Slashdot Mirror


User: Surt

Surt's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
8,792
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 8,792

  1. Re:Behind the Sun?! on What Struck Earth in 775? · · Score: 0

    That the effect was strong enough to elevate C14 levels doesn't change how long a supernova takes. Either a supernova is a valid explanation or not.

  2. Re:Quite Obvious, Even to Me on What Struck Earth in 775? · · Score: 0

    Alternatively, the worst evil in history asymptotically approaches Hitler from below, and time travelers now know they have done the optimal job of murdering evildoers.

  3. Re:Disagree on Facebook Smartphone a Dumb Idea, Says Farhad Manjoo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Commissioned sales are done exclusively in intensely competitive markets. Why? Because the only money to be made is off the suckers who will fall for high pressure sales. Even if you alienate the other 80% of the market, you're just driving them to your competitors, where their negotiating prowess will make them a net COST to your competitor. As an example, the moment a dealership figures out you are a '500 over dealer price' negotiator, they should stop talking to you. Their net on those deals is risking going negative (and the situation gets worse the longer it takes you to haggle them to that price, so it's best if they can figure you out quickly and send you on your way). That frees them up to focus on the people from whom they can actually extract some profit.

  4. Re:And this is news how? on Andromeda On Collision Course With the Milky Way · · Score: 1

    LOL. That's an entertaining way to read it. Unfortunately, that seems even more doubtful as a way for the OP to have intended it, and the really tough part is the units of course. ;-)

  5. Re:Yawn on Light Table IDE Finds Funding Success · · Score: 1

    So what you're saying is that over the course of 30 years, they've managed to get the key count down 20%.
    And wq was current on the version of vi I was using in 93. So apparently that change took a LOOOONG time to propogate.

  6. Re:Yawn on Light Table IDE Finds Funding Success · · Score: 1

    I use VS pretty heavily, and have never had it crash. I've had the project I was working on take down the operating system a few times, but I'm pretty sure that's independent of the IDE you choose.

  7. Re:the geezer's, obviously on Geezers Pick Stronger Passwords Than Young'uns · · Score: 2

    I have a theory that says young people have a better grasp of cost-benefit analysis.

  8. Re:How did he analyse it? on Geezers Pick Stronger Passwords Than Young'uns · · Score: 2

    False hope, making people feel better about reality since 6000 BC.

  9. Re:software dev? on Ask Slashdot: What To Do With a Math Degree? · · Score: 1

    I think what you're describing usually correlates with experience rather than degree. I avoid hiring people who don't have at least one 4-year stint at a job for that reason. You need about that much time to really 'get' maintainability.

  10. Re:Ugh on The Cost of Crappy Security In Software Infrastructure · · Score: 1

    My chainsaw is a couple of years old, but it just has a startup lock that requires two hands. Once it is in operation, it requires only one hand to operate.

  11. Re:What about 3rd party cookies? on IE10 Will Have 'Do Not Track' On By Default · · Score: 1

    I disabled 3rd party a long time ago and none of the sites I use had any problem.

  12. Re:Yep, MS is derailing the whole process. on IE10 Will Have 'Do Not Track' On By Default · · Score: 1

    I actually applaud MS (a very rare one for me). The voluntary system is what's fundamentally broken. They're just making it obvious. That will drive us toward a system that actually has legal teeth, which is what we really need.

  13. Re:And this is news how? on Andromeda On Collision Course With the Milky Way · · Score: 1

    Even if that's what the OP meant (and I doubt it) they came up short, even if lifespans jump to 1000 years.

  14. Re:That's not funny on Backyard Brains Can Help Satisfy Your Inner Frankenstein (Video) · · Score: 1

    I'd be more convinced if you could make an argument to that effect, instead of just a claim.

  15. Re:770,000 parsecs? on Andromeda On Collision Course With the Milky Way · · Score: 1

    Just remember that distance and time are interchangeable thanks to the speed of light.

  16. Re:And this is news how? on Andromeda On Collision Course With the Milky Way · · Score: 1

    4 billion years is somewhat more than 14 generations, at least assuming that life expectancy gains don't snowball.

  17. Re:Busy databases on Ask Slashdot: What Type of Asset Would You Not Virtualize? · · Score: 1

    Was that a problem for a lot of people? It worked fine for me. Annoying that windows couldn't function without a swap file, but since it was a problem with no other solution that I know of .... (other than waiting for MS to fix it).

  18. Re:Busy databases on Ask Slashdot: What Type of Asset Would You Not Virtualize? · · Score: 1

    But then your control station isn't virtualized, and you have single point of failure!

  19. Re:That's not funny on Backyard Brains Can Help Satisfy Your Inner Frankenstein (Video) · · Score: 1, Insightful

    So your claim is that cockroaches are as human as Jews?

  20. Re:Salaries on IT Positions Some of the Toughest Jobs To Fill In US · · Score: 1

    No, we have software developer positions that pay enough (I have one of them, it pays enough, and competitively), but we have chronic openings that take months to fill. We get a couple of US-based applicants per month, usually unqualified. The rest are mostly Chinese and Indian immigrants (also frequently unqualified).

    To put it another way: we have almost 100% acceptance on our offers, and too rarely someone to make them to.

  21. Re:Quota system = degradation of standard on The Shortage of Women In IT · · Score: 1

    You're definitely right you never said always. You did say 'almost guaranteed', which for sake of discussion i'll claim is nearly equally wrong. That in fact quota system is usually addressing a bias which leads to inferiority of the applicant pool, and therefore raises the actual quality of that pool.

  22. Re:Personnel selection is hard. on The Gamification of Hiring · · Score: 1

    For your last point, that's why I made the clarifying comment about using education for entry level. I strongly disagree with past experience being hard to verify. Sure, the exact details may be hard to verify, what you can verify is whether or not they developed the expected level of skill in the given amount of time. If I ask for 5 years of java experience, that's really a proxy for having developed core competency with the language (along with some of the technologies in the ecosystem), and that's what I'll test for in the actual interview.

    People who get fired for incompetence or social problems are both pretty easy to pick out in an interview.

  23. Re:Personnel selection is hard. on The Gamification of Hiring · · Score: 1

    I've always found past job experience + #2 for confirmation to be best. Better, even, than #1 + #2, for anything other than entry level.

  24. Re:The Winter of our Disconnect on Germany Sets New Solar Power Record · · Score: 1

    The lesson there would seem to be: you cannot account for all externalities. And thus, long term planning is generally useless.

  25. Re:government shuts them down in 3...2...1... on Barter-Based School Catching On Globally · · Score: 1

    In most countries you owe tax on your barter as you would on a cash transaction. That is, in these kinds of situations, you are equally free not to pay tax either way.