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User: Dallas+Caley

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  1. Re:I blame colleges on Why Science Is a Lousy Career Choice · · Score: 1

    ah ok..

    All I said was we should treat everybody the same regardless of race or gender, I don't see how this is unfair. I think the real argument here comes down to an old standard, Nature vs Nurture

    If you believe it is all nurture that determines a persons life then yes, we should encourage everyone to be whatever it is that society needs most at the time. I don't buy this argument though, I think some people (at least partially by nature) just don't make good (fill in the blank career choice here). Great example, I'm 5 foot 4, I would make a horrible basketball player, you can encourage me all you want, and I might even try to go for that career but I would still make a horrible basketball player.

    Lets face it, Men and Women are different. Its pretty obvious that there are certain careers that men excel at by nature and others that women excel at by nature. By all means break the mold if that is what you want to do, there are always exceptions to the rule. I think the same is true of races or any other defining factor of humanity. To deny that certain groups of people tend to act in similar ways (White males included) is simply foolish.

    ...now if you'll excuse me i believe its time for me to go exert my imperialistic nature on some unsuspecting culture.

  2. Re:Price? on White iPhone 4 Coming Today · · Score: 1

    dang less than sign, i meant to say my total cost was less than $30 but i'm guessing the htmlspecialchars filter removed my symbol

  3. Re:Price? on White iPhone 4 Coming Today · · Score: 1

    Minor correction..

    "Even the cheap or free flip phones cost significantly more than what you pay for them." Actually I just bricked my iPhone 3g a month or so ago and I was still on contract so I had to pay full price for a cheap flip phone. My total cost

    But still if you think about it, the cost of the iPhone even without a contract isn't that much. You are essentially getting a laptop computer (al-beit a low power one) But its super-engineered to fit in a small space. Think about how much more you pay for a laptop vs a tower computer (same concept). Also if you compare it to how much you would pay if you purchased a $500 item on credit (or god forbid one of those Rent-a-center ripoffs) you're actually getting off pretty easy.

  4. I blame colleges on Why Science Is a Lousy Career Choice · · Score: 1

    A lot of people think it would be nice if everyone everywhere could get a degree and be a professional but its just not practical. Not everyone can be a doctor or a programmer or we won't have anyone left to work retail or pave the roads. Colleges want to get everybody to go to college. why is that? well duh they make money that's why. Why should we encourage women and minorities to go to college any more that we encourage anyone else? My thought is if these people have no motivation on their own to go to college and work in the sciences then chances are even if someone pushes them to do it they will never be that good at their career. Especially in the sciences you really have to have a passion for it, or you are not going anywhere. And who says science is what we need more of anyway? everyone thinks that if we just had enough scientists we could solve all the worlds problems, if you ask me what we really need is good customer service people. we need people with social skills so they can actually understand someone else's viewpoint. It's things like this that will prevent wars not science.

  5. I have a solution... seriously... on New Cars Vulnerable To Wireless Theft · · Score: 1

    Ok so i'm not here trying to blatantly give a promo out to the product that i just spent a year developing so i won't say the name. I'll just say that is from one of the leading alarm company manufacturers and you can find it on the net. The gist of the product is this: why should you have to have a separate device that you put on your keyring that allows you to start your car when you already have a smartphone (well most people do, or at least most people who can currently afford keyless entry on their car). What our product does is allows you to open your car door (and lock the door and start the engine/warm it up) right from your phone. The good thing about this is that on top of each account being password protected, they are also linked to the particular identification code for your exact phone so there is no way that anyone is going to hack this (in theory). The way it works is via a cellular device not a radio wave emitting from the car so its much more difficult to intercept (in theory). Also the best part about it is that because it's a cellular device we can also track the exact location of the vehicle so in the case that someone does steal your car we will find them right away. The trick to protecting yourself from thieves and criminals is to stay one step ahead of them. 15 years ago this was with keyless technology, but now this is old school, we simply need to switch to the latest gadget.

  6. Ted Stevens, A Genius? on Ted Stevens and Sean O'Keefe In Plane Crash · · Score: 1

    Ok ok so the internet is not a series of tubes, but i think you are all missing the point. What if it WAS a series of Tubes? Think of it. Remember those old drive through banks where you got your money or made your deposit via a tube. Think of how many gigabytes, heck terabytes could be put inside a cylindrical hard drive shaped like one of those?. You could solve your bandwidth problem immediately, one terabyte would take a mere moment or two to receive (assuming your isp was within 30 feet or so of your computer). Ted was a genious.

    Now, of course this system wouldn't work on a national level because those tubes would get too long, but if you were to combine it with my new projectile delivery service i think you might have something. want a youtube video? simple, put it on a flash drive, toss it in the morter set the trajectory and BAM there you are!

  7. How much are you willing to spend? on Open Source Geographic Tracking? · · Score: 1

    I thought i'd add my 2 cents here as i am currently working on a project that does exactly what you want, however it is not open source. The problem is that it costs money in order to use either Bing or Google maps and i have not seen a decent alternative yet. Also what seems like a simple coding project to make this new application is likely not as easy as you think for various reasons. We have a dedicated team of 7 coders and we have even hired a few outside contractors, if i were to guess i'd say we've spent over a million dollars so far developing this software and its not done yet. So here's your choice, spend a million developing your own software or buy a pre-made system.

