Michael J. Radwin – Page 27 – Tales of a software engineer who keeps kosher and hates the web.

Investment advice

I’ve gotten about 5 or 6 copies of this spam message today: Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 20:28:48 -0700 From: Administrator <Admin@CorporateKiller.com> To: <admin@r…> Subject: Corporate Killer COOL Hello! you must invest money in http://www.corporatekiller.com/ This good!!! Very good! Admin of http://www.corporatekiller.com/ After such a persuasive argument, I’d be intersted in making an investment. Corporate […]

Another tech industry recovery indicator?

Post author By mradwin
Post date May 2, 2003
Categories In The Web Sucks
1 Comment on Another tech industry recovery indicator?

I wrote back in March about the fact that Yahoo! is hiring and wondered aloud if that means that the tech economy is starting to recover. I just got an email from a headhunter looking to hire a Senior Software Engineer in Menlo Park, CA. We are seeking an experienced software engineer to build web […]

Intermediate Beard

I’m growing a beard. It’s in that funny intermediate state where it doesn’t look quite like a beard yet. I’m past the “scratchy” stage (that was earlier in the week) but not yet in the “actual beard” stage either. It will take a few more weeks to fill in completely. I’m growing a beard because […]

I almost fell victim to an identity-stealing scam

Post author By mradwin
Post date April 30, 2003
Categories In The Web Sucks
1 Comment on I almost fell victim to an identity-stealing scam

I got this email today, and I almost believed it. It’s a typical http://user:password@hostname/ trick. In this case, the user is tricked into thinking that http://www.paypal.com:secure-verifyaccount968ktz642@p9.da.ru/ is a PayPal URL when in fact it’s actually a website served up by http://p9.da.ru/ Here’s the full source of the email message: Return-Path: <anonymous@m1.netfirms.com> Received: from m1.netfirms.com (m1.netfirms.com […]

Capturing Tribal Knowledge

Post author By mradwin
Post date April 29, 2003
Categories In Yahoo!
8 Comments on Capturing Tribal Knowledge

Someone at work today mentioned the problem of capturing “Tribal Knowledge” in an electronic format and making it easily accessible to new or remote employees. When some new engineer joins Yahoo!, how are they supposed to know that they should build a website using Apache and PHP on FreeBSD? How do they know to use […]

How to Be a Programmer

Post author By mradwin
Post date April 28, 2003
Categories In Computer Science

I stumbled across How to Be a Programmer, a 40-page paper by Robert L. Read, a principal engineer at Hire.com. It’s a relatively good paper so I’d recommend it to anyone who’s new to the field or is a college student considering a career in Software Engineering. The distinction between Computer Science and Software Engineering, […]

Court rules P2P networks are like VCRs

Post author By mradwin
Post date April 25, 2003
Categories In Intellectual Property
2 Comments on Court rules P2P networks are like VCRs

Looks like the courts are finally realizing that copyright owners shouldn’t have control over everything. They cornerstone of today’s decision is that P2P netoworks, like VCRs, have substantial noninfringing uses. A federal court denied a request to shut down Internet song-swapping services Grokster and Morpheus on Friday, handing a stunning setback to the record labels […]

“Quest v. OneQuest” and “What Every Software Engineer Should Know About Patents”

A couple of interesting talks in the technology/IP space are coming up: April 30 Computer/Internet Roundtable: Breton Bocchieri on Qwest Communications International Inc. v. OneQwest. May 7 Los Angeles ACM meeting: Ariel Rogson on “What Every Software Engineer Should Know About Patents”

On Kitniyot and Passover

Post author By mradwin
Post date April 22, 2003
Categories In Judaism

With only 52 hours left in this year’s Passover holiday, I just got an email referencing Rabbi Golinkin’s teshuvah about Eating Kitniyot (Legumes) on Pesach. It was written almost 15 years ago, yet people here in the Diaspora (outside of Israel) continue to discuss it year after year as if it’s breaking news. Unfortunately for […]

Back in the connected world

Post author By mradwin
Post date April 20, 2003
Categories In Judaism

After two days of chag and a day of Shabbos, I’m back online again. That three day respite was great, even if it meant that I had 200 new messages in my Inbox. We hosted a wonderful seder on the first night, enjoyed a relaxing first day of chag (and an impromptu lunch with a […]