Several months ago I linked to a paper about Vista’s draconian DRM “features”. Today I came across an article on Microsoft’s TechNet that goes further and describes some exact circumstances when Vista will arbitrarily decide to stop access to premium-content. It is more than a little shocking.

Vista will only play back premium-content — basically, any HD content like HD-DVD, blue-ray or other purchased content — if it can guarantee the path taken by the media is “clean”. A path is clean if there is no way for it to be intercepted and copied on its way to the display. So far this may be seen as reasonable (at a push).

Two concepts — one from computing lore, the other from psychology — should be discussed together: code-read/understand-ability and the magic number seven. This article is about them, and how almost every coding practice you have ever read should be seen through the lens of the magic number seven.

The magic number seven refers to the amount of information which a person can store in short-term memory, their immediately available working-set of data. This can be thought of as the number of slots in short-term memory into which things can be temporarily stored.

When I was younger, I thought nothing of pirating software. The copied CDs and scrawled serial numbers are still in the bottom of my wardrobe. Copies of Office still run on computers, replete with their illegitimate serial codes, stolen software used daily to write documents and calculate totals.

Around four years ago I started using Linux, deleting my pirated copy of Windows XP a year later. Since then, my software has been fully licensed and I no longer think nothing of piracy¹. Several aspects have come together to change my view.

Today, I implemented a feature in my home-brew site publishing system that has been on my list for some while.

I had been relying on Transmit to synchronise my local copy of dx13 with the server, but this was becoming untenable. The Transmit approach would compare the entire site with that on the ftp server. There are several hundred files and folders in the site to examine, meaning that the synchronisation process took a long time. Secondly, it would often fail with the server refusing more requests¹.

Our trip to Spain was split into four mini-breaks: Granada, Cordoba, Seville and, finally, Cadiz. We spent four nights in Granada, Seville and Cadiz and two in Cordoba. Each place had its own charm, and I’d recommend each as well worth visiting.

A Taster

Granada, Cordoba and Seville were very hot. Cadiz, being next to the Atlantic, was less so, though still toasty throughout the afternoon and into the evening.

Spaniards, it seems, are not all that great at catering for vegetarians, as virtually all dishes on offer, besides ubiquitous mixed salad and spanish omlette, contain large helpings of meat. Fish is also a prominent offering.