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User: Pro923

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  1. It takes brains on Finding More Than One Worm In the Apple · · Score: 0

    I've been in this field for 20+ years now, and I don't necessarily (in fact, I usually don't) agree with whatever the current trend is (which is probably why my karma is negative). One underlying trend, has been to make software something that can be made by anyone - to remove the requirement of having a special mind that is able to think through algorithms and code. This has generally been accomplished through process, and abstraction. Process - if we can describe a method well enough, then anyone should be able to follow it to it's logical conclusion. Abstraction - we keep adding layers upon layers in an effort to simplify and streamline that which is a complex thing (lots of numbers in sequence to control a microprocessor and it's accompanying hardware). You can probably tell that I'm not a great fan of either - though I'm really really trying to not be a negative type, and to go with the flow more. But I can't help my fundamental feelings that there is just no substitute for a smart individual with a gift of understanding the logic of code. I'm always against process because it takes the gift that i was given and neutralizes it. Personal feelings aside, I just don't think that all the process in the world is ever going to get ahead of the curve that is the battle between perfectly functional software and bugs.

  2. No such thing on Microsoft Cheaper To Use Than Open Source Software, UK CIO Says · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    As an efficient worker with Linux. Most people spend all of their time dicking around with things that should be seamless and simple. Sure, they did all kinds of "work" that day, but people pay for products - not the 50% of the time that the developer spends screwing with something as complex and do-it-yourself as git.

  3. Here in America... on Intuit, Maker of Turbotax, Lobbies Against Simplified Tax Filings · · Score: 0

    We create jobs, not eliminate them. This "simplify the tax code" nonsense just can't be done without taking this artificially complex system that so many morons have mastered and make a living with - and turning it into negative job creation! If I were a rich guy, I'd create 10 jobs - I'd have 10 guys run circles around my house every day. They'd feel like they were doing work for sure, and I'd pay them, so that would feel like work. This is the US economy. You can't just eliminate these jobs... The stuff that used to make this country great has been completely circumvented. Let's all pump money into GM instead of letting it go, and creating a vacuum by which some novel and innovative company could come along and do something spectacular (tesla?). Hey - dial up connections became useless once cable modems came along - but wait, how is AOL going to continue to make it's money? Let's confuse the shit out of all the morons that run the courts and see if we can find a meaningless way to keep that model alive (they almost did).

  4. Re:How does this simply not move the goalposts? on Australia May 'Pause' Trades To Tackle High-Frequency Trading · · Score: 0

    i agree with this 100%. Even make it a minute, for example... So trades only execute every minute on the minute - everything just buffers up until that second hand reaches zero again. I can't see any negative to this, and it would certainly seem to eliminate the shenanigans of using connection latencies to skim off of the inefficiencies of the market.

  5. Question: How do we know? on Why Are We Made of Matter? · · Score: 0

    How do we know that most of the universe is made of matter? What tells us that the big bang didn't send matter in one direction and anti-matter in the other? Can we tell that entire galaxies aren't made up of anti-matter versus matter? I'm not suggesting that I know anything, I'm really asking anyone who knows... Does light from antimatter tell us one way or another?

  6. Car Dealerships are like AOL on Tesla's Fight With Car Dealers Could Help Decide the Next Presidential Election · · Score: 0

    As time goes on, old business models lose their justification to exist. When cable modems first showed up, AOL became an artifact - and I was blown away that they were trying to change the law to make themselves relevant and were actually managing to confuse people enough to make it a debate. Car dealerships seem to me to be the same sort of thing. Even as a kid, before the internet was prevalent, I wondered why we needed these glorified middlemen. Everyone buys cars - if you know what you want, why should you have to pay a fee to a middleman instead of ordering direct from the factory? The fact that a good percentage of commercials on TV are produced by car dealerships tells me that they're big business. So I ask again, why do we need people between me and my product taking a LARGE amount of money just to facilitate a transaction? So... They're going to try to change the rules to keep themselves relevant. I think this is a serious miscarriage of justice. Go Tesla Motors. Shame on any politician that supports this nonsense.

  7. Please explain on The Earth As a Gravitational Wave Detector · · Score: 0

    Where does a gravity wave theoretically come from? All I can imagine is that they would come from a mass increasing or decreasing in magnitude, and I don't know of any way that happens.

