Interesting. I can see where this is heading. Lets chew on this a little:

"The easiest way to categorize a programming language as "high level" is to actually determine whether or not it is a low-level language. The typical definition of a low-level language is one which does not require a compiler or interpreter to run. Basically, a high-level language is one which needs to be turned into a low-level language (bytecode/assembly instructions) before it can execute."

Based on the above argument C++ is most definitely a high level language. It is widely accepted that C++ inherited features of its low level predecessor C. However, this does not categorize it as an intermediate language because:

"In computer science, an intermediate language is the language of an abstract machine designed to aid in the analysis of computer programs. The term comes from their use in compilers, where a compiler first translates the source code of a program into a form more suitable for code-improving transformations, as an intermediate step before generating object or machine code for a target machine." (Wikipedia)

Also

"A variation in the meaning of this term is to refer to those languages used as an intermediate language by some high-level programming languages which do not output object or machine code, but output the intermediate language only, to submit to a compiler for such language, which then outputs finished object or machine code. This is usually done to gain optimization much as treated above, or portability by using an intermediate language that has compilers for many processors and operating systems, such as C. Languages used for this fall in complexity between high-level languages and low-level languages, such as assembly languages."

Seun's position reflects the evolutionary trend of programming languages which reflect shifts in concepts of 'High' vs 'Low' language representations. This can seen in the context of development of C++, Ruby and then cofeescript. The latter is seen to offer ease of coding in a more 'human language' while still offering the functionality of the other two languages. I however beg to disagree with the 'relative' concept. The definition of programming languages still retains its hardline meanings. Until a new definition removes the necessity of a compiler between high and low level languages, the current classification of programming languages will not change anytime soon.

Well spoken. I was wondering when the agitation would start.

Having a healthy Swim in dirty water is wishful thinking, but swimming with sharks in dirty water is suicide.

Beaf: Therefore, CoffeScript naturally weighs in as the least complex (as would languages like JavaScript and PHP); Ruby naturally pops up midway between the high level CoffeScript and low level C++.

Correction: C++ is a high level language.

The nearer a language is to the metal, the more granular the control it gives the developer.

Right on the marble.

@OP Wrong you are. Rather Christians pick fights to their disadvantage without laying down discussion rules. I find it amusing when so called atheists run circles around Christians with their sophistry. You cant nail down a shadow if you don't box in the shadow's owner.

One thing is however glaringly clear, Most of the pro-Christian posters are out of their depth.

Kizilala: Has anybody else noticed the anti Christian attitude by nairaland's owners and moderators?The promote Islam on the homepage and always put up Christian bashing threads and negative Christian threads on the homepage.This must stop

One little victory for the godless.

Now can we have a cure for all (or even some) the world's ills since atheists have identified the problem with humanity.

Any solution particular to Nigeria devoid of emotions and rooted in logic would be highly welcome.

maclatunji definitely has a point here. I've seen the Islamic section for the jungle that is was before his efforts at sanitizing it established a form of sanity in the section. It was interesting to see him tame atheists on the Islamic forum (Had a few laughs infact). I have seen the Xtian section moderator taking cues from him in banning and censoring.

So after taming the atheists, a new evil rises in the section. In as much as free speech is implied, it is no longer free when you cross the bounds of civility. Most of you Muslims violate the etiquette of speech that was laid down by your religion in an effort to best antagonists. In the end you end up not being different from the beast harassing you.

The best amongst Muslims, i have read, harms not with his speech and actions. Contrast this with what is obtainable these days.

We have read about the best a Muslim can be, the Prophet, and the worst a Muslim can be, bokoharam, al-qaida. It is however saddening to see most Muslims today are either in the middle or to the left instead of being on the right path.

