Universal Rule

Book Reviews

Wednesday, October 27, 2004

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SGI & NASA Build World's Fastest Supercomputer: "SGI and NASA have just rolled-out the new world number one fastest supercomputer. Its performance test (LINPACK) result of 42.7 teraflops easily outclasses the previous mark set by Japan's Earth Simulator"

This comment at Slashdot sums it up perfectly: "It's getting to the point where I'm going to have call shenanigans on the whole freakin' planet. Am I really supposed to believe that an OS started by a Finnish university student a decade ago and designed to run on a 386, is now running the most powerful computer ever built? I mean, come on!"

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Plain Text Vulnerability Found In Linux; Microsoft Celebrates: "After years of fighting security hole after security hole in its software, Microsoft finally had reason to celebrate this week. Research by Microsoft's Embrace and Extend Development Labs discovered a "cataclysmic" security breach that impacts almost every Linux distribution."

Also, Windows in not vulnerable to the 'rm -rf /' command of Linux and Mac OS X:

C:WINDOWSsystem32>rm -rf /
'rm' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

Update (thanks to a comment): This has recently been fixed in Solaris.

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Computer Intelligence Will Surpass Human Intelligence This Year: "Scientists at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology predict that computer intelligence will surpass human intelligence by year's end. Researchers say the event, referred to as the Singularity in cognitive science circles, is being propelled by two dominant reasons: computers are becoming increasingly smarter, and humans are becoming increasingly dumber."

Hilarious, especially the "evidence".

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Apple intros Photo iPod, U2 iPod: "At a special music event on Tuesday, Apple took the wraps off the iPod Photo, a color iPod available in 40GB or 60GB storage capacities. The device will automatically synchronize music and photos on both Macs and PCs." [MacCentral News]

iTunes Music Store finally opens in Finland -- Comment()
Yesterday I bought my first album from iTMS. The store works flawlessly, and browsing the different categories is a pleasure. However, currently there were no useful iMixes in the Finland store, but this will probably be corrected soon.

A favorite artist of mine, Mary Black, was not included in the catalog. And very few Finnish artists are currently available on the store. (Not a single favorite of mine at least.)

Downloading the 1.2 hour album over 1 Mbit/s broadband took some time. Perhaps it is time to upgrade.