  8. How can this cost anything? on The $100,000 Device That Could Have Solved Missing Plane Mystery · · Score: -1

    I had a hard time explaining to my wife and kids how the plane is missing. We live in an age where our physical locations are stored in a database and can be looked up at any time. After Aaron Hernandez was suspected of murdering someone, they used his cell phone data to tell us exactly where he was and when. So I don't understand how it can cost anything to know where this plane, or any of it's cellphone carrying occupants were at any time. My point is that it seems to me that the technology exists and is accessible. If we can find out where I stopped on my way to work and exactly what time - why can't we find out where this plane was using similar technology?

  9. it is NOT off topic, jackass on Austin Has Highest Salaries For Tech Workers, After Factoring In Cost of Living · · Score: 0

    The question was, "Is there a place you'd rather be but forgo because of the cost of living, or a place you'd consider simply because it would amplify your salary? ". It's not fair that I continue to get bad karma because some assholes don't read or comprehend the questions.

  10. I'd have moved to California on Austin Has Highest Salaries For Tech Workers, After Factoring In Cost of Living · · Score: -1

    I live in MA and have been in software for 20+ years. I've had a lot of good job offers from CA, but was never able to take them... THe salary isn't that much more than it is in Boston, but there's a pretty decent bump in real estate. If you've got kids and need to move into a higher rent town, it just never seems feasible (for a guy who mostly lives paycheck to paycheck anyway).

  11. Re:DC's not ranked? on Austin Has Highest Salaries For Tech Workers, After Factoring In Cost of Living · · Score: 0

    I dunno. I think engineering has less of a value placed on it on the East coast (Boston/New York) - as there's a more sales driven mindset. I don't have any data or evidence, but I suspect they hire a lot of foreigners in NYC who come from a place where their standard of living wasn't so great. Then the sales people can pay them barely enough money to survive, and expect them to live stacked one on top of the other in a studio apartment.

  12. it's about metabolism on Low-Protein Diet May Extend Lifespan · · Score: 0

    Current wisdom has us do high input (eat lots of good foods) and high output (lots of exercise) which in turn gives us a high metabolism, and if done right - we can stay in good shape. I've always thought that it also has us burn through our mileage faster too. I think the key to longevity is low metabolism. Of course, I don't pay much attention to it, because the likelihood of dying from something else prevents me from worrying about running out of road.

  13. Re:First an artificial ring, then several elevator on Report: Space Elevators Are Feasible · · Score: 0

    Can someone comment on this? I'd like to hear an opinion on whether it's as good an idea as I think it is...

  14. First an artificial ring, then several elevators on Report: Space Elevators Are Feasible · · Score: 0

    I feel strongly that the next step to our advancement is to build an artificial ring around the Earth. It would serve multiple purposes: First, build a thin ring - like the thickness of a pipe that extends around the equator of the planet somewhere up in orbit. Then you can make 'nodes' at points around the ring - space stations, satellites, etc - the advantage being that they're held in place by the ring itself. Then you can pave the exterior of the ring with solar panels for the constant generation of power. Then you can drop these space elevators from the nodes. Spacecraft would no longer be designed to have to escape the gravity of the earth - they'd begin their flights from the ring, and you could easily hoist supplies/fuel up to the spacecraft via the space elevators. This could completely revolutionize the way we design and build our spacecraft - spacecraft would stay in space, and never deal with escaping gravity wells. I feel that this would be a significant game changer.

  15. Re:Forget Autocomplete on Does Relying On an IDE Make You a Bad Programmer? · · Score: 0

    I get what you're saying, but educate me - because I don't completely understand. You open up the NetBIOS ports and then everything is controlled by Windows NT authentication - which is a highly reliable and secure system. Where it breaks down is when people use weak passwords, or don't set the proper administrative privileges on resources. Joe domain user can't just modify HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE on the domain server unless he's specifically given the rights to do so. File shares are the same way - the shares themselves are protected, as well as the underlying filesystem (assuming NTFS), right down to each individual file or folder.

  16. Re:Forget Autocomplete on Does Relying On an IDE Make You a Bad Programmer? · · Score: 0

    IMO, most of the problems people have with windows are self inflicted. A firewall (unpopular opinion coming) is a useless piece of garbage. We design IP to have "ports", and then we use a firewall to block all of these ports. So then we run software on the firewalled machine and either open the ports allowing the software to function or we don't. When we open the ports, the machine is only as vulnerable as the faulty software that we're running on it that communicate on these ports. As for blocking the DCOM ports, Microsoft is fairly good at patching security holes in their packaged products as they're discovered. As long as a machine is "windows updated" every Tuesday, I don't see the point in crippling it's functionality. Don't even get me started on Antivirus software.