The unity of God is incontestable and all perceived divisions are manmade. Interestingly, i have exhaustively searched for all the names God called his ummah in Islamic religious texts, i found only one MUSLIMS. So when a person stands up for this unity, he should be supported.

maclatunji has done no wrong, rather he has been wronged. Keep up the good work maclatunji

Here are two links you can use to aid your password choice. The first was the one used in the post above:

1. https://www.grc.com/haystack.htm

2. http://howsecureismypassword.net/

For the more technical the comments on this page are interesting: http://it.slashdot.org/story/12/06/08/0325242/how-many-seconds-would-it-take-to-crack-your-password

If it wont be considered "suggestive" of aiding would be hackers. The four number combination password used by ATM cards yield 210 combinations in total. Divide the number of combinations by three. That's how long it takes your ATM card hacker to access your account, if he doesnt get lucky sooner. Customers should as a matter of security concerns pester the banks in Nigeria for 6 digit ATM cards.

Two posts to enlighten the public about their password habits. I have no replies to retrogressive comments.

How many seconds would it take to break your password? By Kevin Fogarty

Security breaches of mind-numbing size like those at LinkedIn and EHarmony.com set crypto- and security geeks to chattering about weak passwords and lazy users and the importance of non-alphanumeric characters to security.

But you've never met any non-alphanumeric characters. Sure, you befriended a couple of street people who were a little off kilter when you were in college, and there was that hottie in a Provincetown bar that wasn't what he/she appeared to be at first. They qualified as characters, but denying them alphanumericity is pretty harsh.

And insisting on a particular number of characters in a password is just pointless security-fetish control freakishness, right?

Nope. The number and type of characters make a big difference.

How big? Adding a symbol eliminates the possibility of a straight dictionary attack (using, literally, words from a dictionary. Adding a symbol, especially an unusual one, makes it much harder to crack even using rainbow tables (collections of alphanumeric combinations, only some of which include symbols).

How big a difference to length and character make?

Look below and pick which password-cracking jobs you'd want to take on if you were a computer. The examples come from the Interactive Brute Force Password Search Space Calculator.

How long would it take to crack my password: (Includes letters and numbers, no upper- or lower-case and no symbols)

6 characters: 2.25 billion possible combinations

Cracking online using web app hitting a target site with one thousand guesses per second: 3.7 weeks.
Cracking offline using high-powered servers or desktops (one hundred billion guesses/second): 0.0224 seconds
Cracking offline, using massively parallel multiprocessing clusters or grid (one hundred trillion guesses per second: 0.0000224 seconds

10 characters: 3.76 quadrillion possible combinations

Cracking online using web app hitting a target site with one thousand guesses per second: 3.7 weeks.
Cracking offline using high-powered servers or desktops (one hundred billion guesses/second): 10.45 hours
Cracking offline, using massively parallel multiprocessing clusters or grid (one hundred trillion guesses per second: 37.61 seconds.

Add a symbol, make the crack several orders of magnitude more difficult:

6 characters: 7.6 trillion possible combinations

Cracking online using web app hitting a target site with one thousand guesses per second: 2.4 centuries.
Cracking offline using high-powered servers or desktops (one hundred billion guesses/second): 1.26 minutes
Cracking offline, using massively parallel multiprocessing clusters or grid (one hundred trillion guesses per second: 0.0756 seconds

10 characters: Possible combinations: 171.3 sextillion (171,269,557,687,901,638,419; 1.71 x 1020)

Cracking online using web app hitting a target site with one thousand guesses per second: 54.46 million centuries.
Cracking offline using high-powered servers or desktops (one hundred billion guesses/second) 54.46 years
Cracking offline, using massively parallel multiprocessing clusters or grid (one hundred trillion guesses per second: 2.83 weeks.

Take Steve's advice: go for 10 characters, then add a symbol.

Link: http://www.itworld.com/security/280486/how-long-would-it-take-crack-my-password

Utilities;
System- Glary's utilities: http://www.glarysoft.com/
File compression- Izarch: http://www.izarc.org/download.html
Mutipurpose file viewer- Irfanview: www.irfanview.com

Antispy:
Spyshelter (32bit systems is free): http://www.spyshelter.com/download.html

Firewall;
Comodo firewall: http://personalfirewall.comodo.com/free-download.html

Media;
VLC player; http://www.videolan.org/

By Alex Korban. Webpage link at bottom

Most people will agree that C++ is a fairly complex language. But just how complex is it? I got curious about quantifying that by comparing the number of concepts a programmer has to understand to learn a programming language in its entirety.

