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User: richieb

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Comments · 1,279

  1. Re:Liberal strategy on Slashdot Asks: How Does the US Gov't Budget Crunch Affect You? · · Score: 1
    The historical record shows that not a single Republican voted for this particular piece of legislative madness.

    So what! At the time Republicans were a minority in Congress, so ACA was passed fair and square. Like there were no bills passed with only Republican votes in the past...

  2. Re:"Financial Sense" on Are Shuttered Gov't Sites Actually Saving Money? · · Score: 1

    You should watch this to understand what the debt limit is.

  3. Polygraphs don't work... on Feds Seek Prison For Man Who Taught How To Beat a Polygraph · · Score: 4, Interesting
  4. Re:Zimmerman? on 55,000 Sign Twitter Abuse Petition After Jane Austen Campaigner Threats · · Score: 1

    More the reason not to follow him, especially after handing off to police.

  5. Just ignore Gladwell on Gladwell's Culture & Air Crashes Analysis Badly Flawed · · Score: 1

    Joel Spolsky had this article on Gladwell the expresses very well what has been annoying me about Gladwell and his books.

  6. Re:Except that theory probably isn't relevant on Malcolm Gladwell On Culture and Airplane Crashes · · Score: 1

    The manufacturer provides the training. Mostly in simulators.

  7. Gladwell's comments no longer apply on Malcolm Gladwell On Culture and Airplane Crashes · · Score: 2

    Here is a more knowledgeable article about this crash written by an airline pilot. Korean airlines may have had some of those problems years back, but no longer.

  8. Re:Oh, gag me. on Why Engineering Freshmen Should Take Humanities Courses · · Score: 0
    Really. So many people out there are pretty much totally ignorant on basic facts of physics,....

    People who cannot write a coherent paragraph, or are not familiar with Hamlet or King Lear, or do not know history are equally bad, even if the know how to write code in C++.

    The assumption in your post is that all you need to present is evidence to convince others of your point of view shows a very shallow understanding of human condition.

    Perhaps some study of humanities would improve your understanding.

  9. Interest on Tesla Motors Repays $465M Government Loan 9 Years Early · · Score: 1

    Think of all the interest payments the government lost...

  10. You own your car... on We Should Be Allowed To Unlock Everything We Own · · Score: 1
    OK. You own your car. The car has a computer with software that controls the anti-lock brakes. You hack this software to be more efficient and use the brakes better. You install in your car and post your hack on the net.

    Now some Joe Shmoe takes your code and puts it in his car. Then he drives around and has accident and kills someone, because the brakes failed.

    Are you now liable for the accident?

  11. Re:I wonder... on Death of Printed Books May Have Been Exaggerated · · Score: 1

    A big advantage of e-readers for older readers is that you can make the font larger. E-readers open up huge number of books for older folks who do not see as well, that was not available before.

  12. Tests, tests and more tests on How To Deal With 200k Lines of Spaghetti Code · · Score: 1
    Before you attempt to change this kind of code base, you need to understand what it does. The best way is to write unit tests that exercise system. Think of tests as very precise requirements. Once a decent test suite is in place (200 to 300 test cases) then you can start thinking about fixing, rewriting portions of the system.

    Rewriting from scratch is probably the worst thing you can do. See this article by Joel Spolsky,,

  13. Re:where's the link? playing whack-a-mole to find on Report From HOPE: The State of Community Fabrication · · Score: 2

    Here is the link to 2600 website with the DVDs that you can get of the talks.

  14. Re:How about the low hanging fruit first? on Obama Wants $1 Billion For "Master Teachers Corps" · · Score: 1

    3. Remove any student who is constantly disrupting class. If they become a problem (and don't have a documented mental handicap), simply expel them and kick them out onto the street.

    OK. And then what? What happens to them? They are citizens as much as you.

  15. You do the reading! on Ask Slashdot: Best Science-Fiction/Fantasy For Kids? · · Score: 1
    Lot's of good books were suggested. However, with an 8 year old it probably would be best if YOU read these to him. The time spent together is probably more important than the actual books.

    I had turned my daughter (who is now 20) into a Trekkie - I got her started with the Voyager series and then together we watched all the available Star Treks. We have had great time doing all this, and now when she visits home from college we still re-watch old episodes of Voyager.

  16. Re:for artists? on David Lowery On the Ethics of Music Piracy · · Score: 1

    I don't know. My band recorded several CDs. With professional mixing and pressing few hundred copies it costs us about $1000. If you look at many jazz recordings, most of the tracks are recorded live in the studio in one or two takes. Then you need few hours of studio time to mix and master. Costs are not excessive..

  17. Python etc on Oracle and the End of Programming As We Know It · · Score: 1

    These languages were released under GPL so I don't think their exact APIs would require a paid license...

  18. Re:How about we taxpayers... on "Cyber War" Is Just the Latest Grab for Defense Money · · Score: 4, Insightful
    "..tell the goverment".

    That means that you should be calling your Congress person. Are you? The elected representative is the guy/gal who determines how the money is spent.

  19. Sharks... on Congress Wants To Resurrect Laser-Wielding 747 · · Score: 1

    What we need is F**ing sharks with lasers on their heads!!!

  20. Glitch.... on Quantum Experiment Shows Effect Before Cause · · Score: 1

    Just a glitch in the matrix....

  21. Re:I'll bet it's hours. on Software Engineering Is a Dead-End Career, Says Bloomberg · · Score: 1

    Have you see this story about COO of Facebook

  22. Re:Not bloody likely on Software Engineering Is a Dead-End Career, Says Bloomberg · · Score: 4, Informative

    Hey, I'm 56.... started coding in the 70s. Still code everyday for a living. Note that the Bloomberg News piece is written by some CS professor for the Opinion section of Bloomberg news.

  23. What an 11 year old wants... on Ask Slashdot: Best Book For 11-Year-Old Who Wants To Teach Himself To Program? · · Score: 1

    .. is to write video games. My son used Megazuex - a self contained ASCII graphics environment for building and playing games. He learned it all on his own - and in 5th grade science project he presented one of his games.

  24. Smalltalk and Squeakland on Ask Slashdot: Best Book For 11-Year-Old Who Wants To Teach Himself To Program? · · Score: 1
  25. Can't be true ... on Artificial Neural Networks Demonstrate the Evolution of Human Intelligence · · Score: 3, Funny

    I've seen "Idiocracy". This can't be true.