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Google releases core development tools as open source

Google has decided to release as open source several of its key application development tools, hoping that they will prove useful for external programmers to build faster Web applications.

Solving a Sudoku using Recursive Subquery Factoring by Anton Scheffer

Oracle Database 11g Release 2 introduces a new feature called Recursive Subquery Factoring. To solve this sudoku you first have to transforms this to a single string by appending all rows together For example (this is pretty genius):

"53 7 6 195 98 6 8 6 34 8 3 17 2 6 6 28 419 5 8 79"

with x( s, ind ) as



( select sud, instr( sud, ' ' )



from ( select '53  7    6  195    98    6 8   6   

34  8 3  17   2   6 6    28    419  5    8  79' sud from dual )



union all

select substr( s, 1, ind - 1 ) || z || substr( s, ind + 1 )

, instr( s, ' ', ind + 1 )

from x, ( select to_char( rownum ) z



from dual

connect by rownum <= 9

) z



where ind > 0

and not exists ( select null

from ( select rownum lp

from dual

connect by rownum <= 9)

where z = substr( s, trunc( ( ind - 1 ) / 9 ) * 9 + lp, 1 )

or    z = substr( s, mod( ind - 1, 9 ) - 8 + lp * 9, 1 )

or    z = substr( s, mod( trunc( ( ind - 1 ) / 3 ), 3 ) * 3

+ trunc( ( ind - 1 ) / 27 ) * 27 + lp

+ trunc( ( lp - 1 ) / 3 ) * 6, 1 )))



select s from x



where ind = 0

/

Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking

At least for Google's web search results currently (September 2009), the answer is no. Google doesn't use the "keywords" meta tag in web search ranking.

UAE spying on citizens through an Etisalat BlackBerry update?

Etisalat, the carrier responsible for bringing the BlackBerry solution to the United Arab Emirates, released a very suspect official update. A member on the official support forums did some detective work, and found some suspicious code in the update. According to the user:

“Blackberry subscribers for Etisalat (one of the official service providers in the UAE) received a WAP Push to download a JAR named “registration”

The description of the “update” was as follows:

“Etisalat network upgrade for Blackberry service. Please download to ensure continuous service quality.”

Google Wave

Wave: a mash up of twitter, facebook, gmail, and all things web 2.0.
Google's latest attempt at re-inventing email.

http://wave.google.com/

Informer’s Role in Bombing Plot

Everyone called the stranger with all the money “Maqsood.” He would sit in his Mercedes, waiting in the parking lot of the mosque in Newburgh, N.Y., until the Friday prayer was over. Then, according to members of the mosque, the Masjid al-Ikhlas, he approached the young men.

Business of Detention Nominated for a Webby!

The Business of Detention project is a U.S.-based online publication created by reporters Stokely Baksh and Renee Feltz, while graduate students at Columbia University’s Graduate of Journalism. Our desire was to create an innovative way to present the business of privatized detention services — using solid reporting skills and pairing that up with video and interactive info graphics. This was also an experiment for us in creating a platform for a news product, that largely went under reported in mainstream news when we started the Corrections Corporation of America investigative project in late 2007. That project became the first investigative-new media project for the University and has since won the Melvin Mencher Award for Superior Reporting and James A. Wechsler Award for National Reporting, and a finalist at the 2009 SXSW Interactive Awards.

Detainees Say They Planned Sept. 11

The five detainees at Guantánamo Bay charged with planning the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have filed a document with the military commission at the United States naval base there expressing pride at their accomplishment and accepting full responsibility for the killing of nearly 3,000 people.

The “9/11 Shura Council,” and it says their actions were an offering to God, according to excerpts of the document that were read to a reporter by a government official who was not authorized to discuss it publicly.

Oh really? So, after 8 years of torture we finally get a confession from five men who sound like pagans with their "offering to God."

Is Peace Out Of Reach? A Two State Solution Is Not Possible

Has peace in the Middle East become nothing more than a pipe dream? As Bob Simon reports, a growing number of Israelis and Palestinians feel that a two-state solution is no longer possible.

This only shows a fraction of what the people in the occupied territories have to deal with, here is an excellent piece the hardships faced in this area.

Jewish settler: "I think settlement prevents establishment of a
palestinian state in the land of Isreal."

Obama Orders Secret Prisons and Detention Camps Closed

How fitting that on inaugaration day, people like Dick Cheney is seen rolling himself out on a wheelchair. For too long has the American justice system handicapped by destructive policies of the Bush Administration. I say award detainees their due process. Treat them as prisoners of war and follow the Geneva conventions. If there isn't sufficient proof of conviction then send them back to where they were probably inhumanly captured. If they want to prosecute, then they must do so in a most legal, open, and transparent manner. The illegality of CIA prisons should have been declared by the Supreme Court a long time ago.

