Computers – Page 16 – Spinor Info

Weird

Jul 132009

I have this hard drive. Two hard drives, actually, two out of many, these two being distinguished by the fact that at one time or another, they’ve been used in my old Fujitsu laptop.

The original drive was a 40 GB drive, which I replaced with an 80 GB drive years ago. I’ve since used the 40 GB drive in an external enclosure as a backup drive. I have several other drives of varying sizes in similar/identical enclosures.

Then there is the 80 GB drive, which has been the drive in this laptop for the last couple of years. But now that I no longer use this laptop myself, I figured I’d set it up for my wife. And since she doesn’t need an 80 GB drive, and the 40 GB drive was proving to be rather small for my backup needs, I decided to swap the drives back.

But then, the 80 GB drive that I took out of the laptop refused to function properly in the external enclosure. It was recognized alright, but no data could be read off it, not even the partition table. Same behavior on several computers running different operating systems (various Windows versions and Linux.)

Oops, I said, and swapped the drives back. Lo and behold, the 80 GB drive was again working fine, inside the laptop. But when I put the 40 GB drive back into the enclosure, I was in for a surprise: it was no longer working!

What the… I swapped the drives back and forth, they were both working fine in the laptop, but not working in the enclosure. Perhaps the enclosure is faulty? A logical thought, except that when I swapped enclosures using one of my several other backup drives, the enclosure was working just fine… but neither the 40 GB nor the 80 GB drive works in any of the three enclosures that I tested them with so far. Yet they both work fine in the laptop.

I must say I am stumped. I’ve never encountered a problem like this. Why would a drive work fine in a laptop but not in an external enclosure? Why would another drive, which used to work fine in the enclosure, fail after it has been inside a laptop (with, I should hasten to add, no operating system booted, so it’s not like there was a chance for a virus to affect the drive or anything like.) Modern drives do have persistent memory, but surely there are no persistent settings that would affect a drive like this? In any case, the 40 GB drive used to live in this laptop for years, and worked fine afterwards in the enclosure for years. But now, after it has been in the laptop again, it fails in the enclosure. Why?

Weird.

And I am supposed to be an expert at this.

End of an era

Computers, Internet No Responses »

Jul 022009

Long before there was a commercial Internet, there were dial-up service providers, bulletin board systems, and the like. At one time, the largest among these was CompuServe, offering a comprehensive range of services including hundreds (if not thousands) of forums, online chat, downloads, and games. Indeed there was a time when no self-respecting computer company existed without a support forum on CompuServe.

I became a CompuServe subscriber in 1991 I believe. Soon after, I discovered a wonderful game hosted by CompuServe: Richard Bartle’s original Multi-User Dungeon, running under the name British Legends. Ten years ago, CompuServe discontinued British Legends using the bogus excuse that the game is not Y2K compatible; I have been running a faithfully ported version of this game on my server ever since.

But the CompuServe service remained. Under the brand name CompuServe Classic, the original service stayed in operation in all these years. Its value was greatly diminished, but it was still usable as a reliable international dial-up Internet service provider (indeed, this is the reason why I kept my CompuServe subscription active.) That is, until now.

A few months ago, they sent out an e-mail informing users that the Classic service will be discontinued on June 30.

Out of curiosity, I tried logging on to CompuServe moments ago. Yes, the old text-based services were still available until recently. But today, this is what I am greeted with:

$ telnet gateway.compuserve.com
Trying 209.154.35.102...
Connected to gateway.compuserve.com.
Escape character is '^]'.

User ID: 70674,3414

?? LOGSTU - System BHC is temporarily unavailable

Well, what can I say? So long, and thanks for all the fun.

MOJ459P

Computers, Internet, Television No Responses »

Jul 022009

There is something positively charming about the random nature of the Internet.

I am watching a British comedy, One Foot in the Grave, on Vision TV (as to why a supposedly religious channel is broadcasting somewhat risqué British comedies in the first place, now that’s a question for another day, but I am certainly glad that they do.) At one point, the story features an old Citroen that appears in a trash dumpster in front of the protagonist’s house. The car has a license plate: MOJ459P.

On a whim, I entered this license plate number into Google. Surprisingly, there was a hit: http://www.convergence.cx/. For no discernible reason, the page features nothing else but the mushroom cloud of a nuclear explosion, and an immortal quote from Charles Babbage, pondering the sanity of members of Parliament who were wondering if his machine could give correct answers if given wrong data.

And it is a weird Web site. The page contains an invisible link to a host-side script that barfs back a series of random generated e-mail addresses. Or, I should say, almost random generated; among a bunch of bogus addresses, the e-mail addresses associated with the registration information of the IP number from which I perform the query also appear. What this means, I have no idea. The site doesn’t seem malicious, but then what is it? The top-level domain .cx is the country code for Christmas Island, but the site itself is registered as a “Convergence Organisation Object”, in London, the United Kingdom, since 2001. I have no idea what it is. Curious.

