Why in the name of Oppenheimer did they fire the one guy who actually did his job, when everyone above and around him appeared to fail pretty seriously at theirs?
Because the nuclear industry is a particularly pathetic and miserable heap of shit.
How much were they paying him for watching over the security of a nuclear plant? Most likely a pittance.
...says the man who has never had to work with the VA Medical System, the DMV, etc...
Ah, but thats the US. You people can't seem to get government even halfway right, for some weird reason. I'm not even going to mention gun control.
Half-jokes aside, there is one diff between a deranged corporation and a deranged government department: You can tell the deranged corporate department to piss off, or take them to court if their actions warrant it.
What planet are you livling on? I don't think it is the same as mine. You are more likely to win a suit against the government than against a corporation. Even in the US. Just consider the recent unlawful foreclosure scandal.
I would also argue that various branches or sections of government don't work together very well either.
Corporate bureaucracy tends to be deranged in worse ways than state bureaucracy.
Modern, western countries can do very well in comparison. there is a lot to be improved, of course, but worship of the private sector is not warranted in this respect.
Re:While we're talking about sexism in Science
on
Sexism In Science
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· Score: 2
[...]the (rapidly diminishing number of) men who do make it to hard programs[...]
What planet are you living on? Seriously, while I can understand your frustration somewhat, that's really no excuse to make shit up.
Speaking from personal experience, an important part of my female friends got grants just by submitting, whereas only the most insanely brilliant guys (think people who could've done all the exams without following the courses) would get something of a similar importance.
That's not what statistics are saying. Perhaps an anomaly? Or perhaps you are making shit up?
Once infrastructure is in place, such operators are looking to save tens of percent, in many cases over half of running costs of their entire car fleets.
But there's the catch! Once the infrastructure is in place, it is going to be very expensive and not make any sense at all. Anyone that runs the numbers honestly on the needed infrastructure realizes that the whole e-mobility vision is a ridiculous joke. Even with halfway appropriate battery tech - which isn't even on the horizon.
In Germany, the industry and government plans are to go full electric For instance, BMW has these prototypes running.
The government is very involved in these things. These cars are being developed because "they are wanted" (and who the f**k wants them?). It's a scam, in a way. Just the same as the Transrapid, which never made any sense from a techno-economical point of view, but "was wanted" in the very same way. Including financial incentives from government.
The whole think would inspire in me a certain sympathy for libertarian arguments about how the government wastes money on idiotic stuff, except that this is precisely the way germany has kept an edge technologically for so many decades: by subsidizing its heavy industry in this indirect way.
It's not even a bad gamble. If someone comes up with battery tech that is even remotely appropriate for the task (unlikely, but who knows), then voila. BMW has the platform! Germany rulez!
Here's my take. As to "jam tomorrow", it's worth remembering that nuclear plants normally maintain their primary promise, delivering power cheaply.
That has been refuted so many times. Basically, when you add the costs of decomissioning and waste storage, they become pretty expensive. For the tax payer, of course. Plus, if there is an accident, the costs are pretty extreme. Of course, all of that is just an externality to the greedy, corrupt, and incompetent nuclear industry.
It needs to be tightly controlled by people with no vested financial interest in it
It is, via NRC.
That just isn't tight enough, even if it would work as intended. At the moment it is completely inadequate due to something called regulatory capture.
Nuclear reactors, like armies, should not be in private hands.
Surely you understand that the primary military and political motivator is money... everything else is smoke and mirrors.
Oh I am sure many people love to believe that. It makes the world a simple and easy place. Power, ego, and ideology play an important role that should not be underestimated.
A student must feel truly abandoned, left to his own designs in an unjust game. Only students like that go to libraries, ask around, and make an effort to actually acquire their skills by themselves. Only those students have a long term chance of achieving anything.
The products of "good lectures"? Like fat and complacent castrated cats that never learned to fend for themselves. Useless.
I do teach at a university. I do good lectures, and produce lots of useless, well fed and lazy fat cats. They rate me as a good prof and everybody is happy. I do what I get paid for - but I know better.
Anyone can become a programmer, just like anyone can become a painter.
My impression is that this is only true if I take your sentence to mean "not everyone can become a painter, so not everyone can become a programmer".
It is my firm belief that a significant portion of the population cannot become a programmer, not even on a mediocre level, even if their life depended on it. A lot of people just cannot dig loops. If you don't believe me, try giving courses to the general public. Some people are successful, inteligent, eloquent, whatever, but by themselves they cannot code a loop!, no matter how much they try.
I hoped to hear any anecdote or anything at all about your observation that the market is beginning to get saturated. How did you reach that conlusion?
In Europe, patent cases are seen by specialists, not juries.
