Windows 8

I have been playing around with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview lately. I like it a lot and see potential for the new Operating System. There has been a lot of heat around the WinRT/Metro interface though. Rocky Lhotka hits the nail on the head for how I feel about it, though. Many habits need some minor retraining, but you are more efficient for it. And an even greater number of habits are directly transferrable from Windows 7 to Windows 8.

Read Rocky's post, it is a good one.

SOPA Blackout

Well, the blackout on January 18 worked to get the SOPA and PIPA bills noticed on national media. However, coverage is about what you would expect considering most TV networks are owned by the very media conglomerates that want to shut down the Internet as we know it.

Just check out this report from Media Matters on FOX News' coverage.

More SOPA and PIPA news

A couple more links on the SOPA front.

• The White House has declared it’s opposition to SOPA.
• A great explanation of how PIPA will break the Internet.
• Congress shelves SOPA indefinitely.  (Don’t be confused, though, PIPA is still alive in the Senate.)
• Wikipedia is doing a great job covering the status of these two bills.

Haven’t heard of these bills before:

• SOPA – Stop Online Piracy Act
  Proposes to stop online piracy by barring sites that post, link to, or otherwise make available copyright content. However, this bill would also allow your site to be shut down if someone simply posts a copyrighted image in the comments section of the site. The full text of the bill can be found here.
• PIPA – PROTECT IP Act (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property)
  This bill would give the government the ability to completely block sites that corporations don’t like. Again, this is ostensibly to allow them to block piracy, except that it doesn’t since downloaders will still be able to access these sites via their IP addresses. The full text of the bill can be found here.

We need everybody’s support to make sure these bills don’t happen. Write your Senator and your Congressman. Or you can fill out one of the many joint letters being compiled online, such as the one at Fight for the Future.

More SOPA in the news, or not...

Is it just me, or is SOPA not getting very much coverage despite its horrendous implications. Oh, guess it isn't just me...

REPORT: News Networks Ignore Controversial SOPA Legislation

Controversial legislation that the co-founder of Google has warned "would put us on a par with the most oppressive nations in the world" has received virtually no coverage from major American television news outlets during their evening newscasts and opinion programming. The parent companies of most of these networks, as well as two of the networks themselves, are listed as official "supporters" of this legislation on the U.S. House of Representatives' website.

Congress vs. The Internet

It is just sad that in this day and age, our elected officials have no idea how the internet works nor do they wish to speak to people who do.

Dear Congress, It's No Longer OK To Not Know How The Internet Works

Project Euler-Problem 21

Description

From Project Euler:

Let d(n) be defined as the sum of proper divisors of n (numbers less than n which divide evenly into n).
If d(a) = b and d(b) = a, where a ≠ b, then a and b are an amicable pair and each of a and b are called amicable numbers.

For example, the proper divisors of 220 are 1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 11, 20, 22, 44, 55 and 110; therefore d(220) = 284. The proper divisors of 284 are 1, 2, 4, 71 and 142; so d(284) = 220.

Evaluate the sum of all the amicable numbers under 10000.

Project Euler-Problem 20

Description

From Project Euler:

n! means n x (n - 1) x ... x 3 x 2 x 1

For example, 10! = 10 x 9 x ... x 3 x 2 x 1 = 3628800,
and the sum of the digits in the number 10! is 3 + 6 + 2 + 8 + 8 + 0 + 0 = 27.

Find the sum of the digits in the number 100!

Project Euler-Problem 19

Description

From Project Euler:

You are given the following information, but you may prefer to do some research for yourself.

• 1 Jan 1900 was a Monday.
• Thirty days has September,
  April, June and November.
  All the rest have thirty-one,
  Saving February alone,
  Which has twenty-eight, rain or shine.
  And on leap years, twenty-nine.
• A leap year occurs on any year evenly divisible by 4, but not on a century unless it is divisible by 400.

How many Sundays fell on the first of the month during the twentieth century (1 Jan 1901 to 31 Dec 2000)?