Comment Re:Pft (Score 1) 962
Do you really think it's unreasonable to ask for a source when a statistic is quoted? If you're not prepared to back up a claim of fact you shouldn't make it.
Comment Re:first thought: (Score 1) 151
It's unlikely that an inheriting developer is ever going to compliment the quality of your code. If he did, he'd never get the green light to trash all your work and start again from scratch.
Comment Re:Focus group... (Score 2, Insightful) 412
I deplore the use of the word
Really? I don't get that. The reason that people use the word as an insult is because it is a word used to describe people who have intellectual challenges. It doesn't matter what you do, the euphemism treadmill will get you in the end. As evidence I submit this anecdote: I was spending some time with a couple of young gentlmen (kids of a friend of mine) who are 9 and 11 years old. Big kid was teasing little kid, so big kid said "you're a special needs kid!". Does this help you see the futility of rotating in new acceptable terms every couple of decades?
Comment Re:Buy a cheap CRT (Score 1) 367
Can you cite an example of a country which does this?
How an Intern Stole NASA's Moon Rocks 123
schwit1 submitted a story telling the strange tale of how in 2002, rogue NASA interns stole millions of dollars in moon rocks from a building designed not to let that happen. I'd suggest taking the whole thing with a little bit of salt.
The Deceptive Perfection of Auto-Tune 437
theodp writes "For a medium in which mediocre singing has never been a bar to entry, a lot of pop vocals suddenly sound better than great — they're note- and pitch-perfect. It's all thanks to Auto-Tune, the brainchild of Andy Hildebrand, who realized that the wonders of autocorrelation — which he once used to map drilling sites for the oil industry — could also be used to bestow perfect pitch upon the Britney Spears of the world. While Auto-Tune was intended to be used unnoticed, musicians are growing fond of adjusting the program's retune speed to eliminate the natural transition between notes, which yield jumpy and automated-sounding vocals. 'I never figured anyone in their right mind would want to do that,' says Hildebrand."
As these techniques improve and become more popular, it makes me wonder what music produced twenty or fifty years from now will sound like, and how much authenticity will be left.
Distributed "Nuclear Batteries" the New Infrastructure Answer? 611
thepacketmaster writes "The Star reports about a new power generation model using smaller distributed power generators located closer to the consumer. This saves money on power generation lines and creates an infrastructure that can be more easily expanded with smaller incremental steps, compared to bigger centralized power generation projects. The generators in line for this are green sources, but Hyperion Power Generation, NuScale, Adams Atomic Engines (and some other companies) are offering small nuclear reactors to plug into this type of infrastructure. The generator from Hyperion is about the size of a garden shed, and uses older technology that is not capable of creating nuclear warheads, and supposedly self-regulating so it won't go critical. They envision burying reactors near the consumers for 5-10 years, digging them back up and recycling them. Since they are so low maintenance and self-contained, they are calling them nuclear batteries."
Comment Re:Hmmm getting close to the 12 regenerations limi (Score 1) 330
the Time Agents
The Time Agents from the 51st Century (of whom Captain Jack is one) were actually first mentioned in the classic Tom Baker story "The Talons of Weng Chiang". Robert Holmes was the author.
I'd love to know where Jack was when the Doctor was "with the Filipino army at the final advance on Reykjavik", as he states in that story.
Comment Re:Common Sense (Score 1) 656
Ask that person to construct a coordinated response that has nothing to do with america. They just can't. Within half a minute they reflexively go back to sneering at the US.
And you wonder why the rest of the world sneers...
Comment Re:First they came for the pirates... (Score 1) 470
Please now enlighten me how this is so.
I look forward to your diatribe against restrictions on hate speech or French language legistlation.
Comment Not Unions, but something else (Score 1) 1254
We don't need unions for programmers... We have it pretty good already. As many others have noted, a union will most likely encourage mediocrity and stop rewarding individuals that excel.
However, we do need more representation at the government level.. i.e., lobbyists. We need to prevent the rampant abuses of the H1-B visa system, and get rid of tax breaks for companies that ship more and more jobs out of the country. I believe wholeheartedly in capitalism, so companies should be free to go after whatever labor pool they think will work best for them. BUT - we should certainly not be rewarding companies with tax breaks for taking jobs away from citizens and shifting them to other countries. If anything, we should be rewarding companies that create jobs in this country.
The corporations have their own lobbyists, and spend millions of dollars each year to ensure that they can treat their employees like crap and hire cheap foreign labor. The employees need their own representation to balance the equation.
However, we do need more representation at the government level.. i.e., lobbyists. We need to prevent the rampant abuses of the H1-B visa system, and get rid of tax breaks for companies that ship more and more jobs out of the country. I believe wholeheartedly in capitalism, so companies should be free to go after whatever labor pool they think will work best for them. BUT - we should certainly not be rewarding companies with tax breaks for taking jobs away from citizens and shifting them to other countries. If anything, we should be rewarding companies that create jobs in this country.
The corporations have their own lobbyists, and spend millions of dollars each year to ensure that they can treat their employees like crap and hire cheap foreign labor. The employees need their own representation to balance the equation.
Comment does anyone know Darl McBride's credit card #? (Score 1) 669
If we can steal Darl McBride's credit card #..
then we can max his credit card by buying linux licencese..
at $669 a pop we could max out his credit card easily....
I think that would be more useful than a DOS attack on the shop site..
Journal Journal: I think we're alone now
I think we're alone now, the beating of hearts is the only sound. I think we're alone now, (alone now). There doesn't seem to be anyone around..
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