Yesterday, researchers on behalf of Microsoft said they will "solve" cancer within the next 10 years by treating it like a computer virus that invades and corrupts the body's cells. Today, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan announced a $3 billion initiative to "cure all diseases."
"I see how it is. Fine. I, Jeff Bezos, pledge an end to all human suffering by sometime in the next six months."
When one of our laptops dies, I'm paying someone to work, but they don't have a proper computer work on.
Or, you know, you could engage in good IT management practices for your organization, maintain proper warranty coverage and service contracts which gets hardware up and running the next day, coupled with a hot spare for emergencies, and a proper accounting of machine age as well as a purchasing timeline and budgeting.
Nah, your way sounds much more cost effective and efficient.
Sarcasm aside, the grandparent's way might very well be more efficient. Those measures you describe aren't free. They take time and effort and process and infrastructure. If you try to do enough accounting, you'll eventually have to hire some kind of accountant to do it, and they generally demand a salary of some sort. If we're talking about a small development shop here, it might actually be cheaper to just buy a new craptop every person-year.
Or do you mean to encourage smart and well established people to fuck the rest of the population even more than they already do by saying if they got some technicalities we'll just bend over and take it?
Basically, yes, if those "technicalities" are the law as it is written.
A just government absolutely can not be in the business of changing the rules after the game is over. The rules must clear and unambiguous, they must be agreed upon before the game starts, and there must be absolute assurance that players who adhere to the letter of the law will not be punished simply because they achieved an unprecedentedly high score. Allowing the umpire to decide, ten years after the fact, that the winners of the 2006 Calvinball championship were in fact the losers is a Very Bad Policy which will lead to nowhere anybody wants to go.
While I like John Glenn as much as anybody... well, actually, no. I clearly don't like John Glenn as much as Jeff Bezos, because I would never name a space rocket "New Glenn". It sounds like somebody's 50-something never-married uncle trying to rebrand himself before he goes clubbing.
I'm tired of even listening to this kind of bullshit anymore. We need taxes to help schools, police, fire departments (and in civilized countries health care) and etc function. They may have LEGALLY avoided taxes, but it wasn't fair or square. It was crooked and fuck them. Apple should pay. Rich assholes who dodge taxes should pay. End of story.
The end of the "Rule of Law" story, I guess you mean? Shame. It had its problems, but on average I was a fan. The sequel, "Despotic and Arbitrary Kleptocracy", sounds like it's going to suck.
I have only apathy-to-mild-antipathy for Apple, but think it's pretty abusive of these governments to attempt to charge them retroactively for taxes that they were dodging fair and square, and pretty dangerous and short-sighted for the general populace to so gleefully support these sort of violations of ex post facto.
This user's entire submission history consists of 2 stories about Java within an hour of each other. Smells like shill.
Good detective work, but I didn't really need it, because to me, the summary already looks like this:
ShillWorld shilllights five Java 8 features for shillvelopers in their shillport: shillambda shillspressions, ShillavaShillpt Nashorn, shill/time APIs, Shill API and shillcurrent shillcumulators. But those shills only shill the shillface. What makes shilly shilly shill-shill-shill in your shillpinion? Shill shill shill shill shill shill shill. SHILL!
It does appear that Google is abandoning all the things that made it so widely, if not universally, beloved. Letting their devs spend work time on passion projects. The dream of one day, however far in the future, ditching Comcast for Google Fiber. Phones and tablets that are, if not cruftware-free, at least set a minimum baseline for cruftware. They even pulled an Oracle with that Nest thing, buying an energetic indie startup and then almost immediately killing it dead for no real reason at all.
What the eff? Why is this all happening now? What's changed? Did they stop making All the Money? Are the founders going through menopause? Was Google secretly run by a group of elves whose spirit tree just died?
I have also converted a few excel spreadsheets to 'real' programs.
I used to do this as well. I always felt like a dermatologist trying to get a raging, untreated-for-three-years fungal infection under control.
The phenomenon of accountant/programmers is a tragic one. The ones I encountered were all generally smart people, and once they started using Excel to build programs of a sort, they discovered they really liked it, way better than their real job. Which means, of course, that they probably should have been programmers all along, instead of whatever they ended up being. But I guess they were never exposed to programming before they decided on a career.
