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User: SeanBlader

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Comments · 102

  1. 7 is too early on Microsoft, Facebook Declare European Kids Clueless About Coding, Too · · Score: 1

    I didn't even see a computer until I was 12, and then at like 13 we got to do a little Logo programming, like one day worth in class. At that point it was more about learning to operate a computer rather than actually code for it. Same thing in high school, we got a computer operations class to learn word processing, spreadsheets, and databases on an Apple IIgs. I did take the optional class after that one to do some BASIC programming, but that would've been when I was 16. When the jocks were getting their cars, I was getting a computer. An now I'm a professional programmer.

  2. Re:Fitness pretty much covers it on Ask Slashdot: What Would It Take For You To Buy a Smartwatch? · · Score: 1

    Heart rate monitor usable by Strava and I'd love it. Then I can ditch my chest strap, bleh.

  3. Re:Cool, opt-in tracking bracelet on Ask Slashdot: What Would It Take For You To Buy a Smartwatch? · · Score: 1

    RabidReindeer, while that was an excellent technical description of the difference between GPS location and cell tower location, but I'm not sure you noticed your comment didn't actually have anything to do with jareth's comment about the relevance of a smart watch entirely lacking GPS and cellular communications and your smart phone having both active GPS and passive cell tracking while being on a dedicated data network, thereby making the idea of calling them "tracking bracelets" one of the more irrelevant comments in Slashdot history. If you don't want to be tracked as ragoshen has stated, your smart watch would be irrelevant, while your smartphone has the key to your current location as well as your historical location. The fact that your smart watch requires a smartphone doesn't make a smart watch any more capable of tracking you on it's own, regardless of it's actual usefulness on it's own.

  4. Re:FOOL Cells is what they are on Toyota's Fuel Cell Car To Launch In Japan Next March · · Score: 1

    Electricity is a bit easier to transport than hydrogen, and we already have the infrastructure to do that in place, reliably. Generating electricity is SO much easier to do than hydrogen, and it's potentially a lot cleaner as well. And for the most part we have that figured out reliably as well. Taking your electricity around with you is a little harder, but there are coming innovations in materials and geometries for anodes and cathodes that in the next 5 years are going to make batteries staggeringly better not only in storage, but also in their ability to be recharged. In the end battery electric will win out over fuel-cell electric, not just because of it's early to market advantage, but also to it's cleanliness, infrastructure, and reliability. The Japanese automakers are as much in the pockets of their American competitors, and Elon nailed it when he went in for some massive industry disruption.

  5. hydrogen storage on Toyota's Fuel Cell Car To Launch In Japan Next March · · Score: 1

    There's no mention of how they managed to store the hydrogen safely. It's a small and spacious gas, so trying to contain it in a high enough pressure safely to give a car powered by it enough range has been the historical biggest challenge. I want to know what guarantee there is that the hydrogen tank won't spontaneously burst, or what happens after I leave the car parked for a few weeks.

  6. US$80,000 is greater than enabling child porn? on Girl's Facebook Post Costs Her Dad $80,000 · · Score: 1

    I'm wondering what your teenage daughter posting naked pictures costs over a lifetime of missed job opportunities costs in comparison to a one time failure to gain US$80,000. Surely being a child porn star is pricier in the long run, not just financially, but emotionally as well?

  7. Visual Studio on Does Relying On an IDE Make You a Bad Programmer? · · Score: 1

    Last time I tried to use Visual Studio, the startup time was taking longer than it did to install, so I dumped it in favor of anything else.

  8. This is so right, but is only part of the story on Why Nissan Is Talking To Tesla Model S Owners · · Score: 1

    The other part of the story is that one is fuck ugly, the other is super high tech and elegant. Don't get me wrong, there's things I'd do differently on the Model S, but there's not much I could do worse on the Leaf.

  9. In a nutshell on Exxon Mobile CEO Sues To Stop Fracking Near His Texas Ranch · · Score: 1

    "Drill baby drill."

  10. the difference on The Road To VR · · Score: 1

    In one case you're in another person's head in another person's world. In the other case you're in another person's world, but still in your own head and in control of your own actions. I promise being in your head and making your own decisions is better.

