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User: Slartibartfast

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  1. The worst kind of troll? on Apple Spins 'Real Artists Ship' Into 'Share Your Gifts' · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Stupid ones. (Knowingly self-indulgently ironic is only a half-step behind.)

  2. That's really, really reaching. on Apple Spins 'Real Artists Ship' Into 'Share Your Gifts' · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I like the commercial. It's nice. I wasn't a huge fan of the no-CLI Mac, though I do recognize several of it's advances. But attempting to link these two and give Jobs accolades for *the commercial*? Really? Yeah, not so much.

  3. Re:The funny thing... on Windows Notepad Finally Supports Unix, Mac OS Line Endings (theregister.co.uk) · · Score: 1

    Ha! I actually hesitated before adding the file extension for that very reason. I do believe you are right.

  4. Re:The funny thing... on Windows Notepad Finally Supports Unix, Mac OS Line Endings (theregister.co.uk) · · Score: 1

    I have to disagree somewhat. While I will never be guilty of ascribing good things to MS while under Ballmer/Gates, once the web came along, UNIX EOL suddenly became righter -- or at least terribly common. I would have to say it was just sheer hamfisted bluster and pride, moreso than a desire to put the hurt on the (then) microscopic userbase of people like you and me.

    But, really, barring an internal document showing this, it doesn't really matter what we think the reason was.

  5. The funny thing... on Windows Notepad Finally Supports Unix, Mac OS Line Endings (theregister.co.uk) · · Score: 5, Informative

    Is that edit.exe -- the console-based editor that came out with DOS 5.0 -- *did* support UNIX EOL. Go figger.

  6. Just... wow. on Can Ruby Survive Another 25 Years? (techradar.com) · · Score: 1

    JQP? I think it is safe to say that -- with all due respect -- you were a ripe bastard back a few years ago. But I just read a solid handful of your most recent posts, and they are considered, intelligent, articulate... really, really good stuff. Thank you!

    And, BTW, Ruby totally rocks. Best, most expressive, most intelligently done language currently out there. (Though in a late-night fit of stupidity, I admit I had cause to mourn the decision to use '=' for both assignment and object instantiation.)

    -K

  7. Someone with a UID that's the same number of digits as mine. I'd begun to suspect we were all, like, put out to pasture or something.

  8. That was me, above. I forgot to log in. Silly early-onset Alzheimer's!

  9. I'm 51. This is not young in tech. And I'm right now earning really good money as a top-notch Linux/cloud guy. So long as I don't sit on my laurels, and continue learning and being relevant, I see no reason to worry about ageism, at all. Indeed, the longer I work, the more people I know, and the more who have enjoyed working with me, the less worried I am about what would happen were I to lose my job.

    Note that there *is* a different kind of older worker: the one who's found a niche in a company, hasn't expanded their skillset, and isn't advancing. Especially if they've continued to get annual increases in salary. Because at some point, they are likely to be introduced to reality in some manner -- the company has layoffs; management changes; the direction of their technology changes. And suddenly, they're out of a job, with skills no longer relevant to the job market, and a house they can't make payments on. DON'T BE THAT GUY.

  10. ROADTRIP. on Ask Slashdot: How Did You Experience The Solar Eclipse? · · Score: 2

    Went from NH to NE -- North Platte, in southwest Nebraska, to be precise. (Caught some stops like Niagara Falls and Mount Rushmore -- not to mention, say, the world's largest rocking chair and Wall Drug.) And I have to say that, to my surprise, totality was cooler than I had anticipated. After watching it, headed to Denver airport, where I hit the only traffic of note the entire trip: Denver rush hour.

    If you missed this one, try to catch the 2024. Really. Totality is just that cool -- though all too brief.

  11. God, I'm a putz. on In Less Than Five Years, 45 Billion Cameras Will Be Watching Us (fastcompany.com) · · Score: 1

    I got my brain thinking 14 trillion. At 44 trillion, it's roughly 2.5 times the entire US GDP.

    Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

  12. That's just shy of THE ENTIRE GDP FOR THE US.

    So. Not. Buying.

    Unless, of course, "cameras" is code for "leaves," a la HHGTTG.

  13. SPOILER ALERT: on Review: The Martian · · Score: 2

    The Martian did it.

  14. Have Spacesuit, Will Travel on Pluto Probe Back To Normal, Cause of Snafu Found · · Score: 1

    I'm just sayin'. Those creepies wouldn't want to be observed before they hit Tombaugh Station.

  15. Unfortunately... on Inventors Revolutionize Beekeeping · · Score: 1

    Wild bees have largely been dying out (at least, stateside), probably in no small part due to the pests described. Varroa mites, which are a relatively new nuisance, can have a dramatic impact on unmaintained hives.

