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There’s a saying dating back to the early MS-DOS days: “Wait for the point release.” The implication was that the x.0 version of any new MS-DOS was sure to have problems (if you were around at the time, 2.0 and 3.0 certainly had some issues), and you should wait for the inevitable x.1 update before upgrading. That attitude later changed to “wait for the first Service Pack” when we moved to Windows 95 and NT, and while there have been occasions where things more or less worked as expected, there are still many users—and even more businesses—who hold off on upgrading to a new Microsoft OS until it’s been out in the wild for a while. What are you looking forward to in the next update to Windows 8?
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Microsoft is plugging its security intelligence systems into Azure so that service providers and local authorities can get near-realtime information on botnets and malware detected by Redmond. The new Windows Azure-based Cyber Threat Intelligence Program (C-TIP) was unveiled on Tuesday by Microsoft as an extension of its crime-busting Microsoft Active Response for Security (MARS) program. C-TIP will let ISPs and Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTS) get a direct link between their servers and Windows Azure to ingest near-realtime data on malware-infected computers tracked by Microsoft. MARS attacks... known botnets and infected systems every 30 seconds.
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Mary Meeker’s annual Internet trends report is out; you can read the full 2013 edition here. Not up for 120 slides? Here’s my pull of the best ones, with a focus on the data-heavy charts and graphs. Mobile continues to be the biggest trend in the deck, by far. And that extends to people living their lives online and documenting them as they go — just look at the growth of shared photos. But last year’s theme was the mobile monetization gap, and it still exists. The State of the Internet, in pictures. Sorry, no cats.
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The large number of coursework-only MS degrees that we are collectively granting is eroding whatever prestige and credentialing value was previously associated with an MS. To put it bluntly, people have caught on.... The thesis is that job applicants with MS degrees are often weaker than those with BS degrees. I see similar effects here at Utah where I’m often the instructor for a mixed graduate and undergraduate operating systems course. The best MS students and the best undergrads are extremely strong. However, the median-quality MS student is weaker than the median-quality undergrad. A lot of this is caused by the MS students who don’t have a CS background: they simply are not ready for a serious upper-division CS class. Is a college degree in Computer Science still relevant?
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I'm working on mine right now, and while I am going the coursework route, I don't really seem to be in the group he's talking about. I'm doing it primarily for personal reasons, i.e. all the cool classes are graduate level, and if I going to take them I might as well get a degree out of it
Plus, I just finished my BS in CS this month, so I'm just extending my knowledge instead of doing it to switch fields. As for the coursework version, I chose it because it just fits me better. I don't have any specific area I'm interested enough to want to do a thesis on, and I have no plans to move on to a PhD, so there's no benefit to going that route for me.
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Seems to me that the way to go if you can handle it is a Software Engineering degree. Traditionally CS degrees seem to be aimed at building OS's and Compilers.
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AspDotNetDev wrote: Anti-freeze properties in the blood?
I've heard before that some fish (and other kind of critters) have this ability, but not for Mammals.
Nihil obstat
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Yeah, I thought that was why they were woolly. Didn't think they'd also need defrosters.
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So when can I own a pet mammoth?
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Probably within the next 5 years. However, I am going to wait until the price drops. I expect that will happen once Americans find out how tasty they are (*wonders to self if MammothBurgers.com is registered...*).
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There’s this debate that goes round and round about a process that’s commonly known as responsible disclosure or in other words, notifying the owner of a system that their security sucks and giving them the opportunity to fix it rather than telling the great unwashed masses and letting them have at a vulnerable system. The theory goes that responsible disclosure is the ethical thing to do whilst airing website security dirty laundry publicly makes you an irresponsible cowboy, or something to that effect. With great power (to hack) comes great responsibility.
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When I became interested in alternate keyboard layouts about 3 years ago and researched possible more ergonomic alternatives, I also stumbled upon geekhack and was immediately drawn to the idea of starting my learning process with a new keyboard, which of course had to have mechanical switches.... Finally, when I had realized how much the custom layout - by now I had switched to AdNW - was making my day job as software developer more comfortable I decided to also get a better input device, and in lack of any interesting and affordable alternatives was soon tempted to build one myself... If at first you don't succeed, build one yourself.
