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• Why Are Dial-up Modems so Noisy?

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Throughout the 1990s the majority of internet users began their session with the noisy handshake of a dial-up modem, but what exactly was all that electronic chatter about? Read on as we investigate one of the more iconic sounds of the burgeoning Internet age. Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-drive grouping of Q&A web sites. While dial-up modem use might be down from the nearly 100% market saturation in the 1990s to only 10% of current US internet users, the sound of a dial-up modem connecting lives on in the memories of geeks everywhere. This week we’re taking a look at the technology behind the noisy process and what exactly was going on when you dialed in for your internet session. Why Enabling “Do Not Track” Doesn’t Stop You From Being Tracked HTG Explains: What is the Windows Page File and Should You Disable It? How To Get a Better Wireless Signal and Reduce Wireless Network Interference

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• Literature in programming and computer science

  - by Peter Turner

  I hope, gentle programmers, that you'll forgive me for not asking a "Soft Question" on theoreticalCS.SE and asking this here. It has recently come to my attention that bigendian came from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. I was pretty surprised when listening to the book on my commute to hear something I'd only heard before in Comp Sci / Engineering classes. I thought it was some sort of nouveau-politically incorrect piece of holdover jargon like Master and Slave drives or Polish Notation. Are there any other incidents, not of politically incorrect jargon, but of literature influencing aspects of computers, programming or software development?

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• Make Your Own Paper-Craft Enigma Machine [DIY Project]

  - by Asian Angel

  If you love tinkering around with ciphers and want a fun DIY project for the upcoming weekend, then we have just the thing for you. Using common household items you can construct your own personal Enigma machine that will be completely compatible with all the settings of a real Enigma machine (models I, M1, M2 and M3). Visit the second link below for the step-by-step instructions and enjoy putting together this awesome DIY project! PDF Templates for the Enigma Machine Note: This is a direct link for the PDF file itself and the templates are sized for printing on 2 A4 sheets of paper. Enigma/Paper Enigma Instruction Homepage [via BoingBoing] HTG Explains: What Is RSS and How Can I Benefit From Using It? HTG Explains: Why You Only Have to Wipe a Disk Once to Erase It HTG Explains: Learn How Websites Are Tracking You Online

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• 50 Years After The Jetsons

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  The Jetsons, the future-oriented animated cartoon series from the 1960s, turned 50 this week. The Smithsonian takes a look at what the show meant, then and now. At the Smithsonian blog Paleofuture, Matt Novak looks back at the last 50 years and the impact that The Jetsons had. He writes: It’s important to remember that today’s political, social and business leaders were pretty much watching ”The Jetsons” on repeat during their most impressionable years. People are often shocked to learn that “The Jetsons” lasted just one season during its original run in 1962-63 and wasn’t revived until 1985. Essentially every kid in America (and many internationally) saw the series on constant repeat during Saturday morning cartoons throughout the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s. Everyone (including my own mom) seems to ask me, “How could it have been around for only 24 episodes? Did I really just watch those same episodes over and over again?” Yes, yes you did. But it’s just a cartoon, right? So what if today’s political and social elite saw ”The Jetsons” a lot? Thanks in large part to the Jetsons, there’s a sense of betrayal that is pervasive in American culture today about the future that never arrived. We’re all familiar with the rallying cries of the angry retrofuturist: Where’s my jetpack!?! Where’s my flying car!?! Where’s my robot maid?!? “The Jetsons” and everything they represented were seen by so many not as a possible future, but a promise of one. Hit up the link below for the full article–prepare to be surprised at just how few episodes of the show were ever animated and aired. 8 Deadly Commands You Should Never Run on Linux 14 Special Google Searches That Show Instant Answers How To Create a Customized Windows 7 Installation Disc With Integrated Updates

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• First languages with generic programming support

  - by oluies

  Which was the first language with generic programming support, and what was the first major staticly typed language (widely used) with generics support. Generics implement the concept of parameterized types to allow for multiple types. The term generic means "pertaining to or appropriate to large groups of classes." I have seen the following mentions of "first": First-order parametric polymorphism is now a standard element of statically typed programming languages. Starting with System F [20,42] and functional programming lan- guages, the constructs have found their way into mainstream languages such as Java and C#. In these languages, first-order parametric polymorphism is usually called generics. From "Generics of a Higher Kind", Adriaan Moors, Frank Piessens, and Martin Odersky Generic programming is a style of computer programming in which algorithms are written in terms of to-be-specified-later types that are then instantiated when needed for specific types provided as parameters. This approach, pioneered by Ada in 1983 From Wikipedia Generic Programming

