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4476

Living Room / Re: Building a computer from the ground up - Nand2Tetris

« Last post by 40hz on November 25, 2012, 07:43 AM »

It's great they're doing this. Because it helps interested students get back to the roots of this technology and (hopefully) gain a deeper understanding of how it works.

Marvin Minski (father of AI) once responded to the question "What should I be studying if I want to become an AI researcher?" by saying: Hit the basics hard. Because 80% of what you're being taught about AI today will turn out to be wrong when it's finally worked out.

And therein lies the value of these "bare bones" approaches to learning about computing.

As Don Lancaster (early pioneer of homebrew digital electronics projects) put it: Hands-on is everything. You need to be able to visualize ones and zeros flowing down those wires before you really "get it." You need to be able to feel what these circuits do on a gut level before you can effectively design them.

Glad to see this approach to teaching still lives on.

4477

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Amiga & C64 Forever 2012 "R3" Plus Edition - 12.85 USD

« Last post by 40hz on November 25, 2012, 07:31 AM »

That's a deal!

4478

General Software Discussion / Re: Are you going to wait for Windows 9?

« Last post by 40hz on November 25, 2012, 07:21 AM »

MS wants the average user to forget about traditional computing and desktop apps - they want users to get used to the new WinRT interface - that is where they see their profit both on hardware and in the cloud.

-Carol Haynes (November 25, 2012, 06:59 AM)

I am seeing a lot of businesses looking at Microsoft suspiciously and wondering if there is longer term security with Apple.

-Carol Haynes (November 25, 2012, 06:59 AM)

Spot on!

But I personally don't see businesses looking any less askance at Apple than they do at Microsoft. At least from where I'm sitting. Both Apple and Microsoft are committed to 'single-sourcing' their customers. And that's a situation no savvy business allows itself to be willingly locked into.

There's a good article by Howard Fosdick over at OSNews that sums up much of how I feel about generic hardware and open source software.

Why I Use Generic Computers and Open Source Software
posted by Howard Fosdick on Sat 24th Nov 2012 17:52 UTC

IconDo you depend on your computer for your living? If so, I'm sure you've thought long and hard about which hardware and software to use. I'd like to explain why I use generic "white boxes" running open source software. These give me a platform I rely on for 100% availability. They also provide a low-cost solution with excellent security and privacy.

People's requirements vary, so what I use may not be the best choice for you. I'm a support person for databases and operating systems. I also do consulting that involves research, presenting, and writing. I use my own computers and work from home. This article is about desktops and laptops, not handheld devices.
.
.
.

Read the rest of the article here.

 

4479

Living Room / Re: Linux users targeted by mystery drive-by rootkit

« Last post by 40hz on November 24, 2012, 04:57 PM »

Heh. Finally the year of the linux desktop, eh?

Don't kind yourselves that linux hasn't been massively exploited before, it has - the really juicy exploits are kept pretty private, though, since it's just so much more valuable being able to penetrate select targets rather than getting a (very) few zombie nodes...

-f0dder (November 24, 2012, 03:23 PM)

Care to share a few? I'm all ears!

4480

Living Room / Re: Linux users targeted by mystery drive-by rootkit

« Last post by 40hz on November 24, 2012, 01:54 PM »

It will be dealt with.

-40hz (November 24, 2012, 12:18 PM)

As long as it's not dealt with by "Symantec Norton Security Suite for Linux".  

Please?

-mwb1100 (November 24, 2012, 01:11 PM)

Oh, Symantec is welcome to take a stab at it if they want. Kapersky already has, and now detects it.

But the Nix community takes care of its own. And it doesn't rely on commercial entities to provide security or fix its weaknesses like some do.

Like I said, it will be dealt with.

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Living Room / Re: Linux users targeted by mystery drive-by rootkit

« Last post by 40hz on November 24, 2012, 12:18 PM »

Well...we all knew it was only a matter of time before this sort of thing started happening.  

So be it. It will be dealt with.

In the meantime here's a detailed tech write-up of what this bad puppy is all about.

