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User: techhead79

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  1. Who is this guy again? on Beware the Internet · · Score: 1

    Without the Internet the majority of the people that read his opinion wouldn't have. This is one of the dubest opinions I've seen in a while. Nothing is perfect. Not a new baby, not a new child, not a new marriage, and certainly not the god damn Internet. You don't burn down your house, kill your child, murder your wife just because of a few flaws do you? Well ok some people do.

  2. Re:That doesn't make it right on Snowden: NSA Spying On EU Diplomats and Administrators · · Score: 1

    That doesn't make it right.

    I think you're confusing a personal moral you have with the obligation a country has to defend itself.

  3. Re:What? Again? on Rice Professor Predicts Humans Out of Work In 30 Years · · Score: 1

    We have laws for a reason. How many industries are built from laws being on the books? How many industries are protected by laws? My point is when society is faced with the decision between unemployment rates over 20% vs enacting a law preventing companies from using said magical robots...what do you think will happen? Sure some will move to shit hole countries, but most will remain right where they are. This is no different than H1B, outsourcing, immigration. Perhaps the law will state no company may own a class X AI to replace any human capable of doing said work. However the loophole being any human can own a class X AI and employ it anywhere but they are limited to just 1. Everyone benefits, human skills transfer to robot skills and we are left with several generations incapable of doing anything other than playing VR games.

    I hate it when I hear about how horrible the world will be when tech xyz comes along. We've been around for some 65 years capable of completely destroying the human race at the push of a button. The risks will be contained just like with everything else. But I guess if we're not worried about it, it just might happen.

  4. Re:Good for you! on Ask Slashdot: Becoming a Programmer At 40? · · Score: 2

    Or perhaps 20 year olds that want to hang out with a 40 year old ex physics major are on average more intelligent than the average 20 year old. I for one have met plenty of really stupid 20 year olds.

  5. Re:Good for you! on Ask Slashdot: Becoming a Programmer At 40? · · Score: 1

    They've done studies on this. It has nothing to do with cognitive decline. It has to do with the average age someone starts a family and begins to raise kids of their own. They are less likely to be willing to spend hours of their "free time" working on a solution because there are far more important things they could be doing. Once you're married and "settled down" it starts to take a toll on how much you work on actual work. I wish I could cite something but I don't exactly have the time to...

  6. Re:What a relief. on Ask Slashdot: Why Won't Companies Upgrade Old Software? · · Score: 1

    You've obviously never gone through this before. There is a reason why later IE versions have compatibility mode. The company I work for, not own, went through this in the past few years to get rid of ie 6. Even keeping the browser in compatibility mode does not mean you're free from having to make changes. Every single application has to go through heavy regression testing. But exactly what company has only web based applications to worry about when upgrading to a new platform?

    Recently I just received a notice that there are issues with jquery versions preventing ie9 from being in ie9 mode. I have no idea what those issues are but it means every single application has to update their jquery version, repackage, redeploy, and retest every single browser side test script to make sure just changing the ie9 mode isn't going to break something. Who was using things like jquery when ie6 first came out? The importance of libraries like jquery is to prevent issues like what you're describing and to even allow you to move between browsers. But again, who was using it when ie6 first came out?

    Do you even remember trying to build applications that worked for both ie6 and other browsers? MS fucked the world, and now it's the world's fault they're finding it difficult to upgrade?

  7. Re:What a relief. on Ask Slashdot: Why Won't Companies Upgrade Old Software? · · Score: 1

    If the software is that badly broken, you've got other very serious problems to deal with.

    I'm confused how writing an application to work on a target platform is "badly broken software"? From internal apps to vendors, that's just how things have always been done. While there are countless multiplatform solutions that could insulate companies from some upgrades, the simple fact is MS has for several decades now done everything they could to prevent such solutions from working. ie6 is a great example of MS trying to protect its turf. Even upgrading in a J2EE environment on the same server from say weblogic 8 to weblogic 10 requires applications to be modified.

  8. Re:Make him run the Marathon on Police Capture Second Marathon Bombing Suspect in Watertown, Mass. · · Score: 1

    Well, the Iraqis would certainly have another opinion on the mater. And other nations might, for various reasons, not want to just let it go.

    I think I took the wrong approach here. Perhaps we should start with a few definitions.

    A World Leading Power: A nation or other political entity having the power to influence the course of world events.

