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User: Prien715

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  1. Fired for Trolling on Ask Slashdot: Would You Pay For Websites Without Trolls? · · Score: 1

    I work at a Certain Silicon Valley Tech Company and we recently had an employee fired for trolling.

    Essentially, she claimed the right to park in handicap lots (despite not having children for "200 years"), wanted to bring her dogs to work (other people bring their "disgusting kids"), and complained she was severely overworked. Everyone on the thread posted pics of "facepalm" and inviting her to maybe not use the company-wide email list for such things, but she kept on trolling. The next week, someone commented on the thread to note she "no longer works here". Ouch.

    Etiquette is as important for most jobs and human interaction as skill set.

  2. Re:Will C++ Continue to be verbose? on Interviews: Ask Bjarne Stroustrup About Programming and C++ · · Score: 1

    I still program in C++ but I have to use Qt as an SDK initially for UI and now just because it makes the language much more concise. Whether it's qSort(anySTLcontainer), QString (which supports unicode, regex, etc), or foreach(int& item, myVector) being legal -- and this is all pre C++11 and still works today (in addition to being just as portable). Having a perl-like circular list which supports O(1) prepends, appends, etc. is really nice too. And don't even get me started on why boost::signals are inferior and lead almost inevitably to instability;) Like any other language however, it's only as good as the people who use it so it's no guarantee of readable code.

    I really do need to check out Python some more. I'm fluent in Perl and it's served me well over the years, but I've heard nothing but good about Python.

  3. Re:Will C++ Continue to be verbose? on Interviews: Ask Bjarne Stroustrup About Programming and C++ · · Score: 1

    I don't think so. The simple "for" loop with auto is easily understood by someone with a passing familiarity with any programming language.

    I've been programming (mainly in C++, mainly scientific applications) for ~10 years and I had to look up std::iota -- it's a neat construct but it's really obscure and the question is, does it make code more readable? My answer would be no. For the same character count, it's a wash.

    That's my main issue with language philosophy really. They're expanding the language quite a bit while some constructs have negligible value -- and entirely avoiding constructs that fit 99% of use cases. Would it have really killed them to not force one to use iterators, for example? Who doesn't sort a whole list (std::sort(myVec) ought to work...we can both agree what that ought to do right? The language tools to do it are there. Is there any other language that is that uselessly pedantic?)?

  4. Re:Will C++ Continue to be verbose? on Interviews: Ask Bjarne Stroustrup About Programming and C++ · · Score: 1

    ...but funny thing, here's what your program prints:
    0 0 0 0 0 0...etc.

    It should read for (auto& x : myVec) x = i++;

    The C example I typed without even thinking -- I'm guessing you could too. You've revised the C++ example once already, which happened to be wrong. I spotted your error immediately -- but then again, I have years of experience.

  5. Will C++ Continue to be verbose? on Interviews: Ask Bjarne Stroustrup About Programming and C++ · · Score: 1

    My main criticism of C++ is that it's overly verbose. There are many issues resulting from it (difficult to write, overuse of old school pointers, etc). Let's take the simple for loop (I'm using { in place of "less than" since /. code is retarded):

    // C
    int myVec[100];
    for (int i=0; i { 100; i++) myVec[i]=i;

    //Now, let's look at C++ (not 11):
    std::vector{int} myVec(100);
    for (std::vector{ int }::const_iterator i=myVec.begin(); i != myVec.end(); i++)
    { myVec[i]=i; } // When did you decide this ^^ was a good idea and how drunk were you?

    With C++11, it's slightly better:
    for (auto i=myVec.begin(); i != myVec.end(); i++) myVec[i]=i;
     
    ...but it's amazing that C style (1970's) syntax is both the more concise and readable -- but still loses to C:
    for (int i=0; i { myVec.size(); i++) myVec[i]=i;

    Aside from the addition of auto, do you ever plan on admitting and addressing the language's problems with verbosity -- which hurts readability, learning curve, etc. -- or just keep introducing increasingly arcane features?

  6. Math loves to be Anthromorphized! on The Benefits of Inequality · · Score: 4, Informative

    Terrible summary and title.

    From TFA:
    Our model predicts that the transition to larger despotic groups will then occur when: (i) surplus resources lead to demographic expansion of groups, removing the viability of an acephalous niche in the same area and so locking individuals into hierarchy; (ii) high dispersal costs limit followers' ability to escape a despot. Empirical evidence suggests that these conditions were probably met, for the first time, during the subsistence intensification of the Neolithic.

    So availability of resources to a minority and the inability to escape cause large despotisms, much like CO2 and Greenhouse gases cause global warming. Climate science should be renamed "The Benefits of Global Warming". Or after a man's parachute fails to open he "realizes the benefits of gravity in assisting his painless disassembly".

    I know it would be odd to ask for editors to, uh, you know, edit.

