Universal Rule

Book Reviews

Friday, October 4, 2002

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The World's Funniest Joke was unveiled by scientists today at the end of the largest study of humour ever undertaken. [Daypop Top 40]

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Ars Technica: "...this article will first look at how the current crop of CPUs handles multitasking. Then, we'll discuss a technique called superthreading before finally moving on to explain hyper-threading in the last section. So if you're looking to understand more about multithreading, symmetric multiprocessing systems, and hyper-threading then this article is for you." [Daypop Top 40]

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Microprocessor Forum - Vendors to show present and future technologies: "IBM, Intel, AMD, Cisco, others to show wares." [InfoWorld: Top News]

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Matt Croydon::postneo tells that DPReview posts their Photokina 2002 report:

Just posted! Our updated Photokina 2002 Show Report covers twenty two manufacturers over five pages of images and product detail, links back to news articles and manufacturers websites. Photokina 2002 was another huge show, but this time had a much stronger digital influence.

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Matt Croydon::postneo tells that The 2002 Ig Nobel's have been distributed.

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Trainee(!) dishwasher pleads guilty to $80m identity fraud: "A 32 year-old former trainee dishwasher (how can you be a trainee dishwasher?) has pleaded guilty to masterminding what investigators believe is the largest identity theft scam ever attempted." [The Register]

Fortran 2000 draft is out for commenting -- Comment()
I and two of my colleagues have written a Fortran 90/95 textbook, which is now in its third edition. The textbook is written in Finnish and available in PDF format. The latest edition contains an appendix about the Fortran 2000 standard.

Thus, it is nice to note Slashdot telling that Fortran 2000 Committee Draft is out for commenting.

Fortran 90/95 has been extensively used by my colleagues in scientific computing. Of course, Fortran is not suitable for all computing tasks, but for numerical computations it is a powerful tool, and still quite widely used. I have also organized here in Finland about 10 courses on Fortran 90/95 programming.

It may well be that our textbook will see a fourth edition, updated for Fortran 2000. It will take 2-3 years until the new standard is implemented in Fortran compilers, so we have time until we need to study the next standard.

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History of the tilde: "So I was researching the history of the tilde, because D told me that her company just installed a new web proxy that denies access to any URL with a tilde in it. ... But never mind that. I don't want to talk about corporate politics. I want to talk about the tilde. (1247 words) [dive into mark]

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Konica introduce Revio KD-500Z & C2. "Konica has introduced the five megapixel Revio KD-500Z and the ultra thin Revio C2. The KD-500Z is based on the dual-slot four megapixel KD-400Z but now features a new five megapixel..." [Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)]

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JD's New Media Musings points to Dan Gillmor: Apple stands firm against entertainment cartel: "Unlike Intel and AMD, the big chip makers for Windows-based computers, Apple hasn't announced plans to put technology into hardware that could end up restricting what customers do with the products they buy. Unlike Microsoft, Apple hasn't asserted the right to remote control over users' operating systems."

Lecturing about modeling and optimization -- Comment()
Today I lectured two hours about Modeling and Optimization: Tools and Examples at the Helsinki University of Technology. I published the slides in Adobe Acrobat PDF format on the web (530 kB, 49 slides).

Most of my presentation was based on course material I have used previously, but I managed to include some novel research topics in drug discovery and biosciences. Most of the case examples came from projects at work, and I also borrowed some existing transparencies. (These are not included in the PDF file.)

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Microsoft posts four security alerts: "Microsoft issued four security bulletins overnight related to its Windows operating system and SQL Server database software." [Google Technology News]

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Sam Ruby writes about Mass Amateurization of Publishing and points to Clay Shirkey: "...weblogs mark a radical break. They are such an efficient tool for distributing the written word that they make publishing a financially worthless activity."

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Use SystemStarter to restart system services: "Apple provides a program called SystemStarter which is used to start and stop scripts in the /System/Library/StartupItems and /Library/StartupItems folders." [Mac OS X Hints]

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Hubbard Talks About UNIX And Apple: "I think that Mac OS X can win the war that we lost." (MacCentral via MyAppleMenu) [MyAppleMenu]

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Windows help tool has 'critical' flaw: "All versions from Windows 98 up affected, Microsoft warns." [InfoWorld: Top News]

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Black hole outburst looks 'faster than light': "Resembling cannon shots from a ship at night, one toward shore and the other away, two X-ray jets streaming from a black hole have been observed during their entire trajectories for the first time." [Google Technology News]

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World's greatest computer hacker raises alarm: "Kevin Mitnick may have been the greatest computer hacker the world has ever known. At least, the FBI treated him that way. In the 1980s, Mitnick allegedly broke into computer systems belonging to Pacific Bell, Digital Equipment ..." [Google Technology News]