Everyday Technology

The Fortran Programming Language

2015-11-26T08:40:00.001-08:00

Written September 5, 2013

One of the oldest programming languages, the Fortran programming language known mainly for its strength in numeric and scientific computation, was developed in the 1950′s and first published in 1957 by IBM in San Jose California as the first known high level programming language. Fortran came about at a time where programmers only had the opportunity to create programs using assembly and machine code which came with several downfalls such as it was:

long and tedius to write
quite bug prone
very hard to debug
code that was written was architecture dependent thus not portable

now with the rise of Fortran, programers were able to write code at a much faster rate giving the programmer a lot more time to focus on solving problems than on the code being written. It was a true innovation in its day, being credited with the creation of the branch of computer science known today as the compiler theory.
Over the years Fortran has seen significant changes to its dialect after programmers over time saw the need to modify it to better suite their needs, which led to the American Association releasing its first standard of a Programming Language in 1966 which came to being known as the FORTRAN 66.

Significant Language Features

Simple to learn – when FORTRAN was designed one of its objectives were to write a language that was easy to learn and understand.
Machine Independent – allows for easy transportation of a program from one machine to another.
More natural ways to express mathematical functions – FORTRAN permits even severely complex mathematical functions to be expressed similarly to regular algebraic notation.
Problem orientated language
Remains close to and exploits the available hardware
Efficient execution – there is only an approximate 20% decrease in efficiency as compared to assembly/machine code.
Ability to control storage allocation -programmers were able to easily control the allocation of storage (although this is considered to be a dangerous practice today, it was quite important some time ago due to limited memory.
More freedom in code layout – unlike assembly/machine language, code does not need to be laid out in rigidly defined columns, (though it still must remain within the parameters of the FORTRAN source code form).

Sample Hello world code written in fortran


program hello

print *, "Hello World!"

end program hello

sources:

Death of the PC

2015-11-26T06:57:00.001-08:00

Written December 27, 2013

The discussion about the death of the desktop has been raging for a while now. In fact in 2010 the death of the PC was predicted to have occurred by 2013. It is now the end of 2013 and a new timeline will have to be declared. There still remains plenty of doom and gloom but I doubt the PC will become extinct anytime soon. What we are seeing is an evolution to small form factors.

Single purpose machine used to take up an entire room and even grew to entire basements as they became more complex. They were replaced by cabinet size machines, then table sized then eventually the ‘big iron’ that now sits on our desk as desktop PCs. The laptop was supposed to be the first real threat to the desktop, then the ultra-thins and minis now we have tablets and cellphones leading the charge. Will we see the death of the PC? I believe that we will in some way, but not right now.

In the first instance we need to consider need, then processing power and finally technology. For the last twenty years people have being buying new computers that were in many instances simply not needed. Most people use their computers for internet connectivity, document reading and typing and a significant minority uses their computers for entertainment. With the exception of this minority, a computer from 1997 could still accomplish the job, slowly, yes, but definitely accomplish the job. Examine the system requirements for Windows XP, which is still a fully functional OS, and the answer to whether a computer from 1997 could meet the needs of most individuals become clear. Even Windows 8 only needs a 1GHz CPU to be installed and we have had those since 1999. The needs of the general public therefore can be taken care of with new software by machines that are up to 14 years old.

The processing power of computers has hit a plateau with only very marginal gains. Only ARM seems to be in a MHz race currently and this seems to be a marketing ploy by manufacturing companies (reminiscent of theIntel vs. AMD MHz race) rather than by ARM company. In fact both AMD and Intel have given up on this ‘arms’ race a long time ago. Intel currently commands the performance per MHz/GHz at a ridiculous price while AMD commands the performance per dollar at high MHz/GHz. Notwithstanding the perceived performance loss: I had a Sempron le-1300 in 2008 that was handling; movies via TV tuner, between 8 and 15 tabs in FireFoxwhile editing photos in GIMP. There has been enough processing power around for a while.
The last two real big gains in computing have been by AMD, x64 and multicore technologies. Since 2003 we have had both and Intel and AMD have been focusing on other things. For example, power savings of the Haswell line is remarkable while AMDs GPUs are unrivaled. In fact, it seems that both Intel and AMD are focusing on different long term goals, Intel wants to cement itself as the fastest and most efficient CPUs while AMD seems to be after the enthusiast, gamers, entertainment and general use market; the problem is that there is significant overlap among those groups and “fanboism” remains rife. So what can be used to explain the drop in the CPU market?

