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User: chipschap

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Comments · 1,137

  1. Re:Throw it all out on Ask Slashdot: If You Could Assemble a "FrankenOS" What Parts Would You Use? · · Score: 1

    You mean like on Android. (Effectively. Yes, it's not the same, but in user space with few exceptions that's a big limitation of tablet computing.)

  2. Re:Please insert Multics subthread here. on Ask Slashdot: If You Could Assemble a "FrankenOS" What Parts Would You Use? · · Score: 1

    Honeywell got hold of Multics and, being Honeywell, killed it in favor of selling their own super-crappy GCOS (which had exactly one good features, scatter-gather I/O). Then Prime Computer made PRIMOS which they called a mini-multics (very mini).

    Multics was amazing for its time, maybe for all time.

  3. Re:Microsoft is widely misunderstood. on Windows 10 Shares Your Wi-Fi Password With Contacts · · Score: 1

    Evil as a touch-screen app, of course.

  4. Re:alogrithms aren't racist on Google Apologises For Photos App's Racist Blunder · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I find it hard to believe that there was racism intended in any way, shape, or form. It is unfortunate that this took place but Google certainly took care of the problem in short order, as is right.

    There are too many of the LBTO (looking to be offended) crowd these days. Come on, there are plenty of real problems with racism, there's no need to label inadvertent and unintentional things.

  5. Re:Toughest part in transition on The Programmer's Path To Management · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Learning to delegate is one of many necessary skills, but the biggest thing a new manager has to learn that being a manager is not about YOU, it's about your staff. Your job is to do what it takes to enable them to get their jobs done, to empower them, to remove roadblocks, and to make sure things work for them.

    The minute you forget this, you're done, because as a manager you are NOTHING without your staff. They're the ones who are going to make you look good or look bad.

    Yes, managers set direction, make policy, make decisions, all the stuff you hear about, but if they ignore the needs of the staff while doing so, they fail as managers.

    I was a manager for a good part of my career (after having been a technical person). I am glad I had good mentorship and learned what managing was really all about, which is empowering people to do their jobs.

    Side note: I was once myself mentoring a new manager, who said, "Well, what if I'm having a bad day?" My response: "You're the manager. You don't get to have bad days. Your staff needs you doing things for them every moment of every day, and YOU are not the one who's important."

    So if you're a programmer (or other technical person) aspiring to be a manager, fine, but keep in mind that the minute you become the manager, your role changes drastically, and if you're into satisfying your own needs, think twice about taking on a management job.

  6. Re:Glaing Error on Protesters Block Effort To Restart Work On Controversial Hawaii Telescope · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You have an interesting viewpoint. I (too?) live in Hawai`i and I can agree with some of it.

    But one thing often said here by those in favor of continuing with the TMT is that the ancient Hawaiians themselves, as master celestial navigators, would have readily embraced something that advanced scientific knowledge. Is the idea of the TMT out of line with Hawaiian spiritual practice? As I understand it, not at all.

    There are already about a dozen telescopes atop the mountain. Will one more desecrate the `aina (land) so much more? I'm not qualified to answer that, but it's hard to believe that it's such a make-or-break issue.

    Fundamentally, it isn't the telescope or the `aina or spiritual practices that make up the issue. Instead, it seem that it's about an indigenous people resenting the very real slights and persecutions of the past and projecting them into the present; it's also about the Hawaiian sovereignty movement. But in today's Hawai`i, it is most certainly not the haole (general meaning today of Caucasian, though that's not really what the word means) who rules and runs the show.

  7. Re:Or, you could quintuple the salary on Mob Programming: When Is 5 Heads Really Better Than 1 (or 2)? · · Score: 1

    Really, that's the answer to all of this, isn't it? Competence? Aren't many of these fads intended to be a substitute for basic coding competence, which, sadly, I've found to be rarer than we might wish?

    And ultimately, the fads fail, because in order to produce a good product, competence can't be eliminated no matter what. But the big downside is that when truly competent staff are forced to get bogged down in all the management dictated faddish-ness, they can't produce and look nearly as bad as everyone else.

  8. Re:For the love of God... on Mob Programming: When Is 5 Heads Really Better Than 1 (or 2)? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This seems like another "fad of the day" approach.

    All these new "methods" strike me as coming either from 1) managers or "experts" with little to no actual experience at the keyboard writing actual code, or 2) university professors and theorists whose code is all written by slave labor in the form of grad students.

  9. Re:Over simplified on Report: Aging Java Components To Blame For Massively Buggy Open-Source Software · · Score: 1

    FOSS is much more prone to borking backwards compatibility than COTS.

    Do you have any backup for this statement?

    The only possible thing I can think of is that COTS can potentially have greater control over a closed ecosystem. But even COTS today often relies on various third-party libraries.