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• Historical origins of Scala implicits

  - by Frank

  Scala has been called complex with its rich feature set by many of my colleagues and some even blamed all those new features of it. While most programmers are aware of the OO-features, and at least the decent ones also know about functional programming, there is one feature in particular in Scala for which I am not aware of its historical origins. Given that a major mantra of our profession is to not reinvent the wheel, I am rather confident, that Scala does not have any actual unheard-of-before features, but I stand to be corrected on this one if necessary. To get to the actual question, while I am aware of the origins of most of Scala's features I have never seen something like its implicit declarations before. Are there other (older!) languages out there which also provide this feature? Does it make sense to distinguish the different cases of implicits (as they may originate from different sources), namely implict conversions and implicit parameters?

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• Origins of code indentation

  - by Daniel Mahler

  I am interested in finding out who introduced code indentation, as well as when and where it was introduced. It seems so critical to code comprehension, but it was not universal. Most Fortran and Basic code was (is?) unindented, and the same goes for Cobol. I am pretty sure I have even seen old Lisp code written as continuous, line-wrapped text. You had to count brackets in your head just to parse it, never mind understanding it. So where did such a huge improvement come from? I have never seen any mention of its origin. Apart from original examples of its use, I am also looking for original discussions of indentation.

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• What was the first consumer-oriented hardware/software solution?

  - by Maksee

  We all know the story of the personal computer as a consumer-oriented product. But I just thought that real end user solution should have appeared before that time. So a product that was probably expensive, but allowed using it as a service charging for it, for example computer-terminal for transport time-table access or game machine. On the other site, the video terminals as we know them appeared not so long ago. So if there was something like this, this could be hardware/software most likely offering no interactivity, but probably printing some information based on user actions.

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• The Island of Lost Apple Products

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  While Apple has has a mountain of commercial successes, every once in awhile the crew in Cupertino strikes out. Here are some of the less successful and prematurely retired Apple products from the last two decades. Courtesy of Wired, we find nine of the least favorably received products in the Apple portfolio. Pictured here, the QuickTake Camera: Life Span: 1994 – 1997 Back in 1994, Apple was actually at the forefront of digital photography. The QuickTake Camera’s photos (640 x 480 at 0.3 megapixels) were borderline unusable for anything other than your Geocities homepage. But technology has to start somewhere. Still, Apple killed the line after just three years. And while the iPhone and other smartphones have replaced most people’s digital cameras, Apple could have had a reaped the benefits of the digital point-and-shoot salad years. 6 Ways Windows 8 Is More Secure Than Windows 7 HTG Explains: Why It’s Good That Your Computer’s RAM Is Full 10 Awesome Improvements For Desktop Users in Windows 8

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• Classic UFO Identification Chart from March 1967 [Retro Image]

  - by Asian Angel

  If you love classic sci-fi goodness, then you will definitely enjoy looking through the various ‘alien’ starcraft featured in this classic chart from yesteryear! View the Full-Size Version (914*1280 pixels) UFO Identification Chart – Stargods Blog [via Cheezburger.com] Java is Insecure and Awful, It’s Time to Disable It, and Here’s How What Are the Windows A: and B: Drives Used For? HTG Explains: What is DNS?

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• Visit the Museum of Endangered Sounds for a Bit of Nostalgic Sound-Based Fun

  - by Asian Angel

  Are you ready for a trip down memory lane? Then you will definitely want to visit the Museum of Endangered Sounds where you can have fun listening to the classic sounds of yesteryear! Enjoy listening to the sound of dial-up, the login sound of Windows 95, that classic Nokia ringtone, and more at the Museum. Click on a picture to play the sound, then click on the picture again to stop it. The sounds will continue to play until you click on the chosen picture… Museum of Endangered Sounds [via Neatorama] Browse on over to another of our ETC posts for more nostalgic sound fun: Hack Your Kindle for Easy Font Customization HTG Explains: What Is RSS and How Can I Benefit From Using It? HTG Explains: Why You Only Have to Wipe a Disk Once to Erase It

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• What platform were old TV video games developed on?

  - by Mihir

  I am very eager to know how TV video games (which we all used to play in our childhood) were developed and on which platform. I know how games are developed for mobile devices, Windows PC's and Mac but I'm not getting how (in those days) Contra, Duck Hunt and all those games were developed. As they have high graphics and a large number of stages. So how did they manage to develop games in such a small size environment and with lower configuration platform?

