Posts by Raheim Sherbedgia

Stopgaps

Let's face it, as nice as it sounds, very, very few developers code specifically to maximize processor performance. That's a big part of the reason why processors have had to keep making such performance leaps.

There are two primary reasons for this lack of performance based coding:

1) it's often cheaper (and faster) to write sloppy code and just add lots of processors

2) There is a profound lack of tools and education designed specifically for performance coding, especially concerning multi-core processors.

RapidMind and the Google tools are nice, but nowhere near what is needed to maximize multi-core processing. As multi core proliferates the first player to the game with true development tools to natively support several cores will make a fortune.

Faulty Wireless

I can't believe they cited a "faulty broadband" as a potential cause for the problem. The guys in the UK really are scared of wireless, that's so funny considering I bet they reported their initial findings via mobile phone.

The Return of Jesus?

Mac has errors too!!!! What can possibly be happening? Is the world coming to an end? Is Jesus on his way back?

Nope, it's just that now that Apple has started adding more useful functionality to their tools, they are experiencing the same problems as any widely distributed OS.

Pay according to their knowledge?

No, you pay people according to the contract they signed. If they sign a contract to work then they should be giving 100% of their skills. The quickest way to find a new job for one of our developers is for them to say something along the lines of "I'm only being paid xx, so this is all I'm going to do." That is a terrible work ethic and this attitude seems to be growing.

Choice of Military

The reason the USAF doesn't supply much in the way of NASA space people, is that the USAF doesn't really fly very much; at least not on the same scale as the Navy. The USAF is pretty much there to drop nukes and other strategic weapons from their gigantic planes, and to train mindlessly in fire fighting (as in putting out real fires)

The Navy are the U.S.'s biggest flyers so that's why NASA gets their people from them.

P.S. The Marines are part of the Navy- (they just don't swim or fly as well) but do sometimes get to go into space.

Expression Blend

and Thermo sound like they do the same thing. Blend lets designers create the interface, then the coders do their thing. This prevents logic impaired coders from creating crappy interfaces and ultimately results in a much nicer application. We've been using Expression Blend since beta and we all love it.

Washington DC Data Centers

DC is not a state.

Back to Basics

The whole Star-Wars storyline was always supposed to be about the droids, not the Jedi's or other fleshies. It'll be nice if they can pull it off.

Poor little guys

I'm with GameCoder, if we discover oil, the Martians are screwed. We will certainly apply economic sanctions (possibly even cutting off their TV signals) and might even send the forces of democracy and freedom in to help eliminate their national (world) security threat.

On another note, why does this mars lander look so much different than the current (successful) Mars Rovers? It seems a waste to reinvent the wheel, couldn't they just use the current Rover landing techniques and basic platform and just add new tools? That seems logical to me, but then again, I'm no rocket scientist.

Who Done It??

This idea is actually the brain-child of Rick Rubin, who is now "co-head" of Columbia Records. He was hired to make the major record labels popular with the public again. He announced this concept several months ago, at the same time he said that even he thought record labels were treating customers crappy. At least the idea is sort of innovative, something record company's haven't been too good at lately, maybe it will work...

Data Centers?

I thought data centers were rated backwards from most things? i.e. Tier-1 is tiny, tier-4 is really huge? Have I been mis-informed?

@Andy

CP transactions do not eliminate the risk for the merchant. The merchant still pays any fines/chargebacks but receives a lower processing rate from the card issuer if the card is present. Does not change the fines.

Why all the sandals?

Did you notice all the other sandals in the background behind the bloody one? There are lots and lots of sandals back there with no people in them? Why?

American Influence

So, according to the Thai govt, YouTube videos pose a threat to their national security. America has made the "national security" ploy a catch-all for anything that elected public servants, in any country, don't like.

Damn'it, I hate a pansy.

@ Andrew Heenan

F You.

State of the art

Ah yes, 1960's state of the art. Harken to the time of the great masters. I really wish these people would learn English better, but then it wouldn't be as much fun.

Damn Right

IT risk is too important to be left to IT departments? Absolutely correct.

WTF...Debate "rules" are Not Law

It's absolutely insane that people tout the "law" when referring to a university debate!!! Debates are all about rants, exceeding your alloted time, and generally pissing someone off. By it's very nature, free speech is going to cross lines from time to time, but the appropriate response is to exercise the right to speak your mind and respond, not electrocute someone.

Regardless of his past, the speaker in question broke PRIVATE rules, he did not break the law, the person that zapped him should be prosecuted criminally, and the uni prosecuted in civil court.

