Oh, yeah? Then how come I always pass signs on the Autobahn saying, "Auf Wiedersehen in Baden-Wurrtemburg!" and "Willkommen in Hessen!" That's kinda sorta advertising. Granted, it pales in comparison to the US, with their signs: "Stuckey's, 10 Miles!", "Stuckey's 9 1/2" Miles!"... etc.
On February 3, 2010, LaHood was criticized for advice he was asked to give while testifying before a congressional committee regarding Toyota's recall of 2.3 million vehicles due to sudden acceleration, wherein he suggested Toyota owners stop driving their cars.
Actually, he should have said, "People who don't know how to drive their cars, should not drive their cars." Putting the accelerator pedal so close to the brake pedal is obviously a design error for the intellectually challenged, who will confuse the two and blame the car manufacturer. The accelerator pedal should be on the driver's side; the brake pedal on the passenger's side.
Dumb-ass Toyota driver: "I've got my foot pushed down to the floor, but the car is not stopping!"
Police: "No! You're doing it wrong! Put your foot down on the passenger's side!"
Ray LaHood is an idiot, BTW.
I think UK folks would label him as a "right cunt, who acts like a twat."
She has been detained in the past for several other 'crimes,' including criticising China's Communist Party.
So in the USA the Republicans would be locked up for criticizing the Democrats, and the Democrats would be locked up for criticizing the Republicans. With almost everybody locked up, who could work as prison guards? I guess this could be solved with some H-1B visas.
I remember reading about an interview with one astronaut, who said that the most spectacular sight he saw in outer space was when his urine was ejected from the capsule. It immediately froze, crystallized and exploded, and was brilliantly illuminated by the sunlight.
absolutely horrible standard of the teachers and the quality of lectures.
I had a prof for differential equations who was absolutely brilliant. He consulted for NASA for the Apollo missions, and beyond. Although he was a prof for mechanical engineering, he was revered by the mathematics department, which had John Nash as a member of their faculty.
The differential equation prof was a miserable lecturer. You could snort a pound of crystal meth, and still fall asleep in his lectures. But he was a genius in creating problem sets, and the textbook that he chose was excellent. So most students just came by the lecture hall to pick up the problem set and write down the chapters to read, which the prof would always write in one corner of the chalkboard. The prof knew that he was a miserable lecturer. But he knew that through his creative problem sets, that he could teach us something.
These problem sets took about 20 hours of work per week to complete . . . and this was just one of five courses per semester that I had to take. The irony, is that you could hit me over the head today with a differential equation now, and I would not even know it, let alone being able to classify the equation. But that course taught me persistence and disciple, as well.
So, no not every prof is a great lecturer . . . but some manage to teach despite that.
This is the way it worked where I studied. We had an Honor Code. The prof passed out the exam, and came back three hours later. I never saw anyone cheat, but I was always so concentrated on my own work that aliens could have landed next to me, and I wouldn't have noticed. If I witnessed someone cheating, I was required by the Honor Code to turn them in. This made a lot of students uncomfortable, and was often a hot topic for the university newspaper.
Being that I did EE & CS, and dabbled in a lot of literature courses at a top university, I was wondering what he taught. In any of the exams that I took, it would have been impossible to cheat, and we had an "Honor Code," so the profs didn't even bother to check. TFA didn't mention what Dr. Quinn taught, so I googled him. He in a member of the faculty in the Department of Management.
Management? Cheating? Sounds about right. Actually, he should give all those cheaters high grades; they seem to understand what management is all about.
He is a techie. Jobs is the business genius. Apple does not need to dominate to make a tidy profit. It's like that saying, "You can fool some of the people all of the time, or all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time." Microsoft does all of the people some of the time. Apple does some of the people all of the time.
Microsoft dominates the desktop. Does Apple care? Not as long as some folks are still willing to pay a premium for their desktop products. Nokia dominates cell phones. Apple says, "So, what?", as long as some folks make them a profit. If Android dominates smart phones, Apple will not care for the same reason. Why do some folks pay exorbitant prices for a Harley Davidson when compared to a rice burner?