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• Retro Ad – 10 MB Hard-Drive for $3398 [Image]

  - by Asian Angel

  This is definitely one hard-drive (and price) that you will not be feeling nostalgic over! View the Full-Size Version of the Ad (Image) The Hard Disk you’ve been waiting for. [via Fail Desk] Why Enabling “Do Not Track” Doesn’t Stop You From Being Tracked HTG Explains: What is the Windows Page File and Should You Disable It? How To Get a Better Wireless Signal and Reduce Wireless Network Interference

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• How long was Microsoft working on .NET before they released it?

  - by Richard DesLonde

  With the whole CLI, CTS, CLS, etc., not only did they release a powerful platform/infrastructure, but they released all the specs that describe it etc. It supports potentially infinite myriad languages, platforms, etc. This seems like an insane amount of work, even for a behemoth like Microsoft - especially since it turns out they did a damn good job. How long were they working on this before releasing it (.NET 1.0)?

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• Google Closure Compiler - what does the name mean?

  - by mikez302

  I am curious about the Google Closure Compiler. Why did they name it that? Does it have anything to do with lexical closures? EDIT: I tried researching it in the FAQ and documentation, as well as doing Google searches such as "closure compiler name". I couldn't find anything definite, hence the reason I am asking. I don't think I will get a profoundly helpful answer but I was hoping that I could at least satisfy my curiosity. I am not trying to solve a specific problem. I am just curious.

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• Why isn't DSM for unstructured memory done today?

  - by sinned

  Ages ago, Djikstra invented IPC through mutexes which then somehow led to shared memory (SHM) in multics (which afaik had the necessary mmap first). Then computer networks came up and DSM (distributed SHM) was invented for IPC between computers. So DSM is basically a not prestructured memory region (like a SHM) that magically get's synchronized between computers without the applications programmer taking action. Implementations include Treadmarks (inofficially dead now) and CRL. But then someone thought this is not the right way to do it and invented Linda & tuplespaces. Current implementations include JavaSpaces and GigaSpaces. Here, you have to structure your data into tuples. Other ways to achieve similar effects may be the use of a relational database or a key-value-store like RIAK. Although someone might argue, I don't consider them as DSM since there is no coherent memory region where you can put data structures in as you like but have to structure your data which can be hard if it is continuous and administration like locking can not be done for hard coded parts (=tuples, ...). Why is there no DSM implementation today or am I just unable to find one?

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• Why is filesystem preferred for logs instead of RDBMS?

  - by Yasir

  Question should be clear from its title. For example Apache saves its access and error logs in files instead of RDBMS no matter on how large or small scale it is being utilized. For RDMS we just have to write SQL queries and it will do the work while for files we must decide a particular format and then write regex or may be parsers to manipulate them. And those might even fail in particular circumstances if great care was not paid. Yet everyone seems to prefer filesystem for maintaining the logs. I am not biased against any of these methods but I would like to know why it is practiced like this. Is it speed or maintainability or something else?

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• 40 Vintage Computer Ads of Yesteryear [Image Collection]

  - by Asian Angel

  Earlier this week we shared an awesome retro ad for a 10 MB hard-drive with you and today we are back with more classic ad goodness. Travel into the past with these forty vintage computer ads from yesteryear! Special thanks to ETC reader George for sharing this awesome link with us! 40 Vintage Computer Ads of Yesteryears [HongKiat] Can Dust Actually Damage My Computer? What To Do If You Get a Virus on Your Computer Why Enabling “Do Not Track” Doesn’t Stop You From Being Tracked

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• What triggered the popularity of lambda functions in modern mainstream programming languages?

  - by Giorgio

  In the last few years anonymous functions (AKA lambda functions) have become a very popular language construct and almost every major / mainstream programming language has introduced them or is planned to introduce them in an upcoming revision of the standard. Yet, anonymous functions are a very old and very well-known concept in Mathematics and Computer Science (invented by the mathematician Alonzo Church around 1936, and used by the Lisp programming language since 1958, see e.g. here). So why didn't today's mainstream programming languages (many of which originated 15 to 20 years ago) support lambda functions from the very beginning and only introduced them later? And what triggered the massive adoption of anonymous functions in the last few years? Is there some specific event, new requirement or programming technique that started this phenomenon? IMPORTANT NOTE The focus of this question is the introduction of anonymous functions in modern, main-stream (and therefore, maybe with a few exceptions, non functional) languages. Also, note that anonymous functions (blocks) are present in Smalltalk, which is not a functional language, and that normal named functions have been present even in procedural languages like C and Pascal for a long time. Please do not overgeneralize your answers by speaking about "the adoption of the functional paradigm and its benefits", because this is not the topic of the question.