Same shirt, same wafer, different photographer?

Judging by the consistent color shift between skin-tones and shirt colors in the first and second photos, I'd say that a different photographer and camera poorly adjusted for white balance are responsible for the color shift.

Most major publications do color corrections to ensure photos look the same in a story by altering different photogs/cameras/lighting/images. What's up Reg?

It's all crap

It's utterly ridiculous that the U.S. taxpayer is funding these searches. Private aircraft crash on a worryingly regular basis, frequently with missing pilots and passengers. Mr. Fossett is/was not really important, his claim to fame is floating around in a balloon, which can be replicated by anyone with access to the same level of funding. If every missing person isn't going to be the recipient of the massive efforts expended in this search, then no one should be. Fuck them and Fuck Steve Fossett for being an "aviation professional" who fell victim to the deadly sin of pride and acting blase about flying around in the sky.

Data Validity

I'm surprised it's taken this long to begin to look into data validity on the Internet. I know very few people who actually provide legitimate information. Mostly because it screws with people's research, but it's also funny when I get emails that are addressed to James Bond or Don Rumsfeld.

Long before the Internet I provided false information too. When asked about my annual income I'd always check the highest amount, this ensured I got the coolest catalogs and mailings, it also cut down on the amount of (real) junk mail I received.

It's going to be interesting to see what future studies show but I'd bet a large percentage of marketing data is bunk. I choose to believe this not only from my experience, but it would make me feel better knowing that some of the hair-brained schemes you see companies come up with were developed in good faith, based on bad information.

Article Research and Inflammatory Comments

I'm not sure the research for this story was well done. This article confuses (deliberately??) general contractors with PMC/security contractors. According to the UN there are only about 40,000 PMC/security contractors in Iraq. There are 3x that amount of general contractors, construction workers, oil technicians, and IT professionals. Obviously the contractor/professional groups need security - firms like Blackwater supply that.

Efficiency vs. cost is not a good metric when considering the legitimate use of PMC's. PMC's generally employ the best of the best of ex-military fighting men - when they've learned all the military can teach, and they want to make a decent living, these super-badasses join PMC's so those who need their services are getting a higher quality of soldiers than military can provide in one place. In addition PMC's often get access to military tools/weapons/tech and which turn these super elite fighters into super equipped fighters too.

Soldiers join the military for a variety of reasons and pay ain't one of them. They are fully aware of what they get paid, and they willingly sign-on, and often die, for that pittance. If they aren't happy with the pay they should not have signed up and should leave as soon as their commitment expires. The military, is a civic minded decision full of sacrifice, and that includes salary.

Cool

This is one of the coolest things the U.S. military has done in a very long time. It's a lot more practical than more electronic junk for soldiers to haul around and it comes with super heavy bragging rights and propaganda opportunities.

$1mil

Why, oh why, is the U.S. Govt so cheap? They have no problems blowing zillions of dollars on questionable products and initiatives but when it comes to completely changing the world of portable electronics they offer up $1mil. Seeing as the winner won't get to be the sole contractor anyway, it seems to me like anyone who could meet the specs for the prize would be better off selling to a big private sector firm.

Constitutional Protection

Wouldn't it be cool if the U.S. Constitution actually had a porn-star amendment! All men are not created equal and the right of those exceptions to display their assets will not be infringed upon. Ha. We'd be a laughing stock (well, I guess we already are) but it'd still be cool.

Regardless of some comments

I have made in the past, I'm really not in the Windows, Open Source, or *inx camp. I just want tools that make business as easy as possible.

However, I do have to say early predictions about market dominance and (in)security are proving themselves true. As more people adopt non Windows products, more bad guys are going to target them. Hacking anything but MS has traditionally been a waste of time, but as other products start to acquire market share they become viable targets.

IT security for the masses is a joke. Considering that people have been trying for thousands of years to secure physical assets, and still fail, it'll be a really, really, long time before it's "absolutely safe" to be online.

Sales Hype

The effects of this software are being blown way out of proportion. It's a feel good security measure that has little real value. It certainly won't stop crooks from being crooks, they'll just use personal phones which can't be subjected to recording without consent. Lots of financial types carry two phones anyway so no big deal.

@Legal - It's legal for sure in the U.S. If you are using company property, they have the right to record and analyze what you are doing with it.Company supplied mobile phones, the phones in the office, your computer at work, and your computer at home (if the hardware is owned by the company)

How sure are you, John and Steve?