From the article:

Conclusion

Considering that this rootkit was used to non-selectively inject iframes into nginx webserver responses, it seems likely that this rootkit is part of a generic cyber crime operation and not a targeted attack. However, a Waterhole attack, where a site mostly visited from a certain target audience is infected, would also be plausible. Since no identifying strings yielded results in an Internet search (except for the ksocket library), it appears that this is not a modification of a publicly available rootkit. Rather, it seems that this is contract work of an intermediate programmer with no extensive kernel experience, later customized beyond repair by the buyer.

Although the code quality would be unsatisfying for a serious targeted attack, it is interesting to see the cyber-crime-oriented developers, who have partially shown great skill at developing Windows rootkits, move into the Linux rootkit direction. The lack of any obfuscation and proper HTTP response parsing, which ultimately also led to discovery of this rootkit, is a further indicator that this is not part of a sophisticated, targeted attack.

Based on the Tools, Techniques, and Procedures employed and some background information we cannot publicly disclose, a Russia-based attacker is likely. It remains an open question regarding how the attackers have gained the root privileges to install the rootkit. However, considering the code quality, a custom privilege escalation exploit seems very unlikely.

4482

Living Room / Re: World's oldest still working digital computer gets rebooted

« Last post by 40hz on November 24, 2012, 11:56 AM »

What I think is the most important is the fourth one: To revive disappearing expertise.

-40hz (November 24, 2012, 08:16 AM)

+1

But wouldn't it be mandatory to have at least 1 team-member under the age of 50
If only to motivate potential students, for not having to work with people as old as their grandparents (though nothing is wrong with that, IMHO)

-Ath (November 24, 2012, 08:50 AM)

Good point!

A really good book to read is Tracy Kidder's 1981 classic The Soul of a New Machine. It is an intelligent observer's story of how a team of engineers brought a computer up from scratch. It really gets into the behind-the-scenes moments and issues most people never see when it comes to computer technology. And it illustrates how true one engineer's observation that "Not everything worth doing is worth doing well" is a reality they all need to eventually accept and live with. As one participant noted: there's more to getting a computer out the door than just the technology. There's corporate politics, customer expectations, where your design fits in - and how well it interfaces - with the rest of the company's product line, and the amount of support you can expect from third-party hardware and software suppliers.

The conclusion of one of the managers was: We didn't build the best machine we could. We built the best machine we could get away with.

A terrific story with a number of hard lessons for anybody trying to understand some of the mentality and realities driving this industry.

Highly recommended.

4483

Living Room / Re: World's oldest still working digital computer gets rebooted

« Last post by 40hz on November 24, 2012, 08:16 AM »

There's actually a surprising number of videos on antique and vintage computers up on YouTube.

One I found particularly fascinating was the volunteer team that assembled in March 2012 to do a recreation of the EDSAC computer. The EDSAC was a very significant machine in that it is generally considered the first general purpose electronic computer. Previous machines (ENIAC, Colossus, etc.) were purpose-built for specific tasks such as codebreaking and ballistics calculations.

This is the project overview video:

There are several more videos to be found on various stages of the project if you're curious.

Of course this is all very interesting. But the really important part is the answer to the question: Why bother to spend significant time and resources reconstructing an admittedly obsolete (by today's standards) computing device?

The EDSAC Re-Creation Project gives a  number of reasons:



What I think is the most important is the fourth one: To revive disappearing expertise.

I'm already seeing that with most of my clients and the kids I meet. They can make their PCs jump through hoops. And they do so with a degree of almost intuitive grace that it makes people like me who merely learned this technology instead of growing up with it sometimes wince at just how good they are at it. Or are until something goes wrong...

And therein lies the problem as I (and many others) see it. Most of what passes for "expertise" is little more than knowing what buttons to push. It's an expertise that's a mile wide, but only a few inches deep. It's an expertise that's totally dependent on having things provided that do exactly what they're supposed to do at all times. Because when something breaks, most users can't fix it for themselves. Their super-duper machines are now 'black box' devices. And the technology driving them has become what we used to jokingly refer to as "F.M."

But even worse - most no longer seem to even know where to begin should something ever go wrong. I've had honors students at very competitive high schools tell me: "It's not necessary to know about that any more. Just call tech support." when I've broached the topic to them. It made me feel like I was in the old joke about how many Valley Girls does it take to change a light bulb?

