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User: aWalrus

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Comments · 241

  1. Re:Bah, superstition! on A Thoughtful Look at Indian Outsourcing · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So using cheap labor from overseas is right when it's done to manufacture Nike shoes, but wrong when taking your overpaid job?

    I wasn't aware that only the upper middle class voted in the United States.

    It's called capitalism. Americans have reminded the rest of the world of this fact for decades, remember?

  2. Try $12K a year in Mexico on Do You Make $60/hr for Programming? · · Score: 1

    That's a typical wage for a fully qualified software developer over here. Of course, life is cheaper, but we're still pretty much screwed.

  3. Re:separating content and presentation on Developing a Standards-Compliant Web App? · · Score: 1

    Except he's wrong.

    Usual for slashdot.

  4. Re:separating content and presentation on Developing a Standards-Compliant Web App? · · Score: 1

    Ok. You really don't know what you're talking about, do you?

    Admittedly, you goaded me into looking for info on how LaTeX works (I had used it, but didn't study the format up close). It tends to be more strict than XHTML/CSS actually, and does require good markup of a document. If you want to see some reference, check out this document.

    CSS is very flexible for making layouts. Please suggest what you think LaTeX can do that CSS can't. Prior to that, though, you may want to take a look at the spec (and yes, most of that stuff does have good support, even in Explorer).

  5. Re:separating content and presentation on Developing a Standards-Compliant Web App? · · Score: 1

    You don't know much about CSS, do you?

    The same XHTML document can be styled in completely different ways. Parts can be moved around, floated, made to disappear, etc. The only thing you need is to mark up each thing as what it is (paragraphs, blockquotes, headers, etc).

    And tables are a thing of the past, by the way. Tableless design is one of the things that allow for this kind of flexibility.

  6. Re:Don't code for IE, but for mozilla/netscape on Developing a Standards-Compliant Web App? · · Score: 1

    Even Lynx would show a style-free version of my pages, whereas NS4.x actually lost half the text.

    You can avoid that by using "@import" when specifying your external style sheet files instead of "<link rel..."

    The @import method is not supported by Netscape 4.x and thus will throw an unstyled page (better than nothing, and can be made accesible to boot if you do your homework).

  7. Re:And also thank you... on Arrest in Caridi FBI Investigation · · Score: 1

    The model you describe (give away the product for free, make money with the tie-ins) already exists and is used successfully by an enormous amount of Intellectual property producers (software, books and even movies).

    The fact here is that the producer has the option to choose the revenue model he wants for his product. This cannot be forced upon people. What you're saying is akin to suggesting that because GPL'd software exists and is a viable business model, *everyone* should license their software that way.

    Furthermore, there are fundamental difference between "fairness" and "law". There are unfair laws that people choose to break. There's nothing wrong with this (*Knowingly* breaking a law you don't agree with is a valid civil statement as long as you're not hurting someone). That said, you can't expect said law to disppear or not be enforced merely because you don't agree with it.

  8. Re:And also thank you... on Arrest in Caridi FBI Investigation · · Score: 1

    Once again: Distributing a perfect copy of copyrighted material over the internet is not sharing, regardless of the fact that you may not be charging for it.

    I don't agree with the tactics of the RIAA and MPAA, but I'm sick of people thinking they have a god-given right to enjoy entertainment they don't pay for (as crappy as it may actually be).

  9. Re:Death Cookie on NetBSD Announces Logo Design Competition · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Jack Chick is full of shit in more ways than I can count. A lot of the stuff in that tract is a good exposition of the systems of control that the catholic church uses, but it's ignoring and corrupting the basic premises that support those sacraments. Furthermore, the idea of a vengeful god that rules by fear is somewhat outdated in the catholic roman Church (old testament stuff). Salvation (or the wafer thing) is not to be denied arbitrarily in order to acquire power. Furthermore, what is exposed there amounts to finding an example of a pedophile priest and jumping to the conclusion that all priests are pedophiles.

    Check out some more of the site. It's basically a collection of hate speech (particularly against gay people) in disguise of religious teachings.

  10. Re:excellent example on Revitalizing Soviet Image Data From Venus · · Score: 1

    Number 6 reminds me of what is being done in the United States now in courts, with lawyers demanding evidence be re-analized with DNA detecting methods for cases that were closed. Interesting things have come out of this.

  11. Different Programming Languages on Constructing a New College IT Curriculum? · · Score: 1

    Your proposed curriculum lacks a class that teaches a variety of different (maybe esoteric) programming languages. When I was at college, we had one where we programmed in Scheme (a variant of Lisp), Smalltalk, Clipper and some Java. That may sound stupid at first because you can't delve very deep into each of them, but it does give you a very nice overview of what can be done with different tools. Lisp's syntax is entirely different than what you're used to when coming from a java background. Rules-based oriented programming languages solve very complex problems in an elegant way, etc.

    What's this useful for? They say when all you know is a hammer, every problem is a nail.

  12. Re:They should benchmark development time on Performance Benchmarks of Nine Languages · · Score: 1

    You know, I could try explaining this to you forever, and apparently you still wouldn't get it. I'll leave it at that. Life's too short.

    Oh, please, by all means, do. I'm wondering how good programming can be equated to typing speed. It's a rather profound statement, really.

  13. Re:is carnivore bad? on Feds Thwart Extortion Plot Against Best Buy · · Score: 1

    Just because it's really difficult it does not mean it's impossible. These guys can rebuild smashed to pieces hard drives in which information has been erased and ovewritten and still get useful stuff out of them. I don't think traffic sniffing on a country-wide scale is beyond their means.

