I remember I first heard of Seymour Papert when I picked up a copy of
his book “Mindstorms” at the University library. This was based around
the radical idea that young children could not only learn advanced
concepts about mathematics and programming, but they could have fun
doing so.
For example, to draw a circle, you repeat the following some x number
of times:
* turn a little bit to one side
* move a little bit forward
(The larger the “x”, and the correspondingly smaller the “little bit”
becomes, the better the approximation to a circle.)
This comes straight out of a child’s intuitive idea of how they would
walk in a circle (i.e. turtle graphics). But it is also a
differential-geometric formulation of a circle!
And today I discovered that Papert had suffered a serious traffic
injury in Hanoi a decade ago. No word on whether he ever recovered, and
now he has passed away, with no mention of the cause.
<http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/08/seymour-papert-theorist-behind-one-…>
'A few days ago I wrote about Microsoft's revival of Skype for Linux.
I called it "a big deal" -- less because of Skype itself and more
because it signified Microsoft's recognition that Linux is a platform
worth supporting... Now the company has done it again. At Node Summit
this week, Microsoft announced the availability of ChakraCore for
Linux. ChakraCore is the core part of the Chakra JavaScript engine
that powers Microsoft Edge and Universal Windows Platform. With this
move, Microsoft is putting one of its core technologies on a competing
platform. This, more than any other Linux-friendly move the company
has made, is a clear departure from the Microsoft of Gates and Ballmer
that used its technologies to lock users into Windows...
While Ubuntu is the primary Linux distribution that Microsoft is using
to showcase its ChakraCore technologies, the company said that the
support should easily translate to other modern Linux distributions. '
-- source: https://apple.slashdot.org/story/16/07/31/151240
Cheers, Peter
--
Peter Reutemann
Dept. of Computer Science
University of Waikato, NZ
+64 (7) 858-5174
http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/http://www.data-mining.co.nz/
'"Does your web browser have a unique fingerprint? If so your web
browser could be tracked across websites without techniques such as
tracking cookies..." warns a new site created by the University of
Adelaide and ACEMS, adding "the anonymization aspects of services such
as Tor or VPNs could be negated if sites you visit track you using
your browser fingerprint."'
-- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/16/07/31/1357234
Cheers, Peter
--
Peter Reutemann
Dept. of Computer Science
University of Waikato, NZ
+64 (7) 858-5174
http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/http://www.data-mining.co.nz/
Interesting concept:
'A new crowdfunding campaign by Rhombus Tech "introduces the world's
first devices built around the EOMA68 standard," which separates a
"modular" CPU board from the rest of the system so that it can be
easily used in multiple devices and upgraded more simply. Rhombus Tech
is now offering a 15.6-inch laptop, a laser-cut wooden Micro-Desktop
housing, and two types of computer cards, both using A20 dual-core ARM
Cortex A7 processors. The cards are available with four flavors of the
GNU/Linux operating system, and they're hoping to receive RYF
certification from the Free Software Foundation.
"No proprietary software," explains their campaign's video. "No
backdoors. No spyware. No NDAs." They envision a world where users
upgrade their computers by simply popping in a new card -- reducing
electronic waste -- or print new laptop casings to repair defects or
swap in different colors. (And they also hope to eventually see the
cards also working with cameras, phones, tablets, and gaming
consoles.'
-- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/07/31/0323255
Cheers, Peter
--
Peter Reutemann
Dept. of Computer Science
University of Waikato, NZ
+64 (7) 858-5174
http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/http://www.data-mining.co.nz/
Hi everyone
William suggested a topic for our next meeting in August:
"An introduction to Linux - features, history, examples of popular
flavors (Debian, Ubuntu, Red Hat etc). Advantages and disadvantages to
Windows."
Meetup link:
http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/232676239/
He volunteered to cover a bit of the history (if I remember
correctly), but we need others as well to fill in the rest!
What do you think?
Cheers, Peter
--
Peter Reutemann
Dept. of Computer Science
University of Waikato, NZ
+64 (7) 858-5174
http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/http://www.data-mining.co.nz/
The US National Institute for Standards and Technology is updating its
Digital Authentication Guideline
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/24/nist_says_sms_no_good_for_authentic…>.
Responding to recent cases where SMS-based two-factor authentication
systems were hijacked to rack up charges on premium-rate phone numbers,
it is now saying that sending a text message is no longer good enough.
At least the service sending the messages needs to be sure they are
going to a real mobile phone.
Interestingly, it is posting review documents on GitHub, as an addition
to the usual publication channels.
