Slashdot Mirror


User: spads

spads's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
220
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 220

  1. Re:Can you say "the american way" ? on Millennials Earn 20 Percent Less Than Boomers Did At Same Stage of Life (usatoday.com) · · Score: 1

    agreed. would be highly interested. on the face of it seems plausible though, and on the basis of that have simply been saying this (i.e. on MY OWN authority) to shut down my employers' absurd entreaties.

  2. I finally installed it last night on 2 computers. on Slashdot Asks: Free Upgrade To Windows 10 Ends Today: What's Your Thought On This? · · Score: 1

    Have to say the installs went flawlessly. The final selling point was to get a couple more years of support out of an OS I am basically stuck with (i.e. MS Windows in general) due to work constraints.

    I do hope to see these performance improvements folks are talking about, and am heartened that this Cortana thing can be turned off. However, some of my first experiences with Edge just now were giving ~20 second delays between letters typed into an input field.

    I am not a great fan of MS's philosophy, nor, technology, but, like I said, feel relatively stuck/trapped with it (FOR NOW). Fortunately, the 10 OS seems fairly well performing and usable thus far, and I have already seen one improvement that has completely justified the switch. The infuriating behavior I put up with for a couple of years where edge swipes would continually send me to that worthless Apps palette seem to have finally gone away. I had found ways to turn that off at times (as well as the maddening edge window maximization), but they always managed to turn themselves back on again. So now, I guess, that palette is gone, which certainly seems to be the best option.

    Just heartened to see a general trend of MS chastening over time. I believe in that - "the bigger they come...", "snake eating it's tail", etc. It's been mainly the open source movement / Linux which has done it. Even if the average Joe can't appreciate Linux's quality, MS can. "Ask not for whom the bell tolls...".

  3. Seems counter-intuitive on many levels. on Supercapacitor-On-a-Chip Now One Step Closer (ieee.org) · · Score: 1

    Capacitors are for storing up change, and ICs are supposed to be very low voltage/current requirements, so what do you need that for? Also, I thought surges such as a capacitor might produce are generally damaging to the micro-circuitry of an IC.

  4. I finally realized how the UBI could & should on VC Firm Y Combinator Launches an Experiment In Universal Basic Income (fastcoexist.com) · · Score: 1

    Just tax all those making in excess of some determined "wealth" threshold DIRECTLY and SOLEY to pay for it. Thus, you provide a disincentive to earn beyond this level (seems healthy off the top of my head). Also, perhaps most importantly, there is some poetic-justice in making the wealthy pay for the poor, considering they are basically alike (/brothers) of doing nothing. Or, rather, to be more accurate, I should say doing no WORK, in that I don't really consider paper-shuffling investing / entrepreneurship / business administration as being actual work (though it (sometimes) MIGHT produce actual value).

  5. Re:Pay-per-click is a broken model on Why Stack Overflow Doesn't Care About Ad Blockers · · Score: 1

    Ok, but then you are missing out on the (supremely) empowering experience of actually ~~clicking~~ on the ad.

  6. lots of dudes pissing and moaning because... on Why the Calorie Is Broken (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 1

    ...a story got repeated. Guess it must be seriously rough to be seriously bored on your job, huh, scraping around for any possible distractions? It's no wonder the US economy and industry is going down the tubes. Sheesh!

  7. "zero sum game" type situation seems plausible. on Hawking Says Scientific Progress Is Major Source of New Threats To Humanity · · Score: 1

    .#!~~sdfs

  8. Re:What I want to know: is /. sending an announcem on As Sea Levels Rise, Are Coastal Nuclear Plants Ready? (nationalgeographic.com) · · Score: 1

    thanks. had heard that term somewhere.

  9. What I want to know: is /. sending an announcemet on As Sea Levels Rise, Are Coastal Nuclear Plants Ready? (nationalgeographic.com) · · Score: 1

    ...to the nuclear shills prior to publishing one of these articles? Not that their boiler-plate would be so difficult to produce on the spur of the moment, but, credit where credit is due, it sure does exceed in smugness and smarmy hail-fellow-well-met!

    I'll say one other thing about these polished shills - they win either way. Either they're out propounding their (sympathetic) "pooh-pooh, pooh-pooh..." rhetoric, or, when things do sometimes INEXPLICABLY go awry, they're the first to show up with their somber, contrite faces and roll up their sleeves and (make a pretense of) get (ting) down to DO ANYTHING POSSIBLE TO MITIGATE THE HIGHLY LAMENTABLE (and virtually inexplicable) TRAGEDY. They win either way! Either they're the cool, self-assured pooh-poohers of environmental alarmists, or they're MAKING A SHOW OF moving mountains to resolve something which NO ONE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND COULD EVER HAVE ANTICIPATED. LORD HAVE MERCY!!!!!

  10. Re:A right? on Facebook Tweaks Its "Real Names" Policy (thestack.com) · · Score: 1

    Personally I strongly dislike this recent trend of pushing the use of your real identity, especially with recent actual occurrences of people being harassed in real life due to online activities. It's one of the many reasons I choose not to use facebook (the other being I find whatever voodoo they do to recommend friends disturbing, I signed up with fake info awhile back and it started recommending people I actually did know from both family and work.. which honestly creeped me the fuck out). I don't feel like my rights are being violated though.

    I have seen that. Presumably it is from your visiting their pages with that identity? That's all I can think, because I didn't have them in my contacts or anything.

