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The Reason Why Twitter is Currently Experiencing Problems
4:39 PM
A recent bug in twitter was found which literally forces any account to follow you. The flaw appears when a user tweets this format: "accept [Twitter Username]". That user then appears as one of your followers. For example "accept TheBulkTwitExp" will cause the Twitter account "TheBulkTwitExp" to follow you.
Twitter have noticed the error and have been trying to fix it. When users attempted to run the command, (or any other command at the moment) they receive the "internal server error" message. This is the reason why you are seeing people Tweet the same thing multiple times. It also seems that people cannot see any Tweets on other peoples profiles.
Twitter's attempt to squash this bug is to reset the accounts of anyone who tries this exploit to a follower count of zero. Once that's complete the follow/ing/ers counts are being set back to what they should be. Hopefully they will sort it out soon.
Social Networking Exchange Forum
3:48 PM
Social Networking Exchange is a forum set up for web masters and blog owners to exchange links, Diggs, Stumbles and all other sorts of Social Networking exchanges. It will help your website to gain popularity and gather more Digg's on your articles. The forum hopes users can interact and exchange links between all different types of social networking media and thus, increase their own and others traffic.
Link: http://thecomputerknowhow.blogspot.com/p/social-networking-exchange.html
The Big Twitter Experiment
9:22 PM
The Twitter Experiment is an experiment to find the ratio of following to followers. If a user were to simply add thousands of users a day, how many would add them back? What is the percentage of people who will add a random back simply because they are following them. See more at: http://thecomputerknowhow.blogspot.com/p/twitter-experiment.html
Why the iPad is Impractical but will still take over the World.
11:43 AM
Apple has created a lot of buzz with this product launch. My initial reaction when hearing about the iPad was that it’s just a giant iPod touch. This may or may not be exciting depending on who you are but I didn't think the iPad was for me.
Considering the iPad has no multi-tasking capabilities, or even flash, I am unimpressed. Their is an enormous lack of features for a device that's nearing a Netbook. The applications for this device are already in the Appstore and while theirs some great applications, Apple denies a lot of them that have a real chance of taking off (Google Voice for example). It's like they are forcing us to use what they want us to use on their iPad. I however, want freedom to do what I want, when I want. Another one of Apples marketing tactics was battery life. Apple claims you can watch HD video (720p - not actually True HD) before you need to charge the iPad. Although this sounds good, my Netbook that cost me half as much as the iPad can watch video, Play Games, Torrent and blog all at the same time for 10 hours. Plus my netbook can run multiple operating systems unlike the Ipad.
I hate all this, but somehow I'm still intrigued. The iPad may not change the world, but it definitely has a chance. It has pushed technology in a direction of digital tablets as a medium. The possibilities are endless and the potential for the iPad is enormous. The downfall is that it is constrained by the software developed for it.
After all this, I may just have to go buy one.
If your interested in an iPad, Amazon has the 16Gb, wifi version priced at around $620ish: Apple iPad Tablet (16GB, Wifi)
Is Limewire Shutting Down a Good Thing?
4:49 PM
After LimeWire was found liable of copyright infringement In a 4-year-old case brought by The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). U.S. District Judge Kimba M. Wood ruled that LimeWire’s users commit a “substantial amount of copyright infringement”. The RIAA is seeking up to $150,000 per copyright violation. The lawsuit claimed at least 93 percent of LimeWire’s file sharing traffic was unauthorized copyright material.Knowing that Limewire claims they have “50 million unique monthly users”, the RIAA is seeking billions in damages. Judge Wood then scheduled a hearing on June 1st to determine how to proceed.
After the hearing Mark Gorton (founder of Limewire) stated "LimeWire remains committed to developing innovative products and services for the end-user and to working with the entire music industry, including the major labels, to achieve this mission." Nothing more is know on the fate of Limewire to date however the case is not over.
With all this said, the outcome of this case could potentially change file-sharing for good. If the ruling stands, it could set a precedent that might dissuade other entrepreneurs from challenging the entertainment sector's copyrights.
Although all this dosn't sound good, BitTorrent is in fact the leading file-sharing protocol. If the RIAA win in court against Limewire, millions of people will have to seek an alternative download client, which might mean a significant boost in user numbers for some of the major BitTorrent applications. If you are a developer, now would be a good time to develop and market a new and better BitTorrent client. In my opinion, this is all for the good, however it will not stop me or anyone from downloading copyright material. Limewire is littered with crap. You can not see user comments and thus cannot see if the content you are downloading is any good. Comparing this with BitTorrent where users can rate and comment a specific torrent allows users to find the best and most usefull torrent. The only problem is; will the RIAA come after the torrent directories if successful in taking down Limewire?
Python Sudoku Solver Script
7:48 PM
Introduction:
After reading through newspapers almost everyday on the train, I started trying to solve sudoku puzzles. Numerous weeks later I still have little success at solving them in the limited time I have on the train. If I get really close to the end of a game, I still want to know where I went wrong. So here it is; the beginning of a sudoku solver.....
Basic Knowledge:
- First of all, I'm using python 2.6 so if you don't have it installed, you may need to install it and learn some basic syntax...
Notes:
- When i refer to choices throughout the text, I mean the possible choices a square can take. For example, if a line contains 1 through 8... the only choice for the last square is 9
Saved Sudoku Game Structure:
As you would already know, a Sudoku game consists of 81 squares (9x9). The most simplest way to input a sudoku game would be to load it from a text file written by the user (this can be improved with a GUI later so the user can click a square and input a number). The structure of the text file will go character space character space character...... After a row is complete, a new row is started by a new line. An example of the file structure will be downloadable once the script is complete.
