That's apples and oranges.

The 12k limit is more related to just having 32 bits than to cryptographic/non-cryptographic nature.

64k*64k ^=32 bit, so at 64k you are guaranteed that there is at least one two-bit error that is undetected. At 2048, you are also virtually guaranteed of a 3-bit errors that goes undetected -- that's true whether the hash is a plain CRC or a cryptographic one.

A CRC-128 would have been as good for this purpose as MD5 or SHA1.

I've got a vision of Julian Assange, gagged, strapped to a trolley a la Silence Of The Lambs, being wheeled out in front of the assembled party goers, with a sign around his neck "Go ahead, tell the truth"...

Are you aware of a single Java compiler that supports vector operations at all? Either autovectorization or intrinsics without JNI would do, but I'm not aware of any.

> 20 years ago, lockdown was the norm. Finding a fucking *compiler* that didn't cost hundreds or thousands of dollars was completely impossible. But things changed. Why? Consumer choice.

Maybe on your planet.

Here on planet earth, 20 years ago:
- Turbo Pascal was $50 since .. 1985 or so? (I think it was still called "Compass Pascal" then)
- Basic was just disappearing from the DOS of the time (GWBasic), and reappearing as cut-down QuickBasic
- GCC version 1 was available
- Every computer before the IBM PC came with usable Basic (I still used my C64 in 92 -- though not its basic). The BBC-B additionally had a built in Assembler. The Apple ][ (circa '78) additionaly had a built in Machine Code monitor.
- Mix C, a very able development environment, was $30

Lockdown was definitely NOT the norm. No system provider actively tried to thwart modifications back then for anything less than a Mainframe -- although that's around the time the trend started (Lexmark printer cartridges; SNES cartridges; etc.)

Many people disagree with Apple, but at least Apple are upfront about what they do, and why they do it. They'll bow to the MAFIAA occasionally if they think it would make a better media experience (or fit better with their plans for world domination), but they are coherent and mostly honest.

Microsoft's evil is expressed in a lot of underhanded tactics. That includes stuffing the ISO committees in favour of OOXML (which has damaged that organization's ability to work for a while now), threatening companies like ASUS who have a viable product (eee) that doesn't depend on Microsoft to make sure that they don't actually try to work it, and a whole lot other.

You know, there are a few other differences between Venezuela and the US besides corporate personhood; e.g., in Denmark, corporations are not persons -- yet, they enjoy just as much freedom of the press there as in the US if not more.

And, if the government wants to hurt a company, it can be virtue of being the largest consumer of almost anything; Ask Qwest CEO what happens when the government asks you to participate in an illegal wiretapping program, and you refuse. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qwest

People, the point in learning from example is not to look for an example that agrees with your prejudice -- it is to look for an example that CONTRASTS with your prejudice and see what you can actually learn from it. Always compare to European countries (Denmark, Sweden and Norway are good targets) when someone proposes a change, especially if you get the urge to compare to Central America or South America.

No, he's right; There is no absolute or relative "quality" measure to speak of such as you mentioned. While what you say is common knowledge, it has in fact been proven in several rigorous tests that professional wine tasters can usually tell the $2 bottle from the $20 bottle, but not the $20 from the $200 or the $2000 bottle; And in supposedly non-blind tests where they can see the label, they consistently rate the more expensive wine as better -- even when the labels have been swapped and it's on the bottle with the cheaper wine.
See e.g. Mlodinow on wine

Agree completely. Find a FOSS project that uses the same technologies as you'd like to use in your 9-5 job, and get stuck in. It (generally) costs nothing more than your own time.

Given a choice between 2 programmers with similar skillsets and experience, I'd be inclined to go with the guy who's got FOSS coding experience in his background. The implication is that you're prepared to put your code out there for peer review (which takes some guts), and you're prepared to write code to scratch your own personal itches. Both of those demonstrate qualities in the people I'd want to work for me.