While the results are indeed generally better, the system is not perfect because those specialist have their own agenda. That's why the "programs as such" loophole works.
Steal loaf of bread: Strike 3 and we are fucking done with you. Goodby for the rest of your miserable life.
I see nothing wrong with this.
Nothing? Well, that makes you a cruel and evil person. That you can't understand this makes you also a very stupid person. Congratulations. You are a real liability and a net minus to anyone around you.
Great. How does that make Chavez any less of a dictator that jails people for speaking out against him?
How about facts? Last time I heard, there's a whole lot of people in Venezuela writing and saying lots of bad things about him, without being bothered too much. And a countercandidate for the elections with a good chance of winning. And better and safer voting machines than anything the US will ever have.
I have a pretty strong mathematics background (acountant)
and been about as funny.
But just FYI, wether a change is beneficial or not evolutionary is a rather subtle thing. Just consider sickle cell anemia, which sucks, but can protect you from malaria.
I'm not sure how to reply... can you clarify please where I unconditionally asserted "the need for a given practice or methodology"?
I can help here. You wrote:
In my practice with software teams, I no longer think of developers as professional if they fail to use these practices. They are hackers in the most pejorative sense of the word. Think of a surgeon. If a surgeon fails to wash her hands before operating, she is failing as a professional. These agile engineering practices are like surgeons washing their hands.
Here's a test for you, smartass: how do you solve a polynomial algorithm? Don't come with roots of a polynomial, as that is something completely different that would actually make sense. And google for "binary method", please.
Of course, you can be an idiot and pretend he meant something else than the bullshit he actually wrote.
A) Does the phrase "binary cut algorithm" mean anything to you? B) Hubris is best indulged in in small measure, preferably never.
Oh, he meant bananas and wrote apples. That makes him smart I guess. And his pals are still solving a polynomial algorithm with a model sporadically failing because of that binary thing.
I guess because their screwdriver fell into the soup durig wrestling.
Or at least, that makes as much sense as "attempting to use a binary solver to find a solution to a polynomial algorithm". So I think that was a subtle joke.
Apparently they followed Apple's procedure of requiring only a billing address and the last four digits of a credit card number to gain access to the account.
It happens to make sense. It is so much more likely that such a call comes from a genuine customer in distress than from a hacker that, from a risk management point of view, that procedure is much better than telling a genuine customer "you should have been more careful, now you are hosed". Welcome to the real world.
Perhaps they should require a different subset of digits from the credit card number. The last four is a rather weak choice.
I'd rather be homeless than be in charge of a project my boss doesn't really care about. Talk about the fast track to nowhere. Even if by some maricle you do pull it together, nobody will know or care.
If things go well, your bank account will know, for example.
What does it even mean "my boss doesn't really care about" a project? Is his vision somewhere else, but has given you the job of guarding the crucial machinery on which everything else builds?
(And being homeless sucks badly, by most accounts.)
You can of course pester them on these telephone numbers. German laws require everyone doing business there to publish this type of information. Oh and it has to be correct and functional.
They will probably send you to hell anyway, of course.
Slashdot Mirror
Because the nuclear industry is a particularly pathetic and miserable heap of shit.
How much were they paying him for watching over the security of a nuclear plant? Most likely a pittance.
Ah, but thats the US. You people can't seem to get government even halfway right, for some weird reason. I'm not even going to mention gun control.
What planet are you livling on? I don't think it is the same as mine. You are more likely to win a suit against the government than against a corporation. Even in the US. Just consider the recent unlawful foreclosure scandal.
Corporate bureaucracy tends to be deranged in worse ways than state bureaucracy.
Modern, western countries can do very well in comparison. there is a lot to be improved, of course, but worship of the private sector is not warranted in this respect.
What planet are you living on? Seriously, while I can understand your frustration somewhat, that's really no excuse to make shit up.
That's not what statistics are saying. Perhaps an anomaly? Or perhaps you are making shit up?
But there's the catch! Once the infrastructure is in place, it is going to be very expensive and not make any sense at all. Anyone that runs the numbers honestly on the needed infrastructure realizes that the whole e-mobility vision is a ridiculous joke. Even with halfway appropriate battery tech - which isn't even on the horizon.
The government is very involved in these things. These cars are being developed because "they are wanted" (and who the f**k wants them?). It's a scam, in a way. Just the same as the Transrapid, which never made any sense from a techno-economical point of view, but "was wanted" in the very same way. Including financial incentives from government.
The whole think would inspire in me a certain sympathy for libertarian arguments about how the government wastes money on idiotic stuff, except that this is precisely the way germany has kept an edge technologically for so many decades: by subsidizing its heavy industry in this indirect way.