  7. Re:How about some real number? on Apple's Diversity Numbers: 70% Male, 55% White · · Score: 1

    Oh, OK, the companies are EVIL, but they're also really stupid, right?

    Sir, I point you to "business moguls" the George W. Bush the Misunderestimated, Donald "Nobody knows why there are 13 strips on the American Flag" Trump, or maybe Robert "Bodycount is a great metric" McNamara.

    There's a certain irony in the air of superiority that's lost on many.

  8. Re:Quick rule of thumb on Apple's Diversity Numbers: 70% Male, 55% White · · Score: 1

    Single white Christian males were enslaved for half of our country's history.
    A single white Christian male (who was unarmed and had his hands up) was shot to death by a black police man last week.
    The incarceration rate of single white Christian males was over 6 times higher than that of black males, mostly for drug offenses, despite no difference in percentage of drug use. (source)

    I continue to be stunned at the entire level of ignorance of oppression displayed in the community. Yes, I'm a black male. At the same time, when I get gas in certain "sundown towns" with my white girlfriend, I see racial disgust.

    Anyone who thinks "white culture" is to blame, ought to spend some time in Mississippi, Alabama, or west Texas (Jackson, where a single white Christian male was dragged behind a truck for being white). Or Vidor where less than 0.07 % is white Christian male.

    When we see glaring racial disparities, it's best to pretend the problem doesn't exist. The Jim Crow laws, which disenfranchised white people in the south, never mentioned race -- just a fair literacy requirements and a token tax to pay for elections. Why were single white Christian males so offended?

  9. Cheap Salaries yields cheap talent on Every Day Is Goof-Off-At-Work Day At the US Patent and Trademark Office · · Score: 3, Interesting

    They earn at the top of federal pay scale, with the highest taking home $148,000 a year.

    That's not even the salary of a manager at Google (and don't even talk about benefits -- free food is amazing) -- and this is the highest of salaries. For a lawyer (law school is will run you over $100K by itself). Can you imagine why they may not have the best and brightest? With the new patent office opening in San Jose, why would anyone actually want to work for the USPO who has any amount of talent?

  10. Re:Can't beat the Micro$oft Machine on Digia Spinning Off Qt Division Into New Company · · Score: 1

    I can name some more: Halliburton, Shell, and Pixar.* One application I worked on made over $1 million a week last I heard.

    For anyone doing serious 3D scientific computing on Linux, Qt is the de facto standard. Motif is simply awful and Gnome doesn't solve portability.

    (*I wrote code that shipped for 2/3 the three companies.)

  11. Re:Considering his history... on Ridley Scott to Produce Philip K Dick's The Man In the High Castle · · Score: 1

    Whedon's quality issue with Avengers is the same one we find with Scott's "Prometheus", Aronofsky's "Noah", or Lucas's "Anal Excretions with Jar Jar Binx".

    Too many SFX. I enjoy tech demos as much as the next person, but part of the charm of Firefly was that a low budget forced the team to focus on story, personality, and acting to do what they were trying to do with their special effects. It also forces the creative folk to manage a larger team -- which takes time away from the developing the "soul" of the project.

  12. Re:Radicalization on Gaza's Only Power Plant Knocked Offline · · Score: 1

    Hamas and Israel both don't recognize their mutual rights to exist at the moment -- Hamas uses rockets and Israel uses bombs to demonstrate this.

    At least Hamas is honest about its intentions.

  13. Crystal Ball on The Daily Harassment of Women In the Game Industry · · Score: 1

    Based on my discussions in the past, I'm guessing the mostly male audience here will say something like "not here" or "I've never seen that". I am reminded of a (financially struggling) friend of mine who posted on her blog talking about the myth of white priviledge and her other (entirely white) friends saying "Right on!". In casting herself as a vicitm, she tried to say that the experiences of minorities were not unique.

    No one here, unless you've been a woman, knows what it's like to work in an overwhelmingly male (and foul-mouthed;)) culture. And yes, it's possible to overcome that treatment -- but that doesn't it right.

  14. Re:My experience on Ask Slashdot: How Many Employees Does Microsoft Really Need? · · Score: 1

    I don't think at this point that they really have any valid position in the hardware business.

    82 million xBox 360 owners can't be wrong right?

  15. Re:many girls are brought up to believe that on ChickTech Brings Hundreds of Young Women To Open Source · · Score: 1

    So, you are trying to explain the entire disparity with mistreatment by males. I don't buy it...

    I follow the data. In numerous other countries, this is not the case. Again, if you have better data, please share (as I did in GP). Otherwise -- buying into the idea of female inferiority with no data to support your assertion -- is precisely the kind of prejudice I'm talking about and you are the perfect example.

  16. Re:many girls are brought up to believe that on ChickTech Brings Hundreds of Young Women To Open Source · · Score: 2

    I'm really not sure how sports fits into this. Yes, testosterone gives better performance in sports. Barry Bonds was fined for it. As was the Chinese women's swim team.