  8. Re:True that - NOT on The Duct Tape Programmer · · Score: 1

    I think it all kinda depends on where you are. sometimes you have no choice but to be a duck tape programmer. if they want it done next week or your job is on the line then you do what you have to to make it work. the problem comes when someone doesn't realize that there is another way. I'm sure your "Crufty Joe" was at his position long enough and had enough expertise to be able to convince the bosses "hey we need to spend some time and clean up this code" but instead he just kept going on his way.

    I've had this same problem in the graphic design business. i spent a good portion of the last few years cleaning up designs made by my predecessor (and even ones made by me before i knew how to do it correctly) so i get it. but now that i'm trying to break into the programming world i find myself having to resort to duct-tape style coding just to get stuff done, what looks better on your resume? a website that you hacked together that looks like crap in the back end that someone else had to spend a year cleaning up, or no website at all?

  9. Re:Moving expenses are already standard on Microsoft Reportedly Poaching Apple Retail Staff · · Score: 2, Interesting

    yea thats completely true, i know this because i used to be a "guru" in a music store (which is all but extinct now) this is not an Apple specific idea. My question is why aren't all the employee's gurus?

  10. The Lions Den! on Bootstrapping a New Technology? · · Score: 1

    You need to go on "The Lions Den"! ("its a show on BBC look it up, yes there are other channels besides Sci-Fi) you'll be right after the guy with the little floaty thing that helps toddlers learn to use the toilet!

  11. Re:Electric Cabs on NYC Wants Ideas For "Taxi Technology 2.0" · · Score: 1

    Not sure in NY, but it is true in OC, although because of Disneyland you can not own a cab over 7 years old, and there are lots of fee's involved still.

  12. Re:Electric Cabs on NYC Wants Ideas For "Taxi Technology 2.0" · · Score: 1

    Electric cars get 300mi a tank? that's not bad compared to the about 160 a tank that natural gas gets (at least the ones i used to drive back in '02) but still, what if you do get that 80 mile fare right at the end of your tank, your screwed, in my opinion if you have 300 miles per tank that means you fill up every 150 miles.

    What you say about NY makes sense, In OC however i would get a 50-80 mile fare at least once per shift. And every once in a while you will get the 200+ mile fare, i had one 600 mile fare and at least 2 200+ fares in the few years that i worked there and if i had been unlucky enough to have natural gas or electric i would not have gotten any of those.

    Also in OC there are no shifts, every driver is a contractor. all the cab company does is lease the car, its up to the driver to make his hours. leases are for 24 hours or 7-days, and it's illegal to share the vehicle with another driver

    basically the point i'm trying to make here is if the cab companies really wanted to make it better for the drivers & passengers, they would treat the drivers better. I however don't think thats the case because drivers are a dime a dozen, they are simply trying to squeeze as much money out of the situation as they possibly can.

    I what other industry do you see workers working 60-80 hours a week and making less than minimum wage? I knew several drivers who literally lived in their cabs, they would work all day every day when they weren't sleeping or eating and they would barely have enough at the end of the week to buy the cab for another week.

  13. Re:Electric Cabs on NYC Wants Ideas For "Taxi Technology 2.0" · · Score: 1

    I'm sorry, i thought this was the Dr Phil forum...

  14. Re:Electric Cabs on NYC Wants Ideas For "Taxi Technology 2.0" · · Score: 2, Interesting

    As a former cab driver i can attest to that fact, electric simply will not work, and neither will natural gas. When i used to drive i would put in an average of 400-450 miles in a 24 hour shift. now with gas that means i had to fill up 2-3 times a day because you never want to be below half a tank (in case you get a long fare) When i switched to natural gas i had to fill up 5-6 times a day which was extremely annoying because in my area (orange county, CA) there are only about 6 natural gas pumps

    I don't know about New York, but if its the same as my area, the single best thing that they could do to improve just about everything is charge a reasonable rate to lease a cab (to the driver) for a time period under 24 hours. Do you realize how F-ing crazy you go when you drive for 24 hours straight? and believe me if you do not drive for 24 hours straight then you will make less than minimum wage. It is absolutely rediculus. The taxi cab industry may not be run by a mafia, but it might as well be.

    Side note (to the management of Yellow Cab of Orange county), BURN IN H*LL!! i will never EVER come back to your company, (as you insisted i would) i learned how to do something (IT/web) and now i make literally 5 times as much as i used to so screw off!

  15. Re:post apocolypitca romantica on Packing Algorithms May Save the Planet · · Score: 1

    Ok, i know this is officially way off topic, but i can't resist. you need to check out http://www.sealandgov.org/ and its relation to the internet via HavenCo. It's pretty much what you are suggesting, except that it failed. but the history of Sealand is a good read.

  16. Re:post apocolypitca romantica on Packing Algorithms May Save the Planet · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sad or not, i hope it happens fast because as soon as there is enough garbage that i can stand on it, i'm claiming it as my own nation. "I claim this floating island of crap in the name of Garbageland! All hail for i am the king of Garbageland!"