Skype 4? No thanks…

Computers, Programming No Responses »

Jun 252009

A few days ago, I upgraded to Skype 4.

I use Skype for overseas telephone calls a lot. I also call a few people occasionally using Skype-to-Skype. And, every once in a while, I use it to chat with people.

I have heard bad things about Skype 4 so I was not in a hurry to upgrade. But when, the other day, the software notified me that a major upgrade is available, I decided to give it a try.

Wish I didn’t.

The installation completed successfully, and Skype worked fine, but… well, it’s best if I just quote a few sentences from Skype’s own Web site where the new version was announced:

Skype 4.0 should certainly participate in the worst software redesign conquest.
Worst interface ever created for Skype and i’ve been using it ever since the 1st beta. Please dump this garbage
Skype 4.0 has an extreme ugly layout.
The UI of version 4 is a terrible disappointment. No matter how I tweak, it still consumes more screen real-estate than version 3 did.
Who are you people and what were you thinking when you released this kludge.
ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE INTERFACE
Skype 4.0.x is PAINFUL and FRUSTRATING TO USE.
I think this is the ‘vista’ of skype releases.
What where you thinking. Did you guys outsource? This version has all the hallmarks of a design by committee.
I truly do not like the new 4.0 version! I’ve tried it for a week, hoping to get used to it, and i’m just left cursing. I am reverting because…

I share these sentiments. This morning, I gave up and downgraded to the 3.8 version. Which is working fine, as always.

Updating Skype

Computers No Responses »

Jun 232009

I’ve been using Skype since last year. Initially, I resisted, but then there were to strong reasons to use it: one, regular phone line quality has been steadily going down the drain as long distance companies increasingly began to use VoIP, and two, I was doing a bit of traveling, and Skype is a heck of a lot cheaper than hotel phones.

I’ve had Skype version 3 installed, and by and large, I was happy. I’ve been using Skype a lot to call Europe, for instance, and it worked most of the time at least as reliably as the good old phone company.

However, lately I had some call quality problems and Skype’s advice was to upgrade. So, when the other day, the software informed me that a new version is available to install, I accepted it. The new version installed just fine, and it is working fine… I can’t really tell if it actually delivers improved sound quality, but I have no reason to doubt Skype.

What the new version doesn’t deliver is an improved user interface. Simply put, the version 4 UI is not pretty. “Compact Mode” is not really compact anymore, you just get multiple windows. In regular mode, the Skype window is just huge. And, it’s ugly. For manual dial, it has an unpleasant looking, overly large dial pad. For other modes, the interface is equally unappealing, with large unused areas.

What were these people thinking? Seriously, it feels like I went back 5-10 years in time in terms of UI quality. If Skype 3 was like Windows XP, Skype 4 is more like Windows 95. I’m seriously contemplating uninstalling Skype and reinstalling version 3. I’m just not sure if it’s worth the hassle.

Computer management

Computers No Responses »

Jun 102009

Being self-employed means, among other things, that I am not just using my computer systems, I am also responsible for managing them.

On the second Tuesday of every month, Microsoft releases a batch of fixes. These fixes are important: they address known security issues among other things, and some of these issues may already be actively exploited by viruses or malicious Web sites. I prefer installing these updates by hand, because doing so allows me to test the updates on a test computer before putting them on “mission critical” machines. Also, my work is not interrupted by degraded system performance while an update is being processed, or by a sudden request by Windows to reboot.

A few months ago, I allowed Windows Update to install a bunch of Windows Live features on my main workstation, not because I needed them but, well, because they were available and they could do no harm, right? Well, they didn’t do any real harm, except for the annoying little issue of an Explorer window always opening up when I started the system, with the folder C:\Program Files\Microsoft, which contained just one subfolder called Search Enhancement Pack. So yesterday, since I was installing updates and rebooting the system anyway, I decided to do whatever it takes (short of reinstalling Windows, that is) to get rid of this thing.

Having done some research on Google, I decided to try a few promising-looking solutions. First, I used a command-line uninstallation command to get rid of a component called Choice Guard, which supposedly caused this folder to be opened on startup. Reboot… no cigar, the folder was still there.

One file in the folder in question was SeaPort.exe, a service component of the Search Enhancement Pack. On a hunch, I disabled this service and rebooted. Again no cigar… the folder was still there.

Then, I found the command-line command to actually uninstall the whole Search Enhancement Pack. I was sure that this would do the trick… but it didn’t. After reboot, the folder was still there.

OK, I don’t have time for this silliness, I thought, it’s time to get rid of all this Windows Live nonsense that I won’t be using much anyway. I uninstalled them all except for the Windows Live Onecare component. Reboot, and… the stupid folder was still opened by Explorer on startup.

