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Comment Re:Workaround (Score 2) 373

Players who are frustrated by cheaters are also ready to boycott Steam. If I were Steam, I would serve my frustrated, honest users. We also maintain a gaming site, and you cannot believe how many people get angry because of cheaters.

I have no issue if they only check for domains or only selectively download the list. But I use three different machines for gaming, development, and system administration.

Comment Re:Call me... (Score 2) 136

We have the same performance critical application in both Java and Javascript. After doing many optimizations in JavaScript (and therefore running into several JavaScript JIT compiler bugs in different browser versions!), JavaScript is still much slower. JS is indeed a promise, but only because it is in newborn state if we consider using it for larger applications.

It is not an accident that Google tries to replace JavaScript with Dart, which already outperforms JavaScript and is more suitable for larger applications. JavaScript was never intended for such purpose. It is very good however, for scripting a web page.

Comment Re:Performance (Score 3, Informative) 136

No, JavaScript is not compiled before execution, because that would delay startup. It starts in interpreted mode. Then the runtime environment gradually compiles frequently running code. I do not know how advanced are the JavaScript runners, but the Java JIT compiler can even compile the same code fragment several times, using different optimizations as it collects more runtime statistics.

Comment Re:I don't care... (Score 1) 459

As one of the world's fastest typists, Sean Wrona is definitely a real touch typist and he recommends using caps lock even for a single upper case letter.

Regarding subconsciously pressing shift: I wanted to write a quantitative example, therefore I had to count switching between left and right shifts. I am far from being a professional typist, but as far as I know my 60-70 words/minute (depending on language) speed is above average.

Comment Re:I don't care... (Score 1) 459

If you touch-type instead of search and peck, then the problem is not holding the shift key, but the continuous switching between the two shift keys as you type letters from the opposite side of the keyboard.

So to type your example sentence fragment "LONG AS THEY REMOVE THE CAPS LOCK" without CAPS LOCK I had to switch between shifts 12 times, not counting the release and press of shift at spaces. If I add those too, then CAPS LOCK spares me 17 key presses and releases, that is 34 finger movements in a short sentence.

Comment Re:Get off my lawn? (Score 1) 459

I believe every touch-typist use the CAPS LOCK key, if they ever write text in upper case. For example, C macros, Java constants or Bash environment variables are all written in upper case by convention.

If I would use the SHIFT key, then I have to press the LEFT SHIFT, then the RIGHT SHIFT for the next letter, and so on, depending on whether the letter to be typed is on the left or the right side of the keyboard.

By the way, basic touch typing can be learnt in ten minutes on a non-staggered keyboard layout, like Kinesis Advantage or the Maltron keyboards.

Comment Re:"So who needs native code now?" (Score 4, Informative) 289

deallocation can (and often is) made O(1) using memory pools in C and C++ programs, something that can't be done in GCd languages

I believe current Java (not Javascript!) virtual machines do exactly this. They do escape analysis, and free a complete block of objects in a single step. This works out of the box, there is no need for memory pools or any other special constructs.

Comment Re:Why does UEFI matter? (Score 1) 211

I did not intend to say that motherboards should understand all file systems. But they should understand at least one non-proprietary, non patent-encumbered one. I mentioned ext2 because that is a relatively simple one. I am afraid you confused ext2 and the current, more complicated ext4. But the actual file system is not important, except it should be patent-free.

Comment Re:Why does UEFI matter? (Score 1) 211

as long as a USB drive is fat32

Does this mean that I am paying to Microsoft if I buy an UEFI motherboard? AFAIK they still extort money for their FAT file systems. Why did somebody choose FAT? If I am clever enough to dual boot than I am also clever enough to format a drive with the completely free ext2.

Comment Bacula (Score 1) 321

It might be an overkill, but the open source backup software Bacula has a verify task, which you can schedule to run regularly. It can compare the contents of files to thir saved state in backup volumes, or it can compare the MD5 or SHA1 hashes which were saved in the previous run. I assume other backup software has similar features.

Comment Re: maybe (Score 1) 267

My point is that if we have no OFFLINE backup, then a physical or network attack can destroy both our live data and our online backups at the same time. If I were an attacker, and I would really like to destroy a firm, then I would first target their backup system. If I can delete all backups immediately thats the best. If not, I would slowly poison their data, so their backups become useless. Only after that I would destroy live data. Therefore it is not enough if you have one offline backup, you must have several one, recorded at different times.

We do use replication, and we have standby servers. Those are useful for high availability. But that is not backup.

We also used offline disks for backups, but I find that inconvenient, and the backup software we use supports tapes much better than disks. I also do not trust disks for long term storage, see my other comment about this.

Until now we were the subject of targeted hacking attempts a few times every year, and they become more sophisticated as the time goes on. I am quite happy here, I want to keep my workpace safe.

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