Kev’s Blog – Page 192 – Kev's Development Toolbox

May 20, 2015

Enjoy your additional ‘leap second’ on June 30th 2015

This year on June 30th at 23:59:59 UTC, rather than the 59th second ticking to 00, there is an additional second added so clocks will tick to 60 before going to 00.

If this sounds rather odd, check out a more detailed explanation here on Wikipedia.

So what does this mean for us as software developers? Well, for Java JVMs, you can use the provided tzupdater tool (updates described here, and usage described here), download the updated timezone file and apply the update. For other platforms and operating systems, check release notes and updates from your vendors (e.g. For RHEL, check here).

Should you be worried about the impact to your systems? Well that depends on how sensitive your system is to the date/time and synchronization with other systems that you integrate with. For example, the ICE futures exchange have announced they are taking their systems down for an hour overlapping with 23:59:59 on June 30th to avoid any unexpected issues. Whether you have to go that far depends on your system.

March 18, 2015

Windows 10 upgrades will be free for all existing 7 and 8.x users

In a move surely aiming to ensure no-one has a reason to cling on to their ‘old’ version of Windows (XP users, thinking of you, but unfortunately you’re out of luck for this upgrade), Microsoft will give free upgrades to Windows 10 this summer, for all 7 and 8.x users.

March 8, 2015

UK Computer Games Industry – History Documentaries

Early 80s in the UK was prime time for the 8bit home computer games industry. I posted a few links of some interesting computer history documentaries on YouTube a while back, including the TV Drama ‘MicroMen’ which covered the rivalry between Clive Sinclair and Chris Curry at the time.

Here’s a couple more:

Commercical Breaks: a documentary about software publishers Ocean and Imagine
Making of Elite

February 21, 2015

The computer on the shelf in WarGames

I’ve just finished reading the first 3 chapters of Fire in the Valley, a history of the development of the PC. These first chapters were history prior to development of the Altair (which was before my time, but I’m familiar with the history), and centered on IMSAI and development of their 8080 computer.

Not having any personal experience with an IMSAI these first chapters were rather dry and slow going, but on the last page of chapter 3 it mentions IMSAI’s one and possibly only claim to fame was that an IMSAI 8080 was used as a prop in the background of WarGames when Matthew Broderick’s character was seen using his computer at home. Given that WarGames is one of my favorite films, this suddenly brought some conext and interest to this first part of the book. I always though that was an Altair on the shelf in the background, but apparently it’s an IMSAI 8080. More info on their site here.