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User: awestruk

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  1. I just need to get this out there on Canadian Music Industry Seeks Copy Tax On Memory Cards · · Score: 0

    The Canadian judicial system is so messed up. It's (IMHO) worse than American's since rapists/murderers get a slap on the wrist and probation in like a year. The HUGE problem with the judicial system (everywhere), is there is no justice. It's always the case that whomever has the best lawyer or the most money wins. Democrazy seems to work, until the court takes over. Since the government (at least here in Canada) can't control the court system, it's like a dictatorship government of its own.

    The problem with our modern democracy is that people can still ruin your life with no reason at all, other than the fact that they are bigger than you and have more money and thus a better lawyer, regardless of what party is running the government.

    When people sue each other over "hot beverages", enact ridiculous laws like the one in this article, and create ridiculous bylaws that nobody cares about until some powertripping cop decides he doesn't like you, you have to question if we are truly living in a democracy. Or do we have a two-tier government, where one is a democracy and the other a dictatorship?

  2. What CS students REALLY need on CS Profs Debate Role of Math In CS Education · · Score: 0

    To join programming competition groups and events...

    I have learned more in the programming competition meeting at my University than any class. If you don't know about it check out UVa online judge! They have hundreds of questions where you make a program that takes in input and outputs the expected result exactly.

    These problems give you: 1) Practical experience to popular problems in industry and research 2) A chance to learn new algorithms, methods of input/output, "tricks", coding styles 3) A chance to network with other people at practices/events 4) A chance to impress employers

    Oh, and by the way, you'll likely need some math for the hardest problems (not the easier ones though). Especially an understanding of big O.

    I just had a round #2 software engineer interview with EA. It was a technical skills interview. I nailed it and got hired, largely due to programming competition. In case you were wondering, they did ask me a few math questions.

  3. Simple Economics on Why Nokia Is Toast · · Score: 0

    Choice. Users generally like choice (especially when it comes to hardware). Why are there so many different kinds of cereal in the supermarket? Not to mention they are all owned by the same company. If Nokia didn't make all these different cellphones, someone else would

    Girls like to have different cellphones.

  4. Re:Fork on Nokia Gives Some Hints On the Future of Qt · · Score: 0

    The nib files are confusing as hell....

  5. Re:And a lot of it is free on The Sum Total of the World's Knowledge: 250 Exabytes · · Score: 0

    An accident? I think not...
    Sounds like someone is testing the editors...the old "oh...I was just making sure you were paying attention!"

  6. Re:Documentation? on Nokia Gives Some Hints On the Future of Qt · · Score: 0

    The more people who use an open source project, the more support/documentation/money it gets...I'm surprised you don't know this...

  7. How is this news? on Rediscovering WWII's Top-Secret Computing 'Rosies' · · Score: 0

    I know plenty of women who programmed during and post WW2. Why is it such a shocker? Plenty of women were/are in the army and do non-combat jobs. Computing is one of them. There is also nurses, doctors, cooks, ect... I'm sure a few go in infantry/artillery too.

  8. Re:Fork on Nokia Gives Some Hints On the Future of Qt · · Score: -1

    OR, maybe Microsoft hopes Qt will become to the Windows Phone what the Cocoa is to the iPhone... Ever try to learn Cocoa and develop for the iPhone? It's confusing as hell. Had I the chance to develop for a mobile device using Qt....I'd be in heaven(assuming the framework doesn't change too much) : ) Especially the 50 projects I've been building using Qt...I'm sure they wouldn't be too hard to port : ) What about putting KDE on a mobile device (drools)? Maybe microsoft is finally going to do what apple did and piggyback off of opensource projects...

  9. Re:Unencrypted cookie auths on Is Algeria Deleting Facebook Accounts? · · Score: 0

    This guy was NOT debating they evilness of dick-taters.

    He was saying that it would be trivial for a government to do this on their own and therefore the line "Unless Facebook is cooperating, this would either require hacking FB to obtain administrator privileges or cracking the password of each account they wish to delete." is misleading because it suggests Facebook might have a hand in this. They don't; if the government wanted to do it, they would have done it on their own with ease.

    Thanks for the red herring rant though : )

  10. Re:This might be the answer to the Kill Switch on Charity Raising Money To Buy Used Satellite · · Score: 0

    They will if its internationally owned, or owned by a charity, the world would be furious at this...since the satellite would not provide service to only that country...

  11. Re:Stupid Idea on Obama Calling For $53B For High Speed Rail · · Score: 0

    My question is: If peak oil really does happen, why not wait until oil hits the price where it is cheaper to ride rail than to fly or drive?

    Shouldn't the free market make this happen rather than the government? Did Bill Gates or Steve Jobs need a government push to make their billions in providing services that consumers love? Then why should high speed rail? Or have democrats really messed up the US economy by allowing the government to put there hands in anything that might be a good idea?

    If the public really wanted this, why wouldn't a private company build the infrastructure? It is a big startup cost, but it can be done incrementally with plenty of profit to be made (if it is truly a good idea)

    In the hands of the government it will be done poorly due to government bureaucracy and lack of competition. Just another thing to complain about the government doing poorly.

    I also wonder where they claim this electricity is going to come from, if not gas/oil. There is no way that anything else out there (including biofuels) have as much energy. If they did, the private industries would have hopped on it and made a fortune long ago...instead of the government wasting tax dollars trying to make it look possible to appease uneducated minority activist groups. Believe me, if it can make money the private sector will have it manufactured and patended before the R&D has even written their grant proposal...I know from experience.

  12. But... on How Long Before Apps Overtake Physical Video Game Content Sales? · · Score: 0

    I like the physical media. Who doesn't like the trophy shelf of the vids a gamer has conquered?...chicks dig it : )

  13. Say it with me... on How Long Before Apps Overtake Physical Video Game Content Sales? · · Score: 0

    Thou shalt not extrapolate based on a recent change. Source: xkcd.com/605/ Really, why does slashdot even publish this garbage? Are their content managers outsourced to China?

  14. He did it to spite him... on Thief Posts His Photo To Facebook Victim's Account · · Score: 0

    "How addicted do you have to be to a social network to post a status update and upload your photo *while* you're burgling someone's house?" He didn't do it cause he's addicted...did it to spite him... Obvious troll is obvious

  15. Back to the Future? on JBI's Plastic To Oil Gets Operating Permit · · Score: 0

    I recall Doc putting some sort of plastic bottle into DeLorean for energy. Science Fiction writers always seems to be shockingly more accurate in future predictions than any academic I've come across...

  16. Re:Given how much oil it takes to make plastic.... on JBI's Plastic To Oil Gets Operating Permit · · Score: 1

    Lets not forget the costs to pay people to sort these plastics, facilitate buildings to store them, and truck them all over each region....

  17. Personal footage of similar scare on Denver Bomb Squad Takes Out Toy Robot · · Score: 1

    I saw a similiar scare, but it was handled much differently. At the time I was working at downtown Calgary and someone attached a possible bomb to a Rogers building. A guy in a huge protective suit xray'd the bomb and then a robot carried the bomb to a big drum that drove it away. Here is some footage I took of it (short videos taken with my Rogers phone). Please ignore the annoying commentary. 1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i63_BlaMLu8&feature=related 2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-Vnrq9igGg&feature=related 3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-uLJimA5xI&feature=related 4) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ2J1u7Afy0&feature=related

  18. Re:!Controvrsy on Physics Rebel Aims To Shake Up the Video Game World · · Score: 1

    I heard people say similar comments about the wii when it first came out. Try to be optimistic. Otherwise, we will be stuck with a chain of Playstations and Xboxes that only differ in graphics and size of console.