  11. Re:Patton vs. Bradley on Rubber Tanks and Sonic Trucks: the Ghost Army of World War II (hackaday.com) · · Score: 1

    The German spooks heard of this, but discarded it quickly. Why would an Army sideline a brilliant General, just because he slapped a simple enlisted man?

    Hey, fooled you, most awesomely!

    I wondered the same myself. I think Patton slapping a GI is small stuff, probably did much more to piss off his superiors. Maybe they used that to create a red herring for German spies. Back when History Channel had history, one panelist commented if Patton was active on Normandy landings, they would have been more successful (not sure how to define success, airborne troops scattered about was a disaster but it really confused the Germans to exact beachheads). Speaking of ghost armies, I read that Saddam Hussein really believed he had formable WMDs and other weapon systems because his staff pumped up the numbers out of fear if they really told him he had no capable WMDs, they would be fired (literally). Apparently the American spooks fell for this as well.

    "In America they break the strongest man."

    I heard this once on the NPR show "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" and have always wondered as to the original source.

  12. I thought this had pretty much already been done on iPhone Hacker Geohot Builds Self-Driving Car AI (bloomberg.com) · · Score: 1

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    Except for perhaps the learnability, which is more of an AI than an automated driving advance? Though, in any case it would certainly be impressive to duplicate this independently.

    It sounds like the gas and brake controlers are fairly commonly built in, but I was not aware of the steering controls, and he didn't mention adding any motors.

  13. Everyone should check the excellent Israeli... on Israel Meets With Google and YouTube To Discuss Censoring Videos (middleeastmonitor.com) · · Score: 1

    ...made documentary "Defamation". It makes the critical point that however many Israelis might perceive otherwise, anti-Zionism is not equivalent to anti-Semitism. Thus, the simple logical fallacy that many Zionists fall prey to is, while all (ethnic) Zionists might be Semites, not all Semites are Zionists.

  14. Well, yeah, duh, because they can! on Engineers Nine Times More Likely Than Expected To Become Terrorists (washingtonpost.com) · · Score: 1

    What are the others supposed to do, throw water balloons? Basically, this just means nine times more capable. Guess we should be glad there are less engineers in the world! :) Though, perhaps, non-engineers (i.e. less fulfilling lives, lower earnings, etc) would be more like to become terrorists than engineers, WERE THEY CAPABLE!

  15. If this is substantively as it sounds,... on AMA Calls For Ban On Direct-To-Consumer Advertising of Prescription Drugs (ap.org) · · Score: 1

    ...I think it is one of the most bloody f-g amazing things I have heard in a good long while.

    Previously I have seen the AMA as being definitely part of the problem (and maybe this is just damage control in the face of Obamacare, etc?), and their (medical) side being part of the problem is much, MUCH worse than all of the business elements which are (e.g. insurance, pharmaceutics, etc.).

  16. Anyone know what the effective Paris equivalent... on Explosions and Multiple Shootings In Paris, Possible Hostages (cnn.com) · · Score: 1

    ...of SWAT is? Would be outrageous for them not to have something in place after the last thing, and regular cops should be armed as well.

  17. Fine. Blame them both. One wrong doesn't make the other right.

  18. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! on New Book Sold Out Offers a Look At the H-1B Debate · · Score: 1

    I can't tell you how many people we've had apply for web development jobs who think that knowing DreamWeaver and Photoshop makes them qualified!

    If that is true, either you must not have read their resume, or else you have a moral obligation to shred them for sending a fallacious one. Someone in that scenario deserves a serious upbraiding.

  19. Re:Cannot reproduce on Microsoft Now Uses Windows 10's Start Menu To Display Ads (betanews.com) · · Score: 1

    Just give it a little time, my son, just a little time...

  20. The main reason Playboy became outmoded was not on Playboy Drops Nudity As Internet Fills Demand · · Score: 1

    ...because of the internet. It was because it (somewhat prudish, overly hyped, plasticy models/photographs) failed to keep pace with the actual SEXUALITY provided elsewhere, whether print or digital. Worse, their type of stuff became iconic, somewhat supplanting natural/living sexuality, and further confusing the already sexually embattled American male.

  21. Anyone with me that flags should be at half mast? on Playboy Drops Nudity As Internet Fills Demand · · Score: 4, Funny

    ;P~

  22. Re:uh no on The Campaign To Get Every American Free Money, Every Year · · Score: 1

    Damn, sure wish I had some mod points to give for "neck tatoos". Hopefully someone will soon provide the missing one. One of the funniest damn statements I've read in a while. No wonder you're at the poverty line with an attitude like that! Seriously, though, hang in there. You are right. I had a similar experience, and though not yet in heaven, I am INTACT and doing incrementally better! :)

    Basically (for now), if you have a kid you can't support, and you want welfare, you agree to be sterilized. You get something, you give something in return. That's just the way it goes!

  23. Re:Internet Autism on Interviews: Ask Dr. Temple Grandin About Animals and Autism · · Score: 1

    I think your obsevations are true. I think people are attracted to the autistic and naturally, subconsciously desire to emulate them, because they seem courageous in their isolation, as though one "going it alone". Thus, it is more complex (and laudable) than the simple hypochondriac's "hmm, that sounds like me!"

  24. religious observances? on Interviews: Ask Dr. Temple Grandin About Animals and Autism · · Score: 1

    What is your feeling on religious/spiritual obeservances, both personally and in general? Do you have any personal such observances (if you are okay talking about it), and if so, what form do they take?

  25. genesis of autism? on Interviews: Ask Dr. Temple Grandin About Animals and Autism · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Do you follow any theories on the genesis of autisism, and if so, do you prefer any in particular?