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User: Chris+Mattern

Chris+Mattern's activity in the archive.

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Comments · 7,102

  1. Re:Any system that can be gamed, will on Giving Doctors Grades Has Backfired · · Score: 1

    Corollary: Every system can be gamed.

  2. Re:Just like Teacher "Grades" on Giving Doctors Grades Has Backfired · · Score: 1

    So it becomes a terribly dis-incentive for the best teachers to go to the schools that need them the most - they'll grab all the plum assignments in the nice, rich, suburban schools, while fresh teachers get sent to the inner-city schools (perpetuating this situation).

    Which is what happens now anyways, so at least it's not making things worse.

  3. Re:Lore Harp sounds awful on How Two Bored 1970s Housewives Helped Create the PC Industry · · Score: 1

    His idea was basically to clone the IBM PC and compete with them; it wasn't some brilliant engineering feat but rather a guess at what it takes to survive. Quite a few vendors tried just that strategy and wound up bankrupt despite their efforts.

    True. However, except for Apple, only those who tried that strategy survived. Not everybody who tried that strategy lived, but everybody who lived used that strategy.

  4. Re:Investigating if laws were broken on Police Not Issuing Charges For Handgun-Firing Drone -- Feds Undecided · · Score: 1

    "Mens rea" does not cover ignorance of law. It means you intentionally committed the illegal act, not that you knew the act was illegal. If you are on trial for emfozing a whatzit, the prosecution has to show you knew you were emfozing a whatzit, but not that you knew emfozing a whatzit was illegal.

  5. Re: So What on Genetic Access Control Code Uses 23andMe DNA Data For Internet Racism · · Score: 4, Funny

    I think I'll just stick with debit and credit, thank you.

  6. Re:Because, sometimes they make so sense on Ask Slashdot: Do You Use a Smartphone At Work, Contrary to Policy? · · Score: 1

    Don't be an idiot. You know that "chemicals" in the vernacular doesn't mean you or your lunch.

    Okay, then give us a definition.

    As far as I've been able to determine, "chemicals" in the vernacular means "substances that scare me." Not a very useful standard for determining what you can bring onto the site.

  7. Re:Why yes, I do! on Ask Slashdot: Do You Use a Smartphone At Work, Contrary to Policy? · · Score: 1

    I also bring my own hookers and drugs.

    And blackjack?

  8. Re:Fix your Survey on Ask Slashdot: Do You Use a Smartphone At Work, Contrary to Policy? · · Score: 1

    I assume they meant "a policy of restricting the use of PEDs" rather "restricting the policy on using PEDs". Somebody needs a little remedial high school English.

  9. Re:they made the planes the bombed pearl harbor on Toshiba CEO, 8 Others, Resign Over $1.2 Billion Accounting Cover-Up · · Score: 1

    While they were and are highly diversified, as is the custom for zaibatsu/kereitsu, I am not aware that Toshiba made warplanes, or any kind of planes. Others, of course, did, and some still exist, like Mitsubishi. If you can point to some evidence that Toshiba ever made planes, I'd be obliged.

  10. Re:In his honor... on Grooveshark Co-founder Josh Greenberg Dead At 28 · · Score: 1

    Never understood Shark Week. I mean, I like Greg Norman as well as the next guy, but a whole week of him...?

  11. Re:SSL? on How Developers Can Rebuild Trust On the Internet · · Score: 2

    Well, actually, it's the old thing. SSL is broken. You're supposed to be using TLS.

  12. Re:45 million? Tha's all? on Report: US Military Is Wasting Millions On Satellite Comms · · Score: 1

    because of you tough stance on support of Emu breading research.

    Mmmm, fried emu.

  13. Re:I agree with the snapchat guy on Apple Watch Still Waiting On App Developers · · Score: 1

    The point was that his argument is as invalid on the move from phone to watch as it was from desktop to phone because people don't seem to give a damn about image quality, but instead for convenience or even just being able to show off their new toy.