  17. Re:Forget Autocomplete on Does Relying On an IDE Make You a Bad Programmer? · · Score: 0

    Well, not necessarily. There are a couple of options. First, you can use remote debugging. Second, you can easily install the free version of the IDE on the target machine. Third, you can use command line tools to compile (the stuff in the bin directory - you don't really NEED the IDE to compile/link). I know that remote debugging is sort of a pain, but it's effective once you set it up. Also, it's generally simple to set up visual studio express on any machine. I know the problem, because my most recent job was developing software that ran on VMs... I did the development on my desktop, but then would run on the VM. Most commonly, I'd just set up express on the VM. Though, I wish I was more familiar with the remote debugging client, because it's probably the 'right' way to do it.

  18. Forget Autocomplete on Does Relying On an IDE Make You a Bad Programmer? · · Score: 0

    Seems like people are hung up on autocomplete and the intellisense... The greatest part of an IDE is the built in debugger (IMO, of course)... It's much less time consuming and error prone to have all things configured in one place - compile, run, debug, repeat.

  19. Ring around the Earth on Japanese Firm Proposes Microwave-Linked Solar Plant On the Moon · · Score: 0

    I was thinking they should build a ring around the earth. It could serve multiple purposes... The outside of it could be covered in solar panels, and there could be nodes along the ring where space stations are built - they could be launching points for interplanetary missions. The ring could also contain attachment points for space elevators - to facilitate getting cargo/fuel out of earth's gravity.

  20. This is criminal on Map of Publicly-Funded Creationism Teaching · · Score: 0

    I can't help but see this as a horrible injustice that should be treated as such, and should land those responsible in jail. If someone taught me in school that Santa Claus created the world, and somehow I became smart enough to snap out of it someday, I would be furious that my education involved any sort of nonsense like religion. This is the problem. You stand back and give people their space, instead of telling them how stupid they are and this is what happens eventually. I've had enough. God and religion are truly for the stupid and ignorant.

  21. Search along a route on Google Removes "Search Nearby" Function From Updated Google Maps · · Score: 0

    Damn, I wanted them to enhance the feature. Search nearby was "search from a point". A common use that I had was to search for a particular store along a route. For example, I'm driving home from the white mountains back to Boston - find me a home depot that is somewhere close to the route that I'm going to take, doesn't matter if it's up north or closer to Boston, just want it to be as close to the highway as possible.

  22. Re:White male advantage on Programmer Privilege · · Score: 1

    I respectfully disagree - at least, in my experience I've noticed the opposite. Asians who are difficult to understand appear to be given the benefit of the doubt simply because non-technical management are confused by them. This confusion leads to an assumption that they know what they're talking about - ie. "since I don't understand what the hell this guy is talking about, it must be some sort of technical wizardry that is way over my head".

  23. This bites me often on Programmer Privilege · · Score: 0

    This sort of thing has actually made me miserable several times in my career. I don't necessarily 'look the part' of a programmer. It's very frustrating when dorky looking people who don't really know what they're talking about get promoted to the point where they're dictating the technical direction of what we're doing - when I could actually do it much better. It happens all the time. Lots of these people learn how to play the part and 'geek speak' instead of learning how to actually code or design functional software. The management - who generally don't understand technical subjects - are more easily impressed and convinced by such people. This is how and why we produce a lot of crap in America.

  24. Real estate on 4K Is For Programmers · · Score: 0

    I've always been into having the maximum real estate I a monitor. That's why I hated when most of the monitors started coming out at 1920x1080 versus 1920x1200. I still love my dell 24" 1920x1200, but i'll be looking forward to getting something with even more pixels.

  25. Re:Trivial - but why... on Japan To Create a Nuclear Meltdown · · Score: 0

    Yeah, but I'm betting that lots of molten radioactive stuff is worse than smaller pools of radioactive stuff. Also, I didn't mean to blow the rods to bits (as in a dirty bomb), but instead to eject them whole. Point taken - in that you've explained well how they will continue to heat even though they are not reacting with each other. My thought is that it would just be easier and quicker to clean up a bunch of rods than it would a molten blob.