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User: Chelloveck

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  1. Re:Worth repeating... on Finding More Than One Worm In the Apple · · Score: 1

    Have you read the BSD style(9) man page? It specifically recommends omitting unnecessary braces. In an organization which follows this style guide, not only would the lack of braces not be flagged in a code review but if there were braces around a single-statement 'if' clause the reviewers might require that they be removed. Now, given that OSX is derived from BSD...

    Use a space after keywords (if, while, for, return, switch). No braces are used for control statements with zero or only a single statement unless that statement is more than a single line, in which case they are permitted.

    [...]

    Closing and opening braces go on the same line as the else. Braces that are not necessary may be left out.

    if (test)
    ....stmt;
    else if (bar) {
    ....stmt;
    ....stmt;
    } else
    ....stmt;

    (Leading dots added as placeholders because why the hell would anyone ever want to post code samples on a News for Nerds site, anyway?)

    It should be noted that the "super-secure" OpenBSD platform ships with this same style guide. FWIW, I agree with you that braces should be mandatory. I think this is a supremely dumb recommendation.

  2. And this means what, exactly? on Samsung Apologizes For Workers' Leukemia · · Score: 1

    How many employees work at these plants? How do the per-capita rates of these illnesses compare to the rates for those not employed by Samsung? "26 workers contracted leukemia!" sounds bad, but if the rates are commensurate with the overall population then Samsung probably isn't at fault.

    (Please note that I'm bitching about shoddy reporting, not trying to be an industry apologist.)

  3. Huh? on Why Should Red Hat Support Competitors' Software? · · Score: 1

    Even after reading the article I can't tell what's going on here. Is Red Hat refusing to give any support for RHEL installations when used with non-RH OpenStack implementations? Or is Red Hat supporting RHEL but for problems involving non-RH OpenStack they're saying, "Hey, not our software, not our problem"? The former would be a dick move. The latter is perfectly reasonable.

  4. Re:Light pollution on Are Glowing, Solar Smart Roads the Future? · · Score: 1

    If only we could paint road markings with some magic substance which would take light from the headlamps and reflect it directly back to the light source, so the markings would appear bright to the driver. Nah, that's crazy. You'd have to make paint with billions of microscopic reflectors or something. And how would you ever get them lined up to reflect back at the cars? Nope, embedded LEDs are definitely the way to go.

  5. Raises more questions than it answers on US Navy Develops World's Worst E-reader · · Score: 1

    TFA is certainly heavy on complaints and light on actual information. I totally understand the need for security in a military situation, and the need to save space on board. It sounds to me like the e-readers are probably a good compromise. But what I'd really like to know is how the e-readers compare to the existing libraries?

    * Do these supplement or replace existing on-board libraries?

    * How many paper books does a typical on-board library have, anyway? How many books are typically checked-out at a time?

    * Is this a limited-scope pilot program or a full-blown library replacement? If it's not just a pilot program an average of five e-readers per vessel seems a bit small.

    * Are sailors allowed to bring personal e-readers, phones, or computers aboard? If so, I'd say that the security of these devices is irrelevant and they may as well go with off-the-shelf devices.

  6. Can't make it any worse on Google Testing Gmail Redesign · · Score: 1

    IMHO, they can't make it worse. I hate the Gmail interface. And even if they do somehow manage to make it less usable than it is now, I'll just continue to use a stand-alone email client via IMAP.

  7. Re:Micro transactions. on How 'Fast Lanes' Will Change the Internet · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately that rule would cripple the net. The wording doesn't leave any room to filter out DDoS and other malicious traffic. It's essential that ISPs retain that ability.

  8. Re:Discrimination on White House Worried About Discrimination Through Analytics · · Score: 1

    What's wrong with pricing insurance based on the risk being taken on? Why should I pay higher insurance premiums so higher risk people pay lower ones?

    In that case, why have insurance at all? Why not simply scrap the insurance middle-man and have each person pay their own expenses out of pocket?

