| pointer arithmetic |
[Июл. 5, 2009|01:49 pm] |
The CERT C Secure Coding Standard (SEI Series in Software Engineering) by Robert C. Seacord (Paperback - Oct 24, 2008)
Excerpt - page 108: "... = NULL; A similar situation occurred in OpenBSD's make command [Murenin 071. Compliant Solution To correct this example, the struct big ..."
http://www.amazon.com/reader/0321563212?query=murenin
Случайно наткнулся, хороший сюрприз. :) |
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| A/C design failures |
[Июн. 23, 2009|10:24 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | a/c, design, idiots | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | N2E | ] |
| [ | Музыка |
| | Dope -- You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) | ] |
In a two-storey condo (or house), if you have the air intake for the central A/C system in the basement, and the second (e.g. top) floor vents are on the floor level, then good luck with being able to not freeze on the first floor / basement, and not sweat on the second floor (even if the A/C is running all day long, and the outside temperatures are just below 30°C). Now it makes perfect sense why, one way or another, the top floor has to have an active air intake, and why is it so common that the vents on the top floor are coming from the ceiling. It's physics, stupid! |
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| регистрация доменов .su / .ru |
[Июн. 1, 2009|07:10 pm] |
Цены nic.ru по регистрации и продлению доменов для нерезидентов в долларах США после изменения курса валюты стали совершенно изумительными. Сегодня 23,6 USD будет 723 RUR, в то время как в рублях те же услуги оказываются за 600 руб, в то время как реальная стоимость услуги не превышает 100 руб. При этом, как выясняется, изменить валюту договора не представляется возможным. (Одно хорошо -- договор теперь в письменном виде заключать, вроде как, уже больше не обязательно.)
Имеются 7 доменов .su, два домена .ru. Куда лучше свалить и как? Регистрация одного из доменов в .su сейчас уже закончилась (можно ли перенести такой домен без предварительной оплаты по старому договору?), регистрация нескольких доменов .ru заканчивается очень скоро.
Я так понимаю, что отныне популярны партнёрские соглашения? Аккредитованные регистраторы обязаны оказывать услуги не ниже минимальной цены в 590 RUR за регистрацию доменов .ru, например? Не особенно понятно, кому выгоден данный нижний предел; создаётся впечатление, что он существует исключительно для поддержания марки и факта дороговизны отечественных доменов, т.к. настоящие киберсквоттеры, очевидно, всё равно получают оптовые цены с всевозможных партнёрских программ, покупая домены .ru по 90 рублей за штуку вместо 600. Страдает, как всегда, рядовой пользователь.
В общем, не особенно понятно, что конечному пользователю необходимо делать. nic.ru неоправданно дорог, даже его собственная партнёрская программа большой скидки конечному пользователю не предоставит, и для контракта по NIC-REG необходимо, опять же, заключать письменный договор; webnames.ru какие-то несерьёзные ребята (весь сайт написан корявым языком, интерфейс оказался вообще никчёмным, партнёрское соглашение (пункт 2.2.8) подразумевает обязательное наличие восьмичасовой службы поддержки), уйти, что ли, к r01.ru? Или mastername? Или куда ещё? Почему вообще до сих пор столько народу используют nic.ru? Русское развлечение, чем дороже -- тем лучше? :)
И вообще, регистрировать домены исключительно на себя по партнёрским соглашениям nic.ru, r01.ru и mastername -- официально не запрещается? |
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| microsoft windows xp uptime |
[Июн. 1, 2009|06:10 pm] |
It is widely claimed that Microsoft Windows is totally unstable. In my experience with Windows XP, it has been more stable than any other operating system I've used, including OS X and OpenBSD. (Of course, my usage patterns with OS X and OpenBSD substantially differ, but that is still besides the point.)
I've logged into my office box under Windows XP SP2 sometime in February 2008. During the first few months, I was usually putting it to sleep for the night, and then resuming it in the morning. Since summer 2008, it has often been running 24/7 most of the time, since I wanted to have the possibility of accessing it from home.
Rewind to 2009-04. There have been several electricity spikes at UW back in 2008, and my OpenBSD box, running on the cheap Asus Terminator C3 hardware, has been rebooted several times due to these spikes that lasted only about a second each, has had the networking driver come onto an unfunctional state several times (with only `ifconfig vr0 down && ifconfig vr0 up` fixing the problem). The Windows box was still running, despite the electricity spikes, installation of printer drivers that, supposedly, required reboot, and even playing with VirtualBox didn't affect system stability.
