Today we mark 100 years since the Tunguska explosion that occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River, Russia. The energy blasted from the explosion is estimated to 5 to 30 megatons, with 5 to 15 the most likely. It wiped out an estimated 80 million trees on 2150 squared kilometers.

The cause of the explosion, is, most likely, the burst of a meteor or comet into the air. According to Boris Shustov of the Russian Academy of Sciences:

We know that a rather massive body flew into the atmosphere of our planet. It measured 40 to 60 meters in diameter. Clearly, it did not consist of iron, otherwise it would have certainly reached the earth. The body decelerated in the atmosphere, the deceleration being very abrupt, so the whole energy of this body flying with a velocity of more than 20 [kilo]meters per second was released, which resulted in a mid-air explosion, very similar to a thermo-nuclear blast.

The yield of the explosion totaled 10 to 15 megatons, which matches the yields of the largest hydrogen bomb ever tested on the planet. The explosion felled some 80 million trees and caused natural phenomena. It is generally assumed that the blast did not kill any people.

Of course, there are other theories about the cause of the explosion:

  • UFO crash; sometimes the Tunguska event was called the Russian Roswell incident; though claims of a spaceship debris recovery were made, they have not been proved.
  • The annihilation of a chunk of antimatter from space
  • A black hole zipping through Earth.
  • a “death ray” generated by Nikola Tesla. One story says that he tested a death ray on the eve of June 30. Once he heard of the event at Tunguska he dismantled the weapon, considering it too dangerous.

Whether a natural event, UFO crash, weapon test or something else, the event is far from being explained, and most likely, more theories will come over the decades.

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Today is the last day for Bill Gates as executive president at Microsoft. Some months ago he released this clip about him looking for a new job.

The ending words from a news presenter are quite funny too.

And all tech markets remain steady as Bill Gates completed his last full day at Microsoft. Personal note: all of us here at NBC news will miss reporting every night on this brilliant, powerful, let’s face it, sexy and good looking leader of men and women who just doesn’t believe in paying more than $7 for a haircut.

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I started this blog at the beginning of 2007 and until now I had more than 10,000 unique visits, which is pretty good, I believe. I wrote here about LINQ, C#, C++, Visual Studio, events and others. I hope they served the readers well, and I’ll try to write more during the next year.

This year was a very good one for me, both at personal and professional level. Besides starting with this blog, I had the chance to attend the MVP summit in Seattle where I met a lot of friends from CodeGuru.com. I also co-founded Codexpert.ro, a Romanian site for C++ programmers, that goes better and better. I also changed jobs and had the opportunity to visit Norway and Sweden for some business trips. I can only hope the next year will be as good as this one.

Until I’ll be able to write new things, I wish you all a happy new year.

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I was reading a book about Mobius band and I read about turning a sphere inside out, without making a hole in it. Though this appears impossible, it is actual possible when you follow some rules. Looking over the web I found a very good movie showing and explaining how it’s done. For those interested in mathematic curiosities, this 20 minutes video worth watching.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6626464599825291409

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All I want to say today is

fiero di essere romeno

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According to a Mexican finacial publication cited by The Guardian, Bill Gates is no longer the richest man on the planet. The new richest man is the Mexican businessman Carlos Slim Helu Aglamaz. Most of his business is in communication, and the surge in the shares of America Movil group put him on the top spot.

It remains to be seen whether Forbes will agree with the assessment and grant him the title of richest man on the planet for 2007. If so that will end the 12-years era of supremacy of Bill Gates.

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Being active on large communities such as CodeGuru or MSDN forums I see every day people asking question in the worst possible manner; questions that simply can’t be answered because they are either very ambiguous or ar lacking any useful information about the problem. Some time ago I decided to make a list os such questions. The purpose of it is to prevent people from doing the same mistakes.

Badly asked questions from CodeGuru.com

Badly asked questions from MSDN forums:

Some of my favorite are:

My advice: DON’T POST LIKE THAT! PEOPLE WON’T BE ABLE TO HELP YOU! Be as precise and detailed as you can.

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I was writing today about the movie Pirates of the Caribbeans, naming the post “Pirates at their Worst“. In the meanwhile I found this article on the APC Magazine’s web site, called Romania: a global hotspot for eBay fraud. It reported that the Australian office of eBay has organized a news conference to talk about the frauds commited by Romanians. According to a report from 2006 of the IC3.GOV Internet Crime Complaint Center, Romanian ring crime scammed eBay users for $5,000,000. Out of the sudden, pirats are no longer romantic heroes, looking for adventure, driven by honor and best rolemodels our kids can have.

Mat Henley, of the eBay global fraud investigation team said that:

We discovered that Romania had a huge technology gap between generations. It was enormous: 25-30 year old criminals were some of the brightest people we’ve dealt with, but when you mix in the prosecutors, law enforcement and magistrates, some of them had never been on a computer – period.

