An airport runway beside the sea

Javascript problem — and its many solutions

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As most of us know, there are several problems/quirks/flaws with Javascript and this is known as the Javascript problem. However, like it or not, as long as we use browsers, we need Javascript. So, what is the solution? Pick your favorite language (hope it is not Javascript!) and hope that there is a transpiler that … Read more

Frequent password changes — good or bad?

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I read an article titled Frequent password changes are the enemy of security which I find misleading and missing the point. In this article, Carnegie Mellon University professor Lorrie Cranor, who became chief technologist at FTC challenges FTC’s advice FTC’s advice: Encourage your loved ones to change passwords often, making them long, strong, and unique. … Read more

A picture is worth more than 140 characters

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Tweets cannot be longer than 140 characters. This may look like a severe restriction because when we compose a tweet, it typically exceeds this limit. But now the rewriting fun begins — we find that with some effort we can make our tweet more succinct. This is an iterative process and takes time, as Pascal … Read more

Monkey business — write once, deploy on iOS, Android and Windows with Xamarin

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Microsoft and Nokia missed the boat on tablets and smartphones. Microsoft’s Surface RT tablets were priced very high, and there were not many takers, with the result that Microsoft wrote off 900 million dollars as inventory adjustment. Nokia Lumia line with Windows Phone OS has been well received. Microsoft has bought Nokia’s struggling phone business. … Read more

Do some evil

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Google’s motto is Do no evil. But they are disingenuous — they do some evil. Say for e.g. your child has a project on Eiffel tower — and these days all school projects require an internet connection and color printer so that children can cut and paste pictures, articles from the web and print a … Read more

Security, Privacy and Post-it notes: what to make of the recent revelations

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If you work in the computer security area, it is like drinking from the fire hose, what with the daily revelations about snooping and spying by the NSA. So much to talk, write and discuss. Comedians (and their writers) get excited when interesting politicians become newsmakers, as it makes their jobs much easier and more … Read more