It was only in early May 2009 that I've found the box rebooted one time when I came back to the office. It was halted in the bios screen with the "CPU Fan Error!" "Press F1 to Resume" message (since I was running Speed Fan, the fans were running on low voltage). Upon booting, Microsoft Windows XP SP2 informed me that "the system has recovered from a serious error". Perhaps some bit has flipped over more than a year of uptime... Over a year of uptime, yes, on Windows XP.
What does this story prove? Nothing. Well, if I had to choose between Windows XP or Linux for my desktop / window manager experience, you know what I might as well go for. PuTTY works, so does Far Manager.
P.S. Since the system was rebooted, the Automatic Updates Service came up again (once being Stopped to avoid the terrific annoyance), offering SP3. After sp3 installation, all printers have stopped working (so much for restarting the system after driver installations!); so I had to use the System Restore feature to restore to the pre-sp3 state, and disable Automatic Updates for good. Let the box live happily ever after. :) |
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| filtering spam from your bank |
[Май. 30, 2009|06:22 pm] |
A good way to filter spam from legitimate companies is by noticing your name at the start of the subject line.
So much for CONSTANTINE MURENIN, please log on to your HSBC Internet Banking Account .
Important messages have important subjects; if they think they are sending me spam, such that they have to put my name in the subject field (effectively spamming my mailbox view), then they are in fact sending me spam. |
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| bsdcan |
[Май. 12, 2009|01:27 am] |
* blinkers are totally optional in quebec, practically noone ever uses them to change lanes; unlike in ontario, where you won't find practically anyone without this habit of legal driving
* after spending the last 8 months in ontario and very slightly in Buffalo / NYS, was really surprising to see all the cars on the street without front number plates (in montreal)
* people in toronto are driving indeed much nicer than in montreal
* if a jerk on a truck is going next to some other tracker side-by-side on a two-lane-in-each-direction motorway, as a matter of course (and not temporarily) and to slow the whole highway down, wait until there's some exit to somewhere, and pass both of the fellas in the sports mode on the exit lane (no need to spend any time on an idiot that doesn't know how to drive)
* parking in Toronto is free after 21:00. Can call goog local to ask for jun-jun sushi, and then confirm that they're open late, and eat the best japanese food for an exceptionally low price
* found food in montreal to be subpar compared to my favourites in toronto and kitchener; china town is tiny, and those plastic/whatever reusable chop-sticks are impossible to use -- they're too slick to grab and hold any food -- the recyclable wooden chopsticks in ontario are much nicer
* people in the us generally don't travel outside of the us; people in canada generally don't travel outside of the us and canada; people in quebec generally don't travel outside of quebec. :)
* takes about 4.5 hours to reach ottawa from kw, btw. Of course, that's not 100 km/h. :)
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| Jabber/GTalk/iChat vs. Skype |
[Апр. 27, 2009|04:27 pm] |
Some people ask me why don't I use Skype. The reason for this is that I already have quite a number of accounts for various instant messaging. iChat is available as the standard part of OS X, and although the video and audio codecs of iChat don't appear to be compatible with any other Jabber / GTalk clients, the nature of the Jabber protocol allows me to switch to any open-source programme and still keep the contact list intact.
Not the least thing to mention, Skype has a bad security and privacy reputation (that is, even if we disregard the proprietary nature of the protocol and the commercial nature of the official implementation), so I don't see much reason to start the addiction. In the end, a lot of the people I know are already running OS X, so it's not even an argument that they can't video chat with me if there's a need to. ;) |
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| tinyurl.com |
[Мар. 31, 2009|03:07 pm] |
It is very annoying that people overuse tinyurl.com so often. Just yesterday found a paper with several references through tinyurl.com. The problem with it is the same as with the facebook -- what you give to it is gone forever.
Giving reference through tinyurl.com is the same as the banks that have different .com domains for different services, so that we, their poor customers, can never be sure of the authority of whoever provides us with the information. Or the MasterCard SecureCode joke, which requires you to put in sensitive information in a popup window of a totally unknown web-site you've never seen before, "because we care about security". What a joke.
