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Because people will start abusing the hell out of it.

pot, meet kettle :)

See the second picture on the first answer. Notice how the waterfall system as described by the original inventor shows how it iterates backwards until the major steps are completed. Surprised that waterfall isn't quite as waterfall-y as popular fable suggests?

The problem with the 80s/90s waterfall led projects were external to the methodology used. The concept of up-front design can work, if you understand you need to be a little bit flexible. I'd say there are a lot of projects today that are being built using Agile methods that will be seen to be total failures in the future (ok, they're not truly agile, they're usually bastard versions of some PMs idea of a good time spent planning) but the simple fact that you can't blame the method for human fuckups should be clear to all.

Except 'brogramming' which is pure human fuckup right from the start.

YUM does those things: Because I'm lazy...

In addition to the problems pointed out by MyLongNickName, it is worth pointing out that problems being in NP don't mean they aren't solvable. Quite the opposite in fact: any fixed problem in NP is solvable. The issue is that some problems in NP (the so-called NP complete problems) are conjecturally difficult to solve. Roughly speaking, P is the set of questions which can be solved in time that is bounded by polynomial of the length of the problem statement. So for example, "Is the number n prime?" can be answered in time which is polynomial in the length of its input (here the input is the digits of n). Problems in NP are problems which when the answer is "yes" a proof exists that is the answer is yes, and the proof size is bounded by a polynomial of the input length, and the proof can be verified in polynomial time. So to solve a problem in NP one essentially needs to just check all the possible proofs of short size. The big conjecture is that P and NP are actually distinct- that is that there are problems where it is easy to prove a solution works but finding a solution is tough.

But there's another problem here. Even saying that chess is in NP isn't accurate. There are multiple generalizations of what one means by chess and since complexity classes require not single problems but sets of problems, what framework you use to call "chess" matters. http://cstheory.stackexchange.com/questions/6563/what-is-the-computational-complexity-of-solving-chess discusses this in some detail. In some frameworks, "chess" is actually in the much larger set of EXP or PSPACE, which are worse than NP in general, but are still finite time solvable.

Here in the UK the plural of Lego is indeed Lego, and I would ask someone to come and play with my Lego. There's some good discussion here about the pluralisation issue.

http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/45776/why-do-business-analysts-and-project-managers-get-higher-salaries-than-programme

http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/45776/why-do-business-analysts-and-project-managers-get-higher-salaries-than-programme

I've lost hundreds of hours in code reviews because some pedant was more interested in picking nits over whitespace than actually reviewing my algorithms

Actually your coworkers lost hundreds of hours in code reviews because you were sloppy and did not care about your code being readable. You should fix your code before even bothering them about a review.
Strict coding styles are good because when they are enforced you spend zero time wondering how to name variables or format code. You spend time actually writing good, readable code. This StackExchange question has a lot of insight on the topic.

WebGL is not yet a web standard.

Neither is anything else in HTML5. The latest W3C Recommendation is still HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.0/1.1/2.0. Besides, the 2D canvas was implemented in iOS before it was accepted by W3C.

And it still has stability and security problems.

True, in June of 2011, a bunch of security problems were pointed out in WebGL, causing Microsoft to shun WebGL in favor of its own Direct3D-based alternative as part of Silverlight. But what security problems remain eighteen months later? Google webgl security, limited to the past year, links to a page mentioning a possible DoS when a scene is so complex that it slows down the device, but that can already be done with JavaScript. This eight-month-old page claims that a lot of other vulnerabilities have been plugged as well. So what are the current attacks on WebGL in Firefox and Opera? One lingering possibility is that defects in graphics drivers could be exploited, but Apple controls the graphics drivers on iDevices.

http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/5617/why-are-bitcoin-calculation-useless/

You can disable this on linux: http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/4098/how-to-disable-firewire-in-openbsd-linux-to-prevent-attacks-through-firewire

But I don't know any way to prevent PCI init execution.