Upgrades? Oh yeah you heard me, upgrades. When software is upgraded and the machine works the problem is solved that’s a large part of the market right there. In some cases the memory gets upgraded and whoop there it is! Machines that are up to 14 years old capable of getting the job done is the reason for poor computer sales. The fact that many people didn’t really need a computer in the first place and a tablet will do, is part of the drop in sales but real work still requires a proper keyboard and a monitor at least 15″, any smaller and ergonomics become a well understood word to the user so tablets alone cannot explain the drop in sales.

With Android proving that free software is a viable alternative, many people are slowly experimenting with Linux and some are liking it. This idea about a learning curve for Linux died with the popularity of MACs and got a further death knell with windows Vista, Windows 7 was the nail in the coffin and Windows 8 the memorial service. The bottom line is that people realize that they must re-learn the software with each upgrade or change of OS, what some are finding out is that across the board Linux upgrades might maintain a greater level of consistency with the previous version than any Windows OS might. But, that discussion is a whole other debate about OS and their changes.

–Wilton Mcghee

Faster than Linux??

2013-06-06T09:58:00.000-07:00

sphinux is an open-source posix-compatible operating system developed under the GPLv3 and running the Egyptian LSX kernel architecture. This open-source operating system claims to be much faster than Linux and that its memory usage can even be 3x less! This is an operating system with some of the wildest performance claims ever seen.

check it out - source

How People Think

2012-03-20T10:00:00.000-07:00

Recently i was on techjamaica in their forums where im a regular and one of its members posted a video of persons being being tricked into thinking that what they were testing out was the new iPad 3 which really were iPad2s, check it out here .

What fellow posters in the the thread and i kept talking about is how Apple is able to reproduce the same iDevices with not much major changes to the hardware or software and continue to reap a lot from it, but as usual there are always going to be devoted apple fans that hate when you talk the truth. I might sound as if i hate Apple but i dont, in fact i love using there products.Then what is the reason for this post ?..it is merely just to give users of these products a heads up when upgrading to the "latest".

Reasons to get an iPad 3:

You never had a device made by Apple.
You care about performance and for you the iPad 1 or 2 just wasn't cutting it.
You care about hardware and you love the fact that it is built to last.

Reasons not to:

Just because its the latest and all your friends are doing the same.why would you want to do a thing like that when you barely have gotten use to your iPad2?
You want to save money.There are lots of great tablets out there that im sure can do the same as the iPad or even better and it is way cheaper(note: again im not an Apple hater).
Its just too early to buy a new iPad and your iPad2 dosnt even have a scratch on itso why not wait on the next release which probably will be in another year or so.

I hope you found this blog interesting and if there is something you need to clarify you can contact the author here or leave a comment and i will try to reply as soon as possible.

You can follow or even come and join the thread at techjamaica here where im sure you'll be able to find and reason with some of the best techies around.

Ipod 3 looking to be like its predecessors

2012-03-03T03:46:00.000-08:00

According to a post on tapscape.com the iPad 3 looks set to launch at the same price as the iPad 2 according to a tip-off published by 9to5Mac. Accorging to them there post not only will the iPad 3 cost the same as the iPad 2, but it will also be available in the same three sizes as its predecessor – 16GB, 32GB and 64GB.
original story here.

iTech: Anonymous threatens to DDOS root Internet servers

2012-02-22T12:57:00.000-08:00

iTech: Anonymous threatens to DDOS root Internet servers: An upcoming campaign announced by the hacking group Anonymous directed against the Internet's core address lookup system is unlikely...

The ALGOL Programming Language-then and now

2012-02-18T11:49:00.001-08:00

The ALGOL(Algorithmic Programming Language) developed in the mid 1950’ s with the aims of:

Creating a a language for scientific computation.
A language that was machine independent.
A universally accepted Programming Language.
Being the first language that Addressed the issue of software portability.

All these goalswere acheved by an international Committe in the late 1950s’ in a report entitled Algol58 followed by other reports etitled Algol60 and Algol68 respectively .Like many other languages it had a few problems here and there:

Although machine independence enabled developers to be more creative it made implementing more difficult.

Despite the fact that the commercial populatrity of the Algol Family was not as great as other languages in its time such as Cobal and Fortran, but you could say that its algorithmic structure was, which made it the most important language of its time.