President Obama signed executive orders Thursday directing the Central Intelligence Agency to shut what remains of its network of secret prisons and ordering the closing of the Guantánamo detention camp within a year.

Saying that “our ideals give us the strength and moral high ground” to combat terrorism, President Obama signed executive orders Thursday ending the Central Intelligence Agency’s secret overseas prisons, banning coercive interrogation methods and closing the Guantánamo Bay detention camp within a year.

Rights group: Israel uses incendiary bombs in Gaza

JERUSALEM – Human Rights Watch said Sunday that Israel's military has fired artillery shells with the incendiary agent white phosphorus into Gaza and a doctor there said the chemical was suspected in the case of 10 burn victims who had skin peeling off their faces and bodies.

Researchers in Israel from the rights group witnessed hours of artillery bombardments that sent trails of burning smoke indicating white phosphorus over the Jebaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza. But they could not confirm injuries on the ground because they have been barred from entering the territory.

Media Commentary Muted as Israel Invades

Israel launched its much-anticipated invasion of Gaza on Saturday. For over a week, U.S. media had provided largely one-sided coverage of the conflict, with little editorializing or commentary arguing against broader Israeli actions.

Most notably, after more than eight days of Israeli bombing and Hamas rocket launching in Gaza, The New York Times had produced exactly one editorial, not a single commentary by any of its columnists, and only two op-eds (one already published elsewhere). The editorial, several days ago, did argue against the wisdom of a ground invasion - - but even though that invasion had become ever more likely all week the paper did not return to this subject.

No End in Sight in Gaza Battle

With no end in sight, Isreal continues it war against Hamas. So far, more than 350 Palestinians — about 60 of them civilians — have been killed, according to the United Nations. Four Israelis — three civilians and a soldier — have died. I pray that God brings justice to this oppression, may he relieve all those who have suffered in this world and in the hereafter. Amen. May he bring swift justice to those to oppress and violate human sanctity. If you remove basic needs of people such as water, food, fuel and power, access to hospitals and schools etc, how would you think they would react? Fear is born out of darkness and oppression breeds hate. If only Americans knew what Isreal is really doing:

"Its clear you people are inflicting Nuremburg crimes against the Palestinians."

Pakistan Moves Troops Amid Tension With India

"We will be compelled to respond if it happens,” said the Pakistani foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, according to Pakistan’s state news agency. “If war is imposed, we will respond to it like a brave, self-respected and self-esteemed nation.”

The Torture Report

Most Americans have long known that the horrors of Abu Ghraib were not the work of a few low-ranking sociopaths. All but President Bush’s most unquestioning supporters recognized the chain of unprincipled decisions that led to the abuse, torture and death in prisons run by the American military and intelligence services.

Bush gets shoes thrown at him!

Well at least he has good reflexes. An Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes and an insult at George W. Bush, without hitting him, as the US president was shaking hands with the Iraqi premier at his Baghdad office. As the two leaders met in Nuri al-Maliki's private office, a journalist sitting in the third row jumped up, shouting: "It is the farewell kiss, you dog," and threw his shoes one after the other towards Bush.

Vatican thanks Muslims for returning God to Europe

Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Catholic Church's department for interfaith contacts, said religion was now talked and written about more than ever before in today's Europe.

"It's thanks to the Muslims," he said in a speech printed in Friday's L'Osservatore Romano, the official daily of the Vatican. "Muslims, having become a significant minority in Europe, were the ones who demanded space for God in society."

Minority Report Today

Check out this awesome platform by Oblong industries.

g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler.

Hopfully you won't develop gorilla arms from this.

Developing Efficient CSS For Your Web Development

One way for a smarter approach is to reset the base CSS style. This will give you a clean slate to customize every element. It will also give you the step up on browser inconsistencies when it comes to design elements. A CSS Reset is designed to set a number of element styles to a specific baseline that creates consistency across various browsers. Another smart approach is to try a CSS framework like Blueprint css.

Compilation, Recompilation, and Plan Caching in SQL Server 2005

SQL Server will manage the objects in its cache in a few main ways: freeing up buffers or aging execution plans. Before a query, batch, stored procedure, trigger, prepared statement, or dynamic SQL statement begins execution on a SQL Server, the batch gets compiled into a plan. The plan is then executed for its effects or to produce results. Plans are cached for possible reuse opportunities. If a query plan is not even cached, its reuse opportunity is zero. Such a plan will be compiled every time it is executed, resulting in poor performance. In rare cases, non-caching is a desirable, and this paper will point out such cases later on.