And no, I'm not an Apple FanBoy, but I live with an Apple FanGrrrl. I only bought her an iPhone when I could get it re-imported, unlocked. And the UK uses some crazy-ass plugs on their electrical devices.
The seminal work on this was produced in the UK in the late 60's or early 70's, and shown on the PBS network in the USA, who frequently interrupted the program to beg for money: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Not_to_Be_Seen
When I applied to MIT anno 1980, part of the application process was to write an essay titled, "What is my favorite cartoon character and why." So this was essentially a "Who's your hero" question. I chose Wile E. Coyote. The focus was about his persistence: despite that all his ingenious attempts to catch the Roadrunner with cockamamie contraptions failed, he never gave up. He always came up with something new to try.
The admissions folks loved it, and I got a call from the local MIT rep to come by for a chat. I was accepted, but chose Princeton instead. The application essays for Princeton were more difficult. I had to write a "Personal Statement" and an "Engineering Statement." No topics were given; "just write something about something." This was a more subtle way of saying, "find the hero in yourself." How children choose their heroes is determined by the values that they have developed under the guidance of their parents. If the parents are big hockey fans, a hockey player will probably be a hero for their children. If the parents take their children to science museums, a scientist will probably be a hero.
At any rate, don't underestimate the potential of writing about Wile E. Coyote.
Oh, and in defense of engineers, I took 300 and 400 literature classes at Princeton. After I submitted my first essay for one coure, the Preceptor called my aside after the class. She asked me point blank, "You're engineering student, aren't you?" She went on to say that engineering students wrote the most comprehensible essays, which were always structured very well. She complained that the literature majors' essays were more insightful, but tended to meander to the point of confusion.
I'm sure glad the MPAA is here to tell me what the Founding Fathers intended!
Where's my "Scroll of Resurrect the Founding Fathers" when I need it? Actually, it is the role of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) to decide what the Founding Fathers intended. Although, it would be interesting to see what Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson would think about Bob Pisano's opinions.
Jefferson: "This dick-brained piece of shit is trying to wield power using our Constitution!?!"
Franklin: "Dude, we must have like totally fucked up when writing that bastard."
you are so bad at math, i hope you don't code for a living
Folks who are really bad at math don't code. They work in politics, or on Wall Street or for General Motors as a CEO. If you are bad at math, you get a job where you lose other people's money . . . like taxpayer's . . . and not your own money.
PETAM (People for the Ethical Treatment of Antimatter) are not going to be pleased with this. Especially the bits about physicists staging pit-bull style "dog fights" between matter and antimatter, and placing quantum mechanics based bets to the outcome of the duels.
Remember, children, "God does not play dice!"
And let that antimatter roam free! No capture, no antimatter!
By the way, if you figure out how to do anything with a kid, even go to the park or whatever, and can guarantee that the kid won't cry, I want to know your techniques.
My experience with flying transatlantic next to children has led to the following observation: Nice parents == nice children. Nasty parents == nasty children.
Note that I stress observation, because this being Slashdot, we all know that correlation != causation.
Two extreme flights that I remember. A women with a 5-6 year-old boy. She screamed at the boy; the boy screamed back. She then constantly threatened the boy with, "Just wait 'till your father hears about this!", which cause the boy to cry. That mother-son relationship seriously scared me.
The other case? A polite, well behaved boy, about 8-10, traveling with his father. Both the father and son talked with each other in pleasant tones. The boy fell asleep, and I started chatting with the father about the flight delay. He calmly explained the legal implications about a contract to transport a person from point A to point B, but excused himself for not being an expert in that area of law. He admitted that he was a professor of law at Georgetown, but for international law.
Of course, I have also seen mixes of the two. Flying can be really stressful for children.
But a friend who is a school teacher told me, when parents come in for a parent-teacher chat, if she praises the child, the parents say proudly, "Well, I guess we've done a great job raising him!" If she informs that parents that their child has a discipline problem, they say, "Your school is doing a terrible job with our child!"
The debt collectors and repo men perform a valuable service. If they don't collect then the costs get passed on to the honest consumer.