Perhaps an interesting idea would be for each web-site to have its own tinyurl engine, such that every address on any web-site could be encoded without the loss of domain authority. However, it'll still be easier to have proper web-site structure and reasonable URL scheme, such that even long URLs could be easily typed and corrected as necessary, or recreated by following obvious links from the main web-page of the site. Tinyurl.com does have its purpose, but using it for half the references in the Reference section of a 14-page paper is fundamentally wrong. |
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| define north america |
[Мар. 20, 2009|10:39 pm] |
In American and Canadian English (and perhaps even in British English, though not necessarily so -- please confirm if you can), the term North America includes only Canada and the US of A. Mexico is exclusively excluded from the term. (Mexico is instead said to be part of Latin America.) Feel free to share your surprise, if any. |
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| пластик |
[Мар. 20, 2009|10:15 pm] |
В BMO у меня автоматически увеличили доступный кредит почти в 4 раза, новый лимит почти в пять раз выше реальной месячной заработной платы. А потом эти товарищи удивляются, как это у северо-американцев такие большие задолженности? (Один знакомый северо-американец, например, рассказывал, как подал в Канаде документы на банкротство, дабы распрощаться с семьюдесятью тысячами долларов задолженностей, из которых после этого нужно будет заплатить всего пару тысяч в течение нескольких месяцев. Подвох состоит в том, что он больше никогда не сможет купить дом в залог, и в течение нескольких месяцев (месяцев, даже не лет!) нельзя покупать что-либо в кредит.) А вообще, я в этой стране -- Канаде -- по большому счёту являюсь заезжим туристом from the down south . Даже в САСШ после одного года использования карточки лимит в четыре раза автоматически мне никогда не увеличивали. Офигеть, дайте две! |
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| winter |
[Мар. 19, 2009|04:57 pm] |
it's only fair that the winter 2009 term at waterloo is still ongoing, because we still have the snow outside; it's actually snowing right at the very moment, although when I arrived from japan it was +16°C for a few days... |
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| chopsticks |
[Мар. 19, 2009|02:07 pm] |
In my opinion, nowadays it is quite fascinating to find someone in the western world who still cannot use chopsticks. IIRC, I've started using chopsticks a few years ago when I started eating sushi from the Harris Teeter shop on a friend's recommendation. (Of course, even more fascinating is finding someone who still have never even tried sushi, but that's a separate story.)
However, every now and then, the westerners come about to an asian restaurant, and ask for the western utensils. Of course, a westerner would expect that the western utensils should be provided, and that the food cannot be eaten otherwise (at least, this usually serves as a stereotype of a typical westerner). And it is often the case — a knife and a fork are often readily available. But what about the western restaurants? Can I come around, and ask for the chopsticks to eat my pasta in an italian establishment?
P.S. On a funny note, when in France, some BSD hacker from Japan had to bring his own chopsticks and soy sauce to eat the french pizza the japanese style. ;) BTW, he was kind enough to share the soy sauce with me, too — food tastes better with Kikkoman. ^_^ |
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| perception |
[Мар. 12, 2009|09:49 am] |
The perception that I have is that it is generally easier to get around Tokyo without any knowledge of Japanese than it is around France/Strasbourg without much knowledge of French. For one thing, whereas the French feel at ease speaking French with those who don't understand it, in Tokyo the metro announcements and directions are done not only in Japanese, but in English, too. |
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| japan |
[Мар. 11, 2009|06:59 am] |
An interesting first impression is provided by the cars that are stopped on the intersections with the railroad -- because there's no DRL (unlike in Canada), the impression that you get is that the said cars are simply parked right there on the road.
Hot coffee is sold in vending machines in aluminium cans, for 120 JPY (about 1.20 USD). The can that you get is actually warmed up, so the coffee is nice and warm.
Also interesting is the number of people that wear the that thing that prevents the spread of bacteria via droplets. I've never seen anyone wear these in public in Canada or the US, where everyone feels free to cough right in front of you.
Of course, the sense of order and thought is amazing -- the escalators have the floor number embedded into the entrance / exit metal walk-through panels of each one of them. |
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| tim hortons coffee |
[Мар. 7, 2009|11:41 am] |
Really can't understand how people can drink such a crappy coffee. If you try it black, it's totally disgusting, and makes you realise just how bad it is. Not only does it not taste like a real coffee should, it doesn't even smell like proper morning coffee either. And even McDonald's coffee has more caffeine in it.
Service? Even McDonald's have table service if stuff isn't ready on time. |
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| McDonald's ain't fast |
[Мар. 1, 2009|10:56 pm] |
What's the point of fast food if you'd have to wait for several hours until they're open again?
Niagara Falls, Sunday around 01:00. Both sides of the border. In the US, even their 24-hr drive-through was closed (they said their computer was down, the staff seemed to be having some party, though), no tea for me. In Canada, I was rescued by the Timmies, which were located within the visual distance from McDonald's and, as it turns out, are actually open 24/7, including the facilities.
I'm so disappointed in McDonald's...
