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secretGeek - dot Nuts about dot Net!

How important is the problem of whether or not P=NP?November 21

'The question of whether P=NP has been occupying researchers since these two sets were first defined, having become the greatest unsolved problem in computer science...'
from Alan Turing: Life and Legacy of a Great Thinker

How important is the problem of whether or not P=NP?

'Does P = NP? This is undoubtedly the most profound question in computer science...'
from:

Tutorial: Does P = NP?

How important is the problem of whether or not P=NP?

'The relationship between the complexity classes P and NP is an unsolved question in theoretical computer science. It is considered to be the most important problem in the field...'
from Wikipedia Article on 'P=NP' problem

How important is the problem of whether or not P=NP?

[If you can show that P=NP, then] 'most cryptographic algorithms are basically useless'
from comment by Charles on November 15, 2008 06:13 PM

How important is the problem of whether or not P=NP?

'The Clay Mathematics Institute has offered a $1 million US prize for the first correct proof.'
from

TimeSnapper hits the local press... and more on IcelandNovember 1

Thanks to an eagle-eyed journalist, there was a great write up about TimeSnapper published this week in Brisbane's main inner-city newspaper "City News".

It was really exciting to be involved in this. The photo shoot was good fun, and luckily for me we were playing a "wear your suit to work" prank that day so I look flasher than I normally do.

The laptop in the photo belongs to Joseph Cooney -- he is probably writing a blog article just now, boasting "My laptop was in the paper this week." Damn show pony.

Whether or not this will lead to a massive influx of new TimeSnapper customers, I can only wait and see. It ought to hit the right demographic, with its inner-city distribution: these desk bound labourers are the perfect target for 'the consultant's best friend'. Fingers crossed, of course.

More on Iceland...

I get most of my news about Iceland from a site called Iceland Review. The site used to be all about the latest upcoming art or fashion shows in Iceland -- but is increasingly about the economic disaster. For example,

MVC Zen GardenOctober 31

I'm tinkering with Asp.net MVC in my un-spare time now. (top work Phil and team!)

And I have a recurring, whacky marketing/design/envangelisation idea:

The MVC Zen Garden

If you've installed Asp.net MVC, then you'll know that when you open Visual Studio and select:

"Create Project > MVC Web Appication"

...you get a rudimentary sample application.

It's blue. Simple. Nice enough.

I'd love if there was a website, modelled after CSS Zen Garden, where designers could offer alternative CSS files (with images) for your default Asp.net MVC application.

So the starting look of the MVC Zen Garden page is the default asp.net mvc sample app, something like this:

It is exactly like the default MVC app, but it offers a range of styles to select.

Once a style is selected you can download the stylesheet and images for that 'skin'.

Hence, the user can select way out options like 'default red':

And I imagine that there may be some other slightly more powerful creations.

Perhaps, given infinite time and unlimited budget, so

Is Corporate IT a form of emotional abuse?October 22

There's a government ad posted all over the insides of many brisbane buses at the moment, that describes some tell-tale signs of an abusive relationship.

I took a dodgy photo of it with my camera-phone, in order to try and get this idea across...

In case you can't read it, here's what it says:

Can you see signs of abusive behaviour in your relationship?

Restricting where she goes...Monitoring her calls...Telling her what to wear...Controlling what she spends...

I think it's very easy to draw a parallel between each of these signs, and the behaviour of a typical Corporate (or Government) IT department.

Can you see signs of abusive behaviour in your relationship to the IT Department?

Abusive PartnerAbusive CorporationRestricting where she goes...Internet site filteringMonitoring her calls...Email monitoring and phone loggingTelling her what to wear...Standard Operating Environment, corporate desktop-background, corporate uniform.Controlling what she spends...Tiny size limits on mailboxes, highly bureaucratic purchasing process,
draconian requisition restrictions and, worst of all, lousy pay.

Java Powered Internet? WTF?October 18

Java's been nagging me to update it, and I finally relented. When it finished, here's the screen it showed me:

Now what does that remind me of?

What have I seen lately that this somehow conjures? Something in the wording...

"The java powered internet..." now you can "experience" the awesome firepower of... ahhh, Ah, now i remember (thanks Uncov.)

Why didn't they just show this?