Unfortunately, this is being practiced on national scales in the Euro Zone: Fiscally responsible countries are forced to bail out fiscally irresponsible ones. Of course the better off countries could refuse to fund bailouts, but the Euro would then go to Hell in a hand basket. And political turmoil for all countries involved would follow:
Country A - "Why should my country be forced to implement austerity measures dictated by the EU and country B?"
Country B - "Why should my retirement age be raised to 67, so that we can bail out country A, who have a retirement age of 60?"
Country C - "Hey, why should I worry about our national debt? Country B will bail us out. They did it for country A, so it is only fair that they do it for us as well."
It would be ironic if the Euro, the currency symbolizing European Unity, were to become the cause for its unraveling.
Disclaimer: It's cold and rainy outside, so I am feeling a wee bit grumpy.
The content surprised me; I thought that this practice disappeared around the time of Charles Dickens. Bad publicity on Facebook pales in comparison to this:
US - It is still possible to be incarcerated for debt, though this may be unconstitutional unless the court finds that the debtor actually possesses the means to pay
Greece - Imprisonment for debts, whether to the tax office or to private banks, was still practiced until January 2008, when the law changed after imprisonment for unpaid taxes or other debts to the government or to the social security office was declared unconstitutional after being practised for 173 years, but still retained imprisonment for debts to private banks
Germany - A maximum 6 months of coercive arrest (Erzwingungshaft) is still available for a sworn affidavit for insurance of a debtor under 901 ZPO.
UAE - Debtors in the United Arab Emirates, including Dubai, can be imprisoned for failing to pay their debts.
China - While Hong kong has long imprisoned debtors, the first mainland prison sentence for unpaid debts was handed down in 2008. Life imprisonment is possible for non-repayment of debts incurred with "malicious intent".
Old phone books make excellent backing for targets in your basement shooting range. Back in my high school days, a friend converted his semi-automatic MAC-10 to fully-automatic with a new lower receiver. Ma Bell would have been proud to see how her phone books stood up sturdily against a hail of.45 caliber slugs.
Google "Uses for old phone books" for more information about this wonderfully useful material.
Ironically, had they been properly informed some would have agreed to the removal and analysis of the organs.
I would say yes, iIf someone asked me: "We think that staring at a computer screen reading Slashdot all day might be unhealthy. Would you mind if we grab a few of your organs when you die? This might lead us to better protection for Slashdot readers in the future." Harvesting organs without permission is just plain rude, crude and uncalled for. It's just not cricket; whatever happened to the image of the polite English gentleman?
Maybe they didn't ask because they were afraid that it would scare workers away, because of health safety concerns? But if the UK nuclear industry had doubts about health safety, the workers should have been informed about that, as well.
What other shenanigans are going on, which haven't been discovered yet . . . ?
Actually, I have met a few (a handful) of real Christians in my life. They stood out because of their deeds, not their words, and never tried force their religion on me. One was an ear, nose and throat doctor, who closed his private practice for two weeks every year. Instead of spending the time on the golf course, he went to god-awful places on the planet, and did volunteer work for the World Health Organization.
The Mormons who proselytize where I live tend to be very polite, well. They introduce themselves, tell you what they are doing, and when you say that you are not interested, they answer: "OK, thank you, and have a nice day."
Now a question for our Brazilian folks: If I am approached by a Brazilian Evangelical Christian, can I hold up a USB stick with a trident to scare them away. Like a cross scares away vampires?
Slashdot Mirror
because advertising is strictly prohibited.
Oh, yeah? Then how come I always pass signs on the Autobahn saying, "Auf Wiedersehen in Baden-Wurrtemburg!" and "Willkommen in Hessen!" That's kinda sorta advertising. Granted, it pales in comparison to the US, with their signs: "Stuckey's, 10 Miles!", "Stuckey's 9 1/2" Miles!" ... etc.
Just disable all cars...
LaHood is working on it:
On February 3, 2010, LaHood was criticized for advice he was asked to give while testifying before a congressional committee regarding Toyota's recall of 2.3 million vehicles due to sudden acceleration, wherein he suggested Toyota owners stop driving their cars.