  17. Re:Content Management System is not a design progr on Dreamweaver Is Dying; Long Live Drupal! · · Score: 1

    yes, an editor, such as notepad, or maybe textmate, but Dreamweaver attempts to do the WYSIWYG which is geared towards those people who don't really know how to code. Those people are better off with something like drupal where they can't accidentally go in and muck everything up, so they aren't using dreamweaver. Those of us who do know how to code however wouldn't waste their time learning how to use dreamweaver because we don't need it and it makes our code look like garbage. So yea, i think i agree. Dreamweaver should die.

  18. Re:No, they don't on Should Job Seekers Tell Employers To Quit Snooping? · · Score: 1

    I did realize that point (that DNS isn't completely anonymous) however I'm more referring to the reality that even though some prospective employer could do the further research to figure out who registered the domain and all that other stuff, the chances of them actually doing it is very low. What is much more likely is that they will look through their stack of 100 resumes and do just a basic check on all of them and eliminate half of them just on tertiary evidence of something being wrong

    Another reality here, is that this point is almost moot, because there is almost no way of enforcing any laws regarding this in the first place

  19. Re:Protected classes on Should Job Seekers Tell Employers To Quit Snooping? · · Score: 1

    oh yeah, well me and the other 200 million other naked beer drinkers in this country disagree, and if we are going to have to pass an amendment, then let it be so.

  20. Re:No, they don't on Should Job Seekers Tell Employers To Quit Snooping? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    the fact that you posted as "Anonymous Coward" should answer your question here. lets say your name is "Bob Smith" for example, now someone else, whom you don't like perhaps, purchases the domain name www.bobsmith.com and makes a site all about how you are recruiting for "young gay men who are willing to let themselves be eaten alive" or whatever would make you look bad. is it fair that an employer can now judge you based on this?

    The problem is the internet is anonymous

  21. Re:Different software appeals to different peopl on Open Source Usability — Joomla! Vs. WordPress · · Score: 1

    yes i use adobe software all the time, have you used QuarkXpress lately?, the UI doesn't look or feel native, is slow, full of quirks, and hard to use.

    yes different software appeals to different people, and i don't think its going to far to say that people who prefer software such as wordpress, or Mac software in general, don't usually desire or value the flexibility that things like Joomla or Linux (or Windows) offer. Thats fine, some things don't need to be difficult, but on the other hand, some things do

    Me personally, i'd like to error on the side of things potentially needing to be more complicated rather than less, I'd rather not paint myself into a box with software that is not going to let me do EXACTLY what i want to do in the long run.

  22. Re:I know it's a dupe, but... on A Real Bill Gates Rant · · Score: 1

    You forgot to mention the utter worhtlessness of iTunes (at least on a PC anyway). I've had an iPod now for 2 months and I cant figure out how to get more music on to it (without loosing everything thats currently on it). That is simply utterly rediculus. Why can I not just drag and drop a file onto it?. Oh and how about their wonderful customer service? I read the small print that came with the iPod and it says you are entitled to exactly 1 free call to customer support. Wow really 1 call! well at least I didn't pay $200 for the same music storage capacity that I could have got for about $50 with any other MP3 player (oh wait I did!)

    Oh yeah and the FireWire thing. thats about the first smart thing they did (getting rid of it) Yeah I know its faster slightly than USB 2.0, but wait till USB 3.0 comes out later this year.

    You see here's the thing with Apple, they may not have as many errors technically with their software, but it's because their software is not as flexible as PC software. The "Problem" with Apple software is that if you don't want to do something exactly the way they want you to then your screwed

    At least that's been my experience

  23. Re:I know it's a dupe, but... on A Real Bill Gates Rant · · Score: 1

    Exactly, I wonder if Apple realizes that there are problems with its software/hardware as well, so far my guess would be no. All i ever hear from apple people is how everything "Just Works".

    yea well it don't. "Just Work" and if they don't start fixing their problems soon they are gonna be in the same boat as Microsoft is now

  24. Re:I live in WI, and I say this sucks on Wisconsin Passes Digital Download Tax · · Score: 1

    Wow if you hadn't mentioned Wisconsin in your post I would have assumed you were talking about California because we have exactly the same thing happening here (yeah I know Schwarzenegger is technically a republican but he acts like a democrat)

    I too am glad that we got rid of that moron in the white house, but it's unfortunate that he screwed it up so bad that most of his fellow party members can't even win at the local level

    This is exactly why I think political parties are worthless.

  25. Yeah but... on Coming Soon, 250 DVDs In a Quarter-Sized Device · · Score: 1

    this is really cool, don't get me wrong, but is size the most important thing now? so what if we can get 250 DVD's into a square inch, what if there are only 10 DVD's worth watching in the first place?

    All kidding aside though, i wonder more about how fast i can get my data than about how small it is physically. Think about it, do you really want to carry around your entire cd/movie collection everywhere you go? what if you loose it or it gets stolen? I'd rather have a gigantic drive attached to my server at home where i can have it backed up consistently and have it secured, then just access the info via the net. what i need is bandwidth, thats the problem.