    Besides, running a comparison against a specific piece of content in a wide number of packets is cheap computationally speaking.

  14. Re:is carnivore bad? on Feds Thwart Extortion Plot Against Best Buy · · Score: 1

    Shit, that's incredibly insightful. I hadn't thought of that. Given enough access to the internet's backbone infrastructure (which presumably Carnivore has), all you need to do is track down a specific piece of email all the way down to the final ISP. The email could go through three or four ISP's, and you wouldn't even need to track inside those networks (assuming you don't have access to them in the first place). Just see where it ends up. Then you have your time of delivery+user and can subpoena an order for the user info on that account from his ISP. Cool.

    Text email clients won't do crap against this kind of surveillance. Maybe the best way to handle it would be to use a stolen account and never access it directly (set it up to relay your email messages that arrive stripped of sender info and have it post the messages it receives encrypted in an anonymous access bbs/website, as another comment suggested).

    This definitely ups the ante. Interesting.

  15. Re:Not always a great idea on Long Term Effects of Outsourcing · · Score: 1

    Interestingly enough, at my Cubicle Farm site (in Mexico) anything that decreases the billable hours is highly desirable and encouraged. Innovation is highly rewarded (keeps the PM's happy back in the 'States, apart from the obvious benefits).

    We compete against India and, soon, China. Whereas each of us costs about a third of what your average developer costs in the US, they work for less than half what we're paid. We recently became a CMM 5 site to stay competitive. It's a tough market. US programmers should look into optimizing for cost (i.e., charge less) if they don't want to be left out of the game.

    Legal disclaimer -- These views are personal and do not reflect those of my employer in any way or fashion.

  16. Re:Mexican Pharmacies don't require a recipe? on Pharmacists Convince Search Engines To Self-Censor · · Score: 1

    Yeah, I guess you're right about that. They do sell stronger stuff without a prescription. Still, getting the really tough ones, like antidepressants such as Rivotril, definitely involves showing a doctor's prescription. And that's heavily controlled too (doctors can't prescribe too much of it).

  17. Mexican Pharmacies don't require a recipe? on Pharmacists Convince Search Engines To Self-Censor · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Where are these magical Mexican Pharmacies that will sell you anything without a recipe? I'm mexican, and last time I checked, the pharmacy down the corner still required you to show a prescription to let you buy anything stronger than a cough syrup.

    If the article poster meant that Mexican pharmacists are more easily bribed, well, that's another matter, and depends entirely on the pharmacy. Both for the US and Mexico.

    Anyway, I think this is a good thing. Americans are overmedicated. Between Prozac, Ritalin and Valium you guys will end up a bunch of happy zombies.

  18. Re:sad... on PC Mag - Mac OS X Insecure · · Score: 1

    So I'm supposed to take offense because a bunch of self-proclaimed "geeks" try to ridicule me because of the OS I use?

    Hey, whatever floats your boat. I was just stating the facts.

  19. Re:sad... on PC Mag - Mac OS X Insecure · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm using Windows...I don't feel like I have to defend myself...I'm not being attacked.

    Umm... you are aware that this is Slashdot, right?

  20. Re:I read every last crappy page. on Dread Empire's Fall: The Praxis · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I just keep reading, hoping something will happen to redeam it

    I'm worse than that. I read "Interview with the Vampire" and found it mildly interesting, then went on to "The vampire Lestat" which I really liked... Then came "The Queen of the Damned", which I hated. That threw me into an unstoppable loop of having to read Anne Rice's books, looking for some quality of redemption, and finding each more execrable than the one before. It took something like 6 more of her books to make me come off it. I can't so much as glance sideways at a Rice book now without shivering...

  21. Re:Fine By Me! on Google Blocks 'Optimized' Pages · · Score: 1

    Which complete fool ever thought that was something Javascript should be cabable of?

    um... Microsoft.

  22. Re:a Better headline would be on Expose Metacity With Expocity · · Score: 1

    I think Mozilla/Firebird's "Type ahead" feature was a first. It's quite useful for browsing with the keyboard only. That, and the Smart Keywords feature are things that they did first, at least as far as browser interfaces go. You can check the full list of features here

  23. Re:Got Causality? on Game Reviews Not Stuck In Pac Man Era? · · Score: 1

    I think you missed the point. Many dialogs were corny and ridiculous, parts of the fights looked staged to dance-like proportions (I half expected the "WHAM" "CRACK" onomatopoeias from the Adam West's Batman to show up) but that's the intent. The movie aimed for fun and hit it squarely. It wasn't supposed to be believable. It's a direct-to-live-action translation of Comic Book/Manga action (it pays homage to a lot of Manga cliches/visual styles). To tell the truth, I was giddy like a schoolgirl while watching it.

  24. Re:film reviews on Game Reviews Not Stuck In Pac Man Era? · · Score: 1

    Now why, oh why, didn't the reviewer come right out and say Kill Bill sucked, instead of dancing around it
    uhmmm... because it's brilliant? It was the most fun I've had at the movies in ages.

  25. Re:Browser Wars Over? on Microsoft Wins Browser War, Abandons 'Innovation' · · Score: 1

    Well, geeks are the first line of adoption, and Mozilla and its variants are gaining strenght in that front. My site attracts a fairly geeky crowd, and I see only 70% IE in the stats. The rest are taken up by Mozilla/Firebird, Opera and Safari mostly. This is a good sign of things to come I believe. Never underestimate the power of inconvenience. If explorer keeps on making the browsing experience a hassle, people will start to flock to the better alternatives. I hardly ever use ie anymore, other than to check web designs for layout.