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  1. Re:Backpackers would know this on Rich Countries Suffer Less Malware, Says Microsoft Study · · Score: 1

    Bring your own notebook doesn't protect you from pharming and other MITM attacks.

  2. Re:All worried until... on "Bill Shocker" Malware Controls 620,000 Android Phones In China · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Isn't it a point of pride for l33t slashdotters to jailbreak their phones and side load apps? The fact that on threat family has 600k victims suggests that millions, probably tens of millions of users are using rogue app stores.

  3. You are applying for the wrong jobs on Ask Slashdot: Advice For Getting Tech Career Back On Track · · Score: 2

    The big companies: GOOG, MSFT, FB, even twitter can recognize the value of your PhD and give you a job you'll find rewarding. You've clearly got math chops and technical chops so as long as you can communicate well you should be a strong candidate. Look for keywords like researcher, applied researcher, data analyst, decision scientist, technical program manager, etc etc. There are tons of jobs for people like you and you don't have to pigeonhole yourself as pure research (overselling) or network admin (underselling). I spent a long time in academia before finding an industry job I really enjoy that is only tangentially related to my original research expertise.

  4. No, consumers have sold out on Has Lego Sold Out? · · Score: 1

    Lego would be bankrupt today if they were still just focused on generic sets. Today's kids need to have their imaginations spoon fed.

  5. Lanza had a father?? on School Shooting Prompts Legislation To Study Violent Video Games · · Score: 1

    Now, I have deliberately avoided most of the coverage of this event but this is literally the first time I've heard any mention anywhere about Adam Lanza's father. And you mention him only indirectly. Before now I had to assume immaculate conception, which helped explain a lot, but now all my theories are laid to waste..

    Naturally now I'm very curious. Did he have a relationship with his father? Was it close? How did his father treat his mother? With kindness, compassion and respect? Which came first: sociopathic child or broken home (indeed, I imagine if there is causation it can go either way- some marriages destroy kids, some kids destroy marriages...)?

    FWIW the video game connection has been studied and reported on extensively. Two examples:
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2012/12/17/ten-country-comparison-suggests-theres-little-or-no-link-between-video-games-and-gun-murders/
    http://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/09/us/they-threaten-seethe-and-unhinge-then-kill-in-quantity.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
    If congress feels the need to revisit the question then I smell a pork barrel.

  6. Re:What about programmer? on Ask Slashdot: Developer Or Software Engineer? Can It Influence Your Work? · · Score: 1

    From an immigration perspective, USCIS cares a lot about the distinction between engineer and programmer. Ask anyone who's entered the US in TN status what it's like answering the question 'how much programming do you do?' It's a trap! Programmer is not a NAFTA-qualified occupation, whereas Software Engineer is... NAFTA considers that you can obtain programming credentials from a community college, versus requiring a B.Sc or B.Eng to become a Software Engineer. The occupational description hinges on 'analysis, design and development' of software, versus just, uh, programming.

    http://www.tnvisaexpert.com/overview/nafta-occupations/

  7. Re:three words, one hyphen: on Why Can't Industry Design an Affordable Hearing Aid? · · Score: 1

    A government that has the power to mandate coverage also has the power to regulate prices.

  8. Re:Two words: dumb customers on Why Can't Industry Design an Affordable Hearing Aid? · · Score: 1

    Who are the customers? Consumers don't readily grasp the relationship between coverage and premiums, so they don't blink at their insurance paying out thousands of dollars. Insurance companies don't mind paying out thousands of dollars because they can just raise premiums. Employers scratch their heads and wonder why the cost of insurance is skyrocketing but, no worries, we'll just push down wages to make up the difference. And here we haven't even scratched the surface of collusion between insurers and congress.... so it goes.

  9. Ah the mid-life/mid-career crisis on Ask Slashdot: What Books Have Had a Significant Impact On Your Life? · · Score: 2

    More likely your second because most men have their first one in their 20s, when adulthood turns out to be not at all like what you expected.