To tackle the perpetrators, eBay had to buy computers and digital cameras for the Romanian police and involve US agents working in Romania. The result were “hundreds” of arrests being made, though he refused to give any figures about the actual impact on the internet fraud.

Now, what I have to say about that: yes, Romanians were involved in many frauds, but I doubt that eBay bought computers for the Romanian Police and they made hundreds of arrests in Romania. The news conference was rather a way to make publicity for the company and calm down the unrest among Australian users about frauds on eBay. If you read the report I mentioned above, you’ll see that Romania takes only the 5th place, accounting for only 1.6% of fraud.

Top Ten Countries – Perpetrator
1. United States – 60.9%
2. United Kingdom – 15.9%
3. Nigeria – 5.9%
4. Canada – 5.6%
5. Romania – 1.6%
6. Italy – 1.2%
7. Netherlands – 1.2%
8. Russia– 1.1%
9. Germany – 0.7%
10. South Africa – 0.6%

Most of Romanians operated from countries such as US or UK. I don’t think they had to buy computers to the Police in these countries. So, without a real report from eBay or Romanian Police about the frauds made from Romania, I call the eBay announcements a scam.

And as an interesting thing, I read in the report that:

Pruette is a Romanian national and is currently being held by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. He is believed to be part of a multi-state cell which sends funds to Romania and other countries to support terrorist efforts.

So, according to people that investigate internet crime, Romania might be a terorrist heaven. Let’s only hope that after the Middle East, they won’t focus on us to counter terrorism and bring democracy to the area.

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Being active in several forums for developers (CodeGuru, MSDN, Ronua) I see quite often people saying “I want to write games; what do I have to learn?” Turns out that the kind of games they want to write vary from chess to card games, from shooters to stragety games over the internet. But they can’t even write a “hello world” program. This post is dedicated to all the kids that after playing countless hours of Counter Strike, Unreal Tournament, Warcraft or Need For Speed decided that it would be really cool to write a games themselves.

Now, I’m not saying you could not write one, of course you could; but not something like FIFA World Cup. You could write a Gorillas, or Tic Tac Toe or even a simple five-in-a-row, but before even doing that you have to learn the concepts of programming. You have to pick a language (perhaps C++, C# or Java) and start learning what objects are, what are variables, arrays, strings, what is a virtual function, how do you handle memory, and many, many others. Then you have to start learning Windows programming concepts, and how you deal with windows, dialogs, controls, and many more. Only after than you could hope thinking about writing games.

As for games such as Unreal Tournament or Starcraft, take a look at the credits; you’ll see that tens, perhaps hundreds of people were involved in the development of such games. Designers, developers, testers, art directors, and many more. They have put thousands of hours of work each. Large teams take 1-2 years to write a game such as Need For Speed, even when a platform is already in place, from a previous version. It’s simply not something that one or two young unexperienced people can do.

But that doesn’t mean one day you could not be a part of such a team, working on the next greatest first person shooter. Before that, however, you have a long way ahead. So start learning programming first, and then think about games.

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Nu pot sa raman indiferent la ce s-a intamplat ieri in Romania, o tara cu pretentii de apartenenta europeana. Ieri, conjuratia oligarhilor, mafiotilor si certatilor cu legea si bunul simt au incercat sa ucida nu pe Traian Basescu, nu mitul Basescu, ci insusi poporul roman. Pentru ca se s-a intamplat este o lovitura data omului de rand din Romania, care inca mai crede ca nu putem desprinde de apucaturile comuniste, si de tranzitie, unde care baitetii destepti fura, iar baietii prosti inghit.

Nu vreau decat sa citez cateva paragrafe publicate astazi in Evenimentul Zilei.

Grigore Cartianu

Cei 322 de parlamentari care au votat suspendarea unui presedinte in ciuda recomandarii Curtii Constitutionale isi pot face o poza de album, pentru posteritate. Generatii intregi se vor putea desfata astfel privindu-i pe politrucii care, din razbunare, frustrare sau interese de tip sicilian, au pus umarul la decapitarea statului roman. Dumneata, maicuta Anuta, dumneata, taica Vasilica, voi, cetatenii X ai acestei natiuni! Iar mesajul e clar: nu-i suparati pe nemernici, ca va vor executa cu sange rece! Au bani, relatii, televiziuni. Conduc Republica Mafiota Romania. Pe tine, romanule cinstit, te vor strivi ca pe un gandac! A interesat pe vreunul dintre calaii de ieri avizul negativ dat de Curtea Constitutionala? Ori faptul ca romanii, intrebati daca sunt de acord cu suspendarea presedintelui, au raspuns „NU” intr-un procent zdrobitor? Da’ de unde: ucigasul, cand e hotarat sa comita o crima, baga jungherul si in maicuta care l-a nascut. Poate va intrebati cine sunt, de fapt, cei 322 de ispravnici care l-au executat pe seful statului. Avem de-a face cu trei categorii: 1. parlamentarii cu probleme penale (ii regasim din belsug si la PSD, si la PC sau UDMR); 2. marionetele unor afaceristi penali (la loc de frunte: grupurile Patriciu-PNL si Voiculescu-PC); 3. cei ce-si razbuna propriile patimi din timpul regimului Basescu (turnatoriii Felix, Cosea, Stanoiu, Miki Spaga, apologetii comunisti Iliescu, Vadim si Paunescu etc.); 4. adversarii spulberati de Basescu in alegerile trecute (Nastase, Geoana, Oprescu); 5. frustratii care au stat in preajma lui Basescu cat capra la tap (Lavinia Sandru, Gusa, Pavelescu). Asa s-a ajuns la aberatia ca ieri sa voteze suspendarea, cot la cot, bolsevicii (spasiva, tavarisci Iliescu!) cu liberalii si taranistii, dar si PRM-istii cu UDMR-istii. Vladimir Tismaneanu