    A World Ruler: Has never existed and yet most anti US sentiment seems to come from this belief.

    The US does not have a single military action and does not enforce economic sanctions on any other nation that other leading world powers care enough about to do anything to prevent such actions. No nation alone in the middle east could be considered a leading world power. All OPEC nations combined however could be considered a leading world power.

    You asked a very specific question. Why is person Y not seen as important as person X in the global landscape. I answered that question but you either didn't like the belief that the US was a leading world power or you believed I was stating we were a leading world ruler. We are involved in the middle east because very very rich men in those countries and in charge of those countries decided to do business with companies based out of leading world powers. We don't even blink at the horrible acts in Africa for a reason. Is that fair? Who is crying for them? There is so much emotion pumped into anti US sentiment by very powerful people looking to continue to control the populace long after the US is no longer involved. They direct the attention outside of the country so those that reside in them do not have to hate the real government that rules over them. It obviously works very very well. It's just ashame that the countries that are finally figuring this out are not well organized enough to prevent similar assholes from acquiring power too.

    To answer your question, no we will not try to be nicer. I don't think we'll be making the mistake of another Iraq or Afghanistan war again anytime soon. With civil war, Iran, and supposedly friendly nations training their populace to hate America...I imagine we'll be involved heavily in the middle east until we stop doing business in the middle east. That isn't likely to stop anytime soon unless alternative power sources can be found or if rich business men suddenly decide they value your opinion over their pocket books. No nation has a government free from corruption or is in any way shape or form capable of virtuous acts. Every nation conducts their business in a mannor that supports the increase success of their position in the future. For some nations this involves aquiring nuclear technologies and for other nations it involves becoming a critical cog in the economic machine. Whatever nation you reside in is no different. There is a level of hate and mistrust that will force the US out of the middle east. The funny thing is, absolutely nothing will improve for any soul in the middle east once that happens. Oil money will still buy expensive military toys. Civilians hell bent on killing each other because of some internal clash that should have died out decades ago will still hate each other. Governments will still be corrupt and sell out the rights of their people to rich fat cats. It's all a farce designed to control the populace by redirecting that hate they feel for their position to an external force. It works quite well...in a hundred or so years the middle east will look like any dried up oil town in Texas and that's ignoring the global warming effects. As long as the entire global economic structure is based off of the belief we will have an unending suply of oil from the middle east, we will continue to be involved there. Our survival is linked to this supply. Just as the middle east's survival is linked to the demand for this supply.

    I may have been off by about 70 years though. Your new policing state asshats to hate will probably be China by around 2030 or so. I'm all for you

  9. Re:Make him run the Marathon on Police Capture Second Marathon Bombing Suspect in Watertown, Mass. · · Score: 2, Insightful

    He was referring to the perception that Americans are viewed as more important than the rest of the world. The above stories are tragedies and you are correct they are very good reasons to hate America. They however were in war torn countries (by lovely us) and were not intentional. That does not absolve us of any wrong doing by any means.

    There is however a very real difference between killing civilians in a war torn area and killing civilians intentionally and targeting them. If you don't know what that difference is then you need to have your head examined. It's horrible, and it all could have been avoided if the government in charge of that country apprehended the terrorists that attacked our nation. Iraq is another very long discussion.

    I don't excuse the things my nation has done, but there are at times logically no other choice. I'm completely against both wars. There may have been other ways to get done what we needed to have done. However those actions would have also been completely illegal in the eyes of most nations. What is so shocking is somehow every nation has turned into an innocent child incapable of any evil wrong doing in the face of the US recent actions. The US is involved in the middle east for a ton of reasons from oil to WWII to the rise and fall of communism. They didn't get through the last century without both Europe's and the US's involvement and it's going to be another 100 years before we stop caring about the middle east. You don't like it? If you want to do something that might improve the area try local government reform (please note that doesn't mean completely destroy your country)...because they are the ones taking bribes from large corporations and they are the ones that allow their civilians to live the way they do under fear of some big bad outside force that somehow is responsible for everything that goes wrong on this planet.