The Problem:
What functions do we need to write in order to solve the problem?
- A function to read a game file (saved on file by user)
- A function to get all the possible choices of a current square in the game (other functions supporting this function?)
- A main function (controls and calls all other functions) known as the controller
- A function to print the game when solved
- A function that will check if the game is solvable with the current selection
- A function that will reverse and change the previous input if game is unsolvable
The most basic way to solve this problem would be in a tree like structure. The program will input the first choice in the first possible square. It will work through the game column by column, row by row. If the game is unsolvable it will backtrack up the tree and change the square to another possible choice. If there is no other possible choice, it will keep backtracking until there is. The program will have to do thousands of calculations. However, because of the small size of a soduku game, the average game will be solved in a few seconds. Heres a simple picture I drew up to help you visualize what I want the program to do (don't laugh)....
The Fun Part:
NOTE: You will need to indent the code yourself... I cbb going through the html and manually entering spaces atm.
The basic theory is out of the way so lets start the programing.
First we need a function that will convert a given row into a list of its components:
def convertrow(rstr):
row = []
for i in range(0, 18, 2):
row.append(rstr[i])
return row
Notes: range(0, 18, 2) will skip the spaces in the row string (rstr). So range(0, 18, 2) will return 0,2,4,6,8....
Now for the read game function... we will call it read_game
def read_game(filename):
f = open(filename, 'U')
game = []
for line in f:
game.append(convertrow(line))
f.close()
return game
The function opens the file and puts the contents into the variable 'f'. It then reads each line of 'f' and adds each line as separate elements to the list named 'game'. We then close the file and return the list.
Now we need functions to get a specific block (group of 9 square's, 3x3.... you should know what I'm talking about if you have ever player sudoku), row and column .
The simplest is get row...
def get_row(r, game):
return game[r]
Now get column...
def get_column(c, game):
column = []
for r in game:
column.append(r[c])
return column
Now get block...
def get_block(r, c, game):
block = []
for row in range(3*r, 3*r+3):
block.extend(game[row][3*c:3*c+3])
return block
I think you should all understand the above three functions if you have basic python knowledge.
Now we need a function to get the numbers that are contained within two rows or columns. We also need a function that will return the number(s) contained in a row or column that are not in another row or column.
So...
def list_dif(list1, list2):
difnums = []
for i in list1:
if not i in list2:
difnums.append(i)
return difnums
and....
def list_same(list1, list2):
same = []
for i in list1:
if i in list2:
same.append(i)
return same
Again, these functions are pretty strait forward.
Now for the choices function. Basically the function must return all the possible choices that are possible at (r,c). Each choice should not occur in row r, column c or in the block containing this position. It is a bit confusing at first. Basically its a controlling function for all the above functions...
def choices(r, c, game):
all_choices = ['1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9']
blockrow = r / 3
blockcol = c / 3
row_choices = list_dif(all_choices, get_row(r, game))
col_choices = list_dif(all_choices, get_column(c, game))
block_choices = list_dif(all_choices, get_block(blockrow, blockcol, game))
fchoices = list_same(row_choices, col_choices)
fchoices = list_same(choices, block_choices)
return fchoices
In my opinion, the hardest part is over, the basic structure is complete. I will post the rest of the script tomorrow. Stay Subscribed.
Python Sudoku Solver
12:34 PM
In yesterdays post i said I was going to make a python Sudoku solver for u guys. The good news is I have, the bad news is that it's still buggy. I don't really want to post something thats half complete. Hopefully by tonight I can have at least half the code up. Anyway, I took a video of it just before solving a random game i had saved in a txt file. I thought I would post the video for you all to see what I'll help you guys to make:
When I have completed it, maybe everyone can chip in to help make it more efficient. My programming isn't perfect and I have only made a rough prototype. Stay Subscribed to view the code and help optimize it.
LEGO Sudoku Solver
7:24 PM
After Googling to see if any Sudoku Solvers have been made I found this video. It's one of the coolest things I have seen in a while; lego solving a game of sudoku.....
Anyway, hope you guys liked the video. I have nearly finished a python script to solve sudoku games. Its far faster but a lot less cooler haha. I'll post the beggining soon.... Stay Subscribed.
Thanks
Why use Linux?
4:18 PM
Even as a fairly new Linux user, I always receive the comment "Why do you use Linux". A lot of my friends think it's the worst operating system in the world. "It's so hard to use","You can't do anything on it", "It doesn't support any hardware" they say. The truth is; I don't know why I use it, I just love it. The fact is, it's faster, free and 99% of the applications made for it are open source. It looks better, I find it more compatible and if you program at all you will most probably find it 10 times better than any other operating system. Don't get me wrong, I like Microsoft Operating Systems (I have never been into Macs.... Bit of a ripoff in my opinion). I still use Windows to play all my games and do all my word processing. Sure there's wine (a Windows file system and registry emulator) but i just prefer to do those things on Windows. As for browsing, I don't care what OS I'm using, they both have IM clients and they both have my two favorite browsers (Chrome and Firefox). I get annoyed when people say they hate Windows, it's not a bad OS. It's probably the most user friendly OS available. People need to stop saying it's crap.
As for the question which one is better; I have to say Linux but only because of the applications i run. If I were a pro gamer, I would use Windows. If I was a hobby programmer, I would use Linux. It's as simple as that.
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