Dude, stackexchange is NOT stackoverflow. Stackexchange evens hosts a forum on bicycles, so why not a forum on Judaism? With questions of key values in times like these (!):
-- http://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/22315/kashrus-status-of-turkeys : Are turkeys kosher?
-- http://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/10358/may-one-use-a-computer-script-to-do-something-specifically-on-shabbos-yom-tov : Can you use computer scripts to automate actions to allow certain [forbidden?] activities on the Sabbath? The point in this one seems to be that the only ones who can earn Enthusiast or Fanatic badges on judaism.stackexchange.com would be those who use a computer on the sabbath and thus show themselves to be non-observant jews. Or perhaps I misread this. Either way, it sure seems like a valid forum.
.;>)
As to "is this [posting about polaroids] news", I have a memory of a very interesting thing that happened a while ago. I typed three letters as I had this memory. The thing that happened was tech related. Perhaps I ought to write a /. article and submit it. So as to the original point, I agree that the concept of a polaroid photograph of a techy object from the prior century has dubious standing to be an article on the "one true /." (reference to the "true scotsman" fallacy), but boy it fits with the stinking pile of non-tech articles that /. has become. So I agree with that your first point. (also see five to ten of my previous posts that agree with the drab-ness, non-tech-ness, non-news-for-nerdness of this site). I was tempted to not even answer this Q so as not to give this particular topic/posting any more validity. In fact, your questioning of the usefulness of this posting of a polaroid is more relevant to /. than the posting of the polaroid itself is.
.
But I believe you are mistaking the narrow scope of stackoverflow for the wide berth of stackexchange's multiple topics and stacks.

Dude, stackexchange is NOT stackoverflow. Stackexchange evens hosts a forum on bicycles, so why not a forum on Judaism? With questions of key values in times like these (!):
-- http://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/22315/kashrus-status-of-turkeys : Are turkeys kosher?
-- http://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/10358/may-one-use-a-computer-script-to-do-something-specifically-on-shabbos-yom-tov : Can you use computer scripts to automate actions to allow certain [forbidden?] activities on the Sabbath? The point in this one seems to be that the only ones who can earn Enthusiast or Fanatic badges on judaism.stackexchange.com would be those who use a computer on the sabbath and thus show themselves to be non-observant jews. Or perhaps I misread this. Either way, it sure seems like a valid forum.
.;>)
As to "is this [posting about polaroids] news", I have a memory of a very interesting thing that happened a while ago. I typed three letters as I had this memory. The thing that happened was tech related. Perhaps I ought to write a /. article and submit it. So as to the original point, I agree that the concept of a polaroid photograph of a techy object from the prior century has dubious standing to be an article on the "one true /." (reference to the "true scotsman" fallacy), but boy it fits with the stinking pile of non-tech articles that /. has become. So I agree with that your first point. (also see five to ten of my previous posts that agree with the drab-ness, non-tech-ness, non-news-for-nerdness of this site). I was tempted to not even answer this Q so as not to give this particular topic/posting any more validity. In fact, your questioning of the usefulness of this posting of a polaroid is more relevant to /. than the posting of the polaroid itself is.
.
But I believe you are mistaking the narrow scope of stackoverflow for the wide berth of stackexchange's multiple topics and stacks.

Timothy is a pro-Mac, pro-Israel Jew. He's the guy who got me permanently banned from posting while logging in, even though I have a record of posting as much as 4 +5 scoring posts in a single discussion.

from the instant-but-slow dept.

See those above, but in politically-charged discussions on his watch. He's the Michael that should have been kicked off this site long ago. Why does Stackexchange even have a forum for Judaism? Like, seriously, Judaism on StackExchange? Because the Jews in high positions will do their best to shove it up your asses, of course.

-- Ethanol-fueled

Music performance is hard to teach yourself?

Go on http://music.stackexchange.com/ and you'll find the advice "look, I know it's expensive, but get a good teacher" over and over again.

