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Comment Re:tl;dr (Score 2) 368

by mykepredko (#37003872) Attached to: What Today's Coders Don't Know and Why It Matters

Your missing the fact that the development machine that was used to develop this code probably had 64k or less of RAM - "pointer_to_the_structure_containing_the_information_about_xy" could result in the code not compiling due to memory constraints on the build machine.

I agree with what you're saying - a variable named "q" is probably a good example of somebody who's not a good coder and it could have been renamed to something like "ptr_xyInfo" and not blow the build machine.

myke

Submission + - Dealing with the Business Software Alliance? 2

Submitted by
Kagetsuki
Kagetsuki writes: "We've just gotten a letter from an attorney representing the Business Software Alliance stating someone (we're certain it's a disgruntled former employee) submitted information we are using illegally copied software. The thing is we're not using illegally copied software, all commercial software we are using we have licenses for. Still, according to articles on the BSA that's irrelevant and they'll end up suing us anyway. So we now need a lawyer to deal with their claims and we don't have the money — this will surely be the end of the company I've sunk all my savings and 3 years of my life into. My question is has anybody dealt with the Business Software Alliance before? What action should I take? Is there any sort of recourse we can take to try and recover financially, or at least cover our legal fees?

As a side note Adobe is a member of the BSA. As Flash and AIR are some of our primary release platforms all the software we own happens to be from Adobe. We've also been a very pro-Adobe shop and have gone out of our way to defend our choices in using Adobe platforms (AS3 is great, check out the free Flex compiler!). Please, if any Adobe employees read this: do something, anything to get the BSA off of us!"
AI

Submission + - Phone can detect what you are doing by vibration (i-programmer.info)

Submitted by mikejuk
mikejuk writes: In another of those "we have ways to monitor you" type stories a group of researchers have been looking it to using the accelerometer inside most phones to work out what the user is doing. At the moment is is limited to the categories — resting, walking and running — but the accuracy is high and other categories could be added. Is this another step too far? If it is you can be sure that the accelerometer will detect it...
Science

Submission + - Rats Ate Easter Island (wsj.com)

Submitted by kgeiger
kgeiger writes: The Wall Street Journal reviews a new book about Easter Island. Contrary to Jared Diamond's 2005 book Collapse, Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo's The Statues that Walked (Free Press, 2011) posits that brown rats deforested Rapa Nui, that slavers decimated the population, and that the phosphate-poor soils limited both agriculture and population. Because palm trees are soft and fibrous, they make poor rollers; the moai were in fact "walked" into position the same way one person can move a heavy, upright refrigerator by rocking and shifting it.

Submission + - Tracking Service That Can't Be Dodged (wired.com)

Submitted by Worf Maugg
Worf Maugg writes: Researchers at U.C. Berkeley have discovered that some of the net’s most popular sites are using a tracking service that can’t be evaded — even when users block cookies, turn off storage in Flash, or use browsers’ “incognito” functions.

The service, called KISSmetrics, is used by sites to track the number of visitors, what the visitors do on the site, and where they come to the site from — and the company says it does a more comprehensive job than its competitors such as Google Analytics.
The Military

Submission + - Lockheed Experimental Blimp crashes in PA (pittsburghlive.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Lockheed Martin launched and experimental Airship on Wednesday morning in Akron,OH. It ascended to 30,0000 feet and the an anomaly occurred and the plan mission to go to 60,0000 feet was aborted. It crashed in a wooded area south of Pittsburgh and then caught on fire a few days later
Privacy

Submission + - BitChat: P2P Instant Messaging Using BitTorrent (technitium.com)

Submitted by MemVandal
MemVandal writes: BitChat is a peer-to-peer instant messaging concept using bit torrent trackers to find peers. The blog says, "the classic problem faced in peer-to-peer system is to find IP address of peers who want to communicate together privately in a group. BitChat concept finds solution for it by using existing BitTorrent trackers and forming a peer-to-peer network by connecting to the nodes which are being tracked by the same infohash."

Submission + - Norway takes the high road in fight against terror (salon.com)

Submitted by bakayoko
bakayoko writes: Glenn Greenwald's latest column addresses the difference between American and Norwegian responses to domestic terror attacks after the horrifying recent violence in Oslo. While attacks on American soil have almost inevitably resulted in moves to clamp down on individual rights, leaders in Norway have been resolutely opposed to such restrictions, and remain committed to fighting terror without surrendering their people's liberty. Something which, once upon a time, was a distinctly American stance to security.
United States

Submission + - Seigniorage Hack to Prevent Debt Limit Crisis (firedoglake.com) 4

Submitted by UltraOne
UltraOne writes: With the US Senate voting to table the Boehner debt limit bill, the US is only a few days away from running out of cash to pay for all its obligations. Slate reported on a fascinating legal hack, described by blogger 'bewulf' back in January 2011. Seigniorage is the extra value added when government mints a coin with a face value greater than the value of the precious metal contained in the coin. The statute governing the minting of coins contains a section (31 USC 3112(k) ) that authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to mint and issue platinum coins in any denomination or quantity. To keep the government from running out of money, Timothy Geithner could order 5 One Trillion Dollar platinum coins struck and deposited at the Federal Reserve. The money could then be used to fund Federal Government operations (blog post contains legal details).
Android

Submission + - Nortel Patent Sale gets DoJ Review (wsj.com)

Submitted by
gavron
gavron writes: "The US Department of Justice will review the Nortel patent sale to the entity formed by Apple, Microsoft, and others.

This is the same sale that the Canadian authorities declined to review because the $4+BN deal was valued by them at less than $750M.

The patents were originally bid $900M by stalking-horse google. It is believed they are to be use against Android and open-source."

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