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Submission + - SPAM: Quick Fix Archaeology - 3 famous hacks that changed the world

damian2k writes: From a core function of the Windows O/S, to the games that defined a generation, the software industry is built on a pile of good enough Friday afternoon hacks that accidentally changed the world.
  • The Windows Format Dialog, written in the 1990's in one day, and still there in Windows 11.
  • The "difficulty curve" in Space Invaders was created accidentally due to the code not taking into account the CPU performance.
  • The "combo system" of Capcom's Street Fighter II was a bug that allowed you to cancel the current move and immediately start another one.

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Comment Chinese number combos (Score 1) 102

english 'iloveyou' is at #26 but the Mandarin for the same is 'wo ai ni' ... 'woaini1314' is at #83. the 1314 means "forever" ... because it sounds like forever when pronounced in Cantonese. At #93 is '5845201314' - when pronounced in mandarin - 'wo fa shi, wo ai ni, yi san yi si'. ... which sounds like - "i swear to love you forever and ever"... More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_in_Chinese_culture#Combinations

Comment Re:The Internet vs. Cable TV (Score 1) 283

I think the analogy you are after here is that media corporations really want a "CLOSED" Internet that is compliant and fully under their control, as opposed to an "OPEN" Internet which they can't control ... its the inevitable swing back to a closed technology, as happened with the telegraph (started off open then became dominated by western union) and the telephone (started off open then dominated by AT&T). The problem is that the technologies behind the Internet will make it extremely difficult to pull this off, but this may be the first salvo in the battle.

Comment Re:computing power scales exponentially (Score 1) 156

I suspect this is powerful enough computing power that there will be an argument to keep it restricted to "the cloud". Too much power for the average citizen, more than anyone but a terrorist would need, that kinda thing.

Erm, that's what they said about the first ever computer, you know, the quote that went: "there is a global market for a total of 8 computers" or something.

Comment two classes of people with computer skills (Score 1) 1

> The draft Computing Professionals Bill proposes to create two classes of people with computer skills:
> - A lower class of “Registered Computing Practitioner” — people without degrees in computing; and
> - An upper class of “Registered Computing Professional” — graduates in computing

Erm ... so these two have the same acronym ... RCP
they would be better off going with CM (code monkey) and SE (sofware engineer) ;-)

Submission + - Malaysia mull compulsory registration of tech work (wordpress.com) 1

Viceice writes: Hot on the heels of recently passed legislation further restricting Freedom of Assembly, the National Front led Malaysian Government is now working to make the registration of all Tech workers mandatory, making it an offence punishable by a stiff fine and jail for anyone to plan, deploy, service and maintain any computing system without a license.

A leaked draft of the legislation has ignited a backlash among the IT community, which fear the law, when passed, will be devastating to the tech industry in Malaysia.

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