Forget My Number

Sometimes impossibles find their way into your code specs, like an intuitive GUI component that will make complex selections simple, or a wrapper that will make application objects into distributed objects, transparently. The list is endless. This is when all those theory courses, finally, pay off. You just know it is impossible instantly, where you otherwise would waste days trying the impossible. Or worse, you actually implement something. Because of the world wide web, nowadays, you can skimp on theory classes and use Google. For example, Merchants who take credit cards over the Internet for payment need to get rid of the number the microsecond after they’ve placed a hold on the funds, because it is impossible to store that number in a form that is both searchable and secure. (Cranky IT Guy) [How to secure a credit card number] (via: DI) You don’t have to know, anymore, about Knuth, Shannon, Dijkstra, Chomsky, Turing, Erdős, Parnas, Minsky, and the many others. But they are still fun!


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