Computers

http://turnoff.us/geek/programming-languages-battle/ →

https://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/to-crack-the-toughest-optimization-problems-just-add-lasers Optimization is very important but is usually computationally very hard. Optimization encompasses far more than the traveling salesman problem. Scheduling is another difficult optimization challenge. Given the fact that the era of steady, large improvements in computer-processor performance appears to be coming to a close, researchers have begun to explore machines specially designed for →

I have understood that hooking up an old telephone handset to work with a cell phone is simply a matter of connecting together the correct wires. You need to wire the microphone and speaker in the old telephone’s handset to the microphone and speaker in the cell phone’s headset connector. I decided to try that →

https://blog.toggl.com/lightbulb-cartoon-developers/ Are you a developer? Do you know what “frontend” really does? Or “ops”? →

https://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/edn-moments/4437117/The-computer-virus-is-born–November-10–1983 On this day in technology history, a graduate student’s self-replicating code that could gain control of a system inspired the term “computer virus”. In his 1983 paper “Computer Viruses – Theory and Experiments,” Cohen defined a computer virus as “a program that can infect other programs by modifying them to include a possibly evolved →

You might have noticed that many widely used languages are interpreted and use “runtimes” to execute your source code. In theory, most Node.js, Python, Ruby and Java. Theoretically code can be easily moved from one platform (Windows, Mac, Linux) but usually there are problematic issues caused by factors external to your application. Why Kubernetes is →

https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/tech-history/space-age/what-does-it-take-to-keep-a-classic-mainframe-alive Interesting story on keeping historical hardware running: “So far, things are breaking slowly enough that we can keep up.” →

This is a big deal for Linux business: https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/28/biggest-software-acquisition/ IBM announced today it would pay a record $34 billion in cash and debt to acquire enterprise open source provider Red Hat. This is the biggest software acquisition in history. It seems that IBM is buying Red Hat to become a hybrid cloud company. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/28/ibm-to-acquire-red-hat-in-deal-valued-at-34-billion.html Prior →

https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/06/microsoft-suspends-windows-10-update-citing-data-loss-reports/ A few day after making the latest version of Windows 10 available to users, Microsoft has suspended the update: “We have paused the rollout of the Windows 10 October 2018 Update (version 1809) for all users as we investigate isolated reports of users missing some files after updating,” the company writes on its support →

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/10/supply-chain-security-is-the-whole-enchilada-but-whos-willing-to-pay-for-it/ You can have it fast, cheap, or secure — pick any two. It seems to be possible as long as “secure” isn’t one of your choices. “Our IT industry is inexorably international, and anyone involved in the process can subvert the security of the end product,” Schneier wrote. We don’t often hear about intentional →