The disease used to progress like this: spreadsheet; spaghetti-code Excel automaton; spaghetti-code Excel automaton with Access backend. The typical accountant/programmer only sought help when they ran up against the Microsoft-mandated maximum size of an Access database. By then, of course, it was far too late.
What they're not telling you is that, year-to-date, there have actually been 45% fewer Japanese deaths due to Pokemon than last year.
Pokemon-related injuries, or, "pokuinju", have actually been declining for decades now in Japan. This is just propaganda promulgated by the Nanobotic Party and their cronies in the Infodrome distorting the data to demonize the Technomatic Party, to improve their chances in next cycle's electo-moto-go-go-votetime. Don't fall for it! The power level of the robo-collective is over 5000!
If you ever work a job in retail or any sort of service involving contact with the general public, such as the trades like auto mechanic or plumber, part-time second job for extra money, whatever... then soon, you too, will stop giving a fuck about average people... They themselves will soon show you how unwarranted such faith is. You'll witness their stupidity, their utter imperviousness to obvious facts. You'll see it again and again...
Sure, customer service is no fun. But is it just possible that you're not experiencing these people at their best?
Consider: People who need an auto mechanic or plumber either have a broken car or broken plumbing, which means that either they can't get to where they need to get to in order to stay employed and keep their family running, or their toilets don't work and their house smells like excrement. There's never a good time for either of those. And in either case, they have to let a strange person into the most intimate corners of their lives to fix it. This person will take a frustratingly long time to fix it, and sometimes may even make a mistake that makes the problem worse before it gets better. Then, when it's all over with, they'll charge you SO MUCH MONEY. They often refuse to tell you how much it will cost beforehand, ostensibly because they don't really know yet, but really because implying that the repair will be cheap and then hitting people with surprise charges after the fact is their whole business model.
Judging human nature by how people interact with the repairman is like judging human cleanliness by the state of the toilet bowl before they flush. If the toilet is even working, that is.
"Can't make people use an app they don't want? Challenge Accepted." - Microsoft
To be fair, Microsoft only tries this every other release. Every other other release, they give people a re-skinned version of the version before last, which is what everybody really wanted to begin with. It's a "tick-schlock" development cycle.
Shit. I had so many great ideas to improve the site, like a Google Translate module that automatically converts TFS into a car analogy.
Cease and desist. I've already written that module. As proof, I just ran your last comment through it, and here's the result:
Fix engine light. I had so many great camshafts to improve the wheelbase, like an OnStar transmission that stickshiftally coverts the Owner's Manual into a [ERR: Stack overflow].
4 paragraphs based on a Git commit. This is journalism. And promoted on Slashdot's main page.
Well, yeah, but it's a code change that adds another tool that duplicates an existing Linux tool to a highly controversial software package that its critics accuse of trying to slowly take over the entire toolspace. It definitely qualifies as news for [Linux] nerds, stuff that matters [to them].
I've never bothered to educate myself enough about system internals to really understand the whole systemd saga. But I've been following the story closely as I can from this distance, and, as a fairly neutral observer, I'm finally ready to take a side:
I think we should just give Czechoslovakia to systemd. They really need the lebensraum, and they've promised not to ask for anything else. Peace in our time!
"Five million roofs are replaced each year in the U.S., so instead of simply swapping out old shingles with new ones, why not turn the whole roof into a solar power generator that's integrated with your home's electrical utility?"
Probably because it will cost more, because its novelty means it will likely take decades to iron out the kinks and that a thousand regulatory bodies will attempt to outlaw it in some way, and because integrating a hundred million such systems into an electric network is a difficult problem that the power company would much rather sue you over than try to solve. But, aside from that, sure, no reason why not.
Slashdot Mirror
Yesterday, researchers on behalf of Microsoft said they will "solve" cancer within the next 10 years by treating it like a computer virus that invades and corrupts the body's cells. Today, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan announced a $3 billion initiative to "cure all diseases."
"I see how it is. Fine. I, Jeff Bezos, pledge an end to all human suffering by sometime in the next six months."
When one of our laptops dies, I'm paying someone to work, but they don't have a proper computer work on.
Or, you know, you could engage in good IT management practices for your organization, maintain proper warranty coverage and service contracts which gets hardware up and running the next day, coupled with a hot spare for emergencies, and a proper accounting of machine age as well as a purchasing timeline and budgeting.