Time to get rid of Onecare, too. I did, and rebooted… and once again, Explorer opened the folder. Mind you, by this time the folder contained only one file in a subfolder, a file called SearchHelper.dll, which many sites mistakenly identify as malicious (I believe that there is, in fact, a malicious file out there with this name, but this one is from Microsoft and not malicious. Well, not intentionally, anyhow.)

The final solution was also the lamest, something I could have done earlier had I not insisted on doing things the “right way”: I got rid of the folder in question altogether, just manually deleted it. This did the trick, but I do wonder: if for any reason, the folder is restored, would it open up again in the middle of my screen upon the next reboot? And why does Microsoft do this to us anyway?

Between this, obligatory backups, and updates to some half a dozen computers plus some virtual machines, my afternoon and most of my evening was gone.

Meanwhile, my wife received yet another spam e-mail with her own e-mail address used as the sender address. This became a new fad among spammers: why don’t we send spam pretending to be the recipient, perhaps this will trick spam filters? Well, it was time to do something about it, so I did. Unfortunately, these things can get tricky and sendmail’s configuration file, while extremely powerful, is more idiosyncratic than intuitive, with command lines like this:

R$* $| $=R $*		$@ OK

So it’s not easy to get it right (that is, filter out unwanted mail but still letting us send out e-mails with our own sender addresses) and I had to be careful not to disable legitimate mail service by accident. Eventually, since it was well past midnight already, I decided that I was too tired to do such delicate surgery, and I only finished it this morning.

Finally, I can now get back to doing something useful on these stupid computers. About bleeping time!

Busy days

Computers, Culture, Physics, Programming, Technology No Responses »

May 312009

I’ve been learning a lot about Web development these days: Dojo and Ajax, in particular. It’s incredible what you can do in Javascript nowadays, sophisticated desktop applications running inside a Web browser. I am spending a lot of time building a complex prototype application that has many features associated with desktop programs, including graphics, pop-up dialogs, menus, and more.

I’ve also been learning a lot about the intricacies Brans-Dicke gravity and about the parameterized post-Newtonian (PPN) formalism. Brans-Dicke theory is perhaps the simplest modified gravity theory that there is, and I have to explain to someone why the gravity theory that I spend time working on doesn’t quite behave like Brans-Dicke theory. In the process, I find out things about Brans-Dicke theory that I never knew.

And, I’ve also been doing a fair bit of SCPI programming this month. SCPI is a standardized way for computers to talk to measurement instrumentation, and an old program I wrote used to use a non-standard way… not anymore.

Meanwhile, in all the spare time that I’ve left, I’ve been learning Brook+, a supercomputer programming language based on C… that is because my new test machine is a supercomputer, sort of, with its graphics card that doubles as a numeric vector processor capable in theory of up to a trillion single precision floating point instructions per second… and nearly as many in practice, in the test programs that I threw at it.

I’m also learning a little more about the infamous cosmological constant problem (why is the cosmological constant at least over 50 orders magnitude too small but not exactly zero?) and about quantum gravity.

As I said in the subject… busy days. Much more fun though than following the news. Still, I did catch in the news that Susan Boyle lost in Britains Got Talent… only because an amazing dance group won:

Startup folder window annoyance

Computers No Responses »

May 232009

Ever since I installed a Microsoft update, not sure which one, whenever I reboot my computer, XP starts up opening a folder, notably C:\Program Files\Microsoft\.

Since I don’t reboot my computer that often, it’s only a minor annoyance, but I’ve learned long ago that minor annoyances can be symptoms of bigger problems, so I wanted to get to the bottom of it.

After some Googling, I took a closer look at my startup configuration using msconfig and the Registry editor, until I found that the default value under HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run was not absent, as it should be, but rather, it was set to an empty string. Could that be the cause? I’ll know after the next reboot…

Why people distrust lawyers

Computers No Responses »

May 212009

And you wonder that people distrust lawyers.

I installed a fresh copy of the Adobe Reader on a test computer. It has a feature called “Create Adobe PDF using Acrobat.com…”, which I clicked on, out of curiosity. Up pops a dialog called “Adobe AIR License Agreement”:

Adobe AIR license agreement

The text seemed a bit long. I decided to copy it and paste it into another application, for better viewing. To their credit, they allowed me to copy. But, absent a Select All command, it was a tad hard to copy everything. Nonetheless, I managed. I was confronted by a huge bulk of text with no line breaks at all in Windows Notepad. I inserted some line breaks. The result is a 6-page legal agreement that, for all I know, obliges me to sell of all my future children and descendants to Adobe.

For what it’s worth, this is the small print they wanted me to agree to. For now, I clicked Quit as I had not the time to read it all:

ADOBE SYSTEMS INCORPORATED

Warranty Disclaimer and Software License Agreement.