    Don't forget why those people are dying, and accept the fact that when you're not in charge of the entire fucking planet there is a chance you might piss off the wrong people. The funny thing is...the US isn't pissing off the wrong people. If China or the EU or even Russia spoke up and took a real stand we'd have to back down and exit immediately. They do not want terrorists to be able to strike them and hide in other countries just like they don't want anyone else with nukes either. Can you imagine how quickly this entire planet would go up in smoke the second Iran has ICBM and nukes capable of reaching the US? It would drastically alter our foreign policy in the middle east and suddenly one nation out of all of them will become the leading voice....guess what happens to the rest of the nations without nukes without the US, EU, China, and Russia protecting them?

    You don't get to look at one horrible act and get to claim moral superiority. The middle east has been on the brink of destruction for a lot of reasons that have nothing to do with outside forces. The level of internal hate inside each of these nations is unbelievable. Not even the nations are unified under one rule. Countless time the US has been blamed for their instability. Did you ever consider what the area would look like without us? The common conception is some utopian peace free from all hate and mistrust. There are countless examples in the history of this planet on areas like the middle east in which a powerful outside force does not exist. It's not pretty.

  10. Re:Make him run the Marathon on Police Capture Second Marathon Bombing Suspect in Watertown, Mass. · · Score: 2

    So I state several facts about humanity, the planet, and news corporations...and you decide I'm a prick...ok fine hate the fuck out of me not the entire USA. Is your impression of America and the people residing in it based entirely off of online postings? I can see why you'd hate us.

  11. Re:Make him run the Marathon on Police Capture Second Marathon Bombing Suspect in Watertown, Mass. · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What makes Americans more "valuable" and their violent deaths more noteworthy than pointlessly killed Iraqis, Somalis or, hell, anyone else?

    At what point in your TV watching habits did you come to this conclusion? You do understand that news agencies and massive corporate news sites based out of the US will report more about US related news regardless of what version of their website/tv programs you're watching. So I'll take it that whatever country you're in they don't report as much about iraqi deaths? Have you considered that maybe a death related to terrorism in the most powerfull country on this planet might have repercussions accross the globe in terms of that nation's forieng policy? It has nothing to do with what individuals are more important. It has everything to do with what country is preceived as a leading power in the world. All of Iraq could be destroyed and the world will keep moving along. If all of Europe or all of the US was destroyed what do you think would happen to the rest of the world? I hate to rain on your, "the US is evil because we think we're better than everyone else" parade....but there are simple realities in this world. Decisions made by those in power impact everyone. A death in the US impacts the reasons why those in power in the US make decisions more than a death in Iraq would for obvious "der" level reasons.

    So try and not to hate us so much...3 deaths are not more important than any other 3 deaths. The difference is 3 deaths in a powerfull country impact the entire world. If you hate that then I guess we could let some other country make all our decisions for a while...or better yet just do away with our own goverment and let the UN rule us just so you feel better. The only solution to your discomfort is to destroy America and redistribute the power and wealth to the rest of the planet. (HI NSA!). Where guess what, some other country will find a way to get more power and more wealth than the rest and you'll have to hate them next. Welcome to humanity...how the fuck long did it take you to figure this out?

  12. Because one of them doesn't actually cost 35 bucks to produce.

  13. Re:30 hours per week? on How a Programmer Gets By On $16K/Yr: He Moves to Malaysia · · Score: 0

    Spoken like a true wannabe aristocrat. The possibility of being intelligent may be inherited, but actual intelligence isn't. Most trust fund babies I've ever met have been pretty useless except for office political gain. Breeding has nothing to do with being fit for the job.

    I joined up on a genetic testing site recently. I was surprised there were some studies regarding this. However the IQ difference from genetics so far is only about 10 points. I'm sure they'll find more as we go along. While I find it very uncomfortable to believe all things are not equal, it certainly seems the case. IQ however is not an indicator of success in life.


    From the genetic site...
    The researchers found that being breastfed raised a personâ(TM)s IQ an average of six to seven points, but only among those who had at least one C at rs174575. Among those with a G at both copies of rs174575, breastfeeding appeared to have no effect on intelligence. This result was found in two independent groups, one composed of 1,848 British children and the other of 858 children of European ancestry from New Zealand. The effect associated with this SNP was larger than the one described below for rs1535, which is included for customers who do not have data from rs174575.
    citation: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?cmd=Search&term=17984066

