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Comment Re:Given two programmers (Score 3, Interesting) 609

by vanderbosch (#31608682) Attached to: Math Skills For Programmers — Necessary Or Not?
Those are all things I did as a CS undergrad, but there was also huge importance put on proofs. Everyone is talking about writing good code doing useful things quickly, but (and this is especially important in real time applications, such as autopilot on planes), if you can't prove that the code you have written is going to do what you want 100% of the time or its not 100% accurate, then really what is its worth. Maths is vital (ok not if your connecting up a website, although it does have applications in scaling and databases) and should be being used in the design phase even before the programming starts, that way people might be able to cut out buggy crappy software. I'm not sure how many people on my course got to grips with it, not many I think as most of then changed over to software engineering in our final year. I know I never did and I regret it.
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Submission + - IE 0-day attack used in Chinese attack (theregister.co.uk)

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bheer
bheer writes: "A zero-day attack on IE was used to carry out the cyber attack on Google and others that's been getting so much ink recently, reports The Register quoting McAfee's CTO. While the web (and security) community has been pointing out the problems with IE's many security flaws (and its sluggish update cycle) in the past, IE shows no sign of vanishing from the corporate landscape. Will this latest, high-profile incident open CIO's eyes to the risk they're facing?"

Submission + - WHO Handling Of Swine Flu To Be Investigated

Submitted by krou
krou writes: With swine flu fading in the UK (projected winter deaths of 65,000 have been downgraded to 1,000, and new cases are decreasing) the UK government has been left with millions of unused vaccines, and (unlike its contract with Baxter) no clear break-clause to get out of its contract with GlaxoSmithKlein. Although the amount paid for vaccines has not been disclosed, it likely cost the UK government several hundred million pounds. Other governments are also in a similar position: the US ordered 251 million doses of the vaccine, and France and Germany are aiming to cut back on their orders considerably. To say that the case for the pandemic has been over-estimated appears to be an understatement. Now, the WHO has announced that it is to investigate whether or not it bowed to pressure from drugs companies to overplay the threat. The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly has also announced an investigation into the matter after a resolution [pdf] from Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Health, was adopted. Dr. Wodarg labelled swine flu as a "false pandemic", and claims in the resolution that '"in order to promote their patented drugs and vaccines against flu, pharmaceutical companies influenced scientists and official agencies responsible for public health standards to alarm governments worldwide and make them squander tight health resources for inefficient vaccine strategies, and needlessly expose millions of healthy people to the risk of an unknown amount of side-effects of insufficiently-tested vaccines."' By some estimates, GSK was expected to net over £1 billion from vaccine sales.

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