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User: sdinfoserv

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Comments · 943

  1. pitchforks and torches on Teaching College Is No Longer a Middle Class Job · · Score: 0

    Welcome to the new (cough, cough) reality that most other professions came to realize 15 years ago. College tuition increasing since 1985 by 500%, throw in ‘paid by the class’ lecturers, virtually no professional jobs upon graduation, and welcome to the US of the future. A degree has virtually no value. There are no jobs, the banks changed the law so you can’t remove student debt with bankruptcy, the average age of a fast food worker has risen from 17 to 25 in the past 10 years. The average amerian makes less than their 1987 counter part. Telephone operators, once a position with pension, now a part time call center rep manufacturing jobs shipped by the 10’s of millions to whatever country is cheapest by a nickel per hour – copy write laws be damned – engineers, programmers, radiologists , This is all connected. Pretty soon the 1% will have syphoned off every extractable penny in the new era of robber barons. As they buy politicians, eviscerate the environment, and convince most of us (US) Unions are corrupt. (maybe there has been instances, but the unions didn’t almost topple the world economy ) . . Tax rates have dropped from 70%+ during the Carter administration to all time lows. As the rich have private doctors, send their kids to private schools, hire private security, while screaming red herrings like ‘class warfare’, while refusing to pay any taxes as infrastructure crumbles, emergency responders are slashed to dangers levels, and schools fall apart. This is a trend we must change and take this country back. Pitchforks and torches my friends that’s where this is heading.

  2. Another wingnut on House Majority Leader Defeated In Primary · · Score: 0

    All this does it put a reichwingnut on the GOP ticket.
    Emboldened, Brat will keep opening his mouth which will ultimately scare the heck out of the general populous.. opening the door for a DNC win.
    Well played tea-bags, well played.

  3. Re:Good scholarship - tenure on Fixing the Humanities Ph.D. · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If you think moving up the corporate ladder is about competencies, you don't know a thing about business. Getting a corner office is about politics and schmoozing and ass-kissing.

  4. Re:240,000 jobs for robots? on EU Launches World's Largest Civilian Robotics Program; 240,000 New Jobs Expected · · Score: 1

    yes, first it will take 240,000 European people to design and build the robots.
    Then the 749,000 US agriculture workers (2012 BOL numbers) in the US lose their jobs.
    Then then migrant worker flow (aka Illegal aliens) decrease to near zero.
    Bad or good? hmmm....

  5. Re:Small engines fail on Has the Ethanol Threat Manifested In the US? · · Score: 1

    True - From a purely anecdotal perspective; I had a Pontiac Bonneville with a 3.8 V6. These are typically 300K + motors. I purchased one that came off lease. At 120K it developed a motor knock from low oil pressure. This mean worn main bearings and the only fix is a major rebuilt or motor transplant. I did a title trace on the car an it turns out it was leased to an ethanol company. they must have run high percentage ethanol through the motor. The result was a 2/3 reduction in motor life. Of course this is not scientific, but I've run many 3.8's with 200K+ miles on them (in the early 90's I was in a partnership with a used car lot).

    Since ethanol can't be piped due to it's corrosiveness, just think what that does to the inside of an aluminum block.
    Not to mention rubber hoses, and plastic fuel pump parts.

  6. Its still a boondoggle on Has the Ethanol Threat Manifested In the US? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm from a corn state and have posted on this topic before (see link).
    It's amazing driving through the country side and view the castles that have erupted on the plains. These palatial residences funded by federal corn / ethanol subsidies - aka - our tax dollars. Often paired with massive motorhomes providing winter escape in a level of opulence previously unknown to agrarian workers.
    From a pure energy perspective, ethanol has only 2/3 the BTU of gasoline.
    76,000 = BTU of energy in a gallon of ethanol
    116,090 = BTU of energy in a gallon of gasoline
    Even vehicles rated to run ethanol should expect a 20%-30% decrease in fuel economy. I personally have experienced this. I drove with a coworker in a 2012 chevy truck rated for e85. We drove a 200 mile road trip (1 way) on trip there we used ethanol, on the trip back we used gasoline. True to form the return trip experienced more that 1/3 increase in fuel economy.
    throw in the fact that ethanol must be distributed via semi-trucks and can't be piped (its too corrosive), it is usually distilled with propane, (an inefficient fuel in itself) and the reality is ethanol consumes more energy than it contains. Ethanol is a negative energy source. A Purdue university study came to that conclusion. Of course multitudes of ethanol funded studies have attempted to debunk that fact...
    http://slashdot.org/comments.p...
    to answer your question, yes, ethanol is a boondoggle. unfortunately lobbyists have taken away our choice and in many states we no longer can choose pure gasoline.