  9. Re:Silly argument on Are Habitable Exoplanets Bad News For Humanity? · · Score: 1

    I have this persistent fantasy that we have been picking up alien transmissions for the past 50 years, but we've failed to recognized it as such because we've stubbornly insisted that all that background microwave hiss just has to have a natural explanation.

  10. Re:Bank them on Blood of World's Oldest Woman Hints At Limits of Life · · Score: 4, Funny

    I had been hoping there was a definite end that science could not trick.

    Nah, science has just identified the thing that needs to be tricked. We just need fresh stem cells. I, for one, am going to assure that I get a steady supply of stem cells by eating a baby for breakfast each morning.

  11. Had this for years on Lytro Illum Light-Field Camera Lets You Refocus Pictures Later · · Score: 1

    I thought we've had this technology for years. I mean, every time you see them zoom-and-enhance on CSI they're taking some blurry out-of-focus element of the picture and rendering it in sharp high resolution. And those aren't even special cameras, they're usually just crappy 320x240 black & white security cams. It's all in the software, baby.

  12. Re:FTFA: "typical profile" on Women Increasingly Freezing Their Eggs To Pursue Their Careers · · Score: 1

    Once a person (man or woman) is out of school it becomes increasingly difficult to find a spouse

    Randall Munroe would disagree.

  13. Don't delay too long on Women Increasingly Freezing Their Eggs To Pursue Their Careers · · Score: 5, Insightful

    For purely financial reasons both men and women probably want their kids to be out of college and self-supporting before they retire. That kind of means you really want to have them by the time you hit your early 40s.

  14. I want an app that does what I want. on Ask Slashdot: Professional Journaling/Notes Software? · · Score: 1

    If you're just looking for a laundry list of note-taking apps, I'm sure Google can help. If you want real advice you need to provide more information. You're obviously in the habit of taking notes with pen and paper, so why have you failed miserably to keep a digital journal? What part of it doesn't work for you? Your list of requirements is missing that bit of information. You want a "single file or cloud app where I can organize personal notes on projects, configurations, insights, ideas, etc.,". Well, that about covers every single note-taking app ever written, as well as every text editor from the dawn of time. Try to narrow it down a little. Or, stick with pen and paper if it's been working for you. What do you hope to gain by going digital? Knowing that will help point you in the right direction.

  15. Re:Fair point but. on This 1981 BYTE Magazine Cover Explains Why We're So Bad At Tech Predictions · · Score: 1

    What? Next you're going to be telling me that this cover isn't actually a prediction of future computers moving data around via tiny steam engines.

  16. Sounds good for GoGo on In-Flight Wi-Fi Provider Going Above and Beyond To Help Feds Spy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Can't say I blame them. What's the downside for GoGo? They're not going to lose any revenue over this. They have monopoly control over a captive audience that literally can't go elsewhere for service. On the other hand, the airline industry is already deeply, deeply in bed with law enforcement. When it comes time to get a franchise as an in-flight provider I expect that an endorsement by the TLAs is only going to work in GoGo's favor.

    It'd be nice if they'd keep their hands off our packets, but who are we kidding? Unless all network providers suddenly get regulated as common carriers that's just not going to happen. Whether you're in the air, in Starbucks, or leeching wi-fi from your next-door neighbor you have to assume that your packets are being logged and analyzed.

  17. Rather have vector on Google Chrome 34 Is Out: Responsive Images, Supervised Users · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I have a dream... Where, instead of learning to support some new "responsive image" paradigm, the web designers of the world focus their efforts on learning to make use of the responsive vector images that browsers already support.

  18. Re:Do they distribute the source? on Tesla Model S Has Hidden Ethernet Port, User Runs Firefox On the 17" Screen · · Score: 1

    Buy me a Tesla Model S and I promise I'll find out for you.