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• Why is the sudden increase in number of Git submitters on Debian popcorn graph in 2010-01?

  - by Jungle Hunter

  Almost every article I've read 1 comparing Git and Mercurial it seems like Mercurial has a better command line UX with each command being limited to one idea only (unlike say git checkout). But at some point Git suddenly became looking super popular and number of Git submitters on Debian popcorn graph (see graph image below) literally exploded. Source: Debian What happened in 2010-01 that things suddenly changed. Looks like GitHub was founded earlier than that - 2008.

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• First languages with generic programming support

  - by oluies

  Which was the first language with generic programming support, and what was the first major staticly typed language (widely used) with generics support. Generics implement the concept of parameterized types to allow for multiple types. The term generic means "pertaining to or appropriate to large groups of classes." I have seen the following mentions of "first": First-order parametric polymorphism is now a standard element of statically typed programming languages. Starting with System F [20,42] and functional programming lan- guages, the constructs have found their way into mainstream languages such as Java and C#. In these languages, first-order parametric polymorphism is usually called generics. From "Generics of a Higher Kind", Adriaan Moors, Frank Piessens, and Martin Odersky Generic programming is a style of computer programming in which algorithms are written in terms of to-be-specified-later types that are then instantiated when needed for specific types provided as parameters. This approach, pioneered by Ada in 1983 From Wikipedia Generic Programming

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• The Future According to Films [Infographic]

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Curious what the future will look like? According to movie directors, casting their lens towards the future of humanity, it’s quite a mixed bag. Check out this infographic timeline to check out the next 300,000 years of human evolution. A quick glance over the timeline shows a series of future where things can quickly go from the fun times to the end-of-the-world times. We’d like to, for example, live it up in the Futurama future of 3000 AD and not the Earth-gets-destroyed future of Titan A.E’s 3028. Hit up the link below for a high-res copy of the infographic. The Future According to Films [Tremulant Design via Geeks Are Sexy] HTG Explains: How Hackers Take Over Web Sites with SQL Injection / DDoS Use Your Android Phone to Comparison Shop: 4 Scanner Apps Reviewed How to Run Android Apps on Your Desktop the Easy Way

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• Virtual Newsstand Displays Comic Books by Date

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  If you’re a comic book aficionado (or just want to take a stroll down memory lane), this virtual newsstand shows you all the comics published for any month and year going all the way back to the 1930s. Courtesy of Mike’s Amazing World of Comics, the virtual newsstand lets you dial in a month, year, sorting style, and shows all publishers or select publishers. The covers are displayed in a grid where you can click through to see a larger version of the cover and read additional information about the comic. It’s a really neat way to check out trends in comic design and artwork over the years. Hit up the link below to take it for the spin. Have a cool comic book resource to share? Sound off in the comments. The Newsstand [via Boing Boing] Why Enabling “Do Not Track” Doesn’t Stop You From Being Tracked HTG Explains: What is the Windows Page File and Should You Disable It? How To Get a Better Wireless Signal and Reduce Wireless Network Interference

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• Examples of "Lost art" on software technology/development

  - by mamcx

  With the advent of a new technology, some old ideas - despite been good - are forgotten in the process. I read a lot how some "new" thing was already present in Lisp like 60 years ago, but only recently resurface with other name or on top of another language. Now look like the new old thing is build functional, non-mutable, non-locking-thread stuff... and that make me wonder what have been "lost" in the art of development of software? What ideas are almost forgotten, waiting for resurface? One of my, I remember when I code in foxpro. The idea of have a full stack to develop database apps without impedance mismatch is something I truly miss. In the current languages, I never find another environment that match how easy was develop in fox back them. What else is missing?

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• Is MUMPS alive?

  - by ern0

  At my first workplace we were using Digital Standard MUMPS on a PDP 11-clone (TPA 440), then we've switched to Micronetics Standard MUMPS running on a Hewlett-Packard machine, HP-UX 9, around early 90's. Is still MUMPS alive? Are there anyone using it? If yes, please write some words about it: are you using it in character mode, does it acts as web server? etc. (I mean Caché, too.) If you've been used it, what was your feelings about it? Did you liked it?

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