Comment Poor Apple (Score 1) 205
I guess this means that Apple will have to get out of the tech business and become a hedge fund.
Israeli ISPs Caught Interfering With P2P Traffic 139
Fuzzzy writes "For a long time, people have suspected that Israeli ISPs are blocking or delaying P2P traffic. However, no hard evidence was provided, and the ISPs denied any interference. Today Ynetnews published a report on comprehensive research that for the first time proves those suspicions. Using Glasnost and Switzerland, an Internet attorney / blogger found evidence of deep packet inspection and deliberate delays. From the article: 'Since 2007 Ynet has received complaints according to which Israeli ISPs block P2P traffic. Those were brought to the media and were dismissed by the ISPs. Our findings were that there is direct and deliberate interference in P2P traffic by at least two out of the three major ISPs and that this interference exists by both P2P caching and P2P blocking.'"
Infinity Ward Fights Against Modern Warfare 2 Cheaters 203
Faithbleed writes "IW's Robert Bowling reports on his twitter account that Infinity Ward is giving 2,500 Modern Warfare 2 cheaters the boot. The news comes as the war between IW and MW2's fans rages over the decision to go with IWnet hosting instead of dedicated servers. Unhappy players were quick to come up with hacks that would allow their own servers and various other changes."
Despite the dedicated-server complaints, Modern Warfare 2 has sold ridiculously well.
Recipient of First Software Patent Defends Them 392
Arguendo writes "Martin Goetz, who obtained the first software patent in 1968, has penned a thoughtful defense of software patents for Patently-O. Goetz argues that there is no principled difference between software and hardware patents and that truly patentable software innovations require just as much ingenuity and advancement as any other kind of patentable subject matter. The Supreme Court is of course currently considering whether to change the scope of patentable subject matter in the Bilski case, which we've discussed before." Does it weaken Goetz's argument that his description of the software lifecycle harks back to the waterfall days and bears little resemblance to current development practice in open source and/or Internet contexts?
Stock Market Manipulation By Millisecond Trading 624
cfa22 writes "Nice piece in the NY Times today on ultra-fast trading on the NYSE and other markets. The 'algos' that make autonomous trading decisions have to be fast, but I wonder: Is network speed ever a bottleneck? Can anyone with inside experience with millisecond trading provide some details for the curious among us regarding hardware architectures and networking used for such trading systems?" According to the article, high-frequency traders generated about $21 billion in profits last year.
Comment Why work for either company? (Score 1) 572
Rather than be a code monkey for either Microsoft or Google, I would suggest taking the following steps to a highly profitable software engineering career. This is so common in Silicon Valley, particularly in the chip CAD software industry, that it's practically the local pastime.
1.) Get a Master's or (preferably) a Ph.D. in computer science and/or engineering
2.) Make a tiny start-up with a handful of people (people who you'd want to have in your lifeboat if you were a passenger on the Titanic)
3.) Design a brief business plan that centers on being bought out
4.) Develop a piece of software around some interesting idea, perhaps a slightly improved placement heuristic for example
5.) Get bought out
6.) Rinse and repeat 2-6
This may seem outlandish to those not in the know, but it's actually a very common career path for many people in Silicon Valley who make more money in two or three years than the best code monkey makes in 10 years at Microsoft or Google. Importantly, rather than being escorted out of any building by security, you will be handed a check worth a small fortune to give away your start-up's IP.
1.) Get a Master's or (preferably) a Ph.D. in computer science and/or engineering
2.) Make a tiny start-up with a handful of people (people who you'd want to have in your lifeboat if you were a passenger on the Titanic)
3.) Design a brief business plan that centers on being bought out
4.) Develop a piece of software around some interesting idea, perhaps a slightly improved placement heuristic for example
5.) Get bought out
6.) Rinse and repeat 2-6
This may seem outlandish to those not in the know, but it's actually a very common career path for many people in Silicon Valley who make more money in two or three years than the best code monkey makes in 10 years at Microsoft or Google. Importantly, rather than being escorted out of any building by security, you will be handed a check worth a small fortune to give away your start-up's IP.
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