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User: mattventura

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  1. Re:They're worthless. on Why Certifications Are Necessary (Even If Aggravating To Earn) · · Score: 1

    Actually, they serve a very important purpose. Even when a computer is pretty locked up, the lock indicators will usually still respond unless the computer is completely hosed. Also Linux may start flashing all 3 LEDs in case of a kernel panic.

  2. Re:Why are we even discussing this again? on Why Certifications Are Necessary (Even If Aggravating To Earn) · · Score: 1

    But why would I waste time getting certs when I could actually spend time doing the things the certs can cover? Who would you rather hire, someone who has a piece of paper saying they can do something, or someone who has actually done it?

  3. Re:Another blow to states' RIGHTS. on US House Committee Approves Anti-GMO Labeling Law · · Score: 2

    I don't think it will become much of a problem because the the non-GMO foods will simply use that as a selling point and label themselves as such.

  4. Re:No tab, have to wait for Dvorak on Keyboardio is a Hackable 'Artisanal Keyboard' That's Already Kickstarted (Video) · · Score: 3

    But I will say this- the idea of holding a function key to get to the rest of the keyboard buttons is a terrible one. Chording has some purpose, but here it really seems bad. Do you want Alt + Tab to become Alt + Function + tilde?

    It depends entirely on what keys we're talking about. Yes, I would much rather hit Ctrl-U/D than PgUp/PgDn, Ctrl-A instead of Home, and plenty of others, because anything outside the alphanumeric can easily end up taking more movement to hit than hitting two keys in the alphanumeric area.

    But the real issue I see with the keyboard is that the layout is so nonstandard that finding any third party keycaps will be a total PITA if not impossible, and very few keyboards actually come with good quality caps that won't wear down/shine. It looks like this thing is more expensive than an ErgoDox with very little advantage over it.

  5. Re:Decisions, decisons on Comcast Launches Streaming Service and Unveils Pricing For 2G Fiber · · Score: 1

    For that matter, how do I physically even get 2gbps? Does the modem they provide have a 10GbE port? This is actually quite ingenious of Comcast, selling people a 2gbit connection knowing full well nobody will actually be able to use it.

  6. Re:or... on NYC Asks Google Maps For Fewer Left Turns · · Score: 1

    It's a fundamental issue with intersections that have both vehicle and foot traffic. The only time it's 100% safe for pedestrians to go is when there's no traffic across that particular crosswalk. However, that's never actually the case. Best case is you have right-turn traffic going across the traffic, but that's still some traffic, and a driver not paying attention might still hit someone. If you gave pedestrians a "don't walk" if there's any potential traffic across the crosswalk, then they would never get to go.

  7. Unchanging UIs? Not just for old people on How Bad User Interfaces Can Ruin Lives · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'd love interfaces that don't change every 2 weeks. Especially certain web browsers and desktop environments which seem to be plagued with such issues.

  8. Re:How many times? on Restaurateur Loses Copyright Suit To BMI · · Score: 1

    So it seems like the best defense for the restaurant owner would be "we didn't actually condone him playing music". Otherwise, I could simply walk into a restaurant or other establishment with a boombox playing copyrighted tunes, and the restaurant would be responsible for the copyright infringement.

  9. Re:Anyone know if this applies to free Wi-Fi? on ISP Breaking Net Neutrality? The FCC's Got a Complaint Form For That · · Score: 1

    My question is would it apply to those annoying infringement notice pages. Basically, if you get a DMCA notice on your IP, you'll be sent to a walled garden until you acknowledge the notice. It seems to fall under "blocking legitimate traffic", even if it's just a temporary block until someone clicks through a couple pages.

    Backstory: I'm currently in an apartment building that has one connection for all the residents. When one person gets caught pirating something, it cuts off the connection for everyone until someone acknowledges the notice. And of course, the chances are slim to none that the person doing the pirating is the person who will see and click through the notice, so it's pointless to begin with.