There are lots of self-taught musicians, but (apart from edge cases) they're mediocre, or they've taken longer to get where they are than if they'd had a teacher.

Nope. Log access is restricted with Jelly Bean onwards to the app's own logs only. You need root access to circumvent that. See http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/28857/how-can-i-access-android-log-files-on-my-nexus-7-without-root-access

If you're not using all of your RAM, you have an inefficient system. The aforementioned registry toggle sets the maximum size of the filesystem cache to the size of main memory. This is great for file servers and other systems with tons of RAM. It's probably a good solution for the "I need it all in RAM." gamer, as it will result in the behavior he wants without breaking other parts of the system. Keeping a minimal swap file is a good idea even if you don't *expect* to ever run out of memory.

P.S. As the subject line implies, you can more easily adjust these sort of things on linux.

I have submitted this story twice and got rejected TWICE. Unbelievable. Google, the USTPO and stack exchange have gotten together and created patents.stackexchange.com - a chance to work with others (included those that are more familiar with patent law) to search out current patents already filed or vet out new patents on the horizon.

My thread that i started got some great feedback. It involves the patents revolves around Worlds Inc suing Blizzard. I was advised that I might want to focus on one of the four patents in questions and go with that then move on others, even though most all of the four patents are inter-related.(IMO). I need some help gathering information regarding any patent that you want to start on. send me an email/pm on stack exchange if you are interested.

I have submitted this story twice and got rejected TWICE. Unbelievable. Google, the USTPO and stack exchange have gotten together and created patents.stackexchange.com - a chance to work with others (included those that are more familiar with patent law) to search out current patents already filed or vet out new patents on the horizon.

My thread that i started got some great feedback. It involves the patents revolves around Worlds Inc suing Blizzard. I was advised that I might want to focus on one of the four patents in questions and go with that then move on others, even though most all of the four patents are inter-related.(IMO). I need some help gathering information regarding any patent that you want to start on. send me an email/pm on stack exchange if you are interested.

What are the prospects for a single orbiting planet (let's exclude other objects) orbiting both stars in a figure 8 configuration, crossing the barycenter of the star's combined rotations?

I asked this very question not long ago:
http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/31201/might-a-planet-perform-figure-8-orbits-around-two-stars

Simple geometry states you need three satellites for an accurate 2D fix, and four satellites for a 3D fix, not whether you have access to the encrypted P(Y) code.

http://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/12866/gps-positioning-why-four-satellites
http://www.cmtinc.com/gpsbook/chap5.html
http://www.gpsnuts.com/mygps/gps/technical/ed.htm

Note that the final reference I list is written by someone who is a GPS analyst and has worked for the DOD on the GPS system since 1975.

Finally, someone else who does this :P. I can't stand IDEs after I saw this: http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/32490/writing-programs-without-graphical-ide Only Vim now. Albeit, my Vim install is so tricked out that it has more features than Eclipse.

Expensive?

http://patents.stackexchange.com/

Knock yourself out.

Personally, I think the initiative and work involved in setting up a node (even if they get it to the relatively trivial, it's always going to be harder than just signing up) is going to necessarily impact adoption, and it'll never get off the ground

There's a whole bunch of reasons why Diaspora is a non-starter.

First, they're moving to a community release NOW. They should have made the community release at the same time that they brought up their site. Second, the requirements are offensive. Social networking is relatively simple, it's the amount of data to deal with that makes it complex, not the actual tasks. We've had fora and the like for ages. Everything the typical social networking site does could be handled by a typical PHP CMS (e.g. Drupal or Wordpress) and a module or three, using existing methods of syndication. Third, nobody knows or cares what it is.

It was necessary to remove "legacy ports" for USB to function?

No, it was necessary to remove legacy ports to push peripheral manufacturers to make their devices that used USB.

OK, I see where you're coming from - not a physical necessity so much as a psychological one.

