-week, I'm referring to good old fashioned advice like keeping SQL out of the UI layer. For the big prize: has anyone convinced their superiors that the customer isn't always right and saying no once in awhile is the best course of action? Thanks in advance for your helpful advice.
Microsoft

Submission + - Researchers blast Vista Service Pack 1

Submitted by Stony Stevenson
Stony Stevenson writes: A group of researchers has described Microsoft's upcoming Windows Vista Service Pack 1 as a "performance dud". Researchers from the EXO Performance Network claimed that a series of in-house benchmark tests showed that users hoping to receive a speed boost from the update will be disappointed. "After extensive testing of Release To Manufacture and SP1-patched versions of Vista it seems clear that the hoped-for performance fixes that Microsoft has been hinting at have not materialised," the group said.
Space

Submission + - More solar panel problems for ISS

Submitted by rufey
rufey writes: This week there have been two pieces of bad news from the International Space Station. First was the discovery of metal shavings inside a problematic rotary joint used to keep one set of solar panels in the optimal position for power generation. At the close of a subsequent spacewalk, after it was relocated to its permanent location, the unfurling of the 4B solar panel resulted in it tearing in two places. A spacewalk is now planned for November 4th to attempt to fix the tear. The upcoming spacewalk is not without risks, including the remote possibility of electrocution since it is impossible to stop the solar panel from generating electricity during the repair attempt. NASA says the ripped wing needs to be fixed or the solar rotary joint problem solved before any more shuttles can fly to the space station and continue construction. With a hard deadline of 2010 for Shuttle retirement, NASA does not have much wiggle room in the schedule in order to finish ISS construction.
Privacy

Submission + - UK to imprison for inability to decrypt data

Submitted by mrbluze
mrbluze writes: Ars technica has an article describing new laws which come into effect on 1st November in the UK. Up to 2 and 5 years imprisonment can be inflicted on any person who refuses or cannot provide keys or decrypt data as requested by police or military for criminal or anti-terror purposes, respectively. From the article:

The Home Office has steadfastly proclaimed that the law is aimed at catching terrorists, pedophiles, and hardened criminals — all parties which the UK government contends are rather adept at using encryption to cover up their activities.
It refers to a potential problem faced by international bankers who would be wary to bring their encryption keys into the UK. Some how I doubt that is the real problem with the law.
Biotech

Submission + - New results from Fight AIDS@Home (isgtw.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: New results from the Fight AIDS@Home project allow faster and more reliable classification of molecules potentially able to bind to the HIV virus, and should speed the goal of finding new HIV therapeutics effective in the face of drug resistance. FightAIDS@Home is the first biomedical distributed computing project ever launched. It is run by the Olson Laboratory at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. We provide free software that you download and install. The software uses your computer's idle cycles to assist fundamental research in discovering new drugs, building on our growing knowledge of the structural biology of AIDS.
Television

Submission + - HD TV using a coat hanger and wire (orato.com)

Submitted by
locdao
locdao writes: "The majority of the digital signals cable companies get are taken off air and then re-compressed to a lower quality (so they can dish out more of it). So essentially, like bottled water, you are being sold something that is already free. The free over the air signal is actually of a much higher quality because it's the first incoming transmission. Lu bought the best indoor antenna , eagerly got home and plugged it in. To his surprise, I didn't get any additional channels (analog or HD) ... in fact, it seemed worse, even with much fiddling of the antennas. So he returned the over-priced rabbit ears and made his own out of a coat hook and wire. Read his story on Orato."
Power

Submission + - Nanotechnology for the natural gas industry

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "According to researchers from the University of Wyoming, nanotechnology could revolutionize the natural gas industry. They say that nanotechnology 'could help us extract more fuel and feedstock hydrocarbons from dwindling resources.' However, they recognize that the oil and gas exploration and production industry is not very innovative. If the sector doesn't accept the idea that nanotechnologies can help them to face their increasing technical challenges, this could represent a missed opportunity to improve the industry, both for exploration and production. Read more for additional details and references."
Security

Submission + - Computer security tech targets first-responders (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "Researchers at Princeton are building security features directly into the hardware of personal computer, cell phone or PDA with the goal of building a computer architecture that enables the secure transmission of crucial rescue information to first responders during events such as natural disasters, fires or terrorist attacks.Researchers said the Secret Protected (SP) computer architecture relies on two new elements that are embedded in the hardware of an electronic device: a device root key and a storage root hash.That technology, embedded in a firefighter's handheld computer would let trusted authority such as a municipal Fire Department grant emergency access to relevant floor plans, security codes or other essential information. Once the emergency was over, the access to this sensitive information would end. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/21415"
Links

Submission + - IT jobs really do pay! (cioinsight.com)

Submitted by
itphobe
itphobe writes: "Staffing firm Robert Half Technology just released a report on IT job salaries for 2008. For the first time, IT auditors, data security analysts, software engineers and others are expected to rake in an average of $100K or more. CIOs still make the most, but pay for many specialty jobs is on the rise."
United States

Submission + - Offshoring's Impact: More R&D; Less Gloom-and- (cio.com)

Submitted by
Chris Lindquist
Chris Lindquist writes: "The ramifications of globalization will have a long-term impact on our standard of living in the U.S., or so says entrepreneur-turned-academic Vivek Wadhwa. For many, there's no surprise there. But, he adds, offshoring and guest workers aren't necessarily the portents of gloom and doom that they're made out to be — at least for U.S. companies (if not their workers). Why care what Wadhwa says? He was one earliest executives to outsource software development to Russia in the early 1990s and isn't shy about touting his leading-edge use of H-1B visas, because 'When you have a person on H-1B waiting for a green card, you have them captive for six to 10 years.'"
Microsoft

Submission + - Q&A with Bill Gates

Submitted by Iftekhar25
Iftekhar25 writes: USAToday has published a short interview with soon-to-be-philanthropist Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates on the upgraded Zune. Questions fielded included his response to criticism Microsoft faces on becoming bureaucratic and political. From the article: 'We were founded on believing in the magic of software. We've managed in terms of hiring people and having development tools and research groups that keep pushing the frontiers for us. We've become the pre-eminent software company. It really speaks to how powerful our original vision was that software has become the center of experiences like listening to music, sharing music, watching TV, playing video games. It all connects through the magic of software.'
Technology (Apple)

Submission + - Apple Platform Lock-Ins: A 3rd Party Dev's Opinion 1

Submitted by
Iftekhar
Iftekhar writes: "Wil Shipley, of Delicious Monster fame, has written a very candid essay on what he perceives as Apple's growing trend toward platform lock-ins. He writes: 'Why is the iPhone locked to a single carrier, so I can't travel internationally with it? There's really only one viable reason: Apple wanted a share of the carrier's profits, which meant giving AT&T an exclusive deal. Which meant, we get screwed so Apple can make more money. It's that simple. [...] As Apple gets more and more of its revenue from non-Mac devices, they are also getting more and more of their revenue from devices that simply exclude third parties. Consumers suffer from this. We suffer from increased prices and decreased competition and innovation. We suffer so Apple can make a few more bucks, when Apple is clearly not hurting for money.'"

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