Mr.RDX

Recursion with Google :)

2009-10-09T02:37:00.000-07:00

I found this out few minutes before.

1. Go to www.google.com
2. Search for 'recursion'

It'll ask you: Did you mean: recursion
No matter how many times you keep on clicking on it, it will still give you the same message :)

Is google doing this purposely or is 'recursion a keyword of their system?

Saptha writes about himself :-)

2009-02-25T22:40:00.000-08:00

My name is Saptha. I am 92 years old. I am very tall. Small kids call
me uncle. I had a car. It was red and it had four wheels. I used to
drive it all the time with Sinhala hip-hop playing in my car audio. I
am now in Sri Lanka. People over here say its a land like no other but
I don't like to live here. I love Australia. I have a Akka. She has a
RAV4. She buys me toys from McDonalds. I love to play with them. I go
to the shop for the current govt but I am very sad because they never
help me :-(. I have a little brother. His name is Sathyajith. He's
going to be a doctor very soon. I will go and get medicine from him
very soon. Some people say I hurt them with the things I say but I
really don't mean anything I say. I love my friends alot. They are
very hot and sexy :-). They will always help me when I'm in need. I
have a mac book. It has an Apple in the back side but now its broken.
My dream car is BMW. Those cars are very hot. They can go fast. When I
was in New Zealand I used to drive them. Windows Vista sucks. I hate
it alot. It has soo many bugs. Microsoft is running at a loss cause of
Vista. Someday I will teach Bill Gates how to run a business. This's
all I know about my self. If I remember anything more I'll write it on
my next essay.
- Saptha Wanniarachchi

If You’re Not The One - Daniel Bedingfield

2008-09-06T06:39:00.000-07:00

If youre not the one then why does my soul feel glad today?
If youre not the one then why does my hand fit yours this way?
If you are not mine then why does your heart return my call
If you are not mine would I have the strength to stand at all

I never know what the future brings
But I know you are here with me now
Well make it through
And I hope you are the one I share my life with

I dont want to run away but I cant take it, I dont understand
If Im not made for you then why does my heart tell me that I am?
Is there any way that I can stay in your arms?

If I dont need you then why am I crying on my bed?
If I dont need you then why does your name resound in my head?
If youre not for me then why does this distance maim my life?
If youre not for me then why do I dream of you as my wife?

I dont know why youre so far away
But I know that this much is true
Well make it through
And I hope you are the one I share my life with
And I wish that you could be the one I die with
And I pray in youre the one I build my home with
I hope I love you all my life

I dont want to run away but I cant take it, I dont understand
If Im not made for you then why does my heart tell me that I am
Is there any way that I can stay in your arms?

cause I miss you, body and soul so strong that it takes my breath away
And I breathe you into my heart and pray for the strength to stand today
cause I love you, whether its wrong or right
And though I cant be with you tonight
And know my heart is by your side

I dont want to run away but I cant take it, I dont understand
If Im not made for you then why does my heart tell me that I am
Is there any way that I can stay in your arms?

Hundreds of Thousands of Microsoft Web Servers Hacked

2008-04-26T00:58:00.000-07:00

Hundreds of thousands of Web sites - including several at the United Nations and in the U.K. government -- have been hacked recently and seeded with code that tries to exploit security flaws in Microsoft Windows

to install malicious software on visitors' machines.

The attackers appear to be breaking into the sites with the help of a security vulnerability in Microsoft's Internet Information Services (IIS) Web servers. In an alert issued last week, Microsoft said it was investigating reports of an unpatched flaw in IIS servers, but at the time it noted that it wasn't aware of anyone trying to exploit that particular weakness.

On Thursday, Spanish anti-virus vendor Panda Security said that it had alerted Microsoft that a flaw IIS was the cause of all the break-ins. When I asked Microsoft whether they'd heard from Panda or if the hundreds of thousands of sites were hacked from a patched or unpatched flaw in IIS, a spokesman for the company didn't offer much more information.

"Microsoft is currently aware of and is receiving reports regarding public claims of attacks on IIS Web servers," said Bill Sisk, a security response manager at Microsoft, in a statement e-mailed to Security Fix. "While we have not be [sic] contacted directly regarding these reports, we will continue to monitor all reports either publically [sic] shared or responsibly disclosed and investigate once sufficient details are provided. We have not yet determined whether or not these reports are related to Microsoft Security Advisory (951306) released last week."

According to Finnish anti-virus maker F-Secure, the number of hacked Web pages serving up malicious software from this attack may be closer to half a million.