THIS DOCUMENT INCLUDES WARRANTY INFORMATION (PART I) AND A LICENSE AGREEMENT GOVERNING THE USE OF ADOBE SOFTWARE (PART II).
PART I. WARRANTY DISCLAIMER.
THE SOFTWARE AND OTHER INFORMATION IS DELIVERED TO YOU “AS IS” AND WITH ALL FAULTS. ADOBE AND ITS SUPPLIERS AND CERTIFICATE AUTHORITIES DO NOT AND CANNOT WARRANT THE PERFORMANCE OR RESULTS YOU MAY OBTAIN BY USING THE SOFTWARE, CERTIFICATE AUTHORITY SERVICES OR OTHER THIRD PARTY OFFERINGS. EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT ANY WARRANTY, CONDITION, REPRESENTATION OR TERM CANNOT OR MAY NOT BE EXCLUDED OR LIMITED BY LAW APPLICABLE TO YOU IN YOUR JURISDICTION, ADOBE AND ITS SUPPLIERS AND CERTIFICATE AUTHORITIES MAKE NO WARRANTIES CONDITIONS, REPRESENTATIONS, OR TERMS (EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WHETHER BY STATUTE, COMMON LAW, CUSTOM, USAGE OR OTHERWISE) AS TO ANY MATTER INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION NONINFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS, MERCHANTABILITY, INTEGRATION, SATISFACTORY QUALITY, OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
PART II. SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT.
BY USING, COPYING OR DISTRIBUTING ALL OR ANY PORTION OF THE ADOBE SOFTWARE, YOU ACCEPT ALL THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS AGREEMENT, INCLUDING, IN PARTICULAR, THE PROVISIONS ON: USE CONTAINED IN SECTION 2; TRANSFERABILITY IN SECTION 4; CONNECTIVITY AND PRIVACY IN SECTION 6; WARRANTY IN SECTION 9 AND LIABILITY IN SECTIONS 10 AND 16. UPON ACCEPTANCE, THIS AGREEMENT IS ENFORCEABLE AGAINST YOU AND ANY ENTITY THAT OBTAINED THE SOFTWARE AND ON WHOSE BEHALF IT IS USED. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE, DO NOT USE THE SOFTWARE.
ADOBE PERMITS YOU TO USE THE SOFTWARE ONLY IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT. USE OF SOME THIRD PARTY MATERIALS INCLUDED IN THE SOFTWARE MAY BE SUBJECT TO OTHER TERMS AND CONDITIONS TYPICALLY FOUND IN A SEPARATE LICENSE AGREEMENT, A “READ ME” FILE LOCATED NEAR SUCH MATERIALS OR IN THE “THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE NOTICES AND/OR ADDITIONAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS” FOUND AT http://www.adobe.com/go/thirdparty .

1. Definitions.
“Adobe” means Adobe Systems Incorporated, a Delaware corporation, 345 Park Avenue, San Jose, California 95110, if subsection 12(a) of this agreement applies; otherwise it means Adobe Systems Software Ireland Limited, Unit 3100, Lake Drive, City West Campus, Saggart D24, Republic of Ireland, a company organized under the laws of Ireland and an affiliate and licensee of Adobe Systems Incorporated. “Computer” means a virtual or physical personal electronic device that accepts information in digital or similar form and manipulates it for a specific result based on a sequence of instructions. “Software” means (a) all of the contents of the files (delivered electronically or on physical media), or disk(s) or other media with which this agreement is provided, which may include (i) Adobe or third party computer information or software, including Adobe Reader® (“Adobe Reader”), Adobe® AIR™ (“Adobe AIR”), Adobe Flash® Player, Shockwave® Player and Authorware® Player (collectively, Adobe AIR and the Flash, Shockwave and Authorware players are the “Adobe Runtimes”); (ii) related explanatory written materials or files (“Documentation”); and (iii) fonts; and (b) upgrades, modified versions, updates, additions, and copies of the foregoing, provided to you by Adobe at any time (collectively, “Updates”). “Use” means to access, install, download, copy, or otherwise benefit from using the functionality of the Software.

2. Software License.
If you obtained the Software from Adobe or one of its authorized licensees, and subject to your compliance with the terms of this agreement, including the restrictions in Section 3, Adobe grants to you a non-exclusive license to use the Software in the manner and for the purposes described in the Documentation as follows:

2.1 General Use. You may install and use one copy of the Software on your compatible Computer. See Section 3 for important restrictions on the use of the Software.

2.2 Server Use. This agreement does not permit you to install or use the software on a computer file server. For information on use of software on a computer file server please refer to http://www.adobe.com/go/acrobat_distribute for information about Adobe Reader; or http://www.adobe.com/go/licensing for information about the Adobe Runtimes.

2.3 Distribution. This license does not grant you the right to sublicense or distribute the Software. For information about obtaining the right to distribute the Software on tangible media or through an internal network or with your product or service please refer to http://www.adobe.com/go/acrobat_distribute for information about Adobe Reader; or http://www.adobe.com/go/licensing for information about the Adobe Runtimes.