    As far as chess, first mandatory xkcd. Another good reason is how women are treated in mostly male fields. There's very few women who play Magic: The Gathering or chess for this reason (yes, I've been to the tournies). On the other hand, more women are interested in studying academic subjects -- there must be some reason more women go to college than men right?

    Men must be biologically weaker!;)

  17. Boobies on Sexual Harassment Is Common In Scientific Fieldwork · · Score: 5, Funny

    Scientist A: Show me pictures of your boobies!
    Scientist B: They're really big

    My hobby: Making clean jokes.

  18. Re:many girls are brought up to believe that on ChickTech Brings Hundreds of Young Women To Open Source · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There's a "skills gap" present in Math aptitude tests that appears in countries where the status of women is worse. There are countries where the gap is lower or even reversed -- which seems to suggest culture rather than biology.

    If you can find an alternative explanation beyond "American Culture", feel free to suggest it.

  19. Cobol is future-proof on Ask Slashdot: Future-Proof Jobs? · · Score: 1

    ...anyone who has tried to migrate cobol code can tell you this. The cobol code will never go away as it is future-proof. Further, anyone who can code in cobol will always have a job since no one is learning cobol, for the same reason that no one learns medieval torture techniques.

  20. Life on Mars? on Dubai's Climate-Controlled Dome City Is a Dystopia Waiting To Happen · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Being the largest climate controlled dome of its kind, perhaps the engineering "lessons learned" could be applicable to creating a self-sustaining space colony -- one of the chief challenges being climate control. ..or else, I've just been playing too much Kerbal Space Program and reading too much Heinlein;)

  21. Conspiracy Theories on Thousands of Leaked KGB Files Are Now Open To the Public · · Score: 1

    There's evidence about a number of consipiracy theories in these documents:
    * That Lee Harvey Oswald didn't kill JFK
    * The story that the AIDS virus was manufactured by US scientists at the US Army research station at Fort Detrick
    * Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination had been planned by the US government

    Of course, the real conspiracy was the disinformation campaign by the KGB to spread these false rumors. Which makes me wonder: what theories does a certain former KGB agent turned dic^H^H^Hpresident want spread now?

  22. Re:Faith in God on Site of 1976 "Atomic Man" Accident To Be Cleaned · · Score: 1

    Steve Jobs didn't need a God for his wacky religious delusions involving getting treatment for cancer.

    God!=Religion and similarly Atheism!=Non-religious.

  23. Re:Citizens United did **not** say corp are people on U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Religious Objections To Contraception · · Score: 1

    Thanks for the nicely written reply -- I was being snarky out of frustration.

    The recent SCOTUS decisions have been overwhelmingly negative from my (liberal) perspective -- perhaps reading Ginsberg's fiery dissent made matters worse;)

    Cheers mate.

  24. Re:Citizens United did **not** say corp are people on U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Religious Objections To Contraception · · Score: 1

    In the Citizens United case the US Supreme Court did **not** say that corporations are people.

    Can you explain to me what the difference between a coorpation and a person is, legally speaking, if they have the same rights? I'm sure even Scalito would concede their difference (i.e. not having noses or toes), but legally speaking, we ought to treat them the same. When someone makes the statement "Coorpations are people", they of course don't mean that it in the "soylent green" context -- and you know this; you're just being pedantic.

    Lastly (and because I'm curious why people represent views that are clearly not in their interest), are you a paid coorporate shill or merely delusional (from my perspective, of course)? If you're going to promote the rights of corporations, you may as well get paid for it.

  25. Re:vim and C++ on Ask Slashdot: Correlation Between Text Editor and Programming Language? · · Score: 1

    I used to use vim, but then switched to Qt's Creator even for non-Qt projects. VIM is nice when you're just writing a simple program, but for anything complex, I need to be able to find function definitions, jump through several function calls in a few seconds in files I've never seen, and still be fast.

    Advantages:
    * Autocomplete for functions, variables, classes, etc. (ctrl+space)
    * Jump to definition for variables, functions, classes (F2)
    * Keyboard-centric searching (search by class, method, filename, etc) (ctrl+K)
    * Visual debugging with GDB (attach to sessions, change complex variables, switch threads, etc)
    * Has a FakeVIM module;)
    * Very fast and rock-solid stable
    * Free (both in beer/libre)
    * Cross-platform (used it on Linux/Mac/Windows. I prefer it to Visual Studio which is far too slow and has really wonky keyboard shortcuts)

    Disadvantages:
    * Have to use a windowing system. I still use VIM on remote systems.

    There's just so many advantages of having an editor which understands your code model. Forget whether the function you're calling is camelCase or uses_underscores is a thing of the past for me resulting in most of my code compiling the very first time -- and when it doesn't, inline errors!

    You can get your OSS fix here.
    (For a generic project, just click New->Import Project->Existing project.)