    The study found that being breastfed raised a personâ(TM)s IQ an average of four to five points, but only among those who had at least one A at rs1535 â" and only in the larger of the two study groups, which consisted of 1,848 British children. Also British children with a G at both copies of rs1535 did appear to have a small IQ benefit from breastfeeding, though their increase was significantly smaller than that of children with one or more A copies of rs1535. Among the 858 children from New Zealand, genetics appeared to have no effect; breastfed children of all genotypes had increased IQs.
    citation:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?cmd=Search&term=17984066

    A study of Dutch families found that rs363050 is associated with "performance IQ" (i.e. non-verbal IQ). Each A at rs363050 increased subjects' performance IQ by an average of three points compared to those with no copies. The authors estimated that rs363050 accounts for 3.4% of the variation in performance IQ between people.
    citation: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?cmd=Search&term=16801949

  14. Re:It's Time to Send the H-1Bs home on Large Corporations Displacing Aging IT Workers With H-1B Visa Workers · · Score: 1

    H-1Bs are required to spend one month every year in their native country. Every single one has to be gone for a month.

    There's no such requirement. If someone told you there is, they were bullshitting you.

    There might not be anything on the books but my company does this as well. It has to do with the fact that they are paid as contractors and doesn't really have anything to do with being on an H1B. But all of them that I work with, which is many...do have to take a month off...but so do native(yeah I don't mean native americans) contract workers.

    Giving them a path to citizenship certainly would improve things but I believe the biggest factor here is that they are not allowed to shop around for jobs. If they could then they would be less likely to bring down wages.

  15. Re:No marketing on Ask Slashdot: I Just Need... Marketing? · · Score: 1

    You have two physical locations, 22 employees, and around 5 million in revenue selling pet supplies...are you honestly going to tell me that you have sent out zero dollars for marketing? No adds, no fliers, no late night local tv? Even still, having a physical location is a world different than selling a software product online in which NO ONE even knows you exist unless you tell them. There are not stores nearby in which patrons visit and notice your shop stopping by. You're comparing apples to oranges.

  16. Re:No marketing on Ask Slashdot: I Just Need... Marketing? · · Score: 1

    Right, because they'll know about your product, where to find it, and why they really really need one through what exactly? Do you honestly believe any company got to where they are today without marketing? Maybe you're referring to the first steam engine, light bulb, airplane, or slice of bread? Well actually all of those had their own marketing through news stories published....so tell me again what product is so perfect and wonderful that it markets itself? Maybe a robot that goes around and tells people how wonderful it would be to own it?

  17. Re:Public schooling is a bad idea. on Missouri Legislation Redefines Science, Pushes Intelligent Design · · Score: 1

    He watched fox news...that's all the homework he needs!

  18. Re:Public schooling is a bad idea. on Missouri Legislation Redefines Science, Pushes Intelligent Design · · Score: 1

    You do understand that if that were true we wouldn't even know his name. Getting a few bad grades is not the same as a D student.

  19. Re:Well, it was a nice run on Missouri Legislation Redefines Science, Pushes Intelligent Design · · Score: 1

    Last time I checked...1 in 5 and 1 in 3 is still a minority....there answered that complex question for you!

  20. Don't get ahead of yourself on Ask Slashdot: Best Alternative To the Canonical Computer Science Degree? · · Score: 1

    Spending 6 months studying on your own isn't going to mean jack on a resume, a degree will. You want experience that's going to get you into the field? Try open source or work on projects for free. Companies stopped training a while ago. Maybe you can get a fake identity and pose as an H1B visa holder...you'd get hired in a heart beat then...and they'll train you. But seriously do not drop out, it's the only thing middle management and HR will bother looking at regardless of how good or bad you are as a developer.

  21. Re:system76 on Ask Slashdot: Buying a Laptop That Doesn't Have Windows 8 · · Score: 1

    HR's tax website does the same thing. Firefox has this user agent changer add on. Once it's installed just Tools>Default User Agent>Browsers - Windows>Firefox.

    Most sites will work just fine.

  22. Re:21st century warfare doesn't rely on missiles on Missile Defense's Real Enemy: Math · · Score: 1

    Mutual destruction > economic stability . Don't let economists get into your head to much. Last time I checked the USSR and the USA didn't destroy each other in the 50's,60's,70's,and 80's because they didn't all want to die...not because they were worried about the common folk's 401k.

  23. Math isn't the factor anymore on Missile Defense's Real Enemy: Math · · Score: 1

    http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/futureoftech/boeings-new-missile-takes-down-electronics-without-touching-them-1C6663618

    I'm under the impression the above technology could reset electronics in flight. What good is a nuclear warhead that doesn't know when to go off or is no longer armed?

