Slashdot Mirror


User: sjames

sjames's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
34,276
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 34,276

  1. Re:This again? on New Test Supports NASA's Controversial EM Drive · · Score: 1

    Or it's managing to accelerate something on the opposite direction. It's clearly not air. Perhaps it's this "dark energy" or "dark matter" that doesn't get half the skepticism here even with sparse evidence. Or perhaps it actually is virtual particles. Would it really be all that shocking that there's something about the quantum foam that we don't know yet?

    It could be that there is a more conventional explanation. Perhaps not. But stomping and saying impossible won't get us anywhere. Nor will throwing out unsupported theories as if they were established fact. That's not science at all.

    Personally, I'd like for the next run to measure electrostatic and magnetic effects though honestly, I doubt that would explain it.

  2. Re:Wait... on Yes, You Can Blame Your Pointy-Haired Boss On the Peter Principle · · Score: 1

    The Peter principle is the recognition that you get promoted to one level higher than your skills, and then stay there. In management, you'll be promoted until your peer's bullshit and credit taking is superior to yours.

  3. Re:So far so good. on Yes, You Can Blame Your Pointy-Haired Boss On the Peter Principle · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Management hierarchy and the way the corporate world conflates it with status has always seemed bizarre to me. It's one thing that people are supposed to do what the manager directs. That's pretty much the job. But then it gets all bizarre. Stools for interns, chairs with a small back rest for grunts, full back for managers and high back and reclining for execs seems odd to say the least.

    I think they would be better served by considering management to be just another job title. The software gets done the way the designer says because it's his job to make the determination. The department manager's priorities decide what is done when because that's his job. Neither is a somehow superior being.

    Note that taken to the fullest, it would get rid of the gigantic security hole that is so often called the CEO. You know, the guy that bypasses all security policy and insists on connecting his kid's laptop and wifi to the corporate network because he is the boss Even though he knows nothing about network security and so really doesn't know enough to be given authority over it. As is proven by the horrific viruses he routinely visits upon the company from that laptop.

    Why should a fully generic MBA in middle management be treated as more important to the company than the people who actually understand the product that keeps the money coming in? Why does he get the medium high chair back (cloth, fake leather is for people a rung higher!) and a window?

  4. Re:Used to work at an immigration firm on Disney Replaces Longtime IT Staff With H-1B Workers · · Score: 1

    Or, many employers are more than happy to lie, cheat, and steal. One way is to wag the dog when creating job requirements. In fact, it's been documented time and again.

  5. Re:Not likely on IBM CIO Thinks Agile Development Might Save Company · · Score: 1

    I would say that agile is what happens when a group of highly skilled developers self-organize around a changing requirements doc, as long as management doesn't try to force the paradigm of the week on them. It works because the team is dominated by higher skilled developers. OTOH, Agile (capitalized) is an attempt to proceduralize that (Taylorism) to get low or no-skilled people to have the same result.

    Naturally, with a lower skilled team it fails. With a highly skilled team, it works to the degree that they are able to cheat the corners to make it fit the natural self ordering.

  6. Re:One of many potential causes on Bees Prefer Nectar Laced With Neonicotinoids · · Score: 1

    I read the article. They have found what they believe may be *A* cause. They make no claim that it is *THE* cause nor do they claim to have fully characterized the contributing factors.

    It is good research and may hold important answers but you seem to be reading more into it than the actual researchers are.

  7. Re:Its about child support on Who Owns Pre-Embryos? · · Score: 1

    Alas, even if she signs in blood, it will not actually absolve him of child support. The courts will hold it invalid and order him to pay.

    In the current legal climate, his one and only option to avoid it is to refuse to consent to implantation ever.

  8. Re:Close to owning on Who Owns Pre-Embryos? · · Score: 1

    In fact, he did not. He did not even agree to the embryos ever being implanted.

  9. Re:Both own half. on Who Owns Pre-Embryos? · · Score: 1

    And yet, that law hasn't been implemented, so the father would still be on the hook. Recently, a man who donated sperm under an agreement that he would have no further rights or responsibilities got hit up for child support and lost in court.

  10. Re:Let's read the transcript exactly on Verizon Tells Customer He Needs 75Mbps For Smoother Netflix Video · · Score: 1

    And you must be hung over and ignorant.

  11. Re:One of many potential causes on Bees Prefer Nectar Laced With Neonicotinoids · · Score: 1

    I may well have, but not knowing where you went to school, how would I know what you're talking about?

  12. Re:well then it's a bad contract on ESPN Sues Verizon To Stop New Sports-Free TV Bundles · · Score: 1

    Gotta agree. Sometimes the announcers seem as if they've never watched a baseball game before. They seem mystified by basic strategies.

