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User: tilrman

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Comments · 65

  1. IDE Optional on Should Students Be Taught With or Without an IDE? · · Score: 1

    If the students want to use an IDE, let them. If they don't, let them. If they want to touch-type, if they want to hunt-and-peck, if they want to bring in a Dvorak keyboard, let them.

    Show them how to invoke the compilers from the OS. Tell them what editors and IDEs you will give them help with in class, and give them a list of some other common and/or newbie environments that they might like but that you won't support.

    (If you provide them starter code, be generous and give them a makefile too.)

    Grade the final product -- the source files -- not the process.

  2. Parking Garage on Judge May Force Google to Submit to Feds · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Suppose Google owned a parking garage with valet service. It lets people park there for free, with the understanding that you'd receive advertisements on your windshield. The Justice Department steps up and says it that Google should hand over the keys to every car so that the government can check them out, just in case.

    And the judge is "reluctant" to give them what they want because it might somehow give the appearance of Big Brother.

    Thanks for sticking up for us, Your Honor.

  3. Why stop there? on Students Banned from Blogging · · Score: 1

    The Reverend also ordered that students would not be allowed on any publicly accessible land, indoors or outdoors. Environments such as malls, grocery stores, parks, and libraries are fertile ground for sexual predators to find children.

    He concluded with a statement forbidding any student from approaching within 100 feet of a paved road, because some students have failed to look both ways before crossing.

  4. Sounds like a blogger to me on Bloggers Not Eligible for Shield Law? · · Score: 1
    ... any entity that disseminates information by ... electronic ... means and that publishes a ... periodical in ... electronic form...

    Sounds like a blogger to me.

  5. Re:Insane laws on The Argument for Crackable Media · · Score: 1

    Forget the file formats. If you want any work protected by the DMCA, you must register a description of the circumvention procedure with the Library of Congress. Every three years, for each work, you must explain why you have a right to protect each work. If you cannot justify the protection, the DMCA no longer applies to the work.

    Alternatively, we should just put all of Congress in a big pit. Armed guards monitor the pit and shoot anyone who tries to escape. Every three years, the guards hold a hearing for each person. The public is given an opportunity to present written arguments to free or not to free their Congressperson. Unless the people can convince the guards, it's back to the pit.

  6. Re:What you SHOULD look for on When to Leave That First Tech Job · · Score: 1
    I hate the warm body slot filling thing but god do I see it all the time!

    So you landed a job where your boss lets you pr0n surf all day, and you dont even like it? Or do you mean your co-workers are getting it on in the next cubicle?

  7. Inevitable Disclosure on Legal Arguments Can Hurt Tech Job Mobility · · Score: 1

    So what happens when you take inevitable disclosure out of the new, exciting, and lucrative intellectual property debate and apply it to the rest of the world not yet overrun by lawyers?

    Joe Blow is a sophomore in high school and decides he needs some extra cash so he can take his sweetie to the movies on Fridays. He hires on as assistant burger-flipper at the local fast food joint.

    After a couple of months, a buddy that works as a manager at a nearby greasy spoon tells Joe that there's an opening for a cook. It'll pay two bucks an hour more. Joe gives his two weeks' notice and starts working at the greasy spoon. On his second day on the job, the fast food chain sues Joe and the greasy spoon.

    All of Joe's expensive burger-flipping training, and any french-fry-frying and diet-cola-dispensing knowledge he picked up, will be more or less handed to his next employer. The theory of inevitable disclosure says that, therefore, Joe should not be able to flip burgers for the rest of his life.

  8. Molecules on Single Molecule Transistor A Reality · · Score: 1

    From TFA:

    Not only that, but because the microelectronics could eventually be made out of molecules, some computer parts could be biodegradable since molecules can be broken down ...

    So I can run my old laptop through a wood chipper and use it to mulch crops because it's made up of molecules? Wow, if only we could make everything out of molecules!

    ... into small bits.

    Oh, I see now. A binary computer made of molecules represents its bits as either a Zero Molecule or a One Molecule. All you have to do is split each One Molecule into, say, some One-Twelfth Molecules. And since the Zero Molecules don't take up any space at all, you end up with twelve smaller laptops. Then repeat until you have laptops small enough to be used as lawn fertilizer.

  9. Re:some issues.... on O'Reilly on the Virtues of Rexx · · Score: 2, Funny
    Case sensitivity ... doesn't match human readable languages ...

    Capitalization is the difference between "I had to help my Uncle Jack off a horse" and "I had to help my uncle jack off a horse."

  10. I cast a vote two years ago on Record Low Turnout in Debian Leadership Election · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'll cast my vote again when I'm good and ready, and only once it's been ported to twelve different platforms.

  11. Re:Good news bad news... on Court Says FCC Out-of-Bounds With Digital TV · · Score: 1

    So, the question is: who would?

    Any citizen of the United States, because no citizen would be exempt from the regulation.

    Perhaps the judge should state how many of us it would take before we have legal standing.

  12. Re:Full text of article on 42nd Mersenne Prime Probably Discovered · · Score: 1

    Remarkably, it's also the first even prime discovered in years.

  13. Smalltalk technique on How Heraclitus would Design a Programming Language · · Score: 1
    The technique that we had for Smalltalk was to write the VM in itself...

    ... but then when we compiled it, it optimized itself out of existence.

  14. Re:For what it's worth on Lone Activist Group Submits 99.8% of FCC Complaints · · Score: 1
    There are not many intellectually stimulating shows to watch

    And complaining to the government is going to fix that how? Are we to ask the Bush administration not only for censorship, but also to set the standard for intellect on television?