Nah, your way sounds much more cost effective and efficient.
Sarcasm aside, the grandparent's way might very well be more efficient. Those measures you describe aren't free. They take time and effort and process and infrastructure. If you try to do enough accounting, you'll eventually have to hire some kind of accountant to do it, and they generally demand a salary of some sort. If we're talking about a small development shop here, it might actually be cheaper to just buy a new craptop every person-year.
"Oops, I guess we're going to have to do another orbital weapons test."
Why would you show a blurred photo anyway? Show the face in full, or don't show it at all. There is no compromise here.
That's no image filter, that's just the way my face naturally looks, you insensitive clod!
Or do you mean to encourage smart and well established people to fuck the rest of the population even more than they already do by saying if they got some technicalities we'll just bend over and take it?
Basically, yes, if those "technicalities" are the law as it is written.
A just government absolutely can not be in the business of changing the rules after the game is over. The rules must clear and unambiguous, they must be agreed upon before the game starts, and there must be absolute assurance that players who adhere to the letter of the law will not be punished simply because they achieved an unprecedentedly high score. Allowing the umpire to decide, ten years after the fact, that the winners of the 2006 Calvinball championship were in fact the losers is a Very Bad Policy which will lead to nowhere anybody wants to go.
While I like John Glenn as much as anybody... well, actually, no. I clearly don't like John Glenn as much as Jeff Bezos, because I would never name a space rocket "New Glenn". It sounds like somebody's 50-something never-married uncle trying to rebrand himself before he goes clubbing.
I'm tired of even listening to this kind of bullshit anymore. We need taxes to help schools, police, fire departments (and in civilized countries health care) and etc function. They may have LEGALLY avoided taxes, but it wasn't fair or square. It was crooked and fuck them. Apple should pay. Rich assholes who dodge taxes should pay. End of story.
The end of the "Rule of Law" story, I guess you mean? Shame. It had its problems, but on average I was a fan. The sequel, "Despotic and Arbitrary Kleptocracy", sounds like it's going to suck.
I have only apathy-to-mild-antipathy for Apple, but think it's pretty abusive of these governments to attempt to charge them retroactively for taxes that they were dodging fair and square, and pretty dangerous and short-sighted for the general populace to so gleefully support these sort of violations of ex post facto.
Microaggressions may seem harmless, but they can soon develop into macro-microaggressions.
And before too long you've got a full-blown milliaggression on your hands.
This user's entire submission history consists of 2 stories about Java within an hour of each other. Smells like shill.
Good detective work, but I didn't really need it, because to me, the summary already looks like this:
ShillWorld shilllights five Java 8 features for shillvelopers in their shillport: shillambda shillspressions, ShillavaShillpt Nashorn, shill/time APIs, Shill API and shillcurrent shillcumulators. But those shills only shill the shillface. What makes shilly shilly shill-shill-shill in your shillpinion? Shill shill shill shill shill shill shill. SHILL!
It does appear that Google is abandoning all the things that made it so widely, if not universally, beloved. Letting their devs spend work time on passion projects. The dream of one day, however far in the future, ditching Comcast for Google Fiber. Phones and tablets that are, if not cruftware-free, at least set a minimum baseline for cruftware. They even pulled an Oracle with that Nest thing, buying an energetic indie startup and then almost immediately killing it dead for no real reason at all.
What the eff? Why is this all happening now? What's changed? Did they stop making All the Money? Are the founders going through menopause? Was Google secretly run by a group of elves whose spirit tree just died?
I have also converted a few excel spreadsheets to 'real' programs.
I used to do this as well. I always felt like a dermatologist trying to get a raging, untreated-for-three-years fungal infection under control.
The phenomenon of accountant/programmers is a tragic one. The ones I encountered were all generally smart people, and once they started using Excel to build programs of a sort, they discovered they really liked it, way better than their real job. Which means, of course, that they probably should have been programmers all along, instead of whatever they ended up being. But I guess they were never exposed to programming before they decided on a career.
The disease used to progress like this: spreadsheet; spaghetti-code Excel automaton; spaghetti-code Excel automaton with Access backend. The typical accountant/programmer only sought help when they ran up against the Microsoft-mandated maximum size of an Access database. By then, of course, it was far too late.