Languages which were later developed after(B,C,CPL,Pascal,ADA just to name a few) were all influenced by the ALGOLfamily in some way or the other for example:

The use of dynamic arrays
Reserved Words
User Defined Types

As well as other ALGOL like syntax patterns .

So with that we hail the original implementers of the ALGOL language for if it wasnt for them most of these languages that we have come to love wouldnt be.

sources- http://groups.engin.umd.umich.edu/CIS/course.des/cis400/algol/algol.html
- wikipedia

iTech: Anonymous hacks call between FBI and Scotland Yard...

2012-02-17T18:20:00.000-08:00

iTech: Anonymous hacks call between FBI and Scotland Yard...:
Anonymous hacks call between FBI and Scotland Yard...: A recent trans-Atlantic call between the FBI and the UK's Scotland Yard in which operatives from the two law enforcement agencies were discussing current matters involving several hacker groups was intercepted by the hacker group Anonymous and posted to the web after editing.

Anonymous over the past several months have been hacking into and defacing websites mostly owned by government in protest to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a multi-national agreement for the purpose of establishing international standards for intellectual property rights enforcement. The agreement aims to establish an international legal framework for targeting counterfeit goods, generic medicines and copyright infringement on the Internet, and would create a new governing body outside existing forums, such as the World Trade Organization, the World Intellectual Property Organization, or the United Nations.

Some of the sites already hacked by the group Anonymous are -The Trade Commission(most recent at the time this blog was written), CIA, Department of Homeland Security just to name a few.

Neopythonic: Before Python

2012-02-17T17:55:00.000-08:00

Neopythonic: Before Python Guido Van Rossum creator of the python programmng language talks about his experiences

Dennis Ritchie(September 9, 1941-October 12, 2011)

2012-02-17T17:08:00.002-08:00

Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie

I could not resist taking a look at Dennis Ritchie in this series of great computer

scientist/engineers.

Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie best known as the father of the c programming language was born on September 9, 1941 in Bronxville, New York to Alistair E. Ritchie a Bell Labs scientist. Early in his life Ritchie moved to New Jersey, where he attended Summit High School. Ritchie graduated from Harvard University with degrees in physics and applied mathematics. In 1967, he began working at the Bell Labs Computing Sciences Research Center, and in 1968, he received a PhD from Harvard under the supervision of Patrick C. Fischer, his doctoral dissertation being "Program Structure and Computational Complexity”.

During his time at Bell Labs He developed the C Programming Language which was used as a key stepping stone in the creation of the unix operating system which he played a major role along with Ken Thompson, the scientist credited with writing the original Unix; in which they were both awarded the Turing award from the

Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) in 1983, the Hamming Medal from the IEEE in 1990, the National Medal of Technology from President Clinton in 1999.

Ritchie was the head of Lucent Technologies System Software Research Department when he retired in 2007, four years later on October 12, 2011 Dennis Ritchie was found dead in his home where he lived alone, he was 70 years old.

To many his death was expected as in previous years he had been fighting a variety of illnesses including cancer.

The C language is widely used today in application, operating system, and embedded system development, and its influence is seen in most modern programming languages. Unix has also been influential, establishing concepts and principles that are now precepts of computing.

Systems in which Dennis Ritchies' work can still be seen

The phone system runs on Unix (Switching System 7)
The Internet - most of it runs on Unix
Windows NT wants to be Unix when it grows up
Linux is a clone of Unix
DOS copied many of its features from Unix
Unix glues large corporations together
Thousands of small businesses run on Unix
Unix runs on PCs
Supercomputers run Unix (including the new NUMA supercomputers).
Many companies are turning back to Unix
Many people fear Unix.
Who can and/or should run Unix?

Sources

Nokia C3 Multitasking - Run multiple Apps Tutorial--an excerpt from http://earlychicken.blogspot.com/2011/03/nokia-c3-multitasking-run-multiple-apps.html

2012-02-17T14:55:00.000-08:00

Mar

Nokia C3 Multitasking - Run multiple Apps Tutorial

Nokia C3 is running on s40 platform, and s40 is not capable of multitasking. Yes! That's true, though only in the hands of average users. But for advance users, not afraid to tweak its phone to its full potential, Nokia C3 is very capable multitasking phone. You heard it right, once hacked Nokia C3 can rival its s60 big brothers, like the Nokia E63.