  7. Not and issue on Understanding an AI's Timescale · · Score: 1

    This is an issue we’ve already solved. Unused cpu cycles are used for other things. When you’re typing, your PC is for the most part doing nothing but waiting for you to press a key – why not have it defrag your drive, scan for viri, look for aliens in radio waves. The recognition that processing power of computers is largely underutilized has contributed to wide spread virtualization. Since your AI computer doesn't age as we do, why would care if you’re a few orders of magnitude slower, it just does other things while it waits for you.

  8. Screwed the pooch on How Facebook and Oculus Could Be a Great Combination · · Score: 1

    The basis of VR is 3d.. How much market share did 3d VT grab? As of last year... 3%
    There's no product, there's no users, there's no market share and FB isn't a gaming company.
    Now, throw in FB wanting to grab, categorize and sell everything about users and having the potential to capture background conversations and recognize everyone in the room... now the corporate scab of personal information has jacked it up a notch... so, even of FB can get past the first 4 obstacles, sorry, I'm not letting it in my house

  9. More Corporate Greedmeisters on AT&T Exec Calls Netflix "Arrogant" For Expecting Net Neutrality · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As an American, I really get tired of billionaires arguing with millionaires about money.... All that happens is I get screwed.
    - the US has fallen from 16th in 2012 to 31st in 2014 for broadband speed...
    - pro sports tickets are almost unaffordable to the average person
    - US healthcare is the most expensive per capita in the developed world and is ranked 33 for infant mortality

    We need to get of this 'we;re great, capitalism solves everything' fox news mantra and look at what's actually happening.
    Otherwise, at some point, there's going to be just 2 jobs left in the US. The guy who owns everything and they guy who cleans his toilet.

  10. Re:It's the economy, stupid on 70% of U.S. Government Spending Is Writing Checks To Individuals · · Score: 1

    SNAP benefits (food stamps) cut 11/2013

  11. Faith = no thought, no arguement on Creationists Demand Equal Airtime With 'Cosmos' · · Score: 1

    I've been debating several creationists on a different site for several weeks now. There arguments all boil down to 2:
    1) the universe is beautiful therefore a god must have created it..
    2) I'm an idiot for not seeing the beauty that god created.

    When someone believes just because they have a need to believe, there's no room left for logical debate. it's over. Thought stops, insults start.

    IMHO the smoking gun that proves evolution beyond any further discussion is the chromosomal difference between humans and great apes. Humans have 23 pair (46 total) apes have 24 pair (48 total). Lining up human chromosome #2 shows the exact fusion of 2 ancestral chromosomes. It has 2 centromeres and 3 telomores ( 2 centers and 3 ends on the same chromosome). The DNA on the chromosomes even lines up.

    Plus.... we have fossils.

  12. Re:Demand all you want on Creationists Demand Equal Airtime With 'Cosmos' · · Score: 1

    Equal time only applies to people running for political office so one station can't push a specific or candidate party. Everything else is wide open if you're willing to pay the bill. I love how Fox ''Fair and Balanced" land was selected for the series reboot. If this was on MSNBC, all the righties would just dismiss it out of hand as propaganda.

  13. Unmoved naturalist on Environmentalists Propose $50 Billion Buyout of Coal Industry - To Shut It Down · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately this is just another idea that bolsters the industrialist notion that environmentalists are idiots. This plan attacks the supply side but does nothing to stem demand – the key piece of capitalism. A more likely result would be in a spike of coal prices leading to a huge new land grab and expansion of strip mining by the newly enriched (and bought out coal companies) with race to be the new coal supplying Barron. The only way to beat them is to displace the coal industry with some other industry. Pure money into a clean fuel research, the next and more efficient battery technology, super conductivity, fusion . Anything but incentivizing the current model.

  14. It's the economy, stupid on 70% of U.S. Government Spending Is Writing Checks To Individuals · · Score: 1

    That infamous quote is still valid here. People on social security – no surprise – rise and fall with the unemployment numbers. This un-paralleled recession has created unpatrolled numbers of people ‘on the dole’. With the GOP slashing welfare, the alternative is skyrocketing disability recipients. No miracle that the highest rates of states on disability are those with the lowest education. Great article on tall this over at NPR http://apps.npr.org/unfit-for-... and you better read while available because most GOP’rs absolutely scream about public dollars to NPR.

