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User: BVis

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Comments · 1,872

  1. Re:Bullshit on Whistleblowers Enter the Post-Snowden Era · · Score: 3, Insightful

    For the same reason you feel the need to pile on someone who's admitted his mistake.

  2. Re:Bullshit on Whistleblowers Enter the Post-Snowden Era · · Score: 2

    If you bothered to read my other response to the first person who corrected me, you'd see that this comment was unnecessary. Please satisfy your desire to be right on the internet somewhere else.

  3. Re:Bullshit on Whistleblowers Enter the Post-Snowden Era · · Score: 1

    I stand corrected then.

  4. Re:Bullshit on Whistleblowers Enter the Post-Snowden Era · · Score: 2

    He'd have had a great deal more credibility (and thus have a greater impact) had he gone through proper channels first and gotten no satisfaction. He'd be able to say "I tried to do this the right way, hoping that the system would correct itself, but it didn't, so I decided that the people should know about this by other means."

  5. Re:Focus on your studies as much as possible on Ask Slashdot: Computer Science Freshman, Too Soon To Job Hunt? · · Score: 1

    I feel like the 4-year curriculum doesn't prepare you too well for that kind of work, as they spend more time on big-picture concepts than on applicable practices; in contrast, my time at a 2-year institution primed me with the actual technologies (SQL, Java, HTML, etc.)

    The problem is that the C students in HR can't understand how someone with a 2-year degree can be better qualified than someone with a 4-year degree. It's too hard for them to actually think or look beyond the education line on a resume, so the 2-year folks get binned. Then HR complains that there are no qualified candidates - when all they have to do to find them is look in the bin under their desk.

  6. Re: Quality doesn't matter anymore. on Sony Warns Demand For Blu-Ray Diminishing Faster Than Expected · · Score: 1

    Do you, now.

  7. Re:Translation on Microsoft Cheaper To Use Than Open Source Software, UK CIO Says · · Score: 1

    If it's a for-profit company, it's nearly certain that something screwy is going on. Profit is more important than ethics.

  8. Re:Quality doesn't matter anymore. on Sony Warns Demand For Blu-Ray Diminishing Faster Than Expected · · Score: 1

    Or you could rent it for $1.50.. Anything that I bought really only got watched once anyway.

  9. Re: Translation on Microsoft Cheaper To Use Than Open Source Software, UK CIO Says · · Score: 1

    Again, just because it's popular (owing to the marketing machine, not the quality of the product) doesn't mean it's good. It's become a standard despite its cost because of lock-in.

  10. Re: Quality doesn't matter anymore. on Sony Warns Demand For Blu-Ray Diminishing Faster Than Expected · · Score: 1

    I didn't say that cost and convenience don't mean anything to me. What I'm saying is that I'd like to have the ability to watch high-quality video at home, and if the format dies because people don't give a shit about what they watch (because they're lazy, stupid, and cheap, in that order) then I can't do that until the streaming formats improve - which they're not going to if the content companies know they can put total shit in front of the mouth breathers and they'll still pay for it.

  11. Re:Translation on Microsoft Cheaper To Use Than Open Source Software, UK CIO Says · · Score: 1

    The geek is only fooling himself when he claims that Microsoft isn't consistently delivering top-tier marketing and salesmanship.

    FTFY.

    Just because something is popular doesn't make it any good. See Apple products, Wal-Mart, etc. All are wildly popular, despite some obvious shortcomings.

  12. Re:Quality doesn't matter anymore. on Sony Warns Demand For Blu-Ray Diminishing Faster Than Expected · · Score: 1

    My argument stands. If people gave a shit about quality they'd overcome those issues.

  13. Quality doesn't matter anymore. on Sony Warns Demand For Blu-Ray Diminishing Faster Than Expected · · Score: 2

    The reason nobody's buying Blu-Ray isn't soley because of the annoying DRM and non-skippable content and other generally user-hostile 'features' of the format. The average consumer doesn't give a shit about that (and will have no idea what DRM even is.) The reason is that they don't care about the quality loss in streaming content. How they can't see (on a big TV anyway) that the Blu-Ray looks 100% better than what you get from Netflix streaming boggles my mind, personally. When there's a movie that I want to see in good quality (think Man of Steel, Frozen, etc, just to name a couple recent ones) I go to Redbox to get the Blu-Ray. It looks better. Unfortunately, people don't give a shit.

    The war on picture/sound quality has, sadly, been won by the apathetic side. (Witness the demise of multichannel audio, DVD-Audio and SACD. Most people think a stereo 128-bit .mp3 file sounds fine. It doesn't.) I'll be renting Blu-Rays until streaming formats (and the necessary bandwidth) are available at the same bitrate as a Blu-Ray. But, the way things are going, BD will die and we'll be stuck with streaming movies that look like Tetris on a big screen. Another case of the consumer wanting 'cheap/convenient' over 'good', aka the Wal-Mart effect.

  14. Re:Blank Media on Sony Warns Demand For Blu-Ray Diminishing Faster Than Expected · · Score: 1

    Sounds like nobody wants to live there. Wonder why that is..

  15. Re:Translation on Microsoft Cheaper To Use Than Open Source Software, UK CIO Says · · Score: 0

    Rather than actually deal with the truth, you just accuse the man of unethical conduct.

    Percentage-wise, it's a pretty safe assumption.