  10. Re:hardly revolutionary on Toshiba Introduces a Cortana Keyboard Button For Windows 10 · · Score: 1

    For that matter, is it even any different than the plain old windows key? I haven't tried it with voice, but with the windows key you press it, type whatever, and it puts it in the search/cortana box.

  11. Re:Everybody seems to have missed the real problem on WA Gov. Sides With Microsoft: Philanthropy-Funded K-12 CS Education Now the Law · · Score: 1

    That didn't happen before, either. MS already funded a good amount of equipment purchases for K12 schools in WA (running Windows, of course). Not to mention, people want computers that just work. Every minute spent dealing with tech issues is a minute less spent on learning.

  12. Re:Social mobility was killed, but not this way on Writer: "Why I Defaulted On My Student Loans" · · Score: 1

    As for the author, I do question why he got a bank loan rather than a federal loan.

    Because you can actually default on a bank loan. You can't default on a federal student loan. Well, you technically can, but it does nothing. They're allowed to garnish wages and other nasty stuff, so there's basically no getting away from it, barring extreme circumstances or leaving the country. The difference between federal student loans and a mafia loan shark is that one of them is legal.

  13. Reset firefox entirely on Ask Slashdot: Options After Google Chrome Discontinues NPAPI Support? · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If your Firefox install and profile are reasonably old, you'll probably have a bunch of cruft. Start fresh (reinstall and start a new profile), import bookmarks, install only the addons you need. Should be plenty fast after that.

    Only problem is that it seems for every new version that comes out, you have to install more and more addons just to keep the browser the same. You could always just use Firefox only when accessing a site that requires java, and use another browser for everything else.

  14. Re:it's not bad process on Technology Won't Fix America's Neediest Schools -- It Makes Bad Education Worse · · Score: 1

    It's a lack of money. The class sizes are too large and they mix the special ed kids in with the other students so that they are constantly getting interrupted while an undertrained teach tries their best. Meanwhile the parents are broke so the kids game tons of problems at home.

    I love the way everyone in America tries their best to ignore the disadvantages of poverty and the privilege that comes with money

    The problem is that while I'm sure there are plenty of legitimately disadvantaged people who are trying their best to get an education but can't due to underfunded or incompetent schools, there are also people that just don't try in school. Whether it's plain immaturity, a "doing well in school is for " attitude, bad parenting, or something else entirely, the number of people that simply aren't there to be successful is astounding.

    Even though there is a soft correlation between being richer and trying harder in school, a poor person who actually tries in school can easily outperform a rich person that doesn't.

  15. Re:Stucturing on Why Is It a Crime For Dennis Hastert To Evade Government Scrutiny? · · Score: 1

    There are plenty of concerts and games where tickets are resold for much more than the original face value. Due to the magic of the internet, I've seen tickets go on sale on resale sites immediately after they sell out from the venue's ticket seller, for a significantly higher price. There is software out there that will automatically scoop up tickets from Ticketmaster and other sites (hence why most of them have captchas now) for that exact purpose.

    If I wanted to split economic hairs, I could just say that any event where the tickets sell out and there are people who would still like to pay face value for a ticket (to actually attend, not for reselling) was technically underpriced, as the demand at that price point was higher than the fixed supply. Most places do tend to underprice a little bit since they would rather err on the side of underpricing rather than having empty seats, which is understandable. But tickets reselling for 2-3x the face value or more generally goes outside an acceptable margin of error.

  16. Re:Stucturing on Why Is It a Crime For Dennis Hastert To Evade Government Scrutiny? · · Score: 1

    Because tickets are intentionally underpriced to begin with. Otherwise, there would be no purchasing tickets with the intent to sell them for profit, only people who had a change of plans and can't attend. Trying to sell a lawnmower for more than the face value wouldn't work, because I could just go to the store and buy a new one. The whole reason people hate "scalping" is because it's a complete violation of the ticket seller underpricing the tickets to make it more affordable for fans.