  15. Mr Conservative Talking on Ask Slashdot: How Do I Change Tech Careers At 30? · · Score: 3, Informative

    I hate to be the Curmudgeon..however with a school you are guaranteed a pension. In the private sector, no matter how much you make, you will never make up the difference. At some point, you'll get tired of bits & bytes and just want to play with grand kids or go fishing. Stay with the school, and you'll be doing that by the time your 55. Leave for the private sector and 55 becomes a hard to reach retirement age.

  16. no gap on All Else Being Equal: Disputing Claims of a Gender Pay Gap In Tech · · Score: 2

    As a manger in the tech field, I state for the record there is no pay gap. Starting pay is based on someone’s ability to negotiate and raises are based on skill. As far as a pay difference over all, a recent study says the entire pay gap is easily explained by choices of work. Women historically have selected employment that pays less. Teachers make less than engineers. The percentage of women in the teaching field is higher as is the percentage of men in the engineering field. Thus, if averaged just men vs women, men on average make more (in that example). However drawing that as a conclusion is erroneous, so people just need to get over themselves and do their best.

  17. Take a spiritual inventory and make a game plan on Ask Slashdot: When Is a Better Career Opportunity Worth a Pay Cut? · · Score: 2

    I’m 51 and been through many variations– upsized, downsized, self-employment, public, private, smalls, large, leveraged buyouts you name it.
    . I’ve left for money, I’ve left bad bosses, I’ve left for security, and I’ve left for geography. Also know that I’ve never had any difficulty getting a new job at any age. I just jumped companies last year at age 50. Once I decided on a change, it took 3 months to find a new job across the county while keeping the old gig. (Middle age crazy, wanted a climate change). If you’re competent and can communicate, there is a need.. Granted I’m in management now (10+ years) rather than programming and we have to maximize the skill set we have as well as always keep growing.

    Outside of Government work, if your name isn’t over the door, you (IT) are a disposable commodity. You are the first to get cut in lean times and the last to get hired in good ones. Also, know that nobody is ever indispensable. Leverage and balance those facts to your advantage. Nobody will watch out for your ass but you.

    To answer your question: Know what makes you happy. Form an ultimate game plan of what you want and where you want to end up. Every opportunity must past a simple litmus test: Does it lead you closer to end game? Only you can answer that. Good Luck.

  18. sixteen billion??? on Facebook To Buy WhatsApp · · Score: 2

    $16B!! Are they nucking futs? It feels to me – as someone who worked through InetBubbleBurst 1.0 - like FB is flailing at something, anything, using the huge cash cache it’s currently sitting on in a feeble and misdirected attempt at non-relevance. Just proof that huge dollars huge brains.

  19. Unity Bytes on Ubuntu To Switch To systemd · · Score: 1

    Shuttleworth ... Take heed from ... well ... everyone and dump Unity.

  20. Death Blow to creationism on GOP Bill To Outlaw EPA 'Secret Science' That Is Not Transparent, Reproducible · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I hope they realize they are outlawing the teaching of Creationism and intelligent design as well.

  21. Done with Linux Desktop on Ask Slashdot: Are Linux Desktop Users More Pragmatic Now Or Is It Inertia? · · Score: 1

    Between Unity just plain sucking, and Linux Mint update crashing my os... I'm done with tinkering. I want something that just works. I'm back to windows

  22. The Founding Fathers on Ask Slashdot: What Does Edward Snowden Deserve? · · Score: 1

    I will answer the question with quotes from 2 founding fathers:

    "The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government." Patrick Henry

    "Any people that would give up liberty for a little temporary safety deserves neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin

    Does any more need to be said?

  23. Re:The fun is gone on U.S. Teenagers Are Driving Much Less: 4 Theories About Why · · Score: 1

    I stand corrected.

  24. Re:Debating the insane on Creationism In Texas Public Schools · · Score: 1

    Evolution does not equal God... it's just explains change over time.
    Many, many theists believe in evolution.
    For you, a self-proclaimed member of the scientific community to claim to NOT believe in evolution puts you in the sub 10% of your peers.
    You are the one making a claim that contradicts both evidence and majority belief.
    As such, being the one making the egregious claim, you bear the burden of evidence for said claim.
    Without evidence, you are one of arrogance and bigotry

  25. Slow death for sure on Facebook Is a Plague That'll Burn Out In a Few Years, Says Study · · Score: 2

    In case someone missed it, FB admitted a month ago that teens are leaving in droves. Their belief however, is those users will come back when they age to re-connect with lost friends and family. Big words from a company that that has yet to exist through even 1 partial generation. My 17 year old daughter says – and I quote – “nobody uses facebook but old people and ghetto kids”. As far as using FB as a login verification, I doubt it. I refuse to use it and won’t post to sites that require FB log in. I detest their cannibalizing everything I do online for marketing and profitability.