Or, you know, a way to force your customers to buy all new peripherals so they can use the new iShiny you just sold them... hmm, where did this sudden sense of deja vu come from?

the G3 iMac

Ugh; I freakin' hated those things. The iMac was my introduction to Apple computers (I don't count the Apple II, that bad boy is in a class all it's own), and it was a very, very bad experience.

Might explain why I'm still not a fan of their product offerings...

[citation needed]

"The iMac was the first computer to exclusively offer USB ports as standard,[2] including the connector for its new keyboard and mouse,[3] thus abandoning previous Macintosh peripheral connections, such as the ADB, SCSI and GeoPort serial ports." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMac_G3

"First to exclusively offer" != first to offer.

Here's a fairly good possible explanation of why USB took off after the iMac G3's introduction I found on stackexchange:

...the iMac may have helped, not so much by including USB ports, but by not including any legacy ports. That means that you now had to buy new USB peripherals instead of [using] your old [non-USB] ones. But since PC providers also started including USB it meant that the manufacturers of peripherals now could make one peripheral that would work on both platforms, and that, in my opinion, is the real reason USB took off, as hardware manufacturers had a good reason to switch to USB.

Origin of the walled garden?

Everything that Apple sued over is prior art. Seriously.... 100% of it. I don't understand why Samsung's legal team didn't just go camp at the USPTO with their prior art and get those patents revoked. No patent = no law suit. What a bunch of screw ups. And Apple is infringing everyone from HTC to Mitsubishi to Nokia to IBM with their "patents". Feel free to pile on and offer up your own examples of prior art.... http://patents.stackexchange.com/questions/457/prior-art-should-invalidate-apples-patents

So perhaps do a bit of research on your own? You clearly also don't understand the concept, but you sure are quick to take offense.

The entropy of a system is simply the number of options for that scheme, expressed in bits. Sure, there are assumptions in the comic but they are applied equally to both sides. The password uses only one particular pattern (and offers a few more bits to account for picking other patterns), while the phrase is restricted to using exactly four words. While the phrase is restricted to a 2000-word (11 bit) dictionary, the password has a 16-bit dictionary to choose from (covering a vocabulary of 65,000 words).

The comic isn't meant to be an academic paper, but rather to make accessible the results of decades of study into information theory.

but civilized people don't have death penalty because for the innocent it's too cruel and for the guilty it's too easy.

I would add to your points that capital punishment is also remarkably ineffective and prohibitively expensive.

Select quote:

If executions protected innocent lives through deterrence, that would weigh in the balance against capital punishment's heavy social costs. But despite years of trying, this benefit has not been shown to exist; the only proven effects of capital punishment are its liabilities.

    - Professor Lamperti

It seems that the hottest part is actually not the CPU but the ethernet/USB controller.

StackExchange's Skeptics site has some related calculations for United Airlines that may be illuminating.

I'm no expert in quantum gravity, but I have sometimes the impression that the pictures of spacetime quantization are often a bit naive; basically the pictures of quantum spacetime look to me more like a classical discrete spacetime. I can't of course exclude the possibility that it's just the presentation.

The two main contenders are string theory (ST) and loop quantum gravity (LQG). ST doesn't quantize spacetime at all. LQG gives quantization of area and volume, but not lengths. It is definitely wrong to present either theory as existing on a discrete grid: http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/186076/is-there-such-a-thing-as-discrete-riemannian-geometry

You are confusing ethics with morals. Ethics aren't relative to an individual.

See the following.

Ethics relates to a generalized concept of fairness and honesty, and you would be hard pressed to say that it is remotely honest to take advantage of an obvious bug hundreds if not thousands of times to make yourself rich. It is possible, it may very well be legal, and depending upon your upbringing and religion, it may even be moral to do so, but it is clearly unethical.

A team of senior developers will often produce a complex design and no code

The best code written is the code that isn't there.
See "Negative Code"

Would have suggested that right away but didn't know whether it packs enough bang.

