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User: Tassach

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  1. Re:Big Brother? on Expect Mandatory 'Big Brother' Black Boxes In All New Cars From 2015 · · Score: 1

    Big deal.

    It isn't, until the law is subjected to a Scalia-esque re-definition of what "retrieved" means. I'll wager a weeks pay he (or Uncle Thomas or Dread Justice Roberts) could come up with some tortured rationale why letting the cops scan the contents of the device doesn't actually constitute "retrieval".

    EG in Scalia-ese:
    Cops patting you down = not a "search"
    Sex offender registry = not a "punishment"
    Retroactive copyright extension = not "ex-post-facto"

  2. Re:Just a recorder... on Expect Mandatory 'Big Brother' Black Boxes In All New Cars From 2015 · · Score: 1

    No judge or jury is going to take that information as gospel.

    Bull.

    Judges and juries are among the most credulous people around. They are particularly susceptible to Appeals to Authority, and you can't get any more authoritative than "the computer says so".

  3. Re:Missing the point on Apple: Greenpeace's Cloud Critique Driven By Bogus Numbers · · Score: 1

    You call that "cloud", the rest of us call that a data center. The only part that has changed is the marketing.

    You can't see the forest for the trees.

    Lots has changed besides marketing: visualization, elasticity, transparency, etc.

    Taken alone, no single factor is revolutionary... it's all evolutionary improvements of time-tested concepts. Put them all together at a never-before seen price point and the effect is revolutionary. The whole is more than the sum of it's parts.

  4. Re:Greenpeace is not credible on Apple: Greenpeace's Cloud Critique Driven By Bogus Numbers · · Score: 2

    Virtually all human activity is based on getting tail.

    That's why you don't date robots.

  5. Re:Naive, because most investors (especially VCs). on Will Write Code, Won't Sign NDA · · Score: 1

    If you're going to start out our relationship with crap like that, why should I bother?

    Because that's how the game is played. You don't get dealt into the game until you ante up.

    Again, where is the consideration for me?

    The consideration is that you're being invited to play with the big boys. Either make a show of good faith and get dealt in or go away and play with yourself.

  6. Re:FORTRAN? on Julia Language Seeks To Be the C For Numerical Computing · · Score: 2

    The problem is that "modern computer langauges" are designed by PhD's in computer science who know what they learned in grad school, which is heavy on the "delegates? Anonymous functions? Closures? Reflection" axis of desiderata and pffs away questions of fast numerical support with "link to C"---mostly because something like that wouldn't be seen as New And Cool by tenure committees.

    Citation needed. Looking at the modern language landscape, what I see is are languages that were:
    a) created by lone hackers looking to scratch a personal itch (EG: Perl, Ruby)
    b) created internally by a corporation to solve an otherwise intractable engineering problem (EG: C, Erlang)
    c) created by corporations looking to sell developer seats and/or create vendor lock-in (EG: Java, Visual *, *.net)

    Languages designed primarily as academic exercises / thesis projects have historically had very small user bases outside of academia, with a few exceptions.

    Anonymous functions, closures, reflection, etc are not esoteric Ivory Tower language features that are important because they're "cool" -- they're important because they're essential for efficient metaprogramming and higher order programming.

  7. Re:That's the point on CIOs Dismissed As Techies Without Business Savvy By CEOs · · Score: 1

    Too many CIO get bogged down into detail they shouldn't care about.

    That's true of any (bad) leader. Micromanagement is almost always bad leadership. A good leader needs to know how (and what) to delegate; having a solid understanding of the fundamentals of what you are delegating is essential in being able to delegate effectively.

  8. Re:Apple on IBM Sells Point-Of-Sale Business To Toshiba · · Score: 1

    Apple doesn't sell hardware, Apple sells Unicorn piss.

    Apple fanbois will probably mod you into oblivion, but you're basically correct. Apple sells status symbols.

  9. Re:just like Pfizer- selling alll the cash cows on IBM Sells Point-Of-Sale Business To Toshiba · · Score: 1

    The time to sell a cash cow is when it's still giving milk. Selling your current cash cow, knowing that it won't go on giving milk forever, lets you invest that money in NEW cash cows that have a future. If you try and milk every last drop out of it, no one will want to buy it.

