16 Nov 2007
Historians Recreate Source Code of First 4004 Application

Digital archeology - who'd have thunk it?

The team of "digital archaeologists" who developed the technology behind the Intel Museum's 4004 microprocessor exhibit have done it again. 36 years after Intel introduced their first microprocessor on November 15, 1971, these computer historians have turned the spotlight on the first application software ever written for a general-purpose microprocessor: the Busicom 141-PF calculator. At the team's web site you can download and play with an authentic calculator simulator that sports a cool animated flowchart. Want to find out how Busicom's Masatoshi Shima compressed an entire four-function, printing calculator into only 1,024 bytes of ROM? Check out the newly recreated assembly language "source code," extensively analyzed, documented, and commented by the team's newest member: Hungary's Lajos Kintli. "He is an amazing reverse-engineer," recounts team leader Tim McNerney, "We understood the disassembled calculator code well enough to simulate it, but Lajos really turned it into 'source code' of the highest standards."

(link) [Slashdot]

08:45 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Saudi gang-rape victim is jailed

If Muslims wonder why we sometimes view them as barbarians, they should pay careful attention to this gross miscarriage of justice coming, allegedly, from Sharia law. Any religion that now only allows but actually mandates this kind of treatment for the victim of an assault deserves the label of barbarous - and that includes (Old Testament) Judaism, and (medieval) Christianity.

If you want to lose the label, lose the practice. I don't hear about many stonings in Tel Aviv for adultery these days, and the last auto de fe for the Inquisition was better than 400 years ago. Islam should take note.

An appeal court in Saudi Arabia has doubled the number of lashes and added a jail sentence as punishment for a woman who was gang-raped.

(link) [BBC News]

08:43 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Woman chews on chap's todger in fast food joint

I wonder how this fellow explained the bites to his girlfriend/wife immediately after the incident? "Honey, I was down at Mickey D's, and some strange woman ripped my pants off and bit my ...". And whether his she believed him.

A 22-year-old Swedish woman has been found guilty of "assault and sexual harassment" for tucking into a stranger's willie after he declined her offer of a swift BJ.

(link) [The Register]

08:34 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link

Consumer groups urge Supreme Court to curb patent power

Once again, large corporations are attempting to use the courts to take away their customers property rights. But a a sale is a sale, and if this principle actually gets upheld and propagates, we're going to be in for an endless stream of lawsuits, and an eventual and complete abrogation of our right to own anything.

The US Supreme Court has been urged not to make it illegal to sell second-hand patented goods. Digital rights activists have begun a campaign to keep a buyer's right to sell on used goods.

(link) [The Register]

08:29 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link