Nice comparison of Drive Imaging backup tools -- both free and commercial.  Focused mainly on speed differences.

Overall Summary:

AOMEI Backupper excelled in all tests bar one. When you consider its features compared to other free backup software, and the fact it’s free for personal and commercial use, Backupper is really worth looking at. Although it never won any of the main tests, we have to commend Acronis True Image for producing consistently strong results in all tests while showing no real weaknesses.

Both Macrium Reflect and ShadowProtect were also strong but each had a weakness in at least one area. EaseUs Todo Backup was good at backup speed but slow at restoration while AX64 was generally fast with its no frills ease of use philosophy. The higher compression and portability of Drive Snapshot makes it useful as a backup and restore from anywhere type of tool.

Obviously these tests are only one part of how well a particular backup software works, testing for other factors such as reliability and stability are simply not possible unless a program is tested in multiple scenarios over a period of weeks or months. But one thing you wouldn’t want from your backup software is for it to work inefficiently, because don’t forget, these results will be magnified the more data you are backing up or restoring.

http://www.raymond.c...re-speed-comparison/

I am not a big fan of Stephen Wolfram -- I think his "A New Kind of Science" was a mess.

Likewise, I experience some real cringing listening to him describe his new 30-years-in-the-making "language" as being great at doing everything.  In fact I think from everything we've seen so far, I'm not sure "language" is the best description for what this is.  I have a deep skepticism for projects that try to make it super easy to do big complicated things -- because often they make it exceedingly difficult to actually write code that does what you want.

He looks like he's basically thrown everything including the kitchen sink into this -- it looks like a massive amount of work, and a massive amount of work to maintain -- which makes me skeptical about it's survival.

BUT whatever it is, there are some very cool things going on here.. And it looks like a wonderous thing to play with.  Well worth a watch:

Just finished watching the 47 minute video presentation.  Wonderful, dry, humble, relentless, dedication to science.  What a pleasure it is to watch something like this (as compared to those things like Ted talks which make me want to set off a suicide bomb in the audience).  Fascinating!  I can't wait until they can decode it all.

The 600-year-old, strangely-illustrated Voynich Manuscript (which resides at Yale University) has been called the most mysterious manuscript in the world. Not a single word of the secret language has been decoded, at least not until now. Stephen Bax of the University of Bedfordshire says he has decoded ten words from the Voynich Manuscript.

See http://boingboing.ne...ipt-partially-d.html

DC member App103 found this fantastic collection of articles and links by Amit Patel on game Programming.

He discusses pathfinding, procedural world generation, AI coding, and a huge range of wonderful topics.  Very nicely organized and presented.

I’ve been helping people make games since 1990. I wrote games earlier in life, with Solar Realms Elite being the most well known, then worked on an environmental simulation game called BlobCity, then took a break for over a decade. The recent rise of indie, mobile, tablet, social, and web games have made me interested in game development again. My current passion is using interactivity on the web for learning, especially learning game algorithms. With modern web browsers, there’s no need for explanations to follow the formats used in magazines, technical papers, and books. We can combine learning by reading, learning by watching, and learning by doing.

http://www.redblobgames.com/

I could not resist posting an extended quote from this article on the Windows 8 disaster and the possible road back for Microsoft:

After watching Windows Vista get mismanaged and then slapped around by Apple, it tapped Steven Sinofsky to reimagine Windows. It's fair to say that this man shares many of the same character traits—and flaws—that defined Steve Jobs. He was belligerent and one-sided, didn't work well with others, had no qualms about tossing out features and technologies that didn't originate with his group, and had absolutely zero respect for customer feedback. Here, finally, was a guy who could push through a Steve Jobs-style, singular product vision.

And he did. Sadly, the result was Windows 8.

The reason this happened is that while Sinofsky had the maniacal power and force of will of a Steve Jobs, he lacked Jobs' best gift: An innate understanding of good design. Windows 8 is not well-designed. It's a mess. But Windows 8 is a bigger problem than that. Windows 8 is a disaster in every sense of the word.

This is not open to debate, is not part of some cute imaginary world where everyone's opinion is equally valid or whatever. Windows 8 is a disaster. Period.

While some Windows backers took a wait-and-see approach and openly criticized me for being honest about this, I had found out from internal sources immediately that the product was doomed from the get-go, feared and ignored by customers, partners and other groups in Microsoft alike. Windows 8 was such a disaster that Steven Sinofsky was ejected from the company and his team of lieutenants was removed from Windows in a cyclone of change that triggered a reorganization of the entire company. Even Sinofsky's benefactor, Microsoft's then-CEO Steve Ballmer, was removed from office. Why did all this happen? Because together, these people set the company and Windows back by years and have perhaps destroyed what was once the most successful software franchise of all time.

http://winsupersite....ck-happening-windows

ArsTchnica post copied below:

Bizarre attack infects Linksys routers with self-replicating malware
Some 1,000 devices have been hit by the worm, which seeks out others to infect.
by Dan Goodin - Feb 13, 2014 6:20 pm UTC

Researchers say they have uncovered an ongoing attack that infects home and small-office wireless routers from Linksys with self-replicating malware, most likely by exploiting a code-execution vulnerability in the device firmware.

Johannes B. Ullrich, CTO of the Sans Institute, told Ars he has been able to confirm that the malicious worm has infected around 1,000 Linksys E1000, E1200, and E2400 routers, although the actual number of hijacked devices worldwide could be much higher. A blog post Sans published shortly after this article was posted expanded the range of vulnerable models to virtually the entire Linksys E product line. Once a device is compromised, it scans the Internet for other vulnerable devices to infect.