Dancho Danchev, an independent security analyst, has a decent write-up on signs that Web site owners can look for to tell whether their site has been hit by this attack. Danchev said all of the hacked sites appear to have Javascript coding adding to their page source that silently pulls down malware from a few domains in China, namely nihaorr1.com, and haoliuliang.net.

Needless to say, if you run a Google search for these sites you will find tens of thousands that contain the script that redirects any visitors to these malicious sites. I would strongly urge people to steer clear of those sites: I mention them here so that Web site owners can more easily search the HTML code in their pages for these domains.

There are indications that this attack is coming in waves, with the bad guys swapping in new malicious downloader sites every few days. According to posts on an IIS user forum, Web site administrators first saw signs of this attack on April 17, the day before Microsoft issued its initial advisory on the IIS vulnerability.

If you run your site with IIS, please take a moment to consider applying the workarounds in the Microsoft advisory for your version of IIS. Also, that IIS.net post I mentioned earlier has some great tips to help administrators lock down their systems.

These types of attacks that infiltrate legitimate, trusted Web sites are precisely the reason I so often recommend Firefox over Internet Explorer. There is a great add-on for Firefox called "noscript," which blocks these kinds of Javascript exploits from running automatically if a user happens to visit a hacked site. Currently, there is no such protection for IE users, and disallowing Javascript entirely isn't really an option on today's World Wide Web. True, you can fiddle with multiple settings in IE to add certain sites to your "Trusted Zone," but that option has never struck me as very practical or scalable.

By Brian Krebs | April 25, 2008; 8:00 AM ET
source

How to buy Happiness...!!!

2008-03-20T21:55:00.000-07:00

Bad news for the luxury goods market: Spending money on tchochkes doesn't make you happier, but giving money away just might.

That conclusion, in a study published Thursday in the journal Science, flies in the face of what most people--and, certainly, advertisers--typically believe.

It's far easier to measure income than happiness. Even so, researchers around the world have reported that even though real income has surged around the globe, reported "happiness" levels have stayed relatively flat. That spurred Elizabeth W. Dunn, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver to explore the ways that more money might lead to more happiness.

Working with graduate student Lara B. Aknin and Harvard Business School assistant professor Michael I. Norton, Dunn began by asking 632 Americans from across the U.S. to rate their general level of happiness, as well as to report their income, how much they spent on themselves and how much they donated to charity.

As researchers sifted through the numbers, they found that happiness didn't correlate with personal spending but, rather, with how much they gave away.

Not that anyone was giving very much away. Personal spending--for pleasure and out of necessity--topped donations by a factor of 10. The typical income of participants in the study was modest, roughly ranging from $20,000 to $50,000.

The researchers figured it was worth trying to test the hypothesis a bit further. They found a group of 16 people in the Boston area who were due to receive a profit-sharing bonus at work. A month before getting the bonus, the researchers asked them to rate their happiness. Then, six to eight weeks after the workers received their $3,000 to $8,000 bonuses, the researchers asked what they did with the money and how they felt.

Once again, giving away money seemed to nudge many people up the happiness scale, increasing the number of people who said that they were happy "most of the time" rather than just "some of the time," Dunn reports.

Then the researchers put their results to a test: On the Vancouver campus, they handed out sealed envelopes containing $5 or $20 to 46 people. They instructed half the people to spend the money on themselves--either on necessities or indulgences--and then told the other half to give the money away, all by 5 p.m.

Once again, those who gave the money away were happier by the end of the day--and just as happy whether they gave away $5 or $20.

Dunn said it was hard to speculate whether the results would have been different had she handed out thousands of dollars instead of $5 or $20.

So why don't people dig into their pockets a bit more? Dunn said most people figure they will be happier spending money on themselves.

Dunn's team asked a group of 100 university students what they thought would make them happier: spending or giving. No surprise here. Most figured they'd be happier spending the money on themselves--and that the more they'd spend, the cheerier they'd be. That's a double wrong in Dunn's book.

Dunn has been checking on the status of people's happiness for a number of years. She earned her doctorate in psychology in 2004 for an award-winning study that suggested when people are charming and pleasant--even if they're just putting on appearances--they genuinely feel better later.

She eventually refined that idea, documenting that a quick way long-time couples can bring the spark back into their romance is to pretend that they're strangers.

So next time you want to brighten your day, trying giving away that fiver instead of buying a latte--and do it with a smile.

source: Forbes
Author: Elizabeth Corcoran

The Rasmus - Not like the other girls

2008-03-08T22:20:00.000-08:00

No more blame I am destined to keep you sane.
Gotta rescue the flame.
Gotta rescue the flame in your heart.