2.4 Backup Copy. You may make one backup copy of the Software, provided your backup copy is not installed or used. You may not transfer the rights to a backup copy unless you transfer all rights in the Software as provided under Section 4.

3. Obligations and Restrictions.

3.1 Adobe Runtime Restrictions. You will not use any Adobe Runtime on any non-PC device or with any embedded or device version of any operating system. For the avoidance of doubt, and by example only, you may not use an Adobe Runtime on any (a) mobile device, set top box (STB), handheld, phone, web pad, tablet and Tablet PC (other than with Windows XP Tablet PC Edition and its successors), game console, TV, DVD player, media center (other than with Windows XP Media Center Edition and its successors), electronic billboard or other digital signage, Internet appliance or other Internet-connected device, PDA, medical device, ATM, telematic device, gaming machine, home automation system, kiosk, remote control device, or any other consumer electronics device, (b) operator-based mobile, cable, satellite, or television system or (c) other closed system device. For information on licensing Adobe Runtimes for use on such systems please visit http://www.adobe.com/go/licensing .

3.2 Adobe Reader Restrictions. Adobe Reader is licensed and distributed by Adobe for viewing, distributing and sharing PDF files.

3.2.1 Conversion Restrictions. You will not integrate or use Adobe Reader with any other software, plug-in or enhancement that uses or relies upon Adobe Reader when converting or transforming PDF files into a different format (e.g., a PDF file into a TIFF, JPEG, or SVG file).

3.2.2 Plug-in Restrictions. You will not integrate or use Adobe Reader with any plug-in software not developed in accordance with the Adobe Integration Key License Agreement.

3.2.3 Disabled Features. Adobe Reader may contain features or functionalities that are hidden or appear disabled or “grayed out” (the “Disabled Features”). Disabled Features will activate only when opening a PDF document that was created using enabling technology available only from Adobe. You will not access, or attempt to access, any Disabled Features other than through the use of such enabling technologies, nor will you rely on Adobe Reader to create a feature substantially similar to any Disabled Feature or otherwise circumvent the technology that controls activation of any such feature. For more information on disabled features, please refer to http://www.adobe.com/go/readerextensions .

3.3 Notices. Any copy of the Software that you make must contain the same copyright and other proprietary notices that appear on or in the Software.

3.4 No Modification or Reverse Engineering. You may not modify, adapt, translate or create derivative works based upon the Software. You will not reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or otherwise attempt to discover the source code of the Software except to the extent you may be expressly permitted to reverse engineer or decompile under applicable law.

4. Transfer.
You may not rent, lease, sublicense, assign or transfer your rights in the Software, or authorize all or any portion of the Software to be copied onto another user’s Computer except as may be expressly permitted by this agreement. You may, however, transfer all your rights to use the Software to another person or legal entity provided that:
(a) you also transfer
(i) this agreement, and
(ii) the Software and all other software or hardware bundled or pre-installed with the Software, including all copies, updates and prior versions, to such person or entity,
(b) you retain no copies, including backups and copies stored on a Computer, and
(c) the receiving party accepts the terms and conditions of this agreement and any other terms and conditions upon which you obtained a valid license to the Software. Notwithstanding the foregoing, you may not transfer education, pre-release, or not for resale copies of the Software.

5. Intellectual Property Ownership, Reservation of Rights.
The Software and any authorized copies that you make are the intellectual property of Adobe Systems Incorporated and its suppliers. The structure, organization and code of the Software are the valuable trade secrets and confidential information of Adobe Systems Incorporated and its suppliers. The Software is protected by law, including without limitation the copyright laws of the United States and other countries, and by international treaty provisions. Except as expressly stated herein, this agreement does not grant you any intellectual property rights in the Software and all rights not expressly granted are reserved by Adobe and its suppliers.

6. Connectivity and Privacy.

6.1 Use of PDF Files. When you use the Software to open a PDF file that has been enabled to display ads through registration with the Ads for Adobe PDF service, your computer may connect to a website operated by Adobe, an advertiser, or other third party. Your Internet Protocol (IP) address is sent when this happens. The party hosting the site may use technology to send (or “serve”) advertising or other electronic content that appears in or near the opened file. The website operator may also use JavaScript, web beacons (also known as action tags or single-pixel gifs), and other technologies to increase and measure the effectiveness of advertisements and to personalize advertising content. Your communication with Adobe websites is governed by the Adobe Online Privacy Policy found at http://www.adobe.com/go/privacy . Adobe may not have access to or control over features that a third party may use, and the information practices of third party websites are not covered by the Adobe Online Privacy Policy.