  11. assumptions on Mathematician: Is Our Universe a Simulation? · · Score: 1

    You're assuming that humanity is the only intelligent life in this simulation. For all we know we could be the newbs, and The Programmer could be just watching macro-statistics of all "life" across the entire simulation.

  12. retcon on Mathematician: Is Our Universe a Simulation? · · Score: 1

    Unless such occurrences are all retroactively changed when the law is changed, which would include changing how we remember perceiving said prior law. A good programmer won't copy a function, they'll link to it, and when that function changes, no other code referencing that function will have an idea that it was ever different than as they currently perceive it. That's what they call retroactive continuity.

  13. call it what you want on Mathematician: Is Our Universe a Simulation? · · Score: 1

    As an athiest, I think what you're referring to is "agnostic". I'll believe in the "programmer from the future" or "God" or "Q" when I meet him/her, the latter being preferable.

  14. alternates on Mathematician: Is Our Universe a Simulation? · · Score: 1

    And that leads to the idea of alternate universes, where the address of your memory allocation gets corrupted and you end up in an alternate simulation where some small thing has changed, but your recollection of that thing is otherwise.

  15. just like the matrix on Mathematician: Is Our Universe a Simulation? · · Score: 1

    Really all that needs to be simulated is one person's perception, you have no way to prove that what you perceive, including other people is actually part of the simulation or all in your head.

  16. Or on Mathematician: Is Our Universe a Simulation? · · Score: 1

    We'd all be carrying around guns trying to kill each other. I have to say I like your idea better, but I'm not a religious fundamentalist either, which I believe creates some bias against sex and for murder.

  17. continued on Mathematician: Is Our Universe a Simulation? · · Score: 1

    ...it's all around us, even here in this room.

  18. fallacy on Target's Internal Security Team Warned Management · · Score: 1

    Changing passwords regularly has been found to be more of a security risk than not changing them and having a more restrictive password policy. I've had informal discussions with a number of people at various companies where password changing every 3 months causes more problems with lost passwords and written down passwords.

  19. Need a poll on Target's Internal Security Team Warned Management · · Score: 1

    How many of anyone has been brushed off by management for what they thought were serious safety or security concerns. I know I've been there for both cases. Management however was more interested in other stupid crap than doing things right.

  20. I thought T until on Elon Musk, Tesla CTO Talk Model X Details, Model S Upgrades · · Score: 1

    A coworker suggested that the fourth chassis they make should be the Model Y. SEX and Y. I hope it's not a cargo vehicle, they need to do a new Roadster.

  21. Bittorrent Sync on Ask Slashdot: Distributed Online Storage For Families? · · Score: 1

    I have to agree with the suggestion for Bittorrent Sync, it's super easy, will mirror between sites, and runs in a really small process.

  22. What's important is the lack of beer on These Are the Companies the FAA Has Sent notices To For Using Drones · · Score: 1

    Surely there's solid medical need for beer while ice fishing and the FAA by blocking said delivery is putting the lives of those who do it in serious danger. I mean obviously anyone who Ice Fishes is nearly insane, and probably near hypothermic death. In addition it's been scientifically proven that you'd be a lot warmer and a lot happier with a bellyfull of mead.

  23. Handy for Police intervention on California Bill Proposes Mandatory Kill-Switch On Phones and Tablets · · Score: 1

    This would be nice if you could disable the device completely when the police confiscate it for no legal reason.

  24. Skip it on HTML5 App For Panasonic TVs Rejected - JQuery Is a "Hack" · · Score: 2

    Don't explain to them that you used jQuery, just tell them you used XMLHttpRequest(), and if they didn't intend it to be used, they should have included it in their JavaScript processor.

  25. next step on Wozniak Gets Personal On Innovation · · Score: 1

    If I was going to do something crazy, I'd look at getting rid of our screens, and replacing it with voice. That means probably doing better with voice generation, and leveraging and improving voice recognition. I have a thought or two about the idea at a basic level, but I don't have the programming or theoretical chops to make it happen. That would be neat though to see something go that way. Granted that's not all that crazy as evidenced by the movie "Her" but it's a start in the direction Woz was talking about.