PC gives Mac a C++ GUI Programming Guide for Christmas 2007

The latest commercial from Apple features the PC and Mac characters exchanging Christmas gifts for 2006.

Mac gives PC a really nice hardcover photo album that he created from their ads with just a few clicks of the mouse.

PC, on the other hand, gives Mac a C++ GUI Programming Guide which he confides he had been eyeing for himself.

I enjoy most of these ads but this one really tickles my funny bone.

I programmed C++ software from 1991-1997, then switched to Java in late 1997. I got certified as a Java programmer in mid-1998.

While I have done a little C++ programming since then, I have only done it as part of a larger programming effort a team and I were doing to create a Java application.

All Java projects I have worked on since mid-2003 have been pure Java ones. There really is no call in IT work for non-Java code.

Bill Budge - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I just learned that Bill Budge works at Sony Computer Entertainment now, as their lead tools programmer.

Bill Budge - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

He joined Sony Computer Entertainment in 2004 as Lead Tools Programmer.

He was one of the most amazing game programmers of the 1980s.

He made the Apple II and Macintosh incredible gaming machines long before the IBM PC and its later clones caught on.

His knack was for turning an ordinary computer into a supercharged arcade game. Also, he brought object-oriented drag-and-drop construction sets to the world of game programming for ordinary users.

I am really curious what games or web sites or whatever his tools have been used to create.

Technorati tags: gaming, programmer, biography, sony

U.K. outlaws denial-of-service attacks | CNET News.com

Some hackers might be spending a decade in jail, compliments of Her Majesty's Public Servants.

U.K. outlaws denial-of-service attacks | CNET News.com:

Among the provisions of the Police and Justice Bill 2006, which gained Royal Assent on Wednesday, is a clause that makes it an offense to impair the operation of any computer system. Other clauses prohibit preventing or hindering access to a program or data held on a computer, or impairing the operation of any program or data held on a computer.

The maximum penalty for such cybercrimes has also been increased from 5 years to 10 years.

The new law puts teeth into enforcement and makes enforcement relevant/applicable to those who not merely steal data from computers but disable them or block legitmate access to them.

Earlier this year, a ring of international spammers attacked computers of people who were trying to execute their American - and most would say God-given - right to "opt-out" of receiving spam.

Well, today if they did that to computers of people living in the UK - they can find themselves spending 10 years behind bars.

Maybe the end of the spam torrent has finally got at least one nail in its coffin.

God only knows that the US CAN-SPAM has not put an end to it. If anything, it seems like the volumne of spam went up since that law was passed. Perhaps the clause in it barring the victims of spam from sueing the spammers is significantly to blame.

In the UK, spammers who interfere with the access of people to a computer are going to be in for a rough time.

Technorati tags: uk, legal, crime, law, computing, networking

Why I recommend "Necroscope"

Necroscope

by Brian Lumley

If you like vampire stories but pure fantasy does not quite do it for you, the series this book kicks off is just for you.

The monsters are scary, venial, with rapacious appetites – and no, they are not the ones you hear about on the news. They are much worse.

They decimate populations, hobble civilizations, and arise from the pasts they were put down in – given half a chance by one of the living ...decades or centuries after their deaths.

Crossing their path comes Harry Keogh, the Necroscope.

Harry talks to the dead. Or rather they talk to him… and he talks back. He is the only one who can. They love him for it. But that does not mean he has an easy – or boring – life.

This is a really great novel and so are the ones that follow it in the series.

See more about Necroscope