Concepts in my definition include large categories like classes and operators, as well as more fine grained things like if-else statements and while loops. There is a lot of variation in the complexity of different concepts, so their number can only serve as a rough measure of language complexity. Nevertheless, I think it’s interesting.

I chose C++, CoffeeScript and Ruby for my comparison. CoffeeScript and Ruby are dynamically typed so they are significantly different from C++. However, all three are multi-paradigm general purpose languages, supporting (to a reasonable degree at least) object oriented, functional, procedural and generic programming. So this post is about C++ vs. dynamically typed languages.

I think it would also be interesting to make a comparison with other statically typed languages such as F# or Scala but I’m not really familiar with them, so it would be hard for me to do.
CoffeeScript

First up, let’s look at CoffeeScript:



It has a total of 68 concepts divided into 8 major groups.

Note that I listed metaprogramming as one concept because it’s largely based on the concept of executable class bodies.
Ruby:



Ruby is clearly more complicated, with 96 concepts in 11 major groups. It’s got a more sophisticated class model than CoffeeScript, as well as things like constants, blocks and operator overloading.

C++

Finally, here is C++:



There are 186 concepts in 18 groups on this diagram, double the number of Ruby concepts and almost 3 times more than in CoffeeScript!

I believe that some of the concepts in C++ (such as name resolution) are also comparatively more complex, with a lot of nuanced rules. The concept of names in C++ is more involved than in the other languages because there are many different categories. In dynamic languages, more or less everything is either a constant or a variable (including class names and function names).

I omitted the concepts of compilation and linking because the other two languages don’t have them.

From the diagram we can see that there are many reasons for the complexity. Part of it is the static type system, another part is templates, yet another part is the name system, as well as the complex class model. The underlying drivers are of course performance and type safety.
What’s not in the diagrams?

I didn’t include a lot of other things that a programmer is required to know in order to use a language in practice:

standard libraries
language idioms and best practices
concurrency concepts
design patterns

These things become more prominent when a programmer progresses from learning to mastering a language.

I think that C++ would win the prize for complexity in such a comparison too. For example, there are books like C++ Coding Standards: 101 Rules, Guidelines, and Best Practices (there are in fact 101 rules in there), and Effective C++ containing 55 pieces of advice. These books don’t deal with esoteric situations, they are aimed at normal everyday code. That’s a lot of extra knowledge!

While other languages have their best practices and idioms too, I think their number is quite a lot smaller.
So what’s the point?

My goal isn’t to complain about how huge and incomprehensible C++ is. I believe there is no alternative to C++ for large projects with strict hardware constraints or performance requirements when you take the availability of modern tools, libraries and developers into account.

However, I do think that it’s important to highlight what programming in C++ entails because it has implications for how it’s taught and when it should be chosen for a project.

It isn’t a language that can be picked up quickly. It takes a long time to learn and even longer to master. Because of this, I think there is a lot of value in learning C++ “from the top down”.

With C++11, it has become easier to start with the modern high level subset of C++ (and the standard libraries), and then gradually add on the intricacies and the low level features. In other words, std::shared_ptr comes before raw pointers, lambdas come before functors, and std::array comes before C style arrays.

When choosing C++ for a new project, it’s a good idea to consider the level of experience of the developers or the time available for learning if C++ is new to them.

I think that it’s also good to keep in mind that the complexity of C++ results in a significant disparity in the level of language knowledge between developers, which has to be taken into account in interviews and in providing training. Significant knowledge disparity within a team isn’t pleasant for people on either end of the spectrum.

Finally, here are the diagrams side by side for a quick visual comparison:



Link: http://www.cpprocks.com/cpp-ruby-coffeescript-language-complexity/

Go to the actual application website: http://camstudio.org/

There is an audio codec that needs to be downloaded and used with the application.