No more blood, I will be there for you my love.
I will stand by your side.
The world has forsaken my girl.

Should have seen it would be this way.
Should have known from the start what she's up to.
When you've loved and you've lost someone
You know what it feels like to lose.

She's fading away, away from this world.
Drifting like a feather she's not like the other girls.
She lives in the clouds and talks to the birds.
Hopeless little one she's not like the other girls I know.

No more shame, she has felt too much pain in her life.
In her mind she's repeating the words.
All the love you put out will return to you.

Should have seen it would be this way.
Should have known from the start what she's up to.
When you loved and you've lost someone close to you
You know what it feels like to lose.
(you know what it feels like to lose)

She's fading away, away from this world.
Drifting like a feather she's not like the other girls.
She lives in the clouds and talks to the birds.
Hopeless little one she's not like the other girls I know.

Flash on iPhones!!!

2008-03-06T22:53:00.000-08:00

A love-hate relationship is brewing between Apple and Adobe, as Steve Jobs has taken some jabs at Flash.

At an Apple shareholder meeting, the turtleneck-loving Jobs was quick to say that Adobe's Flash player for mobile platforms, the Flash Lite Player, isn't advanced enough for use on the iPhone. He continued to say that "proper" Flash "performs too slow to be useful," on the iPhone, which leads to believe Flash on the iPhone was at least tested.

Tech giant Robert Scoble has a different take on the matter. His sources believe that the Flash player runs fine on the iPhone, and Apple is just reluctant to use Adobe's PDF renderer.

source

Web Sites I Have Done

2008-02-15T21:03:00.000-08:00

http://www.yfm.lk
http://www.irajonline.com
http://www.djroshan.ch
http://www.jayasrimusic.com
http://www.highimpactrecordings.com
http://www.namalrajapaksa.com
http://www.youth.lk - version 1
http://www.ceylonsolutions.com
http://www.altosescondidos.com
http://www.kegalletown.com
http://www.tharinduonline.com
http://www.sameeraonline.com
http://www.rough.lk
http://www.funcitycaters.com
http://www.gajandinesh.com/flash/

http://www.agewithdignity.com/ - Design and initial template with CSS
http://www.spot.lk - Design and coding home page template

http://www.devineaudio.com - development only

Sun buys MySQL

2008-01-18T02:30:00.000-08:00

Sun Microsystems elbowed into the enterprise database market Wednesday with the announcement of a proposed $1 billion acquisition of MySQL, an open-source database software company. The deal, which Sun Chief Executive Jonathan Schwartz calls the "most important acquisition in the company's history," makes Sun one of the first major public companies to offer open-source software and puts the company head to head with the three big vendors in the $15 billion database market: IBM, SAP, and its former database partner, Oracle.

Compared to those three goliaths, which provide database software to 86% of the enterprise software market, according to Forrester Research, MySQL offers a simpler and cheaper solution. That makes MySQL an appealing option for small- and medium-sized businesses, says Forrester analyst Noel Yuhanna. "Unlike IBM, Oracle and SAP, MySQL has never had 50,000 features, but it does have maybe 10,000 relevant features that are relevant to enterprises," he says. "That cost savings is one of the key reasons that users have looked at open source, and fewer features means it's easier to use and manage."

MySQL's lighter-weight database system may also fit into Sun's ambitions of becoming a major player in "utility computing," a model of information technology infrastructure that pipes in software applications, processing and storage over the Internet rather than from a company's own data centers. "All other databases on the market today were designed for an offline, back-office use," says MySQL Chief Executive Marten Mickos. "Our relevance grows as enterprises shift to Web-based architecture, and that's what's happening right now."

One billion dollars, split between $800 million in cash and $200 million in stock options, may seem a hefty price tag for MySQL, which gives its software away to 99% of its customers. But the 1% of MySQL users who do pay for support include big names like Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ), Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people ), Nokia (nyse: NOK - news - people ), and Alcatel-Lucent (nyse: ALU - news - people ). As Sun's (nasdaq: JAVA - news - people ) size lends legitimacy and the guarantee of long-term service to MySQL, the acquisition will likely convince more and larger enterprises to sign on to MySQL's cut-rate database systems, Yuhanna says.

"This makes Sun a major open-source vendor, and it will have a major pricing impact on the traditional vendors," says Donald Feinberg, an analyst with Gartner.

The purchase of MySQL, which has built one of the best brand names among privately held open source companies, is yet more evidence of how tough it is for open source companies to go to the public markets. Red Hat (nasdaq: RHT - news - people ), which has a market capitalization of about $3.7 billion, remains the primary example of a publicly traded open source company: Last year, it bought open source middleware provider, JBoss, for $350 million. Novell (nasdaq: NOVL - news - people ) snapped up SUSE Linux in 2004 for $210 million.