6.2 Updating. You acknowledge and agree that the Software may cause your Computer to automatically connect to the Internet to check for updates that are available for automatic download to your Computer and to let Adobe know the Software is successfully installed. Only non-personal identifying information is transmitted to Adobe when this happens. Your communication with Adobe websites is governed by the Adobe Online Privacy Policy found at http://www.adobe.com/go/privacy . Please consult the Documentation for information about changing default update settings.

6.3 Settings Manager. Flash Player may cause certain user settings to be stored on your Computer as a local shared object. These settings are not associated with you, but allow you to configure certain settings within the Flash Player. You can find more information on local shared objects at http://www.adobe.com/go/flashplayer_security and more information on the Settings Manager at http://www.adobe.com/go/settingsmanager .

7. Third Party Offerings.
The Software may allow you to access and interoperate with third party websites, software applications, and data services, including rich Internet applications (“Third Party Offerings”). Your access to and use of any Third Party Offering, including any goods, services or information, is governed by the terms and conditions respecting such offerings. Third Party Offerings are not owned or provided by Adobe.

8. Digital Certificates.

8.1 Use. Adobe AIR uses digital certificates to help you identify the publisher of Adobe AIR applications created by third parties. Adobe Reader uses digital certificates to sign and validate signatures within PDF documents and to validate certified PDF documents. Your Computer may connect to the Internet at the time of validation of a digital certificate. Digital certificates are issued by third party certificate authorities, including Adobe Certified Document Services (CDS) vendors listed at http://www.adobe.com/go/partners_cds (“Certificate Authorities”), or can be self-signed.

8.2 Terms and Conditions. Purchase, use and reliance upon digital certificates is the responsibility of you and a Certificate Authority. Before you rely upon any certified document, digital signature or Certificate Authority services, you should review the applicable terms and conditions under which the relevant Certificate Authority provides services, including, for example, any subscriber agreements, relying party agreements, certificate policies and practice statements. See the links on http://www.adobe.com/go/partners_cds for information about Adobe’s CDS vendors.

8.3 Acknowledgement. You agree that
(a) a digital certificate may have been revoked prior to the time of verification, making the digital signature or certificate appear valid when in fact it is not,
(b) the security or integrity of a digital certificate may be compromised due to an act or omission by the signer of the document, the applicable Certificate Authority, or any other third party and
(c) a certificate may be a self-signed certificate not provided by a Certificate Authority. YOU ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR DECIDING WHETHER OR NOT TO RELY ON A CERTIFICATE. UNLESS A SEPARATE WRITTEN WARRANTY IS PROVIDED TO YOU BY A CERTIFICATE AUTHORITY, YOU USE DIGITAL CERTIFICATES AT YOUR SOLE RISK.

8.4 Third Party Beneficiaries. You agree that any Certificate Authority you rely upon is a third party beneficiary of this agreement and shall have the right to enforce this agreement in its own name as if it were Adobe.

8.5 Indemnity. You agree to hold Adobe and any applicable Certificate Authority (except as expressly provided in its terms and conditions) harmless from any and all liabilities, losses, actions, damages, or claims (including all reasonable expenses, costs, and attorneys fees) arising out of or relating to any use of, or reliance on, any service of such authority, including, without limitation
(a) reliance on an expired or revoked certificate,
(b) improper verification of a certificate,
(c) use of a certificate other than as permitted by any applicable terms and conditions, this agreement or applicable law;
(d) failure to exercise reasonable judgment under the circumstances in relying on issuer services or certificates or
(e) failure to perform any of the obligations as required in the terms and conditions related to the services.

9. No Warranty.
The Software is being delivered to you “AS IS” and with ALL FAULTS. ADOBE AND ITS SUPPLIERS AND CERTIFICATE AUTHORITIES DO NOT AND CANNOT WARRANT THE PERFORMANCE OR RESULTS YOU MAY OBTAIN BY USING THE SOFTWARE, CERTIFICATE AUTHORITY SERVICES OR OTHER THIRD PARTY OFFERINGS. EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT ANY WARRANTY, CONDITION, REPRESENTATION OR TERM CANNOT OR MAY NOT BE EXCLUDED OR LIMITED BY LAW APPLICABLE TO YOU IN YOUR JURISDICTION, ADOBE AND ITS SUPPLIERS AND CERTIFICATE AUTHORITIES MAKE NO WARRANTIES CONDITIONS, REPRESENTATIONS, OR TERMS (EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WHETHER BY STATUTE, COMMON LAW, CUSTOM, USAGE OR OTHERWISE) AS TO ANY MATTER INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION NONINFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS, MERCHANTABILITY, INTEGRATION, SATISFACTORY QUALITY, OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. The provisions of Section 9 and Section 10 shall survive the termination of this agreement, howsoever caused, but this shall not imply or create any continued right to use the Software after termination of this agreement.