Me either, but I did find a discussion thread where some fellas managed to get pulseaudio running w/ VLC Of course, that's only playback...

Since we're just talking about simple voice recording, surely the hardware requirements would be minimal? I mean, if 12k is good enough for phone conversations...

A subsequent RaspberryPi story shouldnt take long now, so strap yourselves in guy's!

Business plan:

1. Mine bitcoins with your Raspberry Pi.
2. Store the bitcoins on your Raspberry Pi
3. Use those bitcoins to buy another Raspberry Pi
4. ?
5. Profit!

SSl (256 bit) using 128-bit keys has been cracked for years...

Citation, please?

a href="http://www.inet2000.com/public/encryption.htm">These sites beg to differ.

We can outrun a lot of animals, and probably all the wild ones that don't undergo "training", but we are definitely slower than horses. Human best marathon time is 2 hours for 26 miles, which gives us an average speed of 20 km/h. A horse on the other hand, can race at an average speed of 25 km/h, and do this for 6 hours. And that is carrying a person.

I always wondered why OpenGL never caught on, until I read this explanation at stackexchange.

I knew I read this before:
http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/155488/ive-inherited-200k-lines-of-spaghetti-code-what-now

That article is linked in the first sentence of the summary.

The full story is excellently described here.

Ideally you would write for OpenGL on all markets but..... well, read it yourself. The future on the other hand is uncertain, maybe we'll see more OpenGL now.

... and how to "reverse" it: http://android.stackexchange.com/a/26013/15713

This stackexchange question is very good: Is anybody using client browser certificates?

It seems the lack of use of user certificates comes down to laziness: 1) in implementing a simple user certificate management system 2) in distributing certificates.

When I was in middle school they taught us how to fill out a check. In this day and age, we should be teaching how PKI works and how to manage your keychain.

Imagine if we were not putting locks on doors because no one knew how keys worked, people forgot their keys, and you have to actually hand out keys. I think "not putting locks on doors" would be considered a ridiculous proposition. Educate the users.

Rebuttal. This is just one guy's opinion, so take it for what you will.

1. Air conditioning on a shoestring budget
2. How can I calculate how large an airconditioner my house needs?
3. Can I power my air conditioning with solar energy?

1. Air conditioning on a shoestring budget
2. How can I calculate how large an airconditioner my house needs?
3. Can I power my air conditioning with solar energy?

1. Air conditioning on a shoestring budget
2. How can I calculate how large an airconditioner my house needs?
3. Can I power my air conditioning with solar energy?

the study included self-report sun exposure; the higher quintiles of caffeine consumption had very slightly higher sun exposure (but not significant).

something that struck me though, was that very high caffeine consumption (>600mg/day) was linked with heavy smoking (addicts are addicts across the board). i personally suspect that naively "compensating" for heavy smoking (by doing a non-causal regression) bled over into reduced cancer for the same group, as a statistical artifact. this is consistent with their finding that decaf doesn't have an effect; if you're worried about caffeine, you're probably not smoking much either.

you can't just throw inter-correlated variables into a regression formula and say you've "controlled" for them. well, you can, but you shouldn't. there are better ways.

It has been speculated that he suffered from Parkingsons. There's certianly plenty of voice recordings of him, covering many years of activity. This ought to be a great way to test both the software and the theories.

ps. Sorry for Godwining the story so early

Please post your identity and company publicly so we can all be warned against applying.

Start here.
Further reading.
There's a hell of a lot more to this issue than your prejudices. Anyone that claims either way is objectively better is a fool. The good programmer uses the tool that's suitable for the job.

Didn't you like Relativity and In the Blink of an Eye? I think they were season 5 or 6 episodes.

Also, this scifi.stackexchange.com recommendation attempts to justify why Voyager should be the first choice.. Also, do ignore the fact that the linked answer is a recommendation for an 8-year-old girl