  15. Re:Lawsuit powered by Google on The Saga of Katie.com · · Score: 1

    perhaps a sponsored link to the katie.com book on Amazon

    Bad idea. If Jones even tries to make money off of her predicament, it weakens her case in court. Not that it should, but it will.

    Best bet is to find a lawyer and counter-sue for court costs, lawyer fees, harassment, and maybe libel as an earlier poster mentioned. Passing off a URL as your own should get you into as much trouble as would a phone number.

    IANAL, but sometimes I wish I were. I could make a lot of money just taking cases I read on slashdot. . . .

  16. In other news . . . really! on Linux vs. Windows: What's The Difference? · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    Linux 'copies' Windows and other operating systems. He says the only current difference is 'how windowing is handled.'

    MSN 'copies' Google and other search engines. The only current difference is 'how searching is handled.'

  17. Re:It's not just that the poster is a moron on Our Friend, The Meter · · Score: 1
    Our mind, unaided by an exterior calculating device, works best with 3's and 4's.

    Most of us have an exterior calculating device readily available, and it's base ten: our fingers.

  18. Re:Mozilla Messenger / Thunderbird Performance? on Spamassassin Beats CRM-114 In Anti-Spam Shootout · · Score: 1

    According to the article, Mozilla was "initially chosen for evaluation but later excluded because a prohibitive effort would have been required to isolate the interfaces...."

  19. Re:Hmmm.... on Windows Users Fear Korgo Virus · · Score: 1
    shouldn't the lightweight consumer-grade routers (Linksys and such) with NAT be effective as well at blocking this sort of thing?

    Should be. I don't see it listed on the system requirements, though. My copy of Windows didn't ship with one in the box either.

  20. Brought to you by . . . on Linux Today Founder Calls for Boycott of Linux Today · · Score: 2, Funny

    LinuxToday should put in small letters under each advertisement (replacing version numbers as appropriate):

    This advertisement proudly served to you today by Apache 1.3 running on Linux 2.6.

    I like the Microsoft ads, though. It means that Microsoft is openly acknowledging that Linux is competition -- something they didn't do a few years ago. Plus they give me a good laugh every time I sit and watch one.

  21. Second version in development on eyeBlog · · Score: 5, Funny

    Researchers found that the eyeBlog was only 28% effective when used by female wearers, but couldn't reproduce the effect in the lab. After some field trials, however, they discovered and corrected the problem. The new eyeBlog-II for women is 96% accurate and will be completed sometime next month. Rather than attaching the sensors to eyeglasses, the eyeBlog-II will be embedded into a bra.

  22. Translated, it reads . . . on Cryptic Code Stumps Experts · · Score: 1

    I have discovered a truly marvelous demonstration of this proposition that this monument is too narrow to contain.

    Apologies to Fermat.

  23. Re:MPAA's right, but also wrong on Two Congressmen Push for DMCA Amendments · · Score: 1

    Let's assume -- for the sake of argument -- that this statement is completely accurate:

    There is no right in the copyright law to make backup copies of motion pictures, so the whole argument that people should have the right to make backup copies of DVDs has no legal support whatsoever.

    Then, then correct response is: "No shit, that's why we're trying to get a law passed. Kinda like you did."

  24. Don't get into a wreck with a Pontiac employee on Automobile Black Box Sends Driver to Jail · · Score: 1

    You have a fender-bender in you new (say) Pontiac with a (say) Pontiac executive. You are following too closely, clip her car's bumper, and both cars end up in a heap. The black box in your car says that you were doing five over, you were following too close, and you car needs an oil change. The black box in hers says she was doing the speed limit and even the tires were at the right pressure.

    After your fine, suspension, and/or jail time, against all odds you get into a wreck in your busted old Pontiac with another Pontiac executive. This time, he was driving 120 MPH on the wrong side of the interstate, while you were carefully signaling a lane change. Strangely, the black box in his car shows he was doing the speed limit on the correct side of the interstate, while your black box says you were changing radio stations and eating a ham on rye sandwich at 120 MPH without a seat belt on. (Certainly the black box "evidence" would be less credible in this case given where the cars land, the fact that your could no longer go 120 MPH, and that no traces of ham or rye were found at the scene.)

    I'm all for black boxes in cars, but I want more than the word of a Pontiac executive that the data that comes out of it is accurate. (Nothing against Pontiac here; the guy's car was a Pontiac, so I picked on them.)

    On another note, regarding the ridiculous 18 month sentence for killing somebody by hitting them with one's car at 90 MPH, wouldn't it be interesting if we had the old eye-for-an-eye punishment? Cruel? Arguably. Unusual? Certainly. Interesting? Definitely!

    Or just forget jail time. Paint a big red bulls-eye on either side of his car and run a news story on Montreal television, complete with photographs of the crash scene and a picture of the new paint job. Tie him into his car, replace the engine with that of a chainsaw's, and leave him in an inviting spot near a heavily-traveled road.

    And while I'm rambling, how about the judge (or jury) that let this guy back out on the road after his first speeding-at-three-times-the-limit offense? Let's give them a hand!

    And to Judge Louise Bourdeau who will put this guy back on the streets in 18 months and back on the road in 18 more: a hearty round of applause! In her words, according to the article, "No sentence can replace the loss of this young man." Thank you, Judge Obvious. As it turns out, we don't have murder trials to resurrect the victims. We have them (among other reasons) to keep more people from getting killed.

    I'd bet (hope?) if somebody ran around town with a chainsaw -- no license required -- hacking people to death he'd get more than 18 months in jail.

    But maybe that's because Pontiac doesn't make chainsaws and they don't have black boxes.

  25. Re:Am I the only one on Lindows Agreeing to Change Name · · Score: 1

    How about: "Windex: We've cleaned up windows."

    Damn, then they'd be sued by SC Johnson.