It's not even a bad gamble. If someone comes up with battery tech that is even remotely appropriate for the task (unlikely, but who knows), then voila. BMW has the platform! Germany rulez!
That has been refuted so many times. Basically, when you add the costs of decomissioning and waste storage, they become pretty expensive. For the tax payer, of course. Plus, if there is an accident, the costs are pretty extreme. Of course, all of that is just an externality to the greedy, corrupt, and incompetent nuclear industry.
That just isn't tight enough, even if it would work as intended. At the moment it is completely inadequate due to something called regulatory capture.
Nuclear reactors, like armies, should not be in private hands.
Oh I am sure many people love to believe that. It makes the world a simple and easy place. Power, ego, and ideology play an important role that should not be underestimated.
Good lectures make lazy students.
A student must feel truly abandoned, left to his own designs in an unjust game. Only students like that go to libraries, ask around, and make an effort to actually acquire their skills by themselves. Only those students have a long term chance of achieving anything.
The products of "good lectures"? Like fat and complacent castrated cats that never learned to fend for themselves. Useless.
I do teach at a university. I do good lectures, and produce lots of useless, well fed and lazy fat cats. They rate me as a good prof and everybody is happy. I do what I get paid for - but I know better.
My impression is that this is only true if I take your sentence to mean "not everyone can become a painter, so not everyone can become a programmer".
It is my firm belief that a significant portion of the population cannot become a programmer, not even on a mediocre level, even if their life depended on it. A lot of people just cannot dig loops. If you don't believe me, try giving courses to the general public. Some people are successful, inteligent, eloquent, whatever, but by themselves they cannot code a loop!, no matter how much they try.
Ok, so not computational sciences.
I hoped to hear any anecdote or anything at all about your observation that the market is beginning to get saturated. How did you reach that conlusion?
Fisrt of all, thanks for your very nice summary!
What do you mean when you say "Comp Sci" PhDs? People with these skills? That's interesting and it would be nice if you could elaborate.
While the results are indeed generally better, the system is not perfect because those specialist have their own agenda. That's why the "programs as such" loophole works.
Thanks for the link.
It also shows that the system has been broken for a very long time.
Nothing? Well, that makes you a cruel and evil person. That you can't understand this makes you also a very stupid person. Congratulations. You are a real liability and a net minus to anyone around you.
How about facts? Last time I heard, there's a whole lot of people in Venezuela writing and saying lots of bad things about him, without being bothered too much. And a countercandidate for the elections with a good chance of winning. And better and safer voting machines than anything the US will ever have.
Perhaps you are just making shit up?
Haha, that's a good one. Could have been:
I have a pretty strong mathematics background (acountant)
and been about as funny.
But just FYI, wether a change is beneficial or not evolutionary is a rather subtle thing. Just consider sickle cell anemia, which sucks, but can protect you from malaria.
I can help here. You wrote:
In my practice with software teams, I no longer think of developers as professional if they fail to use these practices. They are hackers in the most pejorative sense of the word. Think of a surgeon. If a surgeon fails to wash her hands before operating, she is failing as a professional. These agile engineering practices are like surgeons washing their hands.
That's rather strong, isn't it?
Here's a test for you, smartass: how do you solve a polynomial algorithm? Don't come with roots of a polynomial, as that is something completely different that would actually make sense. And google for "binary method", please.
Of course, you can be an idiot and pretend he meant something else than the bullshit he actually wrote.
Oh, he meant bananas and wrote apples. That makes him smart I guess. And his pals are still solving a polynomial algorithm with a model sporadically failing because of that binary thing.
He's talking bullshit and you are an idiot.
Sorry, but I know my stuff rather well. "Attempting to use a binary solver to find a solution to a polynomial algorithm" is just gobbledygook.
I guess because their screwdriver fell into the soup durig wrestling.
Or at least, that makes as much sense as "attempting to use a binary solver to find a solution to a polynomial algorithm". So I think that was a subtle joke.
It happens to make sense. It is so much more likely that such a call comes from a genuine customer in distress than from a hacker that, from a risk management point of view, that procedure is much better than telling a genuine customer "you should have been more careful, now you are hosed". Welcome to the real world.
Perhaps they should require a different subset of digits from the credit card number. The last four is a rather weak choice.
If things go well, your bank account will know, for example.
What does it even mean "my boss doesn't really care about" a project? Is his vision somewhere else, but has given you the job of guarding the crucial machinery on which everything else builds?
(And being homeless sucks badly, by most accounts.)
You can of course pester them on these telephone numbers. German laws require everyone doing business there to publish this type of information. Oh and it has to be correct and functional.
They will probably send you to hell anyway, of course.