On Sun's part, the acquisition gives the server and software company a database offering that is capable of storing and manipulating the information used by its software tools, a role it has largely handed to Oracle. That means Sun is attempting to tap into some of the revenue that it formerly directed to Oracle, and may strain the company's relationship with its former partner.

For Oracle, the deal shouldn't come as much of a surprise. Sun first hinted at the possibility of entering the database market in 2005 when co-founder Scott McNealy cryptically showed analysts a list of database players including the words "SunDB." Since then, Sun has made minor investments in another open-source solution, PostgreSQL, hiring developers to work on that non-commercial database product and offering its own support to users.

The MySQL deal, which is slated to close in the first half of 2008, is a sign that Sun is pushing into more open-source software applications and could even enter the Linux market, the terrain of companies like Red Hat. "Sun is doing more and more with being a provider of open source in this enterprise infrastructure space," says Raven Zachary, an open-source analyst at 451 Group. "I'd start to look at them as a bigger player in software, especially open-source software, through this and other acquisitions."

source: http://www.forbes.com/home/technology/2008/01/16/sun-mysql-linux-tech-enter-cx_ag_0116sun.html

Threading in JavaScript 1.7

2007-12-19T09:37:00.000-08:00

Found this only today...

---------------------------

Amongst the many new features contained in Firefox 2 you’ll find JavaScript 1.7 support, a small but significant language enhancement that includes python style generators.

A generator allows you to suspend a function’s execution and resume it at a later time. While typically used for advanced looping constructs, a generator can also be flipped inside-out and used as a rudimentary coroutine.

At first glance, this may not look very impressive, especially since generators are unable to yield across multiple frames in the callstack. However, with the help of a technique called trampolining generators can be used to write code in a style similar to threaded programming.

The way trampolining works is that a scheduler object (written in JavaScript) manages the execution of a series of generators, cobbling together a stack-like execution. Here’s how it works: The scheduler sets the starting generator as the base “frame” in the call stack. The scheduler then calls next() on the generator to obtain a yield value. If the yielded value is itself a generator, the scheduler pushes this new generator on the stack and calls next() on it, again obtaining a yield value. This continues until the top generator yields a non-generator value. This value could be a special directive to the scheduler (for example, a SUSPEND value that tells the scheduler to freeze execution of the “stack” of generators we’ve piled up). If not, the scheduler treats it as a return value. The scheduler then pops and closes the now complete generator and sends the return value back into the next generator in the stack.

Sound confusing? It’s a mind-bender — I had to read a trampolining description and its sample code a few times before I understood how it works.

The coding style when trampolining is a little awkward. You need to yield any function call that will suspend execution of the stack. Here’s a contrived example:

  function myThreadedCall() {
    while (!ready) {
      yield sleep(100);
    }
    yield waitForInput();
    if ((yield post(getInput())) != null ) {
      yield animateUI();
    }
  }

In this way, using generators to trampoline is a very explicit form of concurrency. It’s verbose (unlike, say, Lua-style coroutines), but that verbosity has the upside of execution clarity — it’s much easier to see on visual inspection where race conditions can occur.

(Those of you with sharp eyes will notice that the technique described here is not true threading, but fancy coroutines. That’s the underlying implementation; to the programmer using this technique, it looks a lot like threading.)

No discussion like this would be complete without a pointless example, and this post is no exception. Check out this example (only works in Firefox 2), along with the example source and the threading library.

The use of generators and trampoling isn’t a panacea for concurrency in JavaScript. The technique renders code essentially “stackless” as far as the JavaScript interpreter is concerned, which means that you won’t get a meaningful stack trace if an error occurs. Thus debugging can be a bit painful.

However, it’s worth noting that the trampolining Thread.js is a slim 4K (uncompressed). And there’s no pre-compilation, no parsing, no AST manipulation, and no code generation. Simple. That’s the benefit of native language features.

All in all, I wish JavaScript had a more directly supported concurrency mechanism. I raised the topic on the ES4/JavaScript 2 discussion list, but in the end it was decided that the inability to yield through native C stack frames at the implementation level made it infeasible for some embeddings (such as cell phones and other devices). We’ll see what happens in later versions. (Brendan Eich has hinted that JS3 will be ready for multicore desktops.)

source: http://www.neilmix.com/2007/02/07/threading-in-javascript-17/

Social Netwoking!

2007-10-26T08:49:00.000-07:00

Networks get things done. Whether it's sending a letter or lighting your home. Networks make it happen.