    That makes you a lying piece of fanboy shit.

    Not if he's right.

    With MS, they can go to MS and MS will bend over backwards to help them.

    What color is the sky on your planet?

    Well, they can try to find someone who is competent, but who do they go to and how do they find out?

    You imply it's easier to find someone to support your MS stuff than it is to find someone to support your FLOSS stuff. I am skeptical of that; there's a lot of MS support out there, true, but the vast majority of it sucks in my experience.

    And, I know this is going to get modded down by FLOSS fanboys and I don't care. You fuckers need to hear the truth.

    Your version of it, probably not.

    Go fuck yourselves.

    Hypocrisy. Complain about someone being a troll by trolling yourself. Shouldn't you be in math class?

  16. Re:Translation on Microsoft Cheaper To Use Than Open Source Software, UK CIO Says · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How dare they compete so unfairly! It's like they think the quality of the product matters.

    The quality of the product only matters until they achieve lock-in. After that, they don't care if the program even runs.

  17. Re:Proliferation of two-factor means on Applying Pavlovian Psychology to Password Management · · Score: 3, Funny

    Only in the US is it considered normal for the receiver to pay for incoming messages and calls.

    Why do you hate America?

  18. Re:just kill them already on XP Systems Getting Emergency IE Zero Day Patch · · Score: 1

    What is reasonable for people to expect generally only tangentially has anything to do with what they actually DO expect. Sometimes you need to punch people in the face to get their attention, then kick them in the balls to get them to do the right thing.

  19. Re:What's the problem? on Oklahoma Botched an Execution With Untested Lethal Injection Drugs · · Score: 1

    Eye for an eye, etc. And "convicted" does not mean "guilty".

  20. Re:What's the problem? on Oklahoma Botched an Execution With Untested Lethal Injection Drugs · · Score: 1

    The difference is that what they may actually have done may or may not be a capital offense.

    It's more ethical, cheaper, and more just to not execute your own citizens. Let the bastards rot, sure. If the family wants revenge they can go see what the asshole's turned into in the lifer block.

  21. Re:i've worked on that bridge on The Ways Programming Is Hard · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Contrary to common perception, you need a design not only for waterfall, but for agile development too.

    And the problem is that the design for Agile is usually something like "This is what we're doing today, do what we say and shut up. Tomorrow we'll do something completely different, do what we say and shut up. No, we're not going to pay for changes, we like Agile because we don't have to do anything, just shut up and code." In my experience, this is the only half of Agile that actually gets implemented; the part where the business has to pay for changes, thus giving them incentive to think things through ahead of time and give adequate specs, is unpopular with the MBAs (as it requires them to do actual work and not drink lattes and play golf all day), so the coders get all of the drawbacks of Agile with none of the benefits.

    The API and specs should be done before a single line of code is written, and compared to other APIs and specs to ensure its compatibility. So you should have lots of small designs instead of one big book.

    And if you can document ONE case of that actually happening in the real world, go collect your Nobel.

    Because there never was a design, and the coder isn't interested in discovering logical faults, just in getting an "approved" and move on.

    The programmer frequently has no incentive to discover logical faults. They get punished for "not being a team player" and "asking too many obvious questions." They have incentive to make it someone else's problem through the approval process; however, even then it's the coder's fault even when it isn't the coder's fault.

  22. Re:Yes, totally on To Save the Internet We Need To Own the Means of Distribution · · Score: 1

    I can open a competing business.

    No, you can't. There isn't enough money anywhere to compete with the Comcasts and Verizons of the world.

    And, remember, you can always vote your elected officials out of office. Try firing the board of Comcast.

  23. Re:Yes, totally on To Save the Internet We Need To Own the Means of Distribution · · Score: 4, Insightful

    On the flip side, our water is provided by a private company. They are terrible. They're a classic example of a private company cutting every corner it can find, legal or not. We can't even fine them effectively, since business-friendly regulation allows them to simply pass on the cost of the fine directly to the customer, with no government oversight or influence. They have to lobby the town for rate increases (which they get, much to the voter's chagrin most of the time), but they can tack on all the fees they want to recover fines. Their infrastructure is totally inadequate and has about 4 hours of water in it in the case of a single pump failure. They're breaking the contract by doing that and numerous other things (for example, not having contract-mandated disaster plans written up and waiting to be used) but they have no competition and no incentive to improve. They're no better than a municipal service, and in some cases a lot worse. We had a boil order a few years back that went on for nearly two weeks.

    They have no incentive to improve; so long as they have the contract (and how is anyone supposed to enter the market to compete with them), they have guaranteed business with no market pressure. At least a municipal service could have its house cleaned out by elected officials. There's actually talk of the town buying them out. Short of that, what are we going to do? They have a stranglehold on a vital town service and have no incentive to do anything other than make money.

  24. Re:LOL ... on Skilled Manual Labor Critical To US STEM Dominance · · Score: 1

    If they're things you can absorb through doing other things, why hire someone with a degree at all?

    Because HR won't put anyone without a degree in front of you. They've bought fully into the "everyone must have a degree" mindset, and use that criteria to weed out people arbitrarily. Figuring out if someone has the right skills and experience is hard. Tossing someone's resume into the bin because they don't have a degree is easy.

  25. Re:LOL ... on Skilled Manual Labor Critical To US STEM Dominance · · Score: 1

    "No."