  17. Don't forget exposing your IP to other users, and not just those you're trying to communicate with.

  18. Re:My wish list: on Fallout 4 Announced · · Score: 1

    For how much work they put into making road vehicles realistic, I'm a little disappointed with how flying pales in comparison. I'm sure parts of it were balance issues (like airspeed and weapon ranges) but others just make flying feel cheaply done.

  19. Re:Doesn't get it on Australia's Prime Minister Doesn't Get Why Kids Should Learn To Code · · Score: 1

    I think the PM is right but for all the wrong reasons. "CS" has become a bit of a buzzword lately. What people need is technology literacy, not knowing how to program. It's like teaching someone how to change their oil (practical) versus teaching someone how to build a car (not very practical unless you work for an auto maker). Even ignoring that, it's silly to try to teach people programming before basics. I bet you could go around and as people basic questions like "what's a home directory?", "what does it mean to append to a file?", and so on, and they probably wouldn't be able to answer most of them.

    It's only going to get worse and worse as computers hide more and more of their internal workings from the user, especially in the realm of phones and tablets.

  20. Re:Not enough room? Not enough food? on Ask Slashdot: What Happens If We Perfect Age Reversing? · · Score: 1

    Yes, use one accident cause mostly by inexperience with nuclear power than by any inherent danger in it as reasoning for why nuclear power is bad. Of course, you have to ignore all the damage cause not just by fossil fuel accidents like oil spills and coal mining accidents, but also the general damage caused by their emissions and extractions.

  21. Re: Yes & the sheer amount of existing code/fr on The Reason For Java's Staying Power: It's Easy To Read · · Score: 1

    object.x = 5 isn't overridable in Java, but it is in other languages like Python.

    Refactoring is much easier when the language is actually conducive to refactoring. Java isn't conducive to refactoring at all, so as a result you have to always plan for the worst case scenario (e.g. use getters and setters for everything). Contrast to Python, which makes refactoring objects quite easy due to the amount of control you have over every aspect of your object.

  22. Re:Not as easy to read as Python though on The Reason For Java's Staying Power: It's Easy To Read · · Score: 1

    I've never actually seen issues with that. Establish an indentation style for your project, whether it's tabs or X spaces (4 being the typical Python style), and enforce it. If someone can't commit code with the right indentation style, they shouldn't be writing code in the first place.

  23. Re:Yes & the sheer amount of existing code/fra on The Reason For Java's Staying Power: It's Easy To Read · · Score: 2

    There's a sweet spot for conciseness versus verbosity. If something gets overly concise, then what you say is true. However, there's a such thing as too verbose as well, where it's so indirect that it becomes difficult to read.

    Not to mention, Java has a lot of things that are absent from other languages due to being relatively pointless or having better alternatives like public vs private things. On top of that, the fact that Java best practices dictate using getters and setters whenever possible mean lots of additional code. What's easier to read, "object.x = 5" or "object.setX(5)" plus the boilerplate function that actually does the setting? Yes, I'm aware that IDEs can take care of this, but when a language has so much copy-and-paste boilerplate code that an IDE can eliminate a huge chunk of it, that doesn't exactly reflect well on the language.

  24. Re:Stupid reasoning. on Los Angeles Raises Minimum Wage To $15 an Hour · · Score: 1

    There's two ways it can play out in terms of competition:
    1. Other competitors are also in LA. Prices go up, nobody is at a major competitive advantage or disadvantage.
    2. Other competitors are not in LA. LA company is at a competitive disadvantage. Companies who will be hiring low-wage employees are thus discouraged from doing business in LA, hurting the LA economy. If the advantage is enough to put a company out of business or at least trigger layoffs, now instead of minimum wage workers you have unemployed people.

  25. I knew it on Huawei's LiteOS Internet of Things Operating System Is a Minuscule 10KB · · Score: 5, Funny

    640k was enough after all.