So one of our earliest known, not-quite-human, not-quite-ape ancestors died falling out of a tree?
What'd she land on? Irony?
Robot Babies Not Effective Birth Control, Australian Study Finds
Depends on where you install them.
What they're not telling you is that, year-to-date, there have actually been 45% fewer Japanese deaths due to Pokemon than last year.
Pokemon-related injuries, or, "pokuinju", have actually been declining for decades now in Japan. This is just propaganda promulgated by the Nanobotic Party and their cronies in the Infodrome distorting the data to demonize the Technomatic Party, to improve their chances in next cycle's electo-moto-go-go-votetime. Don't fall for it! The power level of the robo-collective is over 5000!
If you ever work a job in retail or any sort of service involving contact with the general public, such as the trades like auto mechanic or plumber, part-time second job for extra money, whatever ... then soon, you too, will stop giving a fuck about average people... They themselves will soon show you how unwarranted such faith is. You'll witness their stupidity, their utter imperviousness to obvious facts. You'll see it again and again...
Sure, customer service is no fun. But is it just possible that you're not experiencing these people at their best?
Consider: People who need an auto mechanic or plumber either have a broken car or broken plumbing, which means that either they can't get to where they need to get to in order to stay employed and keep their family running, or their toilets don't work and their house smells like excrement. There's never a good time for either of those. And in either case, they have to let a strange person into the most intimate corners of their lives to fix it. This person will take a frustratingly long time to fix it, and sometimes may even make a mistake that makes the problem worse before it gets better. Then, when it's all over with, they'll charge you SO MUCH MONEY. They often refuse to tell you how much it will cost beforehand, ostensibly because they don't really know yet, but really because implying that the repair will be cheap and then hitting people with surprise charges after the fact is their whole business model.
Judging human nature by how people interact with the repairman is like judging human cleanliness by the state of the toilet bowl before they flush. If the toilet is even working, that is.
No problem, officer. My Twitter handle is @TheConstitutionAppliesToEveryInteractionOfThe USGovernmentWithUSCitizensAnywhereInTheWorld.
Poor people in India harvesting feces from the sewers have a better habitat than living in a fuel tank in free fall.
Just give them time, Space Nutter Troll. The feces will come, the feces will come.
"Can't make people use an app they don't want? Challenge Accepted." - Microsoft
To be fair, Microsoft only tries this every other release. Every other other release, they give people a re-skinned version of the version before last, which is what everybody really wanted to begin with. It's a "tick-schlock" development cycle.
Shit. I had so many great ideas to improve the site, like a Google Translate module that automatically converts TFS into a car analogy.
Cease and desist. I've already written that module. As proof, I just ran your last comment through it, and here's the result:
Fix engine light. I had so many great camshafts to improve the wheelbase, like an OnStar transmission that stickshiftally coverts the Owner's Manual into a [ERR: Stack overflow].
See?
4 paragraphs based on a Git commit. This is journalism. And promoted on Slashdot's main page.
Well, yeah, but it's a code change that adds another tool that duplicates an existing Linux tool to a highly controversial software package that its critics accuse of trying to slowly take over the entire toolspace. It definitely qualifies as news for [Linux] nerds, stuff that matters [to them].
I've never bothered to educate myself enough about system internals to really understand the whole systemd saga. But I've been following the story closely as I can from this distance, and, as a fairly neutral observer, I'm finally ready to take a side:
I think we should just give Czechoslovakia to systemd. They really need the lebensraum, and they've promised not to ask for anything else. Peace in our time!
Shouldn't this be configurable?
Is this already configurable?
"Five million roofs are replaced each year in the U.S., so instead of simply swapping out old shingles with new ones, why not turn the whole roof into a solar power generator that's integrated with your home's electrical utility?"
Probably because it will cost more, because its novelty means it will likely take decades to iron out the kinks and that a thousand regulatory bodies will attempt to outlaw it in some way, and because integrating a hundred million such systems into an electric network is a difficult problem that the power company would much rather sue you over than try to solve. But, aside from that, sure, no reason why not.
Only Voice Memos Can Save Us From the Scourge of Email
Yes, in the same way that only pouring battery acid on our crotches can save us from pubic lice.