BTW, what's up with no hours being printed anywhere on the doors, nor any "Closed" / "Open" signs? Why am I supposed to get out of the car to see if the place is or is not open? |
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| Toronto, the Japanese version |
[Фев. 28, 2009|12:47 am] |
Was in Toronto yesterday. The drive to the consulate was pretty fun, although there was a huge pile of cars just before Gardiner Express off from 427. It's really difficult to use the GPS in the downtown, the directions are almost always wrong, the reception must be terrible due to the towers. I had the same complaint back in September on my trip to another consulate, IIRC (although for that time I don't recall realising to blame it on the reception, blaming lack of appropriate directions on outdated maps instead).
Parked at Toronto-Dominion Centre, 5 CAD for each 20 minutes, daily maximum of 28 CAD. The consulate was just in the adjacent tower (as it turned out), so at least I didn't have to juggle around too much like I did back in September (although this time I was slightly less prepared as far as directions go and didn't even know where the consulate is, or where the nearest parking is). The thing is -- after browsing through the street with all the consulates in London, my mind was set to assume that it would be the same in Toronto, and everyone would know where each consulate is; in reality, in Toronto consulates simply rent a floor in one of the towers, with no signs of the consulate from within the busy streets of the city.
Unlike the French, the Japanese don't require one to sign-up for the appointment for the visa application, and are open 09:00/12:00 and 13:30/16:00. I showed up around 11:50 or 11:55. Should this have been the Russian consulate, I shouldn't have even bothered showing up during the latter part of the specified hours; but it's not, so we're fine. :)
Paid 10 CAD for parking, and went to the free parking lot at Wal-Mart on Dufferin St, the same place I landed during my previous trip. Now it's the time to walk around the city!
Took a long walk on the College St until Sushi on College, the same place I had a lunch last time. Green tea, soup, a few rolls of sushi and deep-fried banana... Nice... A few more hours of walking, and it's supper time! Already had plans for the supper since the lunch -- a different sushi restaurant right back there on the College St -- Jun Jun Sushi. Had a Japanese Dinner Box. IIRC, this must have been the first time I had a Box.
The thing about Toronto is the great food at excellent prices. Soup, 3 pieces of salmon roll and 3 pieces of cucumber roll preceded the Box for my supper, and the Box itself has Salad, assorted tempura (2 prawns, 1 broccoli, 2 sweet potato slices and 1 eggplant slice), 2 segments of an orange, rice and teriyaki chicken on top of some vegetables. And, of course, as with any reputable Japanese or Chinese restaurant, a complimentary tea is served throughout. This time the tea didn't taste like the green tea, though. At first, I didn't realise what kind of a tea it was; but then it struck me that it's the white tea; I tried it once again, and white tea it is! The waitress seemed pleasantly surprised when I asked if it was the white tea, confirming it was. Don't recall ever having white tea at any restaurant, only at home. Anyhow, back to the prices. 7,25 CAD on the menu, 8,17 CAD after tax. In the real money, that's 6,43 USD after tax. For a great dinner during the supper time. Unbelievable! BTW, for some reason the credit card receipts didn't have a place for a tip at this place, strange; no surprise the waitress was slightly upset when I placed my card on top of the bill; I did have a few bucks of change, so I left two loonies, since I really enjoyed the meal, but paying a tip with a credit card seems like a much more natural thing to me. The optional tipping seems to be official at the place, though -- a couple was waiting for their takeaway at a table next to mine, and the girl briefly mentioned about the tipping being optional in the establishment, although much appreciated. Still, the missing "tip" field on the receipt is strange, especially considering that at many other places that don't even do any kind of table service the field is almost always present on the receipts.
Anyhow, walked probably for at least 5 hours, College, Spadina, St. Clair up to Forest Hill South, and then back. I decided to never turn off the GPS, and unfortunately, the battery went down during my lunch, so I was kinda mapless for the rest of the day. I still didn't get lost much, though; in fact, I arrived through a different route right to the same spot on the College Street from which I've started. The Dufferin Mall closes at 21:00, although the Wal-Mart remains open; I got some stuff in Wal-Mart, drove around the city for a while, tried checking out some waterfront, and went back to N2E. A very enjoyable trip. |
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| ремиксы |
[Фев. 7, 2009|05:39 pm] |
Забавно, но ремиксы некоторых песен получаются намного лучше оригиналов.
Например, Малинки в DJ JIM March 2007 House mix -- одна из моих любимых композиций. А когда скачал оригинал, даже слушать было противно.
Ещё один хороших пример -- The Subway, Rock & Roll Queen, в саундтреке к RockNRolla и в Dj JIM - Electro SpeeD 5 (Part 2: MORNING) звучат замечательно! Но вот скачав оригинал, я был очень сильно разочарован вокалом солиста, особенно в самом начале композиции.
Очень вероятно, что впечатление ещё зависит и от того, в каком исполнении композиция была услышана в первый раз. |
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