To get from Chicago to Santa Fe, we need to see the network of roads that will get us there. We see that Chicago is connected to St Louis, which is connected to Dallas, which is connected to Santa Fe.

Of course, people networks can help us with finding jobs, meeting new friends, and finding partners. You know how it works. Bob is your friend, he knows Sally, and Sally's friend Joe has a job for you. This is a network of people - a social network. Yaaay!

The problem with social networks in the real world is that most of the connections between people are hidden. Your network may have huge potential, but it's only as valuable as the people and connections that you can see. Boooo!

This problem is being solved by a type of web site called a social networking site. These websites help you see connections that are hidden in the real world.

Here's how it works. You sign up for a free account and fill out your profile. Then, you look for people you know.

When you find someone, you click a button that says, "Add as Friend". Once you do this, you and that person have a connection on the website that others can see. They are a member of your network, and you are a member of theirs.

What's really cool, is that you can see who your friends know, and who your friends' friends know. You're no longer a stranger, so you can contact them more easily.

This solves a real world problem because your network has hidden opportunities. Social networking sites make these connections between people visible.

Like a map for a highway, they can show you the people network that can help you get to your next destination, whether it's a job, a new partner, or a great place to live. Your network is suddenly more useful.

You can get started at these sites, LinkedIn, Facebook, and MySpace.

source

"Leave Out All The Rest" - Linkin Park

2007-07-04T07:02:00.000-07:00

I like this track from their new album. (nothing related to my life though)

"Leave Out All The Rest" - Linkin Park

I dreamed I was missing
You were so scared
But no one would listen
Cause no one else cared

After my dreaming
I woke with this fear
What am I leaving
When I'm done here

So if you're asking me
I want you to know

When my time comes
Forget the wrong that I've done
Help me leave behind some
Reasons to be missed

And don't resent me
And when you're feeling empty
Keep me in your memory

Leave out all the rest
Leave out all the rest

Don't be afraid
I've taking my beating
I've shared what I've been

I'm strong on the surface
Not all the way through
I've never been perfect
But neither have you

So if you're asking me
I want you to know

When my time comes
Forget the wrong that ive done
Help me leave behind some
Reasons to be missed

Don't resent me
And when you're feeling empty
Keep me in your memory

Leave out all the rest
Leave out all the rest

Forgetting
All the hurt inside
You've learned to hide so well

Pretending
Someone else can come and save me from myself
I can't be who you are

When my time comes
Forget the wrong that ive done
Help me leave behind some
Reasons to be missed

Don't resent me
And when you're feeling empty
Keep me in your memory

Leave out all the rest
Leave out all the rest

Forgetting
All the hurt inside
You've learned to hide so well

Pretending
Someone else can come and save me from myself
I can't be who you are
I can't be who you are

A Better Decision!

2007-06-28T13:44:00.000-07:00

I can't handle this work load. Decided to hire some people to do some of my graphics work while I manage the work and advise them. Also need to focus more on coding and more advanced stuff than doing mere XHTML and CSS. I feel like I have learned nothing in the past two years. What da heck is wrong with me??? Graphics ruined my knowledge? Graphics stopped me from exploring new technologies???
Need to work more on ActionScripting too again. I love OOP!

2007-06-18T12:45:00.000-07:00

Wow... learnt a lot about Time and Motion Study today.

And my meeting was successful.

I'm happy coz I was able to get a job for one of my students. Guess he'd perform well and improve himself.

2007-06-16T11:18:00.000-07:00

mhh... what to write...

It was a great day yesterday. Finished "Nisala Vila" meditation programme successfully which we organized at St. Joseph's Convent Kegalle. It was better than I thought. "Hanthaane Dhammagavesi Thero" presented everything with modern techniques. Students and the teachers were really happy and we were invited to organize similar projects by two other colleges as well.

Hoping to do more charity in the future! :)

(but something is still missing... don't wanna post it here...)

2007-06-11T11:29:00.000-07:00

After trying so many fields in computing (coding, graphics designing, animation, music composing, Network administration etc.) finally I've realized that my real love is for coding.

From the day I started using computers, I wanted to work on Information Systems, do some analysis, write some code and feel the joy.

I've understood that I spend too much time on graphics software and waste my valuable time.

Took a decision to move on with my life as a developer and do graphics and animations as part time work (which used to be my good old hobby). Of course I'm gonna do web related programming.

Feeling much better now!

(but something is still missing... don't wanna post it here...)

MrRDX

2007-06-11T06:59:00.000-07:00

There is only one Mr.RDX!

www.mrrdx.com

Rukshan Dissanayake