    This is why IBM is still going strong after 100+ years and Kodak is bankrupt. If Kodak had sold off all their film assets to Ilford or Fuji a decade ago and invested it all in digital, they'd be at in great position now. Instead they clung to a dying business model long for far too long and are now having to sell off their crown jewels at pennies on the dollar.

  10. Re:There is a lot of money in hardware on IBM Sells Point-Of-Sale Business To Toshiba · · Score: 1

    Noone in the US could live on $290 a month (Foxconn wages for iPad line person).

    Sure they could, if (like the Foxconn workers) they lived in the company barracks, ate at the company mess hall, and wore company uniforms. 3 hots and a cot doesn't sound like much, but it's better than being homeless and starving.

  11. Re:There is a lot of money in hardware on IBM Sells Point-Of-Sale Business To Toshiba · · Score: 1

    In my opinion there is a lot of money in hardware.

    That is not the same as saying there is a lot of PROFIT in hardware.

    Most mature hardware is a commodity item. In an ideal marketplace, the cost of a commodity approaches the cost of production. There is money to be made in a commodity market, but what profit there is generally comes from efficiencies of scale, cost reduction, etc. Competing in a commodity market is almost always a race to the bottom.

    IBM has survived as long as it has because it knows when it's time to leave a market. They look forward rather than trying to cling to past glories. They know the time to sell a cash cow is when it's still close to it's peak, not when it's dried up and worthless. This is why IBM is profitable and Kodak is in bankruptcy.

  12. Re:Yeah... no on The Ugly Underbelly of Coder Culture · · Score: 1

    Ruby is *not* basically Perl, I've used both for quite a while now. Ruby's concepts are much easier to comprehend and use in everyday coding.

    That's a matter of opinion. I personally find Perl to be a better (more expressive) language for most tasks. Mostly I use Ruby (JRuby, specifically) when I have to write code that will run in a JVM, otherwise I default to Perl. RubyGems is nice, but it's still (at least) a decade behind CPAN. I'll grant you that Perl's learning curve is steeper than Ruby's, but I'll maintain that it's worth the effort.

    Classes are not some weird afterthought that feels like it's falling apart every second now, they are first class members.

    I'll give you that one for classic Perl OO. OTOH, Moose solves most of those complaints. Moose is basically a backport of Perl6's OO system, which is heavily influenced by Ruby's. This gives you pretty much everything you need to do serious OOP without having to drink the everything-is-an-object kool-aid.

    The Perl interpreter is way quicker, which is nice,

    Even nicer is the ability to use other (faster) languages inline once you've identified hotspots in your code through profiling. I am not aware of anything in Ruby that can compare to the simple elegance of Inline::C for this purpose.

    there's sooo much unnecessary syntactic explicitness compared to Ruby.

    Huh? Examples, please. "Syntactic explicitness" is NOT a complaint that's levied against Perl often.

  13. Re:Have you ever been to a Ruby conference? on The Ugly Underbelly of Coder Culture · · Score: 1

    You can write perl that looks like modem line noise, but you don't have to. Feature!

    Specifically, it's a feature designed to let you write efficient one-liners. One-liner Perl is practically an entirely different language than 'application' Perl, and (IMHO) should be treated as such.

    You don't have to make it hard to read or maintain, though some programmers do.

    Even as a die-hard Perl programmer, I have to admit that Perl culture often encourages it. Perl Golf is an interesting intellectual exercise, but you shouldn't be playing it when writing production code. TIMTOWTDI is a powerful concept, but it gives you plenty of rope with which to hang yourself if you are undisciplined.

    Adopting the mandatory use of perlcritic is a good first step towards managing Perl development. Perl Best Practices should be required reading for any modern Perl programmer.

  14. Re:Naive, because most investors (especially VCs). on Will Write Code, Won't Sign NDA · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That goes both ways - if you want me to sign an NDA, show me the money.

    I don't have problems with an NDA (or even a non-compete) as long as it is a) reasonable in scope and duration, and b) isn't bundled with an IP rights grab. If you don't want me to steal your ideas, don't try to steal mine either. I routinely strike clauses in contracts / agreements that are overreaching and unreasonable - and have gotten very little push-back about it.

  15. Re:Cliche, but... on Will Write Code, Won't Sign NDA · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Cliche, but... Coders are a dime a dozen.

    Coders are a dime a dozen. GOOD coders are rarer than hen's teeth.

