Damn, we don’t normally do too much media-on-media stuff, but reports are surfacing that tech mega-publisher Ziff Davis (owner of PC Mag, EGM, DigialLife, etc.) is fricking filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy as a shield from some $225m in debt.

Tags: chapter 11 bankruptcy egm pc mag ziff davis
 

It’s official: The German supreme court approved the “Bundestrojaner “. German link only, but I am sure many links in all languages will follow soon…
Anyway, the Bundestrojaner is a trojan horse the government put’s on your computer.
The spying is only ok if human lives or the existence of the state are endangered. What do think how many other countries love those German politicians and judges right now? And especially Germany, a country haunted by their Third Reich past.

We all know how those things work out: Give the government a finger and they’ll rip out your arm. Or more.

We all know that laws are broken; by bad guys the so called criminals and by the good guys; just look at the news and the amount of complaints and lawsuits. But putting spyware on peoples computers?

1984 wasn’t that bad, or was it?

Or maybe this was a stroke of genius from the German government - to decrease unemployment rates. Think about it: Now everyone will get busy to get more and more anti-spy-software. Anti-government software. And the Government will get busy to write more and more trojans. It also gives a totally new meaning to buyer beware: “This computer is officially government infested.” Welcome to the world of the anti-anti-anti-trojan…

Of course the one thing you will not see is that this trojan will land on the computers of those government officials that do wrong, steal, lie, betray, molest, abuse power….

What a sad day for human kind.

Wouldn’t you agree?

PS: Germany, the same country that has states paying hackers to decrypt Skype conversations…

Tags: abuse power anti spy software bad guys bundestrojaner conversations german government german link german politicians german supreme court good guys government officials government software hackers lawsuits legal government sad day stroke of genius third reich trojan horse unemployment rates
 

Tags: design languages program software engineer tests
 

Just check this directory listing:

Directory of D:\Hardware\Hardlock2
01/01/1601  12:00 AM    <dir>          .
01/01/1601  12:00 AM    <dir>          ..
               0 File(s)              0 bytes

I wonder what happened on January 1st 1601 ?

Tags: 01 01 1601 1601 computer directory listing
 

Can programmers really become good managers? Programmers act more like bean counters, just by the nature of things. Time really isn’t the number one priority. What matters most is that the task at hand get’s finished without the user having to face bugs. Being creative minds most programmers really do not find the pleasure in strictly ruled and well defined environments. Managers on the other hand have to concentrate on two things: Time and organization. Programmers have to be pushed constantly to finish in time.

For the programmer becoming a manager it means doing what they hate and stop doing what they love. While the success of this really depends on the person, for many programmers this turn is impossible.

For the business that finds a programmer being able to become manager the advantages are clear:

1. The manager is respected by the programmers
2. Good programmers come with project management skills and team leading skills
3. Time estimates will be more accurate
4. Decisions for the right technology will be more fact based than buzz word driven
5. The manager has hands on experience

Tags: accurate decisions bean counters bugs buzz word creative minds environments good managers hands on experience nature of things pleasure priority programmer programmers project management skills right technology time estimates
 

In case you are using Windows (please, let’s not start a flame war over that) and

• your startup folder becomes simply unmanageable
• or you want to start specific programs only every once in a while
• or some programs depend on the start of others
• or…

then this little program will come in handy for you!

Launcher does launch the programs that are described in a normal text file. If not parameter is given Launcher will look for the file cmd.dat . Here is a sample cmd.dat file and it is also included in the zip file. Comments in the command file start with #.

Just put the executable in a folder of your choice, modify cmd.dat and you are done!

Launcher has a BSD license (Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted…).

Initially I used Delphi 3 (boy, that was way back then!). Create a new Delphi project, put the code into the DPR file, compile, enjoy! Or just download the zip file with the executable…

Tags: delphi flame war launcher startup folder windows zip file
 

Task Manager Alternative

If you work with Windows (the OS that is) you should take a look at Process Explorer:


Tags: process explorer task manager
 

The query was only getting bad because WHOEVER was messing with it didn’t READ ANY of the code around. That PLUS raping the original design to squeeze out something it was never intended to do instead of rethinking and designing something the “programmer” could be proud of…

Comment of the lead programmer

Does that need any further comment?

Tags: original design programmer