  16. I tepidly agree. on Inventors Revolutionize Beekeeping · · Score: 1

    But not enough that I don't think this is cool.
    1) Full supers are *heavy*.
    2) They don't lie: between the capping knife, the extractor, cleanup, needing to keep everything bee-tight... it's a bit of a pain.
    While the joy of going through "the process," and getting honey in the end, is damn rewarding, I have to say that it's also a Hell of a lot of work. While I think there are legitimate concerns for this product, it strikes me that "I don't like it because it's not the way I'm used to" is probably not a good argument. I used to use bee escapes, which certainly made life easier, but it was still the single most impacting element of keeping a hive. That being said, a lot has changed since I kept bees (CCD, mites, etc.), so I'm unsure what the long-term impact of this would be.

  17. Dammit. on Heinlein's 'All You Zombies' Now a Sci-Fi Movie Head Trip · · Score: 1

    I'm sorry -- I tried to give you a "funny," but it clicked "overrated" just under it. And -- stupid Slashdot -- there's no "undo." Except... by way of commenting, which, at least in theory, undoes all my mods in this story thread. Here goes...

  18. however, Proper Capitalization on Gun Rights Hacktivists To Fab 3D-Printed Guns At State Capitol · · Score: 3, Insightful

    is Still a Lost Art. Thank goodness for "Educating" the Public.

  19. QNX is great... on Ford Ditches Microsoft Partnership On Sync, Goes With QNX · · Score: 1

    And if it were still a standalone company, I'd find no surprises here. But I'm not sure I'd want to go after *anything* that's under the umbrella of Blackberry right now. In Ford's shoes, I'd've probably just gone with some embedded Linux and called it a day. Unless, of course, they were able to get Blackberry to give them one of those, "You go under, we get the source code" clauses.

  20. You can get for-real IBM Model-M like keyboards... on The Greatest Keyboard Ever Made · · Score: 4, Informative

    I've got one, and it's *the same* -- and I care, 'cause on a Model M, I can break 100 WPM -- from Unicomp, and, yes, with USB connectors. Some even have trackpoints (which is what I went with). AWESOMENESS DEFINED.

    But I may be somewhat biased.

    P.S. My co-workers hate 'em, 'cause it's so damn loud. So do consider them before purchasing for the workplace.

  21. Errr. No. It *WAS* Excel, before Excel. on End of an Era: After a 30 Year Run, IBM Drops Support For Lotus 1-2-3 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Though it took some doing to supplant Visicalc.

  22. I tepidly disagree... on 30% of Americans Aren't Ready For the Next Generation of Technology · · Score: 2

    Your comment is way funnier the way you put it, but I trust the Internet as a transmission medium -- so long as I'm using solid encryption. Unfortunately, between reports of NSA backdoors in NIST encryption algorithms, and SSL bugs, "solid" has become a somewhat relative term.

    Excuse me. Time to fire up my Tor client over OpenVPN using pufferfish through an SSL tunnel.

  23. And this surprises... who? on 30% of Americans Aren't Ready For the Next Generation of Technology · · Score: 1

    I mean, really. We *know* that (most) grandmas ain't exactly surfin' like crazy. They're terrified of viruses, and all the other associated buzzwords, and were uncomfortable around new technology before that. Certainly there are exceptions -- but I'm not at all surprised to hear that the demographic mentioned isn't exactly spearheading the digital revolution.

  24. Wow, I wish you were right. on Fox Moves To Use Aereo Ruling Against Dish Streaming Service · · Score: 3, Insightful

    But you're not. (For the record, I work for $MAJORCABLECOMPANY as an engineer in the group... well, under discussion. So I'm somewhat informed.) Case in point: the ability to use a song in a movie for theatric release is not the same as the ability to use the song when released on DVD. Likewise, songs played on the radio cannot (unless, of course, specified) be willy-nilly copied for downloads in podcats. The biggie, of course, is region-enforced blackouts for sporting events.

    I could give more pertinent examples, but I also like my job, so I guess I'll have to take a pass. But trust me: it ain't as easy as you'd like to make it out.

  25. Ironically... on Sigsense is Making Interchangeable, Modular Sensors (Video) · · Score: 1

    I was instrumental in the non-launch of a Linux magazine. I planted the right idea in the right person's brain, and he was going to go with it... but then he kinda bailed on magazines altogether as part of his divorce.

    All things being equal, that was probably the best choice after all, anyway. I hadn't realized just how hard magazines were gonna get hammered by the web. (I used to live in a town that had a HUGE number of tech magazines published from it. The late 90's were not a good decade, there.)