Profitand de fiecare ambiguitate a sistemului juridic, manipuland semantic prevederile Constitutiei, inventand culpe si scornind cele mai abjecte scenarii menite sa-l compromita pe presedinte, acesti oameni nu fac decat sa-si continue vechile metehne. Votul anti-Basescu a fost unul al infamiei, al oportunismului cras si al panicii. El probeaza cat se poate de elocvent si alarmant prapastia dintre societatea civila, care se identifica tot mai mult cu presedintele Basescu, si o mare parte a clasei politice. Cand spun societate civila ma gandesc, evident, la acele forte care sustin valorile tolerantei, decentei si civilitatii, deci nu la grupuri fundamentalist-xenofobe ori publicatii specializate in viziuni conspirationiste, antiliberale si antisemite. Inamicii lui Traian Basescu nu i-au iertat faptul ca a initiat si sustinut demersul Comisiei de analiza a dictaturii comuniste. De la Dan Voiculescu la Ion Iliescu, de la Vadim Tudor la Sorin Rosca-Stanescu, de la fratii Roncea la „Noua Dreapta”, ca sa nu mai vorbesc de Relu Fenechiu, Ion Cristoiu, Mihai Pelin si Mihai Ungheanu, s-a nascut un val al refuzului asumarii responsabile a trecutului comunist. Traian Basescu a facut-o, iar acest lucru este impardonabil pentru neocomunisti, neotribalisti, neosecuristi si amicii lor oligarhi. Se poarta in Romania o mare batalie politica si morala. Nu ma indoiesc ca vointa suverana a majoritatii poporului roman se va exprima ferm in favoarea lui Traian Basescu. Din acest punct de vedere, singurul care conteaza in perspectiva istorica, puciul parlamentar a esuat. Marius Draghici

“Patrulaterul negru” este dovada tradarii electoratului de catre parlament. Cata ura, cat venin au putut sa curga de la tribuna parlamentului! In numele nostru! Nu ma mir. Oligarhii se regrupeaza usor pentru ca isi recunosc interesele. Noi, cetatenii, mai greu. Din lasitate? Din indiferenta? Din resemnare? Suspendarea presedintelui Traian Basescu este o dovada ca Romania este un stat ingenuncheat de oligarhie. PSD-ul merge mai departe: ia in calcul o lege prin care sa i se interzica lui Basescu sa mai candideze! Este un moment crucial in istoria Romaniei. De el depinde viitorul nostru. Trebuie sa ne regasim reperele valorice, sa ne uitam in istorie. Am invins un dictator, am daramat un sistem sprijinit pe teroare. Daca stam cu mainile incrucisate, nu incepem nesupunerea civica, ne uitam la televizor la mia de oameni din piata, adio! Nu ne ramane decat sa impachetam bruma de democratie pe care am construit-o intr-un sicriu! Este timpul sa spunem: acestea sunt drepturile noastre, iar peste ele nu se poate trece! Vrem egalitate! Vrem ca mafiotii sa stea in spatele gratiilor, cu averea confiscata si redistribuita la popor! Vrem acces la educatie! Democratia inseamna participare, inclusiv in strada. Aveam o alegere de facut, in aceste patru luni. Vom asista pasivi la minciunile politicienilor alesi pe liste sau iesim in strada pentru un presedinte care vrea votul uninominal. Florian Bichir

De data aceasta, poporul poate sa se intrebe ce-i uneste pe complotisti: ura sau ce alte interese? Ce-i leaga pe acesti oameni de formeaza monstruoase coalitii? Iar poporul poate nu va mai plange la Ruginoasa, ci va bea sampanie in Piata Universitatii. De data aceasta trebuie sa le spunem acestor parlamentari: DESTUL! PESTE POPORUL ROMAN NU SE MAI TRECE! NU conteaza cum o facem, prin vot, prin iesire in strada, dar trebuie sa le aratam ca in Romania, pana la urma domneste vointa poporului. Altfel nu suntem decat o tara bananiera.

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