Yes, but John, have you really considered the contribution of urban legends to Western Society? 98%of English speaking people believe in one urban legend or another. Think of how that effects your social life... I'm doing a good deed here you know. :)

Outside of that:

Y2K was/is a great example of "making a mountain out of a mole-hill". Sure, *some* really old satellites didn't plummet to Earth, and U.S. nukes didn't destroy the world but it's sort of like modern pharma. Look! You did what we recommended and you didn't die! Our recommendations saved you! Yea for us!!!

FYI in 2010 a large scale study is going to be published that proves Y2K was crap. Too much fear and not enough knowledge. A rather large group has been running a variety of systems with no Y2K patches since '99 and so far nothing, absolutely nothing, has happened that is related to clock times. From profitable e-commerce to HTTPS there have been no ramifications due to not being "Y2K compliant". Money says you've probably purchased something from one of the study participants.

A lot of people made a big deal out of nothing and based on recent comments, they still feel like they contributed. Sorry to be the one that told you, but Y2K was crap, just like 85% of the "security" issues we read about today. Sure there is a "possibility" of "something" "happening" but it's so remote it isn't worth spending money on.

As I said earlier, IT "security" is starting to sound like the "security" of the Western world. Fear and panic are driving too many decisions in today's world.

Today's startup is tomorrows AT&T

but until they go sour innovative companies must have the chance to work and grow. The FCC is a world-class example of a failed government agency. They can't seem to do anything internally and always end up handing problems off to the "friendly telcos" that help them work out a solution.

In addition the FCC's frequency licensing program is as corrupt as it could possibly be. In the auto auctioning industry what the FCC does is called "fixing", where a bidder ends up bidding against the "coke machine". Bidding starts and suddenly the price has jumped by orders of magnitude, but no one seemed to have bid. Who was it that did the bidding, the "coke machine"... the "auction" was already decided before it began.

People go to prison for auctioneering this way. But its OK for the FCC.

Crap

Pretty much the only thing about Facebook I liked was the fact my info didn't show up on search engines. It was nice for people from my past to be able to find me if they really went looking. Social networking sites are dumb. I actually spent days this spring deleting accounts from way back. Better off if these things are forgotten.

Oh well. Whatever works for their business if fine with me. The only thing I don't get is what differentiatesFacebook from MySpace now?

Turning a new corner.

So it looks like open source is turning a new corner and headed further into the giant cow pasture in the sky. The newest twist?? Steal someone's product, put your name on it, and open source it before anyone notices. While this used to be called theft open source makes it OK.

Open Source. Slave to the economy.

Breaking News

Steve Fossett, Jim Gray, and Glen Miller were sighted covorting in a pub just outside Cresent City, CA. When asked what was happening Glen was reported to have said "get that fucking camera out of my face or I'm going to choke you with your shoelaces".

Then he fessed up that there was a secret land where rich and famous people went when they wanted to get away from the crap that is life in the Western World. We're all here Gray said. Bill [Gates] keeps applying to come but we haven't decided yet. The Unbuntu guy applied too but we declined his application because we don't like the name of his product.

Poor Title

MS will crush competitors when restrictions expire? How strange....

A more accurate title would have been: "Tech companies unable to compete with MS, even with Govt enforcers on their side".

Re:24FPS

Films don't need to be recorded at anything higher than 24fps because that's the optimum speed for your brain. At 24fps things appear to move at natural speeds. If you use more fps then the images appear to be jerky and everything moves too slow.

More fps is total marketing smack. Created to sell video cards and push shoddy TV designs. Point of fact is that the new fangled TV"s still aren't up to the quality standards of old high-end CRT's. I go shopping about every three months for one of the "new" TV's but so far the only advantage I see are bragging rights to your buddies.

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bad news

I know my USAJOBS info got swiped. My junk mail box has been covered up in "transfer agent" jobs for days.

Monster.com sucks and so do the USAJOBS guys. You should spend the 2mins to read their warning about the breach. It's highly contradictory and furthers my view any Govt should not do IT outsourcing. Critical projects should always be handled internally.

R.S.

Re: TJ Ay

I gotta side with NASA on the Rover program. They really nailed this project. The units are operating far past their design life and have managed some pretty neat unplanned maneuvers.

Not having a little broom (or something) is not a design error or "bug". Please submit a feature request and your idea will be considered during our next upgrade phase.

@S'true

Isn't that spelled Seamus?

RS