10. Limitation of Liability.
IN NO EVENT WILL ADOBE, ITS SUPPLIERS, OR CERTIFICATE AUTHORITIES BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DAMAGES, CLAIMS OR COSTS WHATSOEVER INCLUDING ANY CONSEQUENTIAL, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, OR ANY LOST PROFITS OR LOST SAVINGS, EVEN IF AN ADOBE REPRESENTATIVE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH LOSS, DAMAGES, OR CLAIMS. THE FOREGOING LIMITATIONS AND EXCLUSIONS APPLY TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW IN YOUR JURISDICTION. ADOBE’S AGGREGATE LIABILITY AND THAT OF ITS SUPPLIERS AND CERTIFICATE AUTHORITIES UNDER OR IN CONNECTION WITH THIS AGREEMENT SHALL BE LIMITED TO THE AMOUNT PAID FOR THE SOFTWARE, IF ANY. Nothing contained in this agreement limits Adobe’s liability to you in the event of death or personal injury resulting from Adobe’s negligence or for the tort of deceit (fraud). Adobe is acting on behalf of its suppliers and Certificate Authorities for the purpose of disclaiming, excluding and/or limiting obligations, warranties and liability as provided in this agreement, but in no other respects and for no other purpose. For further information, please see the jurisdiction specific information at the end of this agreement, if any, or contact Adobe’s Customer Support Department.

11. Export Rules.
You agree that the Software will not be shipped, transferred or exported into any country or used in any manner prohibited by the United States Export Administration Act or any other export laws, restrictions or regulations (collectively the “Export Laws”). In addition, if the Software is identified as export controlled items under the Export Laws, you represent and warrant that you are not a citizen, or otherwise located within, an embargoed nation (including without limitation Iran, Syria, Sudan, Cuba, and North Korea) and that you are not otherwise prohibited under the Export Laws from receiving the Software. All rights to use the Software are granted on condition that such rights are forfeited if you fail to comply with the terms of this agreement.

12. Governing Law.
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Reader_Player_AIR_WWEULA-en_US-20080204_1313

Parallel processing

Computers, Physics 1 Response »

Apr 272009

I’ve run the first realistic tests of the kind of computation that I am planning to perform on my new machine with the GPU “supercomputer” card. Here is a “before” picture:

Self-gravitating star cluster on the CPU

And now, the exact same program running on the GPU:

Self-gravitating star cluster on the GPU

I’d say that’s quite an improvement. To say the least.

The calculation in this case computed the self-gravitational forces in a cluster of 10,000 stars… it seems that the GPU can perform this computation at least 20 times a second. That’s quite remarkable.

Desktop supercomputing

Computers No Responses »

Apr 242009

I built a new computer. It is a fairly decent computer, but what makes it special is its video card: it is a card that, in addition to producing graphics, can also be used for numerical computations.

The raw speed of the card is one TFLOP. That is, one trillion (single-precision) floating-point instructions per second.

It wasn’t that long ago that not even the world’s biggest supercomputer came even close to this kind of computing power.

I wonder how many such GPU cards are presently being used in places like Iran’s or North Korea’s weapons laboratories. And it’s not like it’s easy to ban their exports to such countries… the card, while bearing the ATI/AMD logo, was nonetheless manufactured in China.

Entanglement is not always good for you

Computers, Physics No Responses »

Mar 312009

Folks working on quantum computers are busy trying to make sure that entangled states remain entangled, because decoherence is death for a quantum computation. But now, Gross et al. showed that too much entanglement may not be a good thing: it can result in quantum computers that offer no improvements in efficiency over conventional computers.

Superfetch my…

Computers No Responses »

Mar 282009

Ever since I became the unfortunate owner of a new laptop (rather nice in most respects, actually) that requires Vista, I’ve been cursing the programmers in Redmond.

One prevailing mystery was this: if my laptop is in Sleep/Hibernation for more than a few hours, why does it take literally forever for it to wake up? And why is there is constant disk activity while I wait for it to respond?

It seems that I may have found the answer. It’s the blasted Superfetch service in Vista, ostensibly designed to help speed up the launching of applications. Perhaps it does that… but on a laptop, it also does many other things, none of them pleasant. It seems that the best thing to do is to disable the Superfetch service once and for all, and call it a bad memory.

Battery power

Computers No Responses »

Feb 152009

Here’s a nice plot of yesterday’s power outage, courtesy of my server:

Power on Feb 14, 2009

Interesting how the capacity drop and the recharge curve are both perfectly linear. Makes me wonder how accurate these curves are… do they really represent measured values or just a simplistic guess by software?

On the other hand, both UPSs ran fine for over half an hour, one supplying a server and networking equipment, another supplying a workstation, monitor, and some peripherals. So I really have no cause to complain.

Murphy on battery

Computers, Technology No Responses »

Feb 142009

Murphy’s law works well on battery power, too.

Not FIVE SECONDS after I finished shutting down my workstation and my main server, the power came back on. If it only came back just a minute earlier, I’d have been able to avoid the shutdown altogether.

