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User: qbzzt

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Comments · 618

  1. Re:Erm, the 3DS on How Can Nintendo Recover? · · Score: 2

    Minecraft Pocket Edition has real time multiplayer, as long as there is a wireless LAN where you are.

  2. My skills belong to me on Ask Slashdot: Do You Run a Copy-Cat Installation At Home? · · Score: 2

    I get paid to use them for the company's benefit, but I could use them to get a different job or do projects on the side. Also, I often learn things that aren't related to my job, and then I just happen to find a use for them.

    So I don't mind spending my own time to improve my skills, as long as they aren't skills that are specific to the products of one specific employer.

  3. Re:And how is on UN Votes To Protect Privacy In Digital Age · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Woe, in this case, is a non-binding resolution to stop trading with the US. Countries that benefit from trade with the US will mostly either defy that decision, or claim to obey it while doing it under the table.

    The UN is not a government and it does not have an enforcement mechanism (UN troops are national troops loaned to the UN). It is a debating society.

  4. Re: Obummer's exit plan on North Korea Erases Executed Official From the Internet · · Score: 1

    The issue isn't the senior officers. It is the rank and file whose loyalty is required to overthrow the constitution.

  5. Re:Obummer's exit plan on North Korea Erases Executed Official From the Internet · · Score: 1

    Considering that the basic prerequisite for overthrowing the Republic is to gain the personal loyalty of the military (and preferably the veterans, especially in places like the US where they are armed), I'd say either "never" or "when he feels like committing suicide". The US military oath is to obey the constitution first. A president who declared himself supreme leader would suffer from a case of high velocity lead poisoning very quickly.

  6. Re:Just drive there on Gov't Puts Witness On No Fly List, Then Denies Having Done So · · Score: 2

    Yes. "Interstate" means the federal government pays for building and maintaining it. The name is a relic from the time people believed the constitution's commerce clause only applies to interstate commerce.

  7. Re:I'll be damned if I censor myself on Fearing Government Surveillance, US Journalists Are Self-Censoring · · Score: 1

    Yes, but they haven't been buying the personal loyalty of the troops, especially those in the combat arms. They haven't bought the personal loyalty of the recent veterans who know a lot about insurgencies either.

  8. Re:Suggested Slashdot Poll on Fearing Government Surveillance, US Journalists Are Self-Censoring · · Score: 1

    If I am engaged in attempting to get NSA spies to commit suicide out of sheer boredom, is that something the NSA would find interesting?

    BTW, Nancy from the NSA, you know I like you and won't ever do that to you. Don't worry, this is just a joke.

  9. I'll be damned if I censor myself on Fearing Government Surveillance, US Journalists Are Self-Censoring · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It is too easy to eavesdrop on communication. There is no way to avoid it happening, whether by corporation, the government, or a criminal gang.

    We could decide to keep ourselves safe by self-censorship and accept the loss of freedom of speech. Or, we can continue to act normally. If the government has to contend with 0.1% of the population who are loud malcontents, the malcontents have a problem. If the government has to deal with 90% of the population who are loud malcontents, the government has a problem. They can't put us all in jail or shoot us.

    I'll be damned if I let freedom of speech slip away. We didn't get it because of government benevolence (see The Old Issue by Kipling), and we won't keep it by being timid.

  10. Re:I think that's a wasted opportunity on Sebastian Thrun Pivots Udacity Toward Vocational Education · · Score: 1

    The scaling issue is the shortage of competent researchers who can supervise untrained researchers in a useful manner. To do that you need to be good at research and good at mentoring.

  11. Re:I think that's a wasted opportunity on Sebastian Thrun Pivots Udacity Toward Vocational Education · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I think (I was never in one) that the first tier universities allow even undergrads to interact with the world experts and do research under their direction (see http://web.mit.edu/urop/). This is a non-scalable function, which MOOCs can't do.

    This is the reason MITx is such a good idea for MIT - it doesn't eat into their customer base, but that of lesser universities.