The joke if you haven't heard it.

Three:

One to break out the diet Coke
One to call "some electrician or whatever"
And one to call Daddy - and bitch.

Fortunately, the people who brought us the RaspberryPi had the same concerns and addressed them in a very cost-effective manner.

Nice to see hope still springs eternal.

-------------
@Deo - since you're a child of the 80s, take a peek at how it used to look and work in this video. This is the world of the mainframe - or "heavy iron" as it used to be called. Most of this world disappeared in the mid to late 90s.

Please note that this video doesn't show a server room. It's just one big computer.

Ain't you glad you missed all of this?

4484

Living Room / Re: Why did it never occur to me.. You can wash a keyboard in water.

« Last post by 40hz on November 23, 2012, 06:29 PM »

I was just thinking...the one thing I do that keeps my keyboard significantly cleaner than it used to be is Nuance's Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Since I've started using it regularly the amount of time my fingers are resting on keys has easily been cut in half.

4485

Living Room / Re: Why did it never occur to me.. You can wash a keyboard in water.

« Last post by 40hz on November 23, 2012, 06:25 PM »

I guess I'm just too lazy for all this stuff. I'll just buy a new keyboard every six years...
Given my lack of mechanical intuition for me the loss of time plus frustration and risk of mistakes outweighs 30 bucks every half decade.

-TaoPhoenix (November 23, 2012, 05:13 PM)

I like it!

Obviously the The Phoenix values his time at more than $2/hr. like the rest of us apparently do.

(That, or he buys much cheaper keyboards than some of us.)

4486

General Software Discussion / Re: Are you going to wait for Windows 9?

« Last post by 40hz on November 23, 2012, 01:37 PM »

I don't really think it's ever going to be the bonanza some are expecting it to be.

-40hz (November 23, 2012, 10:54 AM)

I thought the bonanza was going to come from businesses upgrading to Win7: "Microsoft aims to herd 70% of enterprise onto Windows 7 by mid-2013"

-dr_andus (November 23, 2012, 12:53 PM)

What can I say? It's good to have a dream. Let Ballmer have his.

4487

General Software Discussion / Re: Are you going to wait for Windows 9?

« Last post by 40hz on November 23, 2012, 10:54 AM »

my company's IT people are calling it 'job security' for the next two years.

-Gwen7 (November 23, 2012, 10:33 AM)

I don't really think it's ever going to be the bonanza some are expecting it to be. But I'm sure it will keep those of us "in the biz" busier than usual for a little while once (or if) it really takes off.

Simple truth is, none of us really have all that much to say about it when it comes to business. In the corporate world, you ultimately use whatever your employer gives and tells you to use. Touchscreens too if it comes to that.

And people like me will end up supporting whatever that is if we intend to remain in this business.

So it goes.

4488

Living Room / Re: Why did it never occur to me.. You can wash a keyboard in water.

« Last post by 40hz on November 23, 2012, 09:57 AM »

scattered across several car hoods

-Stoic Joker (November 23, 2012, 08:39 AM)

Like it! The perfect drying rack! Good place to do the final curing of lacquer on a recently refinished guitar too.

Just so long as it's not hot enough out that something melts. I've seen membrane-type keyboards malfunction after being left out in the sun a little too long.

4489

Living Room / World's oldest still working digital computer gets rebooted

« Last post by 40hz on November 23, 2012, 09:00 AM »

It's been reported in several places.

A 2.5 ton computer - complete with 828 valves (i.e. electron tubes for US readers) plus 480 relays - gets rebooted following its three year restoration in the UK.



So without further ado, may I present the Harwell Dekatron/WITCH:

Woo-hoo! It works!!!

More articles here, here, and here.
 

4490

Living Room / Re: Great Talk on the Social Media Economy

« Last post by 40hz on November 22, 2012, 02:02 PM »

Yep. That about sums it up.

Similar to something Noam Chomsky said in an interview a while back. He noted that the "new" way of doing science seems to be to catalog and get better "priors" - and then apply analytic techniques to the data collection in order to better predict future outcomes. Which is fine for predictive modeling. But it gets away from the more classic approach which tried to discover the underlying mechanism(s) behind the phenomena.

