Slashdot

cconnell writes "I am working on a PhD in software engineering at Tufts University. My interest are the general principles of good software design, and I am looking for links/references on this topic. The question is: What design/architecture qualities are shared by all good software? Good software means lacking in bugs, maintainable, modifiable, scalable, etc... Please don't tell me 'use object oriented methods' or 'try extreme programming.' These answers are too narrow, since there is good software written in COBOL, and by 1000-person teams for DoD projects. I am looking for general design principles. If it helps, I am trying to build on the ideas in this article from some years back."

From what I understand, the counterfeit routers are made in the same factories by the same people who make the real routers; they just keep the assembly line running past the hours that Cisco is paying them for.

In this case, if Cisco is comparing the counterfeit routers to their legit ones, they should always be the same.

The question this doesn't answer is this: does the LEGIT Cisco equipment contain back doors? How can Cisco be sure it doesn't? Most of the components are manufactured offshore and the assembly is done offshore. Have they examined each part with an electron microscope to verify it doesn't do anything more than what the spec says it should do?

They can't just watch for network activity; these routers might be filtering and caching data waiting for the eventual physical removal of the router in the next upgrade cycle -- or, they might all have a kill switch built in, so someone can remotely take out ALL routers. There are an infinite number of possibilities to look for, and since Cisco doesn't manufacture everything in-house, they really don't have much hope of detecting that none of the infinite possible modifications have been made.

Verification of the producer is essential here - and this is perhaps the moment where outsourcing will bite us in the ass. While you can only buy american made cisco routers, there is no doubt some chipsets made in it are manafactured overseas.

BoringNitride writes "When researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara tried to fix problems with QuikClot, a zeolite powder that stops bleeding quickly, they quickly realized that nanoparticles from kaolin clay, work even better. The result of their work is QuikClot Combat Gauze, which has already saved two lives. Funny enough, Kaolin clay has been used since the 1950's as a reference to initiate clotting in prothrombin time tests."

An anonymous reader sends us to ZeroPaid, which seems to be the only site in English to have picked up a story out of France involving Sony and piracy. Except this time the shoe is on the other foot. The small software company PointDev learned that Sony BMG was using a pirated license for one of its system administration tools. PointDev got bailiffs to raid a Sony property and they found pirated software on four servers. The source article (link is to a Google translation of French original) quotes PointDev's spokesman claiming that the BSA believes 47% of software used in corporations to be illegal — whether he is referring to Sony in particular is not clear in the translation.

Pickens writes "Aaron Rower has an interesting post on Wired with the "Top 5 Reasons it Sucks to be an Engineering Student" that includes awful textbooks, professors who are rarely encouraging, the dearth of quality counseling, and every assignment feels the same. Our favorite is that other disciplines have inflated grades. "Brilliant engineering students may earn surprisingly low grades while slackers in other departments score straight As for writing book reports and throwing together papers about their favorite zombie films," writes Rower. "Many of the brightest students may struggle while mediocre scholars can earn top scores." For many students, earning a degree in engineering is less than enjoyable and far from what they expected. If you want to complain about your education, this is your chance."

theodp writes "What could be more annoying than having ads precede online videos? How about having commercials interrupt the videos? That's the premise behind a newly-published Google patent application for Using Viewing Signals in Targeted Video Advertising."

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Congress isn't happy with FCC Chair Kevin Martin's decision to relax the rules on media consolidation, allowing one entity to control large sections of the media in any one area, so Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) sponsored a resolution declaring that the new rule 'shall have no force or effect'. If you're keeping track of where the presidential candidates stand on these issues, Obama and Clinton are co-sponsors of the resolution against media consolidation while the article speculates that McCain will vote against the resolution based on his past votes."
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080309-john-mccain-and-the-fcc-media-ownership-fight.html

E Online is reporting that a new spinoff is currently in the works to feature Cleveland, the soft-spoken neighbor in popular animated sitcom Family Guy. "Not much is known about Cleveland other than the fact it will revolve around the Brown clan. It's unclear whether the series will remain set in the town of Quahog or whether Cleveland, along with his wife and son, will continue to appear on Family Guy, though as both series are animated, the double-billing won't so much be a logistical problem as a creative decision."

holy_calamity writes "Academics researching how technology addiction affects businesses and employees say 'habit-forming' gadgets like Blackberries should be dispensed along with warnings about the effect they can have on your life. 'We don't want to be in a situation in a few years similar to that with fast food or tobacco today. We need to pay attention to how people react to potentially habit-forming technologies.'"

Dotnaught writes "Backed by a study that says teens show more respect for copyrights when told of possible jail time for infringement, Microsoft is launching a new intellectual property curriculum to educate kids about IP law. To support its teachings, Microsoft has launched MyBytes, a Web site where students can create custom ringtones, share content — "their own content," as Microsoft makes clear — and learn more about intellectual property rights."

An anonymous reader writes "Amanda Kerik responded to a problem that a user was having with their Windows machine that since they had to do a re-install they might as well install Ubuntu Linux.

She got a message back from Yahoo claiming that such a comment was in violation of its Community Guidelines or Terms of Service. It deleted her answer and warned her not to post anything like that again .."
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/01/25/yahoo-censoring-open-sauce

ErikTheRed writes "Scientists have finally created Di-positronium, a new form of matter combining an electron and a positron. The discovery, which according to this BBC article reported in the journal Nature, is a key step in the creation of ultrapowerful lasers known as gamma-ray annihilation lasers. These would be useful in starting fusion reactions. Now all we need are some friggin' sharks..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6991030.stm

An anonymous reader writes "CNet has a digestable analysis of a new hybrid hard disk that has its own dedicated CPU, operating system and a gigabyte of on-board DDR RAM. The disk can sit alongside existing drives and SSD hard disks, and will be interestingly inexpensive.

"This new effort is aimed at desktop computers, and is essentially an amalgam of a smaller laptop hard disk, and 1GB of ordinary DDR RAM like that found in all computers.""
http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/natelanxon/0,139102300,49292591,00.htm