  19. Re:Okay, but... on Hacker Holds Key To Free Flights · · Score: 1

    Board near the end of the boarding time and take a free center seat near the back -unless then plane is 100% full, you're golden.

    An empty seat? What's that? I don't fly a lot, but whenever I do they're bumping people because the flight's been so horribly overbooked.

  20. Re:What? on Will Living On Mars Drive Us Crazy? · · Score: 1

    This same experiment has been tried before in Siberia, Greenland, and other more Martian-like environments. Seriously, I think the scientists just found an excuse to get a four-month paid vacation in Hawaii.

    Experiment notes, day 112: Checked on subjects. Nope, not crazy yet. Spending rest of day at beach, will check again tomorrow.

  21. Re:I think this is bullshit on Brendan Eich Steps Down As Mozilla CEO · · Score: 0

    But I'm not ready to call Eich a homophobe anymore than I'm prepared to call you a racist, even though I have no doubt whatsoever that you've committed multiple racist acts in your lifetime (as well all have).

    That's very white of you.

  22. Okay, the settlement was done a couple months ago. The only thing new here is that the lawyers want to retroactively redact some company names from the original paperwork. So... Where's the story? It's only a mildly amusing anecdote and I expect this sort of thing happens fairly frequently. I get the distinct impression that the submitter wanted me to see something more here but for the life of me I can't figure out what.

  23. Re:Good, I guess on European Parliament Votes For Net Neutrality, Forbids Mobile Roaming Costs · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Then think about it reverse situation. I'm Amazon. We've been having a hard time getting traction for our streaming service; that lousy Netflix has the market locked up. We have all the bandwidth we need, so paying the ISP for more won't help. I know! We'll pay them to throttle Netflix's bandwidth!

    Or, I'm Comcast. We own NBC, and their ratings suck rocks. So we'll give preferential treatment for subscribers who stream our properties, and throttle the speed of properties we don't own. And if people really want to watch other content we can charge them extra to remove the throttling. Call it the "Special SpeedBoost Streaming Package" and charge our subscribers $10/month extra for it.

    Or, I'm Sony. Let's slip Comcast a little to make sure that PSN games have a higher network priority than XBone games. Et voila! See how much faster and smoother PlayStation is compared to XBox!

  24. Re:Different part, same number? on An Engineer's Eureka Moment With a GM Flaw · · Score: 1

    We have computer equipment suppliers do this to us, too. A part in a particular chassis or board is changed with no notification and no change on the bill of materials. "Because the change has no effect on the device's operation." Except when it does, causing us to spend time and effort tracking down the problem when we incorporate the change into our product and it starts causing problems for our customers. Or, "This change will have no effect on your system. None whatsoever." Except that it's not compatible with this other part we've been shipping, so we can't use the new part as a replacement on systems which have the incompatible part. But there's "no difference". Annoying as hell.

    But, in the auto maker's defense, not all changes are an admission of wrong-doing. The auto industry is very sensitive to the cost of components. If they find a way to shave half a penny off their cost for a certain doo-dad, you bet your ass they'll do it. Or if they found a new supplier who can provide an equivalent (but not necessarily identical) piece for half a penny less. Or hell, if they just happen to have two suppliers for a certain part that may not be 100% identical, but fits and has acceptable performance characteristics. Something like that could easily be the case here. One supplier's switch is used by the factory which made the original vehicle, another supplier's switch (not identical, but equivalent in all aspects that matter in this application) is packaged for the repair shops. It doesn't necessarily mean that the company is engaging in a huge cover-up, or even that an issue was found with the factory-installed part. They're just from two different suppliers and both fall within tolerance for the given use. The parts are different, but neither one is necessarily wrong.

    But it's still as annoying as hell.

  25. Re:Wait a moment on Classified X-37B Space Plane Breaks Space Longevity Record · · Score: 2

    So when this story is re-posted tomorrow, don't you dare call it a dup! It's a brand new story of the plane breaking its own record again!