    If you turn that around though, what good is a ship that can't see because all their electronics are shut off. While it's certainly interesting to consider this conversation, I believe there are other technologies unknown to the public that both aid in defence and offence that seriously make any number consideration pointless.

  24. Re:F*ck Patriotism! on Does US Owe the World an Education At Its Expense? · · Score: 1

    You're forgetting the jobs that this imaginary person from India will need to create to produce the products and export them. You're also forgetting the very simple fact that whatever that product maybe...there is one less person in the US that knows how to produce it...and likewise one less person in the US that will know how to innovate the next variation of that product or to make any kind of influence on the market. If that product is sold internationally then how does that impact the GDP of a nation? This isn't just about who gets to tax who. This is about what country thrives and what country dies...and then it becomes about who makes global policies that everyone must follow. For citizens in the US, patriotism down a far enough line is ensuring that your values and beliefs are looked after on a global scale. Image a world where the only jobs available are to work for companies that operate out of other nations with far lower health standards...the options the US would have is to force their citizens to starve to death or lower our work and health standards to become in line with the new corporate owners of the country. Don't forget who really writes our laws...and ask yourself if the tables were truly turned internationally what kind of laws would the companies in other nations be willing to force down our throats to make things more profitable for them. How many companies would pull out of China if the government of China restricted pollution more?

    Who cares right? You really aren't looking at the global scale of this happening over and over again countless times. You can call it patriotism but it's really short sited to believe it doesn't matter.

  25. Re:Definition of a cap on Senators Seek H-1B Cap That Can Reach 300,000 · · Score: 1
    http://smallbusiness.chron.com/payroll-system-works-h1b-visa-consultant-37547.html

    http://www.cis.org/PayScale-H1BWages

    You write this crap and you get modded "insightful"? Jesus wept! How is money earned here, spent here and taxed here different depending on the nationality of the person doing the earning/spending/taxpaying?

    They are not paid the same or taxed equally. See the above links.

    What is the basis of this claim? Given the current exchange rate (i.e. the dollar is worthless) I have my doubts about that.

    a programmer working in India that does not have an outsourced job makes around about 8k USD per year. So if you could live like a king in your home country living with your family and friends vs living an average life in the US what would you choose? They ship the money back and pack in three to four people in just one apartment here in the states for a reason...it's not to afford a new car they all carpool in.

    What are you waffling about? Our company is full of H1B people who are all on the road to citizenship. If you want to discourage them from staying here, then keep up the anti-immigrant xenophobic rhetoric.

    Most of us here also know many non h1b programmers that are very good at what they do but instead of coming out of college and starting a job in the field they are stuck in another unrelated field or worse stuck in retail...construction work...flipping burgers. I've heard all the stories. We sell to these kids to get a degree in CS and you'll find a job but instead they hit this wall of must have experience to get hired. When was the last time you saw an entry level position open up at your company? I can't even think of the last time mine had one. The h1b workers I work with are also great people and hard workers. Some are average, some are below, and a few are great just like anyone in the states. The question is why are we hiring them? Just so you can keep your new h1b friends while our sons and daughters can't get a job if their life depended on it...which it does...

    Right. Our company used to hire graduates from American colleges. They'd take three days to do something a European graduate could do in a few hours. Fix the education system and become competitive with the rest of the world. That'd be a better approach than lowering the bar for your own people and raising it for others.

    Anyone coming from a first world country is not an accurate representation of how the H1B visa system is being used. See the links above. If a European graduate decided to up and move to the states you can bet his or her socioeconomic status is far above a huge majority of US college grads with a mountain of debt over their heads. It's like your taking someone that studied at MIT and comparing him with someone that studied at the local community college. I will admit there is a "problem" with our education system but that's hardly a discuss about h1b visas. My point is someone coming to the states from a 1st world country more than likely went to a better school and had a better background than most in Europe and the states.

    Another think I would like to note: Companies no longer hire and train. They hire with experience. If you've ever noticed the contract companies you work with will team people from their company together. 1 teaches and trains the entry level guy that got hired on when the company he's now working for isn't accepting ANY entry level people or training anyone. So fresh new faces come in with zero experience and get trained...also get trained by myself. While we continually push away college grads from the states with the exact same experience...zero.