Actually, he should have said, "People who don't know how to drive their cars, should not drive their cars." Putting the accelerator pedal so close to the brake pedal is obviously a design error for the intellectually challenged, who will confuse the two and blame the car manufacturer. The accelerator pedal should be on the driver's side; the brake pedal on the passenger's side.
Dumb-ass Toyota driver: "I've got my foot pushed down to the floor, but the car is not stopping!"
Police: "No! You're doing it wrong! Put your foot down on the passenger's side!"
Ray LaHood is an idiot, BTW.
I think UK folks would label him as a "right cunt, who acts like a twat."
The Nisan Leaf sounds nice, too, but I'm scared to buy a car that can only go 100 miles on a charge.
It can go farther . . . you have to push it, though.
She has been detained in the past for several other 'crimes,' including criticising China's Communist Party.
So in the USA the Republicans would be locked up for criticizing the Democrats, and the Democrats would be locked up for criticizing the Republicans. With almost everybody locked up, who could work as prison guards? I guess this could be solved with some H-1B visas.
I remember reading about an interview with one astronaut, who said that the most spectacular sight he saw in outer space was when his urine was ejected from the capsule. It immediately froze, crystallized and exploded, and was brilliantly illuminated by the sunlight.
I tried to google for this reference, but only came up with this: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/090911-space-water-dump.html
It's nice to see that astronauts use their precious bodily fluids to entertain stargazers.
MORTICIAN: Bring out your dead!
MICROSOFT RUSSIA: Here's one -- nine pence.
LINUX: I'm not dead!
MORTICIAN: What?
MICROSOFT RUSSIA: Nothing -- here's your nine pence.
LINUX: I'm not dead!
MORTICIAN: Here -- he says he's not dead!
MICROSOFT RUSSIA: Yes, he is.
LINUX: I'm not!
MORTICIAN: He isn't.
MICROSOFT RUSSIA: Well, he will be soon, he's very ill.
LINUX: I'm getting better!
MICROSOFT RUSSIA: No, you're not -- you'll be stone dead in a moment. LINUX: I don't want to go in the cart!
MICROSOFT RUSSIA:: Oh, don't be such a baby.
MORTICIAN: I can't take him...
. . . etc . . .
absolutely horrible standard of the teachers and the quality of lectures.
I had a prof for differential equations who was absolutely brilliant. He consulted for NASA for the Apollo missions, and beyond. Although he was a prof for mechanical engineering, he was revered by the mathematics department, which had John Nash as a member of their faculty.
The differential equation prof was a miserable lecturer. You could snort a pound of crystal meth, and still fall asleep in his lectures. But he was a genius in creating problem sets, and the textbook that he chose was excellent. So most students just came by the lecture hall to pick up the problem set and write down the chapters to read, which the prof would always write in one corner of the chalkboard. The prof knew that he was a miserable lecturer. But he knew that through his creative problem sets, that he could teach us something.
These problem sets took about 20 hours of work per week to complete . . . and this was just one of five courses per semester that I had to take. The irony, is that you could hit me over the head today with a differential equation now, and I would not even know it, let alone being able to classify the equation. But that course taught me persistence and disciple, as well.
So, no not every prof is a great lecturer . . . but some manage to teach despite that.
Turned out several of the students parents' were lawyers, and the university got sued hard...
Interviewer: "Wow! You have great grades! You must have studied really hard!"
Interviewee: "No, my parents sued the university for higher grades for me."
Interviewer: "Well, being that we're a law firm, you're hired!"
What, did he hand them out and leave the room?
This is the way it worked where I studied. We had an Honor Code. The prof passed out the exam, and came back three hours later. I never saw anyone cheat, but I was always so concentrated on my own work that aliens could have landed next to me, and I wouldn't have noticed. If I witnessed someone cheating, I was required by the Honor Code to turn them in. This made a lot of students uncomfortable, and was often a hot topic for the university newspaper.