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Ask a room of developers what they’d do to help diagnose a live bug in their app. Most of them would say ‘add some logging’. Ask them how and they’d reply ‘use log4x to write to a log file’. They’d write some text out to a disk. There’s your problem. What only a very few would say is add some monitoring. Rather than write out a line to a file that says ‘Connecting to the database’ they’d record a key value pair for active database connections. Rather than writing out ‘Home page requested’ they’d prefer a meaningful data structure detailing the request received. But, for my own part, it was printf to me...
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I’ve been thinking about making a platform game recently, but I’ve never done one before, so I wanted to start small, very, very small! How about starting with just a tiny rectangle player character jumping around on some larger rectangle platforms. Play the game, or grab the code and build your own version.
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This is a super cool project. It takes a very smart person to go back to the basics and make the difficult simple. Thanks for the post.
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I just saw David Nolen give a talk at a LispNYC Meetup called: LISP is Too Powerful. It was a provocative and humorous talk. David showed all the powerful features of LISP and said that the reason why LISP is not more adapted is that it is too powerful. Everybody laughed but it made me think. LISP was decades ahead of other languages, why did it not become a mainstream language? You can argue that Haskell is the illegitimate child of LISP and Prolog.
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While Surface Pro is making its way to additional markets this month, a new variant has arrived in Japan. Microsoft previously launched a region-specific Surface Pro in China, complete with a full copy of Office 2013, but the company is now offering a similar package in Japan. A 256GB model, with Windows 8 Pro and Office 2013, will be made available on June 7th. It's the first time Microsoft has increased the storage on Surface Pro from its 64GB and 128GB versions. Is this what the Surface of the future looks like?
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Most people’s knowledge of Google Glass has been informed by a comedy skit, and that’s a dangerous situation. Sure, Fred Armisen’s SNL portrayal of Glass is hilarious, but it’s also full of gross inaccuracies that paint the headset as half-baked technology for nerds and porn addicts. Indeed, Glass has become the new Segway, and the people criticizing it most are those who’ve never used it, let alone seen it in person. A bitter jest, when the satire comes too near the truth, leaves a sharp sting behind.
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The battle for our technological hearts and minds is moving to our wrists and faces. Everyone seems to be racing to put a computer in your watch, while Google is leapfrogging several body parts to put one on your face.... Naturally, part of the breathless coverage of these devices — most of which still don’t exist — is the steady stream of pundit predictions about which device will be The One to Rule Them All, as well as which features “must” be included in order to provide their manufacturers Market Dominance for All Time. But the fact is, no one has any clue which devices will be successful, or if any of them will. Ubiquitous computing and the costs of constant surveillance.
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Microsoft Windows 8 is the best desktop operating system. Period. No Linux distribution or OS X can compare. I say this as a Linux user and lover.... while I have left Linux as my desktop OS of choice, I am not leaving it entirely. I will still keep Ubuntu in a dual boot as my secondary OS. Linux distributions are still a great desktop OS choice and LibreOffice is very functional. And who knows, maybe one day Linux will be able to produce something better than Windows 8 on the desktop and I will switch back. I will still be using Linux daily when I use my Android phone and tablet or my Chromebook. I guess last year was the year of the Linux desktop... and we missed it.
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Reading the vitriol in the comments after that article is just sad.
cheers,
Chris Maunder
The Code Project | Co-founder
Microsoft C++ MVP
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What's even sadder is knowing that's exactly what the comments would turn into.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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Terrence Dorsey wrote: I guess last year was the year of the Linux desktop... and we missed it.
we did??
For linux I think the problem was the lack of a unified approach. everyone wanted to do it their way and didn't worry about the results of the fracture.
As far as OS X... I switched a few years ago to OS X and haven't seen any reasons to switch back. It is just a superior platform (hardware and software).
as if the facebook, twitter and message boards weren't enough - blogged
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Windows, Mac OS X & Linux.
I've used 'em all, and just can't see justify any reason to depart from Linux.
OS X and Windows 8 fulfill the needs of the masses, that is if all the masses want is social media and a slick UI experience. For anyone who absolutely ain't interested in all this modern guff, it just becomes tiresome (very quickly).
What is the real purpose of an operating system?
a. to do what the end-user requests with no further dialogs/clicks. ie. get out of their way?
b. be as irritating as possible, hiding stuff or requiring more mouse clicks than is necessary?
Just give me a f*cking realistic choice to get useful work done and stop wasting time fighting the OS.
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