Advantages:

Put simply, while your browsing your favorite website via your favorite web browser(eg OperaMini, Bolt, etc) or your playing a game, then someone sent you an sms message. On normal Nokia C3, you have to close the application first, closing that means, you cant continue what you are doing later on, then you can read the message. On hacked Nokia C3, you can just minimize the application, read the sms message, you can even reply to it, then open the minimized application and you'll continue where you left off.

It increases productivity. You can open multiple apps simultaneously, like open Operamini for browsing, then open SHmessenger for chating with friends on FB while listening to music on your favorite media player, etc.

It runs application in the background. That means, you can run MobilePhinger, ping an adress, to stabilize and keep you internet connection alive. You can also run apps like Call Cheat Manager to fake a call.

Its like S60 goodness on a cheap s40 phone.

Since its hacked, your phones' J2Me Security Wall is disabled, that means no annoying warning popups even on unsigned java apps..

Disadvantages:

When you turn on your phone, theres a warning "Test in RSNDI USB Mode", just select No, otherwise, USB connection will not work. Incase you accidentaly selected Yes, you can restart your phone and select No.

The Mail in the Main Menu will be removed. I had a C3 for monts now, but I havent even use the Mail application, though for those whos using it, heres a workarround for this. Just select and add Mail in the Goto option of the in the Homescreen shortcuts.

When you exit an aplication, theres a small notification "Warning TCK Flag Off" that'll pop up, its not annoying though.

Additional Notes:
How does C3 really handle multitasking?
For normal usage, I havent had any problems. Im using Operamini 5.1(Unmodded version) opened two tabs, the one is Facebook and the other is Symbianize.com, im also logged in Facebook and YM CHat in SHmessenger, chating with friends on FB, I also opened Snaptu for reading blogs and Im actively replying on SMS.. Ive checked the ram usage using Memory Up Pro, and it also tops at arround 10% of the total 2MB Ram of Nokia C3..

However, I did stress tested it. Testing how extreme it can handle multi tasking. I opened Opera Mini 5.1, Opera Mini 5.1 modded, Snaptu, SHMessenger, TTpod(played a music), Mobile Phinger, BlueFTP, MobyExplorer(I deleted the imgcache folder which contains around 1000+ cache files) and boom! My C3 shutsdown. lol. But, I doubt, no one would use multitask like this in normal usage..

Now for the hacking proper

Removing the J2ME Security Wall
You'll need the following:

USB Cable, i used CA-101D Nokia Cable
JAF V1.98.62: http://www.mediafire.com/?31nnaojlw1d
OGM JAF Pkey Emulator V5: http://www.mediafire.com/?i5jnoj4wgqe
Nokia Cable Driverhttp://nds1.nokia.com/files/support/global/phones/software/Nokia_Connectivity_Cable_Driver_eng.msi
Windows OS PC(the application required are compatible with Windows OS only)

Setting it up:

Download and install JAF V1.98.62
Download and install Nokia Cable Driver.
Restart your C3, connect your C3 to your Computer, select OVI Suite Mode, wait till all the drivers are installed. If it ask for drivers, just click cancel.
Download OGM JAF Pkey Emulator V5, extract it then Run: Follow this screenshot:

Click the Go Button

A promp witll pop up.

Just click the OK Button

You'll then be presented with the JAF Main Window.

Just follow screenshot. First click the BB5 Tab, then check the following checkboxes, the one highlighted in Red, then click the Service button. Just Click the image to view its full resolution.

After that a file save prompt will appear, just save the PP in your Desktop for easier access.
Now open the PP you just saved in your Desktop with Notepad.
It will look like this:

[Product Profile RM-614_354xxxxxxxxxxxx]
SETS 1
ELEMENTS 2

SET 1
0 31
1 0

Now Edit it, add 48 2 just after SET 1 so it will look like this:
Note: It must be right after SET 1, or else it'll not work.

[Product Profile RM-614_354xxxxxxxxxxxx]
SETS 1
ELEMENTS 2

SET 1
48 2
0 31
1 0

Save the PP, just press CTRL+S in notepad.
Back on the JAF Main Window, Follow this screenshot.

It will ask you for a PP file, just browse and select the PP you just saved in your Desktop.

It will start flashing your phone like so.