Adding this comment on the above news by a web user on zdnet for a balanced view:

hash != Encryption
cpuh0g

Yes, it is a "cryptographic hash function", but that is still not encryption. An encryption operation involves a key and can be reversed if one knows the right key to reverse the operation. A hash is a one-way operation that cannot be reversed. You can run brute-force or dictionary or rainbow table attacks which attempt to find an input that results in the same hash, but that doesn't constitute a reversal of the operation.

My point is that the headline is misleading and incorrect.

Pedantic, yes.

The original author of the MD5 password hash algorithm has publicly declared his software end-of-life and is “no longer considered safe” to use on commercial websites.



This comes only a day after a data breach led to 6.46 million LinkedIn hashed passwords leaking to the Web. Since the data breach, thousands of passwords, including many that could be considered strong, have been decrypted, either through brute force or through lookups.

The primary cause is LinkedIn’s failure to properly ’salt’ the hashed passwords using SHA-1 algorithm. MD5 is a password hashing algorithm similar to that of SHA-1.

LinkedIn’s Vicente Silveira said on Wednesday the company has increased its security “which includes hashing and salting of our current password databases.” Although the post says this change was made “recently,” it does not indicate whether the change was applied last month, this week, or yesterday.

Danish developer Poul-Henning Kamp, who developed the widely used MD5 password scrambler, said that limitations to his software and a corresponding increase in computing power since its initial release has rendered his algorithm obsolete.

“I implore everybody to migrate to a stronger password scrambler without undue delay,” he wrote in a blog post.

“On a state of the art COTS computer, the algorithm should take at the very least [100 milliseconds] when implemented in software, preferably more. Some kind of ’round count’ parameter should be made run-time tweakable so that the runtime/complexity can be increased over time by system administrators.”

“The algorithm should be based on repeated data-dependent iterations of several different complex one-way hash functions (MD5, SHA1, SHA2, BLOWFISH, you name it, use them all) in order to ’soak up area’ in hardware based attack implementations.”

In 2004, researchers revealed a number of weaknesses in regularly-used hash functions. Later in 2005, MD5 was declared “broken” by security expert Bruce Schneier.

Kamp emphasised that there is “no advantage” in every major website using the exact same algorithm — “quite the contrary in fact,” he added — as it makes it easier for hackers to develop their attack strategy.

“All major Internet sites, anybody with more than 50.000 passwords, should design or configure a unique algorithm — consisting of course of standard one-way hash functions like SHA2 etc — for their site, in order to make development of highly optimized password brute-force technologies a ‘per-site’ exercise for attackers.”

By Zack Whittaker

Link; http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/md5-password-scrambler-no-longer-safe/12317

Was busy and didnt check my mails for a while. The site is a government website. I suspect Nigerian IP addresses are blocked from accessing it because i just tested it and it still works.

Its a 5mb pdf file. Post ur email and i'll send it to u.

Regards.

It is an application. The one i used is a freeware. U can Google better ones and use.

Glad i could help. Shall scout around for a good MS-word VBA code book and send to you.

My kind regards.

Adebaba1: adeyemiadeolu34@yahoo.com

Check ur mail.

Get a good screen recorder with voice recorder and you're done. Playback the tutorial and record it.

Just tested that it works on my Win7 b4 making this post. Used Camstudio 2.6b r294 with audio codec with Firefox 13 playing the tutorial. It was clear and sharp.

U however, need a fast connection, had a little buffer period during my recording.

Check ur mail. Just the book. Couldnt get the VB.net Pocket reference to attach.

Like i said, exporting the report is not the problem but applying the password concurrently. I did a similar software based on MS access 2007 a few years ago. In my own case i exported the reports to word docs and pdf (using MS pdf addin).

If it cannot be done concurrently as it is generated then u will have to write a vba macro dat will be triggered to password the MS word document on generation.

For the pdf see if u can use a pdf writer like Bullpdf or cutepdf. U set d default settings of the writer to locked and provide a password. This will automatically password the pdf as it is created. I have not tried calling Bullpdf or Cutepdf from Vb so dont know if its possible but u could give it a try.