    It's also annoying when they throw their weight around to get afternoon games re-scheduled for 8P.M. on a getaway day. Somehow other sports channels manage to cover the game when it is actually scheduled.

  13. Re:One of many potential causes on Bees Prefer Nectar Laced With Neonicotinoids · · Score: 1

    Perhaps then, you should present that research as an argument rather than false claims about lack of neonic use on wheat. A shame you didn't.

  14. Re:Do not want on Smart Headlights Adjust To Aid Drivers In Difficult Conditions · · Score: 1

    I can just see all the cars "looking" all over the place in NYC as soon as they come out of the tunnel, then finally just going cross eyed.

  15. Re:Do not want on Smart Headlights Adjust To Aid Drivers In Difficult Conditions · · Score: 1

    Because the current latest and greatest already cost even more.

  16. Re:Do not want on Smart Headlights Adjust To Aid Drivers In Difficult Conditions · · Score: 1

    I have an LCD now and it's nice, but I must admit that if the CRT was 100 times cheaper, I would have given it serious thought.

  17. Re:Let's read the transcript exactly on Verizon Tells Customer He Needs 75Mbps For Smoother Netflix Video · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No, since the correct answer is "Really 50Mbps is all you need. Going to 75 won't matter". Really, even 50 is WAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY overkill for a 3Mbps stream.

    In a just world, they'd let the people in jail for possession of pot go to make room for the lying pack of jackles that is sales and marketing. Although rarely enforced at all, it is actually against the law to lie to potential customers. Many times they get around it on technicalities or dismissing statements as mere puffery but this is just a straight up lie.

  18. Re:Money on New Privacy Threat: Automated Vehicle Occupancy Detection · · Score: 1

    If true, why are they even vaguely interested in the weaker form of redaction?

    Seems like they are asking for a built-in option to abuse later.

  19. Re:One of many potential causes on Bees Prefer Nectar Laced With Neonicotinoids · · Score: 1

    Actually, I am just not willing to rule it out based on patent falsehoods. Whatever the answer, it won't be found by sweeping facts under the rug.

    I get the impression that you'll convince yourself to believe nearly anything (even that nobody much uses neonics anyway) to 'debunk" an inconvenient hypothesis before it is even tested.

    I note that you spoke of the "lack of neonic use on wheat" supporting your conclusion like it carried the weight of God's own word. As soon as I debunked that belief, it was suddenly unimportant to your pre-formed conclusion.

    You're about a step away from claiming that because yse means no and no means yes, you are, in fact, permitted a second cookie.

    If you would like to present a case based on verifiable facts, have at it. Otherwise please don't waste everyone's time making shit up.

  20. Re:The grid needs storage - not battery storage on Why Our Antiquated Power Grid Needs Battery Storage · · Score: 1

    I'm fairly sure he meant used LiIons from EVs, not old starter batteries.

    LiIon degrades a bit more gracefully and at some point still has a good bit of capacity for stationary applications but not enough for a car.

  21. Re:The grid needs storage - not battery storage on Why Our Antiquated Power Grid Needs Battery Storage · · Score: 1

    Cheap used batteries are a good storage medium at the home since when PV is in use they are at the point of production and consumption. So you lose energy to the storage inefficiencies but by avoiding transmission losses (both ways) it's likely a wash.

    At power plants, if a demand drop leaves them dumping excess energy, nearly any storage is better than sending it up the stack.

  22. Re:One of many potential causes on Bees Prefer Nectar Laced With Neonicotinoids · · Score: 1

    The website was for a Georgia group, but the article was about a national group.

    Pine trees aren't pollinated by me either, but I can't go outside in the spring without ending up covered in pine pollen (presumably grass pollens as well, but I can't see those).

    That leaves your relevant thing highly questionable. A re-analysis is in order.

  23. Re:One of many potential causes on Bees Prefer Nectar Laced With Neonicotinoids · · Score: 1

    Apparently, wheat growers do use neonics. Note that one way to use them is to pre-treat seed. The pesticide will persist in the plant for some time after.

  24. Re: KDBus - another systemd brick on the wall on Linux 4.1 Bringing Many Changes, But No KDBUS · · Score: 1

    Be able to roll back to SysV, naturally, it has few hard dependencies.

    If you mean systemd, the developers have said they intend the dependency to be lock-step with the kernel.

  25. Re:well then it's a bad contract on ESPN Sues Verizon To Stop New Sports-Free TV Bundles · · Score: 1

    Personally, I enjoy baseball, but I find ESPNs coverage of it lacking.