Technology-Related Movie Myths

Posted by Justin A. Parr on August 28, 2014
Posted in: Math and Science, The Light Side. 1 comment

In the movies, technology is often depicted as a deus ex machina, a convenience for the writer to instantly solve a problem.  It’s common for writers to stretch the truth a little bit, in order to facilitate flow or continuity, but with technology, writers can sometimes imbue nearly magical qualities.  Rightly so, as Arthur C. Clarke stated, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic“.

And sometimes, the writers just plain get it wrong.

Worse, sometimes, the incorrect depiction is MORE appealing than the real-world functionalities and capabilities, leading to the creation of a mythology that gets propagated until the myth itself is part of pop-culture folklore.

Here are some examples of movie tech myths run amok.

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Top 10 Virtually-Unknown Technology / Computing Pioneers

Posted by Justin A. Parr on July 7, 2014
Posted in: Math and Science. 4 comments

Everyone is familiar with the contributions of technical moguls  such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.  Likewise, computing history remembers people like Charles Babbage and John Von Neumann.  There are many lesser-known, but equally-important figures, whose contributions made our current “online” lifestyle possible, and made computing both affordable and physically small enough to be almost ubiquitous.

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More Common Developer Mistakes

Posted by Justin A. Parr on June 27, 2014
Posted in: Analyses and Responses. 2 comments

Part 1 can be found here:  https://justinparrtech.com/JustinParr-Tech/top-developer-mistakes/

Security issues and design flaws can be costly to fix, once an application has already been written.

In spite of everyone’s best efforts and intentions, these are some additional, common mistakes that can be made during the application design / development process.

 

Click here to read more!

WordPress: How to Write a Plugin Options Page SIMPLIFIED

Posted by Justin A. Parr on June 12, 2014
Posted in: Wordpress Stuff. Leave a Comment

While trying to write an options page and leverage persistent, admin-configurable settings for “JP User Registration Blacklist“, I found a maze of conflicting standards and options.

This is my attempt to provide a simple, straightforward, and comprehensive example, with source code that you can copy and implement with your own plugin.

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WordPress Plugin: JP User Registration Blacklist

Posted by Justin A. Parr on May 15, 2014
Posted in: Wordpress Stuff. 3 comments

WordPress Plugin:  JP User Registration Blacklist

Check out my first WordPress plugin, which you can view here:

JP User Registration Blacklist

The main purpose is to prevent spammers from registering as a user of the site.

Features:

  • (Version 1.7) E-mail confirmation token
  • Asks a simple math problem during registration
  • If the user’s e-mail or IP address is listed in the Comments Blacklist (Discussion Settings), it prevents them from registering.
  • Lists the user’s IP address in the “website” field, allowing the user to see the IP from which the user registered.

Let me know what you think!

 

 

Windows XP is Undead

Posted by Justin A. Parr on April 9, 2014
Posted in: Analyses and Responses. 2 comments

Background:  Like the undead, Windows XP’s installed base continues to live, even after the Microsoft-published End-Of-Life (EOL) date of 4/8/2014.

What “End of Life” means, is that Microsoft no longer provides free updates, namely security updates, for the operating system.

Unlike other Microsoft operating systems, and due to many factors, Windows XP has a huge installed base.

This article details the XP EOL event, including the good, the bad, and how Microsoft could have handled this better.

Click here to read more!

Weight of Water

Posted by Justin A. Parr on March 18, 2014
Posted in: Math and Science. Leave a Comment

Water weighs…

8.345 pounds per gallon.

A pound is 16 ounces.  If water was 8 pounds per gallon, a gallon of water would weigh 128 ounces.

A cup is 8 fluid ounces.  Two cups is a pint, and a quart is two pints.  A quart = 8 * 4 = 32 fluid ounces.  A gallon is 4 quarts, therefore a gallon = 4 * 32 = 128 fluid ounces.

Therefore, one fluid ounce of water approximately weighs one ounce.

The actual number is 1.04 oz / fl oz, assuming that the discrepancy is due to our accuracy of measurement improving over time.

Likewise, a pint of water (2 cups, or 16 fl oz) weighs about 1 pound.

This is similar to the metric standard, where 1cc of water = 1ml = 1g.