Visual Basic .NET How to Program, 2/e, By Deitels. Its about 15mb so it will take a while to upload to yahoo. Expect it in ur mail tomorrow.

Shall see if i can add a VB.net pocket reference to it.

Is ur email @yahoo.ca or @yahoo.com (is it a mistake?), Kindly confirm.

Did any1 notice something very conspicuous in the above info-graphic.

All developed or developing nations, with the exception of Russia and China who have their own Google versions, have Google as their popular website. Would it be logical to say our youths while away their productive time in aimless socializing online?

Would it also be logical to say our level of underdevelopment underpins our obsession with Facebook. Note the countries where Facebook is popular are mostly underdeveloped and in Africa, excepting the Indo-Asia countries

Coincidentally, the very requirement you state seems to be to be the easiest code you would write. U use d application call/write function in VB to write the output to word or a pdf writer and subsequently password the resulting document. Am not so sure if you can do the writing and password concurrently but it looks possible.

You can Google "print to doc/pdf vb.net code" for the correct syntax. If you still cant make any headway, post ur email or PM me tru NL profile page and i'll send you a useful ebook on VB.net programming.

Wow Slyr0x. You're definitely no pushover.

I recommended the site to a few of my friends after their email accounts were hacked. It enabled them to see the folly of their password habits.

I hope other people will give it a try and be more educated about passwords.

Now for a little web reality shake-up. How long would it take to compromise a password. Why not do a dummy run in the webpage link below and be educated on how secure passwords should be like.

http://howsecureismypassword.net/

Now please dont go and enter your real passwords here, i said dummy runs. Just check an equivalent to see how secure your password choice may be.

LinkedIn said on Wednesday that some passwords on a list of allegedly stolen hashed passwords belong to its members, but did not say how its site was compromised.

"We can confirm that some of the passwords that were compromised correspond to LinkedIn accounts," Vicente Silveira, a director at the social-networking site for professionals, wrote in a blog post. It is unknown how many passwords have been verified by LinkedIn.

LinkedIn has disabled the passwords on those accounts, it said. Account holders will receive an email from LinkedIn with instructions for resetting their passwords. The emails will not include any links. Phishing attacks often rely on links in emails that lead to fake sites designed to trick people into providing information, so the company says it will not send links in emails.

http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/security-threats/2012/06/07/linkedin-confirms-password-leak-40155341/?s_cid=938

The password hashes were unsalted SHA-1 hashes. SHA-1 was proven weak back in 2005, and unsalted hashes are especially weak.

denzel2009:

Slyrox, are they storing password in clear texts? LinkedIn

First misconception; its not my website.

Second misconception; passwords are stored as hashed or encrypted data (depending on the encryption method) and is the method of storing passwords on every internet site database (including Nairaland).

Third misconception; hashing and checking the hash ID doesnt compromise your password.

Fourth misconception; I am not keen to to make people verify passwords on the site so they can be hacked (Did any1 note that usernames are not required).

Lastly Trust is a difficult thing on the net. Unfortunately, the guy who mashed up the checking site has a respected internet reputation and can be reached here.

Could every1 kindly disregard my first post above and just change your passwords (Frosbel's sensible advice).

@frosbel I dont doubt your credentials and i think mine are are bit impeccable too. However using my knowledge to harm is unthinkable. It negates my principles. You could go through my post history and verify. Given the rampant cases of scammers and hackers, your advice makes for peace of mind and should supersede mine.

frosbel: c
But why should they, when it is as simple as loggin on to your social media site and changing the password yourself.

Why are you so keen to make them verify their passwords on your link , I work as a senior IT professional and this is just not on !!!

By all means please change your passwords. But recall i said [size=16pt]hashed[/size] passwords. Its really simple to hash your password and pop it in to check. I dont give advice without due diligence and i check and double check my facts to verify correctness and authenticity. I take web security seriously.