Well, at least the power is back on. I cannot help but notice that ever since the 2003 blackout, power has been a great deal less reliable here than before. Or perhaps it was always like this, I just perceive it differently?

A funny thing happened during the shutdown of my workstation, by the way. I executed a manual shutdown, which in turn was interrupted by the UPS that initiated a hibernation. So the machine went to hibernate. When I powered it back on, it came out of hibernation and promptly proceeded to complete the previously initiated shutdown. Computers can be so literal-minded!

Quantum computing and decoherence

Computers, Physics No Responses »

Feb 062009

I’m thinking about quantum computers today.

Quantum computers are supposed to be “better” than ordinary digital computers in that they’re able to solve, in polynomial time, many problems that an ordinary digital computer can only solve in exponential time. This has enormous practical implications: notably, many cryptographic methods are based on the fact that there are mathematical problems that can only be solved in exponential time, rendering it impractical to break an encryption key by computer using any “brute force” method. However, if a quantum computer could solve the same problem in polynomial time, a “brute force” method may be practical.

But the thing is, quantum computers are not exactly unique in this respect. Any good old analog computer from the 1950s can also solve the same problems in polynomial time. At least, in principle.

And that’s the operative phrase here: in principle. An analog computer, which represents data in the form of continuous quantities such as lengths, currents, voltages, angles, etc., is limited by its accuracy: even the best analog computer rarely has an accuracy better than one part in a thousand. Not exactly helpful when you’re trying to factorize 1000-digit numbers, for instance.

A quantum computer also represents data in the form of a continuous quantity: the (phase of the) wave function. Like an analog computer, a quantum computer is also limited in accuracy: this limitation is known as decoherence, when the wave function collapses into one of its eigenstates, as if a measurement had been performed.

So why bother with quantum computers, then? Simple: it is widely believed that it is possible to restore coherence in a quantum computer. If this is indeed possible, then a quantum computer is like an analog computer on steroids: any intermediate calculations could be carried out to arbitrary precision, only the final measurement (i.e., reading out the result) would be subject to a classical measurement error, which is not really a big issue when the final result, for instance, is a yes/no type result.

So that’s what quantum computing boils down to: “redundant qubits” that can ensure that coherence is maintained throughout a calculation. Many think that this can be done… I remain somewhat skeptical.

The person behind that icon

Computers No Responses »

Jan 252009

Often, I wondered: who designed the graphical elements, like the fonts and icons that appear on my computer screen?

Finally, I know the name of one of these people. She is Susan Kare, and her work appeared in the original Macintosh, Windows 3.0, OS/2, even Facebook. I came across her name as I was reading about the 25th anniversary of the Macintosh and clicked a link that took me to a 12-year old article from The New York Times that Ms. Kare has on her Web site.

Windows 7

Computers No Responses »

Jan 102009

I am test driving Windows 7. Some rough edges (it’s a beta, after all) but I already like it more than I liked Vista. If only Microsoft saw the light and dropped Activation, I might even consider recommending it. One of these days, software companies will realize that penalizing legitimate users is not the right way to fight piracy, but that day has not come yet…

Filled XY area chart in Excel

Astronomy, Computers No Responses »

Jan 072009

Here’s an article worthy of a bookmark:

http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Charts/XYAreaChart2.html

It offers a way to produce a chart in Microsoft Excel much like this one:

Filled XY area chart

This chart is from something I’m working on, an attempt to test gravitational theories against galaxy survey data.

The link above also comes with a warning: the discussed technique doesn’t work with Excel 2007, due to a (presumably unintentional) change in Excel’s handling of certain complex charts. A pity, but it is also a good example why I am trying to maintain my immunity against chronic upgrade-itis. Two decades ago upgrades were important because they fixed severe bugs and offered serious usability improvements. But today? Why on Earth would I want to upgrade to Office 2007 when Office 2003 does everything I need and more, just so that I can re-learn its user interface? Or make Microsoft richer?

Open source programming

Computers No Responses »

Jan 022009

As a contributor to Maxima, I occasionally receive requests from students to fill out surveys. I got one today, and after completing it, felt obliged to add the following comment, which really applies to most such surveys that I’ve seen:

You seem to be concentrating on things like prestige, reputation, stuff like that that I have no interest in and certainly play no role in my decision to work on an open source project. Simply put, the projects I work on I work on because of what they DO, not because they are open source or not. It’s not a self-serving activity… I no more think of it as “programming” as I think, say, of repairing my computer as “screwdrivering”. Programming (or using a screwdriver) is not the goal, but the means to reach a goal.

I work on Maxima because I need it for my research, because its tensor algebra packages were broken and I was able to repair and maintain them, because I need the result, because by participating I can help ensure that the package remains reliable and useful… what others think of me is irrelevant. I left your last question (ranking roles by prestige) unanswered for this reason… you might as well have asked me to rank them by color.

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