<$BlogItemTitle$> Welcome to Orcmid's Lair, the playground for family connections, pastimes, and scholarly vocation -- the collected professional and recreational work of Dennis E. Hamilton

 
What is Turing's Halting Theorem?.  A nice simple description of the Halting Theorem and its consequences, from Jack Copeland.
posted by Dennis at Saturday, March 15, 2003

 
What is a Turing machine?.  Jack Copeland's article on Turing.net has this important statement concerning the reason for the unbounded-length input tape:

A Turing machine is an idealised computing device consisting of a read/write head (or 'scanner') with a paper tape passing through it. The tape is divided into squares, each square bearing a single symbol--'0' or '1', for example. This tape is the machine's general purpose storage medium, serving both as the vehicle for input and output and as a working memory for storing the results of intermediate steps of the computation.
The input that is inscribed on the tape before the computation starts must consist of a finite number of symbols. However, the tape is of unbounded length--for Turing's aim was to show that there are tasks that these machines are unable to perform, even given unlimited working memory and unlimited time.
posted by Dennis at Saturday, March 15, 2003

 
NetworkWorldFusion.com: Flaws put open source on hot seat.  This article raises issues about the internal accountability and configuration-management of open-source software so that patches and remedies to security problems can be disseminated and installed successfully.  One thing that is important to know is just what exactly is the status of a particular installation of, for example, Sendmail.
posted by Dennis at Saturday, March 15, 2003

 
InformationWeek.com: Goal Oriented.  Article about use of performance software to help employees set and meet individual goals that are in line with corporate objectives.  There is discussion of the transparency involved as well as expression of the concerns some have about Orwellian management practices.
posted by Dennis at Saturday, March 15, 2003

 
ZDnet Australia: Thousands 'trojaned' through net shares: CERT.  A 2003-03-12 article on work to introduce DDoS zombies into systems using insecure network shares.  The exploits introduce IRC "bot" Trojans that accept commands over the Internet for remote control.  It is considered that the zombies are highly valuable and that the hacker community may fight over their control (?).
posted by Dennis at Saturday, March 15, 2003

 
Speculations on Software Development Future.  A Builder.com article (2003-03-14) interviewing former CNET developers Dan Seewer and Kevin Cobb.  There's more on the offshore trend and also what is goinig to happen with software engineering.
posted by Dennis at Saturday, March 15, 2003

 
Social Software And The Politics Of Groups.  A Clay Shirky article for InternetWeek.com, this looks at how group cohesion is maintained on the Internet and the need to consider social aspects of software and network solutions intended for group participation.  There are a number of interesting themes, including how some groups limit themselves.  There is also a difference between groupware that is usable in conjunction with in-person meetings as well as across distance.
posted by Dennis at Saturday, March 15, 2003

 
How To Do Research In the MIT AI Lab.  A paper edited by David Chapman and now available on the web.  Part of it is about being a graduate student, other parts are specific to AI, as it was envisioned in 1987-1988.
posted by Dennis at Friday, March 14, 2003

 
Network Downloads /// AnalogX.  I keep being referred to this site.  The goodies are impressive.
posted by Dennis at Thursday, March 13, 2003

 
TechRepublic: Must-Have Network Tools.  Some illustrated use and recommendation for handy network troubleshooting and monitoring tools.
posted by Dennis at Thursday, March 13, 2003

 
NewGrange Center for Project Management.  This web-based international organization is out to support project management as a professional discipline.  One of the practices supported here is the 5-minute email list.  There are many links, and information about the naming of the organization.
posted by Dennis at Thursday, March 13, 2003

 

Software Development

Programming Languages

The Java 2 programming language

The Java Language Specification.  The main page for the specification, with the different formats you can obtain it in, including the print edition. The PDF is 4.4MB and a ZIP of the HTML format is one-tenth that.
posted by Dennis at Tuesday, March 11, 2003

 
The Java Language Specification, ed.2.  OK, the title page.  The earlier link is to the Table of Content.
posted by Dennis at Tuesday, March 11, 2003

 
Java Language Specification ed.2.  The on-line version of the complete specification.  An important reference.
posted by Dennis at Tuesday, March 11, 2003

 
West Wind Technologies - Making waves on the Web.  A web site I found as the result of an outstanding article on DevX showing how to do dynamic execution using .NET and even run the equivalent of ASP.NET as part of a standalong .NET application. This looks like just what I am looking for in making CD-ROMs of web sites that work just like mirrors of the site.  Something I am anxious to explore further in the next few weeks.
posted by Dennis at Monday, March 10, 2003

 
Cooper.  The web site of Alan Cooper's firm.  The site illustrates some of the Interaction Design principles, and I notice that there is an expanding customer list, case studies, and certification processes.  Fascinating to me.
posted by Dennis at Sunday, March 09, 2003