By the ways every1, secure passwords should look like this [size=14pt]as#1vb@63ut=&sg%[/size] in any combination of letters, numbers and special characters of your choice and should be at least 15 characters in length.

Check the status of your LinkedIn password on the webpage link below. The site checks your hashed password against the leaked passwords hashes and informs you if it had been compromised. If it has, change your password immediately

[size=14pt]http://leakedin.org/[/size]

The site is secure. It was made by a respected programmer to help novices with password phobias check their password safety. If you're paranoid, just change your password without checking.

I can imagine accidental removal but for a man to willfully remove his KOKO is way beyond me. The world is indeed weird.

Tokyo - Mao Sugiyama, 22-year-old "asexual" Japanese artist, had his genitals surgically removed at a hospital. He then took his frozen koko and scrotum home, seasoned and cooked them for five dinner guests. He cooked his genitals himself, supervised by a chef.
According to CalorieLab.com, Sugiyama organized a banquet dubbed “Ham Cybele – Century Banquet,” at the “Asagaya Loft A” event space in the Suginami Ward of Tokyo. CalorieLab.com explains that "'Century' in Japanese is a homophone for the Japanese word for 'genitals' and 'Ham Cybele' refers to the Anatolian mother goddess, prefixed with an appropriate word for tough meat to create a phrase whose initials match Sugiyama’s artist name of HC."
According to CalorieLab.com, Sugiyama publicly seasoned and braised his own genitals on a portable gas cartridge burner. Daily Mail reports that the Instruments were garnished with mushrooms and parsley. He charged the five diners $250 per person.
According to Daily Mail, before the favored guests tucked into dinner, they were entertained to a piano recital and took part in a panel discussion.
CalorieLab.com reports that the young man had initially considered eating his genitals himself but decided to invite guests instead. According to The Huffington Post, he first tweeted his intention to offer his genitals for dinner on April 8. A few days before his 22nd birthday, he underwent elective genital-removal surgery.
Daily Mail reports that his tweeted invitation to dinner excited a flurry of interest online. He tweeted: "I am offering my male genitals (full koko, testes, scrotum) as a meal for 100,000 yen (£800). I’m Japanese." He continued: "The organs were surgically removed at age 22. I was tested to be free of venereal diseases. The organs were of normal function. I was not receiving female hormone treatment. First interested buyer will get them, or I will also consider selling to a group. Will prepare and cook as the buyer requests, at his chosen location. If you have questions, please contact me by DM or e-mail."
Sugiyama initially split the offer between six guests. According to The Hufffington Post, he finally divided it up into koko shaft, testicles and scrotal skin between five diners. On April 13, only five of six diners signed up for the $250-per-plate feast. The sixth person failed to show up.
About 70 people attended the dinner in the Suginami ward of Tokyo. While five people dined on Sugiyama's genitals, others ate beef and crocodile meat.
CalorieLab.com reports that the five genital eaters were a 32-year-old male artist, who said he was doing it for "research," a 30-year-old white-collar couple, who said they were simply "curios," an attractive 22-year-old woman, who said she wondered how it would feel, and a 29-year-old event planner Shigenobu Matsuzawa, who tweeted before the event, “It’s a once in a lifetime chance, so I decided on the spur of the moment to do it.”
Sugiyama posted photos of the event to his blog but later removed them citing "privacy considerations." According to Daily Mail, he made his guests sign a waiver that he was not responsible if they became ill from eating his penis and scrotum. Guests said the Instruments had a rubbery texture and a bland taste, CalorieLab.com reports.
The Huffington Post reports that when CalorieLab.com called the police, they said they could not launch any investigation into the incident because no laws were contravened. According to CalorieLab.com, there is no law against cannibalism in Japan.
Daily Mail reports Sugiyam also had his nipples removed.
According to MSN, Sugiyam said he hosted the dinner to "raise awareness about sexual minorities, x-gender [and asexual] people."
Daily Mail reports that Sugiyam as an "asexual" said he would not have his male Instruments replaced with female ones.

Link: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/325480