  10. Re:HR departments on The Danger of Picking a Major Based On Where the Jobs Are · · Score: 4, Funny

    HR guy: "We need people who are 22 years old with an M.Sc. and 20 years of specific experience, and we can't find any."

    C-level exec: "See, I told you we can't find qualified domestic hires and we need to ramp up the H-1B visas."

  11. Re:Bank of America - Android app on Santander To Track Customer Location Via Mobiles and Tablets · · Score: 1

    Had something like this happen more than once. I'm at home, I use my credit card. Wife is 3,500 miles away, uses hers (same account). Discover blocks the card because they have trouble figuring out that two different people can be in two different places at the same time. The cards (on the same account) have different numbers in the final digits to distinguish them, even.

  12. Re: wrong is right on Computer Modeling Failed During the Ebola Outbreak · · Score: 1

    .... and being downmodded to 'troll' proves my assertion.

    There isn't a "-1 delusional fucking idiot" mod option on slashdot.

    Thank you for your well-thought-out and courteous reply.

    If you think it's politically correct to question climate change models (the converse of my assertion), try it and see what happens.

  13. Re: wrong is right on Computer Modeling Failed During the Ebola Outbreak · · Score: 1

    .... and being downmodded to 'troll' proves my assertion.

  14. Re: wrong is right on Computer Modeling Failed During the Ebola Outbreak · · Score: -1, Troll

    Excuse me, it is politically incorrect to doubt the climate change models.

  15. Re:Before everyone jumps on the "Hatez the microso on Microsoft To Release Low-Cost Windows 10 With Bing Branding · · Score: 0

    How is this going to work, though? Won't Windows 10 require a footprint of something like a million gigabytes of RAM, a couple petabytes of disk space, and a 32-core processor just in order to boot up and open Notepad?[1]

    [1] All stated figures are approximate.

  16. Re:Squeezing the balloon on Scientists Study Crime In Progress In a VR Simulated Environment · · Score: 2

    For instance, burglary skills are of little use to a Wall Street investment banker.

    Wall Street investment bankers have moved well beyond simple burglary.

  17. Re:guys, i got an idea! on Google Chrome Tops 1 Billion Users · · Score: 1

    A pity. AOL had a lot of entertainment value, even if it wasn't quite the kind AOL intended.

  18. Re:How about import duties? on FCC Proposes To Extend So-Called "Obamaphone" Program To Broadband · · Score: 1

    The point of tax isn't to punish people for being rich.

    No, it's to punish people for being middle class and striving to do better. I was never rich and never will be, but every time I made a little more money I paid a lot more tax. Work overtime for extra money when incremental taxes are 40%+? (It's easy to get there with Social Security and Medicare tax, state tax, and federal tax; you don't have to be a high earner). You reach a "why bother" point where being productive is counterproductive.

  19. Re:other people's money on FCC Proposes To Extend So-Called "Obamaphone" Program To Broadband · · Score: 1

    I'm all for doing the right thing and helping people that need help. I'm also all for people trying to help themselves. So if phones help people help themselves, such as getting work or education to enable them to get work, then it's to the good, and it's a responsible thing for the rest of us to do.

    Someone just please tell me that's what's really happening with these programs. You know, giving people a boost so they can become productive? As opposed, say, to making money for the ruling elite, or allowing people to get free goodies in exchange for votes, or allowing people to shirk their own responsibilities.

    Nothing is simple. We certainly have some of all of the above.

  20. Re:Thanks Canada on Thanks To the Montreal Protocol, We Avoided Severe Ozone Depletion · · Score: 1

    Poutine is indeed delicious, though I would not call it health food :)

  21. If they don't know what they are doing, then why are they the leaders?

    You've answered your own question.

  22. Re:$70000 is poorest? on California Is Giving Away Free Solar Panels To Its Poorest Residents · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes, I have always loved the concept of my paying more taxes so other people could have for free the things I can't afford for myself.

  23. Re:Mars One Plan on How To Die On Mars · · Score: 4, Funny

    as well as carbon dioxide produced by the initial four-member crew

    Oh no! We're going to cause global warming on Mars now!

  24. Re:*Sniffles* on Mandriva Goes Out of Business · · Score: 0

    Shouldn't someone from the anti-open-source bunch be on here stating that this "proves" that open source isn't viable?

    Oops, shouldn't give them ideas.

    I more lament the demise of Crunchbang, actually. It was a pretty original concept. But distros come and go. There are market forces in open source, too. Commercial software also comes and goes, but when it goes, users are generally left with ... not much.

  25. Re:No worries mate on Linux/Moose Worm Targets Routers, Modems, and Embedded Systems · · Score: 1, Troll

    Which raises the question, why is this even news? Is it more Linux/open-source bashing by the commercial OS crowd? It doesn't even make sense. Turn on remote admin and leave a default password in place, and it's the fault of Linux when you get hacked?