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Comment Re:Wait, what? (Score 5, Informative) 379

In my third year of varsity, we had to write a search engine with indexing stored in files. My Perl solution returned results twice as fast (averaging 22ms/query) as any other in the class, most of which were C or C++. And it took me half the time to write.
I love Perl mainly because of I am a lazy programmer. Yes, most of my Perl scripts take a little bit longer to execute, but we're talking a difference of seconds or minutes, not hours. There are times where I choose Perl, Python, C/C++, PHP, etc, but this depends entirely on the problem and the circumstances. I will use Perl until I die, even if there aren't any more releases from now on.
Should we lament Bash for the same reasons? The last release (4.2) was 13 Feb 2011, and the last feature release (4.0) in early 2010. ZOMG!

Comment Re:I have made the jump... (Score 2) 181

2 years ago I moved from digital broadcast media (web dev before that) to a financial data services company. It was a hell of a change, and there was a massive amount that I had to learn in the new domain. I now have gained that knowledge (not that I know everything about equities, warrants, ETFs, derivatives, and all the things these brokers make up every day to make them more money). But, I'm still a code monkey, still applying the same programming techniques and theory that I've learnt over the years. It's interesting work, even though I do create glorified data processors.

That being said, the world of finance is driven by computers. They need us to bang out code for them. But, it is also high stress. Every minute of downtime translates directly to potential lost revenue. And that potential according to the brokers and traders means actual. It's ok if they lose a few hundred million in a few hours, because of bad luck, but woe betides you if your systems are down.

Comment "...official MySQL binaries aren't vulnerable" (Score 1) 73

http://seclists.org/oss-sec/2012/q2/493

Lookout for that molehill! Yes, some versions are vulnerable, and everyone is having a hissy fit about this. I've tested every single copy of various versions of MySQL that I have running, and they are not vulnerable. And I'm running MySQL on Windows, Arch, RHEL, Ubuntu and CentOS.

Comment Re:What the heck? (Score 5, Informative) 151

Once a year I do some calculations, to figure out which is cheaper for me: a data-only mobile contract and Skype; or a voice contract.
Skype claims that a skype-to-skype call is at 3MB/min, while a skype-to-landline/mobile is at 1MB/min. Considering that most of the calls that are make are to people that don't have skype, I'll use the latter figure.
I sometimes use up to 400 minutes, or less (no carry-over, which is illegal, but we are too scared to fight this). So 350 minutes equates to 350MB skype-to-skype calls. Let's call it 400MB including presence, contact information. I use around 350MB/month when away from my wifi networks. The most applicable data bundle is 1GB, at ZAR290. An "unlimited" package goes for 10x this amount. So, I'll be paying around ZAR320/month for the contract, including their lovely add-ons they always manage to squeeze in.
Next is the cost of skype. If i choose the pay-per-minute option, I'll be paying ZAR0.177/minute, or roughly ZAR61.95/month. This brings my total monthly bill to ZAR381.95, rounding up for the unexpected - ZAR400/month.
I pay ZAR350 for 350 minutes per month, plus a few other items (promotion fee (WTF is that???), itemized statement). The cost of the phone is included in all of that. Assuming I don't go over any of my bundles (350 minutes, 100 sms, 350 GB), then I pay ZAR637/month. And yes, I do often go over my bundles.
So, a data-only contract (it's not data only, but rather the only bundle is data. Voice calls are paid at full rates - ZAR2.85) is 75% of a voice contract. Plus, i pay the same for local calls as I do for international calls when done through skype. ZAR400 vs ZAR637 is a massive difference, making it well-worth it. If I choose the skype route, I end up paying my mobile operator ~ZAR340/month instead of ~ZAR640/month. They will lose out ZAR300/month - or ZAR7,000 over a 24 month contract period.
If I was a mobile operator, I would hate to lose half of my income from a number of my users. But, that's what they get for bending us over the coals, pulling down our pants, and...well...this is a family show. I've used the most expensive skype option, so the prices for monthly or annual subscriptions would only drop.
The only issue is that of battery consumption of skype, and coverage. I spend 99.9% of my time in urban areas with semi-decent data coverage. For the times when I'm in rural/low coverage areas, then I would pay out my of ass to do voice calls. But I'm not too worried about that.
So my point is, yes mobile operators are losing money to VOIP. Yes, they can do something about that. But, they have been dropping their prices in recent years due to consumer demand and dissatisfaction, so they are losing "potential" revenue regardless. I say stick it to "the man" until we collapse the economy with all these work-arounds.

Comment Rise of the... (Score 4, Funny) 68

Planet of the Bonobos. If they have wireless tabs, then one clever one will find a way to take control of a Predator. What then humans? It's going to be World War 3, between Bonobos and Robot Overlords with us stuck in the middle trying to stick flowers into their barrels. Wang Weilin will be squished.

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