    Coding is not an assembly-line process, and programmers are not interchangeable. You don't create great software by hiring more programmers. You create great software by hiring better programmers.

    we'd have 100's of implementations of EVERY idea.
    We don't, but we do have 1000's of coders for every idea.

    You haven't browsed Github or Sourceforge (or CPAN, or RubyGems, or any other open source repository) recently, have you? We do have hundreds of implementations of every idea.

  16. Re:Extend the lifespan of B-52 beyond 2040? on Sixty Years On, B-52s Are Still Going Strong · · Score: 1

    Actually the B-52 was designed to deliver a nuclear weapon from an altitude so high that nothing in the day could touch it. Of course that untouchability only lasted a few years until the Soviets designed interceptors and SAMs that could reach the B-52s service ceiling.

    Dropping massive amounts of conventional ordinance was a capability that was retrofitted.

    The fact that the B-52s mission profile has changed so many times over it's lifespan is testimony of how flexible the airframe is.

  17. Re:Extend the lifespan of B-52 beyond 2040? on Sixty Years On, B-52s Are Still Going Strong · · Score: 1

    "most progressive" is an interesting way to say "least regressive".

    Being a little less backwards and underpants-on-the-head retarded than their neighbors doesn't make them progressive.

  18. Re:B-2 Spirit unit price - $3b? Said who? on Sixty Years On, B-52s Are Still Going Strong · · Score: 1

    Total program cost divided by number of units delivered.

    Any other number is bullshit.

  19. Re:Why post on facebook? on Netflix CEO Accuses Comcast of Not Practicing Net Neutrality · · Score: 1

    One man, even with a loud voice, isn't going to make much of a difference.

    Unless that one man happens the CEO of a publicly-owned corporation with a $5.6B market capitalization, who is speaking on behalf of that corporation's (very wealthy) investors... investors who also happen to give giant campaign contributions.

  20. Re:This is one area we've regressed. on FBI Wants To "Advance the Science of Interrogation" · · Score: 1

    [No person shall] be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law

    Independent clauses. Learn what they mean.

  21. Re:Quite the opposite. on FBI Wants To "Advance the Science of Interrogation" · · Score: 1

    torture just gets confessions whether they're factual or not.

    THIS.

    Maybe with some hard, government-sponsored and -approved research to back it up, we'll stop using torture... I don't care if the government stops condoning torture because it's been proven to be ineffective or because it's morally wrong, just so long as they stop.

  22. Re:WAY TO GO, MIT! on MIT Institute's Gloomy Prediction: 'Global Economic Collapse' By 2030 · · Score: 1

    More and more virus strains are appearing that are resistant to many or all antibiotics

    All *viruses* are immune to antibiotics, because antibiotics affect *bacteria*, not *viruses*.

    Antibiotics are only used for viral infections to stave off secondary (bacterial) infections.

  23. Re:WAY TO GO, MIT! on MIT Institute's Gloomy Prediction: 'Global Economic Collapse' By 2030 · · Score: 1

    And the one thing in common with every major pandemic, catastrophe, and economic collapse has had in common? No one ever saw them coming.

    Not even remotely true. Many, if not most, catastrophes have plenty of warning - most people just ignore the warning signs until it's too late.

    FYI, building your house (or factory, or other critical infrastructure) on the slope of an active volcano or on top of an active fault line is "ignoring the warning signs".

  24. Re:Was he really naive enough to expect otherwise? on Whistleblower In Limbo After Reporting H-1B Visa Fraud At Infosys · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I also have to reject your claim that he deserves death threats -- for what reason? Obeying the law??? I don't benerally listen to people who advocate law-breaking with falsified Visas. That makes you a criminal.

    You could also argue that it was his duty to inform the higher-ups that their lawbreaking was obvious. You have a moral as well as a fiduciary duty to inform management of risks that could impact the business. If you know of a situation that could cost the company millions/billions in fines, civil judgements, and bad PR, and you *don't* report it, you're not doing your job.

    (AFIK) Under Sarbanes-Oxley, not reporting illegal activity to management could wind up costing *you* your freedom. A paper trail will cover your ass when the shit inevitably hits the fan.

  25. Re:What is a language? on Oracle and Google Spar Over Whether Programming Languages Can Be Copyrighted · · Score: 2

    Tolkien wrote about (and used) his invented languages in his personal correspondence as well as in his scholarly (non-fiction) work.

    Don't forget that he was a linguist first and foremost. His invented languages were object lessons in linguistic theory.