    And my point is that drawing an analogy between desktop to phone and phone to watch doesn't work, because while there is a noticeable gain in convenience from a desktop to a phone, I have yet to hear how moving from the phone to a watch increases convenience. Being able to show off their new toy I'll grant you, but without some concrete advantage like there was from desktop to phone, I don't think it'll fly in the end.

  14. Re:Netragard is for cows. on Netragard Ends Exploit Acquisition Program After Hacking Team Breach · · Score: 1

    Why in the name of hell would we want a replacement for the Golden Girls cosmonaut, if it comes to that?

  15. Re:Coke or Pepsi on Ask Slashdot: How Often Do You Update Your OS? · · Score: 1

    Actually, vim won the war, not vi.

    True, if you're want to split hairs.

  16. Re:Coke or Pepsi on Ask Slashdot: How Often Do You Update Your OS? · · Score: 1

    Uh, both?

    Nope. Every distro I've seen (although I'll admit I haven't made a business of surveying them) installs vi by default but not Emacs.

    Even if not it's about 3 words into the command prompt away assuming you've got internet connectivity.

    I can install JOE the same way. So obviously JOE has won the editor wars.

  17. Re:I update my OS every time MSFT kills it on Ask Slashdot: How Often Do You Update Your OS? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What is the entire lab doing planning to run Win 10 Home? That's the only edition that forces mandatory updates. Pro lets you defer them; Enterprise lets you completely control the process

    It's the extortion model of OS pricing.

    "Lovely little computer you have here. Shame if it got broken in an update. Just buy a little insurance and you can avoid all that."

  18. Re:Coke or Pepsi on Ask Slashdot: How Often Do You Update Your OS? · · Score: 5, Interesting

    the Emacs vs VI war is over (Emacs won)

    Say what? I work in a shop with extensive Solaris and Linux installation, and run several personal Linux boxes as well. They all have vi. None of them, as far as I know, and I checked several, have Emacs. This was not a conscious decision for any of them: it's just the way the hosts installed (although on my personal boxes, I would've installed vi had it not installed by itself). Who won the war?

  19. I generally keep current on Ask Slashdot: How Often Do You Update Your OS? · · Score: 2

    with the production releases and patches. I won't use betas or nightlies unless I'm trying to fix a specific bug.

  20. Re:I agree with the snapchat guy on Apple Watch Still Waiting On App Developers · · Score: 1

    Why would I look at the tiny picture on a phone when I can look at a big one on my desktop?

    Because to look at pictures on your desktop you have to be at your desk. That has proved to be enough of a reason for a large audience. What does the smartwatch give you that the phone doesn't?

  21. Re:"Over-Fishing" in Advertising on Is Advertising Morally Justifiable? The Importance of Protecting Our Attention · · Score: 1

    What the hell? Why would someone advertise prescription medication? Isn't the idea behind prescription medications that the doctors decide on the drug to give you?

    A) Your doctor is a lot more likely to prescribe it if you ask for it and B) they advertise to the doctors. A lot.

  22. Re:Is it the same as in Chinese? on New Unicode Bug Discovered For Common Japanese Character "No" · · Score: 4, Funny

    Like æ or ÃüY

    If so, seems many Chinese website will have problems too, becuase it's used so often in Chinese.

    As you have just discovered, Slashdot cleverly avoids all Unicode bugs by not supporting Unicode at all.

  23. Re:Dora too on Chinese Girl Receives Full Skull Reconstruction Via 3D Printing · · Score: 1

    Because a) it makes them looker cuter (the younger a child is, the larger its head is in proportion to its body, so large heads make chararcters look babyish and cute) and b) it allows the artist to be more expressive with the face, which is where he'll be doing most of the physical characterization.

  24. Re:The. ignorance is strong in this one. on Cashless Adoption Growing In Europe · · Score: 2

    Correct; if you followed the link, you'd discover that it's about people who don't trust banks moving from keeping cash under their mattresses to using cashless payment services offered by mobile phone companies, rather than banks. This is very common in Africa.

  25. Re:Dubious on Scientists Develop Nutritious Seaweed That Tastes Like Bacon · · Score: 2

    Well, it would presumably get a lot cheaper if it went into production.