Day: March 26, 2003

The Register via LinuxSecurity:

Until Unix and Linux programmers get over their macho love for low-level programming languages, the security holes will continue to flow freely, argues SecurityFocus columnist Jon Lasser.

[…]

To be sure, some software must continue to be written in lower-level languages: Database servers such as MySQL will inevitably be written in lower-level languages for legitimate performance reasons. And it would be both unlikely and counterproductive for the Linux kernel or the system library to be rewritten in Perl, Java, or Python.

But none of those concerns justify writing an IRC client in C. And if it seems unimaginable for a print server to be rewritten in a high-level language, the reality is the benefit would be substantial and the performance costs negligible.

Infoworld:

IBM landed a major foundry deal expected to be worth over $100 million Wednesday, agreeing to manufacture the next generation of Nvidia’s GeForce graphics processors at its fab in East Fishkill, N.Y.

Linux Journal:

XMLTP/L, or XMLTP Light, is a lightweight RPC protocol that uses XML to encode the stream of data. XMLTP/L has been designed to do fast RPC calls over an intranet, within an enterprise. More specifically, the first purpose of XMLTP/L is to forward transactions (RPCs) to a database server. But, it also can be used to do method calls to any server that follows the common RPC technique introduced by XML-RPC and older client/server protocols.

I’m torn between wanting to know more and being horrified about YAWSP (Yet Another Web Services Protocol).  It looks like it has its uses though,

Lessig:

Is promoting Hollywood really what the Mexican Congress is for?

Derek Willis:

Paul DuBois has an article on migrating from MS Access to MySQL, complete with links to other resources, including a script that helps export Access files for replication in MySQL. DuBois, who wrote a MySQL book, has a collection of similar articles. (via Sanjay’s Coding Tips)

Cool.  Thanks for the tip, Derek.

NewsFactor via Roland Piquepaille:

The creation of an unusual flat lens may finally resolve a long-running controversy about the existence of materials that have metaphysical qualities — so-called “metamaterials” — that transcend the laws of nature.

Roland also got the article up on Slashdot.

Rick Klau:

Set up Feedster queries for you, your clients, your competitors, your friends… you get the idea. If anyone is talking about things that matter to you on a weblog somewhere, you’ll know about it. Within the hour.

My friend Mike puts it best:

We did a Ctrl+Alt+Del on Matt’s car 😀

We got the OBD-2 connection to work on my car this evening.  We plugged an old P75 laptop into my 98 Golf, and whadda you know, the check engine light was due to a misfire in Cyl 2 a few days ago.  (I remember it now, I went into second right after starting the car while going up the hill, it was a mistake)  Mike cleared the error, we ran diagnostics again, error gone.

I’m glad I didn’t have to pay the dealer to find that out.