Being that I did EE & CS, and dabbled in a lot of literature courses at a top university, I was wondering what he taught. In any of the exams that I took, it would have been impossible to cheat, and we had an "Honor Code," so the profs didn't even bother to check. TFA didn't mention what Dr. Quinn taught, so I googled him. He in a member of the faculty in the Department of Management.
Management? Cheating? Sounds about right. Actually, he should give all those cheaters high grades; they seem to understand what management is all about.
He is a techie. Jobs is the business genius. Apple does not need to dominate to make a tidy profit. It's like that saying, "You can fool some of the people all of the time, or all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time." Microsoft does all of the people some of the time. Apple does some of the people all of the time.
Microsoft dominates the desktop. Does Apple care? Not as long as some folks are still willing to pay a premium for their desktop products. Nokia dominates cell phones. Apple says, "So, what?", as long as some folks make them a profit. If Android dominates smart phones, Apple will not care for the same reason. Why do some folks pay exorbitant prices for a Harley Davidson when compared to a rice burner?
And no, I'm not an Apple FanBoy, but I live with an Apple FanGrrrl. I only bought her an iPhone when I could get it re-imported, unlocked. And the UK uses some crazy-ass plugs on their electrical devices.
The seminal work on this was produced in the UK in the late 60's or early 70's, and shown on the PBS network in the USA, who frequently interrupted the program to beg for money: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Not_to_Be_Seen
Finally, these wound up IT types have found a way to chill out: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7b6hw_the-orb-little-fluffy-clouds_music
When I applied to MIT anno 1980, part of the application process was to write an essay titled, "What is my favorite cartoon character and why." So this was essentially a "Who's your hero" question. I chose Wile E. Coyote. The focus was about his persistence: despite that all his ingenious attempts to catch the Roadrunner with cockamamie contraptions failed, he never gave up. He always came up with something new to try.
The admissions folks loved it, and I got a call from the local MIT rep to come by for a chat. I was accepted, but chose Princeton instead. The application essays for Princeton were more difficult. I had to write a "Personal Statement" and an "Engineering Statement." No topics were given; "just write something about something." This was a more subtle way of saying, "find the hero in yourself." How children choose their heroes is determined by the values that they have developed under the guidance of their parents. If the parents are big hockey fans, a hockey player will probably be a hero for their children. If the parents take their children to science museums, a scientist will probably be a hero.
At any rate, don't underestimate the potential of writing about Wile E. Coyote.
Oh, and in defense of engineers, I took 300 and 400 literature classes at Princeton. After I submitted my first essay for one coure, the Preceptor called my aside after the class. She asked me point blank, "You're engineering student, aren't you?" She went on to say that engineering students wrote the most comprehensible essays, which were always structured very well. She complained that the literature majors' essays were more insightful, but tended to meander to the point of confusion.
I'm sure glad the MPAA is here to tell me what the Founding Fathers intended!
Where's my "Scroll of Resurrect the Founding Fathers" when I need it? Actually, it is the role of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) to decide what the Founding Fathers intended. Although, it would be interesting to see what Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson would think about Bob Pisano's opinions.
Jefferson: "This dick-brained piece of shit is trying to wield power using our Constitution!?!"
Franklin: "Dude, we must have like totally fucked up when writing that bastard."
you are so bad at math, i hope you don't code for a living
Folks who are really bad at math don't code. They work in politics, or on Wall Street or for General Motors as a CEO. If you are bad at math, you get a job where you lose other people's money . . . like taxpayer's . . . and not your own money.
LHC Scientists Create and Capture Antimatter
PETAM (People for the Ethical Treatment of Antimatter) are not going to be pleased with this. Especially the bits about physicists staging pit-bull style "dog fights" between matter and antimatter, and placing quantum mechanics based bets to the outcome of the duels.
Remember, children, "God does not play dice!"
And let that antimatter roam free! No capture, no antimatter!
By the way, if you figure out how to do anything with a kid, even go to the park or whatever, and can guarantee that the kid won't cry, I want to know your techniques.
My experience with flying transatlantic next to children has led to the following observation: Nice parents == nice children. Nasty parents == nasty children.