  12. Re:Thanks for giving up on poor students on Sebastian Thrun Pivots Udacity Toward Vocational Education · · Score: 2

    Udacity is doing a good job (based on my, admittedly limited, experience) providing extra training for mid-career professionals. That is a bigger market, for most industries, than college-age students who want to get into the industry.

  13. Re:Don't get an education for work, get one for li on Sebastian Thrun Pivots Udacity Toward Vocational Education · · Score: 2

    When you have close to zero assets and close to zero skills, you can't afford to pay tens of thousands of dollars for general education. General education is great, but being able to support the family you'll one day have is more important.

    Universities could get away with general education when they were cheaper, and before that when they were elite institutions for people who would inherit a large business anyway.

  14. Re:Accreditation? on Sebastian Thrun Pivots Udacity Toward Vocational Education · · Score: 1

    Also, your certification is next to worthless if nobody knows that it is. This gives you (and everybody you certify) motivation to get more people certified, up to a certain point.

  15. Re:Thanks for giving up on poor students on Sebastian Thrun Pivots Udacity Toward Vocational Education · · Score: 1

    Because a startup is obligated to serve those who need help that it cannot provide, rather than those who make the best use of its technology?

  16. Re:I think that's a wasted opportunity on Sebastian Thrun Pivots Udacity Toward Vocational Education · · Score: 1

    I meant the link to go to here. Sorry.

  17. Re:I think that's a wasted opportunity on Sebastian Thrun Pivots Udacity Toward Vocational Education · · Score: 1

    EDx makes good courses, IMAO. Also non-accredited. But maybe accreditation is what needs to go. We have a lot of second and third tier universities who can be superseded by MOOCs with no loss of functionality for our culture.

  18. Re:Accreditation? on Sebastian Thrun Pivots Udacity Toward Vocational Education · · Score: 2

    The certificates may be worthless. I don't know, I never tried to use them. But the skills they teach (Python programming, using AppEngine, etc.) are valuable. At least, in my corner of the real world they proved themselves so (this application uses AppEngine in Python).

  19. Not so much of a pivot on Sebastian Thrun Pivots Udacity Toward Vocational Education · · Score: 0

    Most of their courses have always been vocational skills (mostly IT and startups related). This isn't so much a pivot as a business expansion attempt that failed.

  20. Re:Postdoc Required Everywhere on Is a Postdoc Worth it? · · Score: 1

    As you said, it looks like an oversupply of interested people. If I were you, I'd try to get into a different field or industry.

  21. Re:Well... on Stephen Wolfram Developing New Programming Language · · Score: 1

    C also has a couple of features that appear to have come from Lisp:

    1. Pointers to functions, which allow functions to be passed, etc.
    2. Macros expansion phase prior to compile time.

  22. Re:This is why we can't have nice things... on Solid Concepts Manufactures First 3D-Printed Metal Pistol · · Score: 1

    There's a reason for the term "killer app". People are interested in violence.

  23. Re:Yup, and it doesn't matter. on Google: Our Robot Cars Are Better Drivers Than You · · Score: 2

    It won't go away, but it might end up being like riding. It used to be a common skill, necessary for daily life in many cases. Now it is an expensive hobby, and an extremely rare skill. When my son is 16, I'd much rather he get into a Google car that drives for him than drive. By the time he is an adult and able to buy a car for himself, that pattern will be set and he'll probably be looking for thrills elsewhere.

  24. Other instances of Saudi criminal justice on Saudi Justice: 10 Years and 2,000 Lashes For Internet Video of Naked Dancing · · Score: 2

    Apparently, this crime is more serious than the torture and murder of a five year old, which only got 8 years and 600 lashes: http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/07/world/meast/saudi-arabia-girl-death/index.html?sr=sharebar_facebook

  25. Re:XBOX? on Why Is Microsoft Setting More Money On Fire With Surface 2? · · Score: 1

    Not to mention all the failed versions of Windows (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Windows#Early_versions).