During the flashing process, it will turn your Phone into Test Mode, after the flashing just select Normal mode in the JAF Windows, Phone Model Box.
Whoala! Your done! Now you now have a Hacked Nokia C3. This also works on other S40 v5/v6.

For more info, visit here: http://symbianize.com/showthread.php?t=171486

Note: Ive tested in on v4.45 Nokia C3 and no success. It only worked on my Nokia C3 v7.25. So if it doesnt work on youre C3, try upgrading your firmware to v7.25.

Now your done with the hacking, now its time for the modding:
-Modding the J2ME application to be able to be minimized.

You'll need the following:

Winrar - http://www.rarlab.com/
JAR of the J2ME application.

Steps:

Open the Jar(eg. operamini.jar) with Winrar.
In the winrar browser/window, open the META-INF Folder.
Inside it, theres a MANIFEST.MF file, just drag/extract it to your desktop. Do not close winrar.
Go to your Desktop and Open MANIFEST.MF with Notepad.
Add this Nokia-MIDlet-no-exit: true on the end line of the MANIFEST.MF.

Example:
Original MANIFEST.MF:

Manifest-Version: 1.0
MicroEdition-Configuration: CLDC-1.0
MIDlet-Name: Call Cheater Manager
MIDlet-Info-URL: www.eamobile.tk
MIDlet-Icon: /icons/icono.png
MIDlet-Delete-Confirm: visit www.eamobile.tk
MIDlet-Vendor: EAMobile-Xavi
MIDlet-1: Call Cheater Manager, /icons/icono.png, c.c
MIDlet-Version: 1.1
MicroEdition-Profile: MIDP-2.0
Nokia-MIDlet-no-exit: True

Add Nokia-MIDlet-no-exit: true to the last line:

Manifest-Version: 1.0
MicroEdition-Configuration: CLDC-1.0
MIDlet-Name: Call Cheater Manager
MIDlet-Info-URL: www.eamobile.tk
MIDlet-Icon: /icons/icono.png
MIDlet-Delete-Confirm: visit www.eamobile.tk
MIDlet-Vendor: EAMobile-Xavi
MIDlet-1: Call Cheater Manager, /icons/icono.png, c.c
MIDlet-Version: 1.1
MicroEdition-Profile: MIDP-2.0
Nokia-MIDlet-no-exit: True
Nokia-MIDlet-no-exit: true

Now save it.

Then drag the modified MANIFEST.MF in to the Winrar Window, make sure you drag it inside the META-INF Folder. A replace prompt will appear, just click yes.

Now copy your modded jar file to your C3, do this to all your app and you'll be multi tasking in no time.

Heres the Fun Part!

Once youve installed the modded apps on your hacked C3. And you want to try the multitasking, all you have to do is open a modded app, then to minimize it, just press the red call button/cancel call button, then you can open another app.. Now to maximize an app, just run the app again and you'll continue where you left off on that app.

Enjoy!

Heres some apps ive modded for multitasking, latest version of Operamini, Snaptu, SHmessenger, TTpod with my Own 320x240 mod, etc. http://www.mediafire.com/?8kw24e45cxjj2so

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The Epic Battle-Starting or Ending?

2012-02-14T08:00:00.000-08:00

Over the years we have gotten accustomed to the fighting for the top spots in computing between two major companies.
One company you could say is power hungry and tries to have complete control over its users and the other company not so much as it allows its users to make modifications to an extent making it the greater of the two evils in my opinion.
As some of you readers might have already guessed im talking about the epic battle between Microsoft and Apple, two of the biggest household and commercial names when it comes on to desktops, laptops and recently tablets.
Both Microsoft and Apple have come a long way in there competition but all that may change in the future, how is that you may ask, i can sum it up all in one word Google.The growing popularity of the Android operating system has started taking its toll on both Microsoft and Apple as it has started taking over the mobile market with alot of good reviews coming in from both developers and its loyal users.

We now find that a great number of developers have started to switching over from developing for apple and Windows Os devices to android powered devices as it allows them to do almost anything vs apple that basically tries to control everything from the phone, to the Os and to the apps and Microsoft who chooses not to manufacture phones for now but dictating rules about the type of hardware there Os should run on.

Hackers have already ported the Android operating system to netbooks and also to the Pc here. With this it seems Google has gained quite the momentum it needs to recover from recent losses, but is it enough to tame the ever growing popularity of Microsoft and Apple products among the younger users , or will they fail where others have in the past.