Today, the emphasis seems to be more on trying to accurately predict future results. In a way it's almost like saying we've abandoned the "search for truth" and settled instead for building frameworks in order to make very highly educated guesses about things.

Scary.

4491

General Software Discussion / Re: Waterfox has now been accepted as a Mozilla project

« Last post by 40hz on November 22, 2012, 01:56 PM »

Yeah, the first time I tried it, I don't think it even ran.  The last time, it ran, but with a few caveats.  I'm chewing turkey at the in-laws for the nonce, so can't say what at the moment, though my foggy memory recalls it something to do with 32-bit, and I see they have a 64 bit build available now. 

-Edvard (November 22, 2012, 12:05 PM)

Well, I'm home with just the immediate family this year. And turkey won't be done for at least another hour...so I might as well post this while I have a few minutes.

Loaded and ran the 64-bit version of Swiftfox 3.6.13 under Linux. It is noticeably faster for some things. And it generally works fine - as long as I don't want to use some of my most used add-ons any more. Also locked up on a Google search a few times without warning and I had to "kill -9" it to force it to let go.

Oh well. Think I'm gonna stick to vanilla FF for the time being.

Onward!

4492

Living Room / Re: DOTCOM saga - updates

« Last post by 40hz on November 22, 2012, 10:46 AM »

I think we need a link to it here.

-Stoic Joker (November 22, 2012, 08:51 AM)

We do. Here's two. Both are worth watching.

Please note that most police officers are law abiding and responsible individuals. Unfortunately, they're subject to political and peer pressure (being members of what is society's official "gang"). And all it takes is one rogue officer or less than honest superior and most otherwise honest police can be put in a situation where they may decide it's simply wiser to "go with the flow" rather than buck their fellow officers.

Here it is from a criminal attorney's presentation at a law school:

On a more practical note, this 45 minute video is pretty much the single best video I've ever seen on how to deal with the police in their official capacity. Most of this won't be too helpful if it turns out you actually did violate the law. But it will go a  long way to protecting you if you haven't.

And as any attorney will tell you, it's not necessary that you actually break the law to get arrested - or even worse, be convicted for doing so.

 

4493

Developer's Corner / Re: Going Over Old Code...

« Last post by 40hz on November 22, 2012, 08:09 AM »

Probably presumptuous of me to even comment since what coding I have done in the last 10 years is mostly educational or hobbyist type stuff along with an infrequent fix sent over to some FOSS project. I haven't done any 'real' coding in years.

But I'm somewhat skeptical of many of the claims for code reusability. Certainly some stuff is. Core things like initialization routines, some snazzy error checking or sorting code, a security module or two... But from a lot of what I've seen, most code isn't all that reusable in practice. Especially now that coding conventions and best practices evolve so rapidly. And what was considered "good" a few years ago is often second guessed and replaced as new methodologies and paradigms emerge.

Top-Down, HIPO, structured, natural language, RAD, OOPS, 3-tier, RISC yadda-yadda all had their moment in the sun. Most made wildly exaggerated claims about solving the "programming efficiency problem" once and for all. And none did - although almost all of them contributed something worthwhile to the discipline in the process - even if some did nothing more than show us how not to do it. (APL and Prolog suddenly come to mind for some odd reason. )

So I'd agree with vlastimil on across the board refactoring. Unless there's a goal, why bother? You're a much better coder now than you were ten years ago. And your entire approach has probably changed a great deal since then. So why go and do the equivalent of rewriting a book report you did in back grammar school unless there was something in it that you had a use for?

Just my tuppence, but from what I've seen on contract jobs I've been responsible for overseeing, the best success was obtained with 85% code written specifically for the project. Only the balance came from purchased or reused code.

Maybe code reuse works well with something like database type apps where there's significant commonality of rules, objects, and tables used between one business and another. Especially when you consider most of what makes up your basic AP/AR/GL/INV accounting suite is already standardized to comply with legal reporting and auditing requirements. So reuse does make sense there. Just take a pre-written accounting package and add whatever customizations and special business rules you need.

But for what I call 'real' programs, I haven't noticed much actual code getting reused except for snippets or a few special routines.
 

4494

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by 40hz on November 21, 2012, 09:36 PM »

"I tried, and therefor, no one should criticize me."