Note that I stress observation, because this being Slashdot, we all know that correlation != causation.
Two extreme flights that I remember. A women with a 5-6 year-old boy. She screamed at the boy; the boy screamed back. She then constantly threatened the boy with, "Just wait 'till your father hears about this!", which cause the boy to cry. That mother-son relationship seriously scared me.
The other case? A polite, well behaved boy, about 8-10, traveling with his father. Both the father and son talked with each other in pleasant tones. The boy fell asleep, and I started chatting with the father about the flight delay. He calmly explained the legal implications about a contract to transport a person from point A to point B, but excused himself for not being an expert in that area of law. He admitted that he was a professor of law at Georgetown, but for international law.
Of course, I have also seen mixes of the two. Flying can be really stressful for children.
But a friend who is a school teacher told me, when parents come in for a parent-teacher chat, if she praises the child, the parents say proudly, "Well, I guess we've done a great job raising him!" If she informs that parents that their child has a discipline problem, they say, "Your school is doing a terrible job with our child!"
The debt collectors and repo men perform a valuable service. If they don't collect then the costs get passed on to the honest consumer.
Unfortunately, this is being practiced on national scales in the Euro Zone: Fiscally responsible countries are forced to bail out fiscally irresponsible ones. Of course the better off countries could refuse to fund bailouts, but the Euro would then go to Hell in a hand basket. And political turmoil for all countries involved would follow:
It would be ironic if the Euro, the currency symbolizing European Unity, were to become the cause for its unraveling.
Disclaimer: It's cold and rainy outside, so I am feeling a wee bit grumpy.
Wow, this motivated me to look up Debtor's Prison in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debtors'_prison
The content surprised me; I thought that this practice disappeared around the time of Charles Dickens. Bad publicity on Facebook pales in comparison to this:
Old phone books make excellent backing for targets in your basement shooting range. Back in my high school days, a friend converted his semi-automatic MAC-10 to fully-automatic with a new lower receiver. Ma Bell would have been proud to see how her phone books stood up sturdily against a hail of .45 caliber slugs.
Google "Uses for old phone books" for more information about this wonderfully useful material.
From TFA:
Ironically, had they been properly informed some would have agreed to the removal and analysis of the organs.
I would say yes, iIf someone asked me: "We think that staring at a computer screen reading Slashdot all day might be unhealthy. Would you mind if we grab a few of your organs when you die? This might lead us to better protection for Slashdot readers in the future." Harvesting organs without permission is just plain rude, crude and uncalled for. It's just not cricket; whatever happened to the image of the polite English gentleman?
Maybe they didn't ask because they were afraid that it would scare workers away, because of health safety concerns? But if the UK nuclear industry had doubts about health safety, the workers should have been informed about that, as well.
What other shenanigans are going on, which haven't been discovered yet . . . ?
explain that to the Evangelical Christians
In Evangelical Russia, Christians explain to YOU!
Actually, I have met a few (a handful) of real Christians in my life. They stood out because of their deeds, not their words, and never tried force their religion on me. One was an ear, nose and throat doctor, who closed his private practice for two weeks every year. Instead of spending the time on the golf course, he went to god-awful places on the planet, and did volunteer work for the World Health Organization.
The Mormons who proselytize where I live tend to be very polite, well. They introduce themselves, tell you what they are doing, and when you say that you are not interested, they answer: "OK, thank you, and have a nice day."
Now a question for our Brazilian folks: If I am approached by a Brazilian Evangelical Christian, can I hold up a USB stick with a trident to scare them away. Like a cross scares away vampires?
From the last link, and has already been stated in Slashdot before:
"The USTR has stated repeatedly that ACTA will enter into force in the US as an executive agreement that does not require any congressional role"
So in the words of Abraham Lincoln:
". . . that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
. . . until signed away, by Executive Agreement, despite the will of the people.
Paste an image of Bender into that dark matter image, and it would look like the episode of Futurama, where Bender meets the God Entity.
"You were doing well until everyone died."
So who copied who?