Monthly Archive for January, 2006
Marketwatch.com uses AJAX to embed real-time stock quotes* into its articles. For example, see this MarketWatch article about an analyst downgrade of AMD.
I’m not an expert on web development, but I think this sort of thing may be the killer app for AJAX. There was really no reasonable way to do this this well before AJAX. It would have been obscene to use a Java applet, for example.
* Technically the quotes are delayed 20 minutes, but they update in real-time.
I really want a new MacBook Pro. (If you don’t already know, I work for AMD on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, WA.)
We’ve had 24 straight days of rain here in Seattle, with no end in sight. I’m not sure how much longer I can take this crap.
On a unrelated note, Austin TX is 51 degrees and sunny. Sigh.
Apple will not prevent Windows from running on the new Intel-based Macs, according to MSNBC.
The following was attached to the front cover of my February issue of C/C++ Users Journal (emphasis mine):
For nearly 30 years, the C/C++ Users Journal has provided resources and information to serve the constantly evolving community of C and C++ developers. More recently, however, we at CMP Media LLC have come to the difficult realization that the best way to serve this community in the future is to focus on new web sites, magazines, and events. What this means is that you are holding in your hands the last issue of the C/C++ Users Journal. As a result, Dr. Dobb’s Journal, which has published C and C++ articles ranging from the days of Small-C to C++, will expand its coverage of these important programming languages even more.
The letter goes on to say that my subscription is being transferred to Dr. Dobb’s Journal, and offers a refund if this is not amenable to me.
Is C++ dying? It’s hard not to wonder.
Java and C# lure in C/C++ developers with their curly-braced good looks, and then woo them with garbage collection and regular expressions, as well as network, thread, and GUI libraries. C++ is primitive by comparison.
We need these features and we need them all yesterday.
I got two Hickory Farms gift packages this Christmas. Here’s the contents of one of them:
- Beef Stick - 7 oz
- Two Packages Crackers - 1 total oz
- Candies - 7 pieces
- Mustard - 2.25 oz
- Canned Ham - 8 oz
- Assorted Processed Cheese Spreads - 11.75 total oz
I ran out of crackers before I finished the first container of cheese. Does anyone else think that an 11-to-1 ratio of cheese to crackers is a little off?
The packaging is deceptive. There is this little plastic tray with holes of varying shape and depth. Each item fits into one hole, which makes it difficult to tell the actual size (depth) of any particular item. The cracker boxes are incredibly shallow.
I think Hickory Farms is betting that gift receivers won’t complain for fear of seeming ungrateful.
Oops.
In this interview, Ilfak Guilfanov (author of the IDA Pro disassembler and the unofficial WMF patch) indicates that x86 systems with a per-page no-execute flag were protected from the recent WMF vulnerability.
If this is true, I hope the AMD marketing department issues a press release. This was possibly the most dangerous security threat all year, yet anyone who bought an AMD system in the past year was completely safe.
The first x86 processor with a per-page no-execute flag was the AMD Opteron. We called it the NX-Bit (and later, EVP). Subsequently, Intel implemented the execute-disable or XD-Bit (which is, of course, the exact same thing). Eventually Microsoft stepped in and further complicated clarified things by choosing the neutral moniker DEP (data execution prevention).
If you run Windows, you should head over to Windows Update immediately. The WMF vulnerability has been patched ahead of schedule.
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