4495

General Software Discussion / Re: Are you going to wait for Windows 9?

« Last post by 40hz on November 21, 2012, 03:45 PM »

@SJ et al - Ok. Tempers seem to be starting to run a little high here. So I'm going to bow out for now and leave it to others.

Happy thanksgiving all! 

4496

General Software Discussion / Re: Are you going to wait for Windows 9?

« Last post by 40hz on November 21, 2012, 02:41 PM »

And regarding the Windows 8 is poised at the brink of enslaving us in a gilded cage which will turn us all into palpitating porridge based eye puppets crap ... Can we at least try to keep in mind that this is totally conjecture. Nothing is or has been proven or verified as fact. No internal secret memos have been exposed substantiating any of these claims ... It's total assumption pure and simple.

-Stoic Joker (November 21, 2012, 01:38 PM)

Stripped of the hyperbole on both sides, what it comes down to is pretty simple. And it doesn't take rocket science to analyze or see it.

Microsoft has struggled for two decades playing second fiddle to Apple's marketing push and being criticized for being late out the gate and not innovative enough. 90% of that is because they're providing a very "open" operating system. Because they don't control the environment they're fighting a bit of a losing battle. And they know it.

People complain about Windows' speed and stability deteriorating over time. But if you ever run a machine that's 'vanilla' Microsoft from front to back (i.e. Windows/Office/IE/Live/certified hardware) and nothing but Microsoft supplied software, you never run into that. Those machines work like champs.

Add one third party app or utility and things start to happen.

With a closed eco-system, where not just anybody can do whatever they want, you see stability go way up and support calls go way down.

That is what Microsoft is moving towards. Apps only available and installable under the watchful eye of an app store. Certified hardware (under the threat of Microsoft manufacturing its own) that fully complies with Microsoft guidelines.

It will be a whole new world. Better in many respects.

But with this comes the natural (and predictable) tendency to exert control beyond what's needed purely for quality and stability. And that is where the concern comes in. Because with amore formalized and controlled system, development costs go up - and innovation gets slowed. Which basically means small maverick engineering businesses (which usually introduce the real breakthroughs) are effectively frozen out of the game.

That's where the concern comes from. Not so much fear that Ballmer has allied himself with the Grays from Area 51 - although I wouldn't rule it out.

4497

General Software Discussion / Re: Waterfox has now been accepted as a Mozilla project

« Last post by 40hz on November 21, 2012, 02:08 PM »

^Had several annoying glitches with Swiftfox a while back and dumped it. Guess it's time to give it another try.

4498

Living Room / Re: Mysteries

« Last post by 40hz on November 21, 2012, 10:34 AM »

Nah, because that's not as much fun as visiting Iraq and Afghanistan claiming to look for a guy being actively protected by the Pakistani Government. (Isn't it amazing how fast THAT became old news, after years of "Staying the Course?")

-TaoPhoenix (November 21, 2012, 08:34 AM)

Yes.  He was far more useful alive than dead, wasn't he?

4499

General Software Discussion / Re: Are you going to wait for Windows 9?

« Last post by 40hz on November 21, 2012, 10:25 AM »

I suspect by the time Windows 9 appears it won't even be called Windows and there won't be a desktop any more. Hell if Apple and MS get their way in the next 10 years there won't be desktop computers and laptops any more - we will all be using consumable, throwaway devices tied to their cash generation systems.

-Carol Haynes (November 21, 2012, 09:31 AM)

Precisely right. This isn't Microsoft attempting to change things around. It's Microsoft attempting to replace everything wholesale. And with something that makes no sense - except as part of a new revenue model.

None of this has anything to do with productivity, the end-user, or innovation. It has everything to do with IP protectionism, money, and customer lock-in.

And if the general computer using public lets them get away with it - or allows themselves to get bought off for so little in return - then they deserve the future they get.

There will always be the rebels...  

Because we did it once before back in the late 70s and early 80s.  

And we can do it again if we have to.

4500

General Software Discussion / Re: Are you going to wait for Windows 9?

« Last post by 40hz on November 21, 2012, 06:08 AM »

At the risk of sounding flip, I wasn't even waiting for Windows 8.