    Rather than fish for books, I'd recommend having a look around at your friends, workmates, and acquaintances about your age or a little older and identify three things:
    1. Who is having the most fun?
    2. Who has reasonable job security, to the extent that exists today?
    3. What skills do they have that you don't?

    Use these things to guide your choices for skills to develop- maybe they are technical, or maybe they are people skills, but you'll be working towards filling a deficit that can open new/better opportunities for you.

    Personally, I think there is limited benefit to enhancing coding skills, such as learning a new language or framework- they are a dime a dozen and the industry always has a new fad. On the other hand I think there's a lot of value in learning new analytical skills. Everyone and their dog wants to mine actionable intelligence from their customer data and the ability to scrub, synthesize and model is a key asset. Plus when the data is sufficiently rich it can be a lot of fun compared to setting up yet another web site. If you want to take it all the way to home plate, pick up some machine learning skills, eg by taking one of the Stanford or Udacity online courses and dazzle your employers with your ability to predict that your customer is pregnant... ;-)

    btw, IMO a promo every three years seems about par for the course- not fantastic but nothing to complain about. The real difficulty is that promotion velocity tends to slow over time, since there can only be so many head chefs.

    $0.02

  10. Re:Seriously? on Pandora Shares Artist Payment Figures · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How many people get paid when a single artist earns a royalty? Band members, management? Label? How many real people split that $150k?

  11. Re:Seriously? on Pandora Shares Artist Payment Figures · · Score: 0

    Yes, I'm suggesting exactly that. There is no reasonable way to extrapolate but a distribution with only 800 people in the head suggests the vast majority of artists are earning a few dollars per year from Pandora and not much more across the whole ecosystem.

  12. Seriously? on Pandora Shares Artist Payment Figures · · Score: 3, Insightful

    it is also enabling musicians to earn a living

    If you call 800 people earning more than $50k a viable industry then I have some Florida swampland to sell you. Sounds like less than 1% of all the musicians in the world are not living in their mother's basement...

  13. Focus on engineering on Ask Slashdot: What Were You Taught About Computers In High School? · · Score: 1

    This doesn't directly answer the question but my two cents is to pursue an applied degree in something other than CS.

    I self-taught myself BASIC in gr5/6, mostly on the Vic-20 and TRS-80. After that my main relationship with computers was to play Earl Weaver Baseball. In high school I focused on music, socializing, cross-country, math and physics in no particular order. I didn't program again until university, where I pursued first computer engineering (B.Eng.) and then computer science- robotics and machine learning (MSc/PhD). Everything I really needed to know about how to really program a machine was in a single 4-th year OS course where I learned how to fork() in C, and the basics of concurrency.

    My honest recommendation is that schools should de-emphasize technology and establish rock-solid basics in math and science. And music: no one should finish school without learning to play an instrument...

  14. Re:CS != Coding on Is a Computer Science Degree Worth Getting Anymore? · · Score: 1

    +1. In fact this is why the NAFTA treaty excludes 'programmer' as a valid occupation for obtaining a temporary work visa (TN status, a sort of fast-track H-1B for Canadians and Mexicans), but explictly includes 'software engineer' and other forms of engineering.

  15. Clearly... on Hurricane Could Make a Mess of Republican Convention · · Score: 1

    God's punishment for subscribing to creationism.

  16. Re:Slightly overblown issue? on Malware Strikes Apple iOS App Store Again · · Score: 1

    Suppose an attacker knows the user has this app installed and can induce them to click a link like "file://{path}/malware.exe", either through ITMS or in some other browsing context... the malware is no longer inert.

  17. Re:Don't be evil on Google Launches International Campaign For Recognition of Same-Sex Marriage · · Score: 2

    Microsoft was offering same-sex benefits when GOOG was still a gleam in Sergey and Larry's eyes.

    http://www.microsoft.com/about/diversity/en/us/programs/ergen/gleam.aspx

    Making a road-show of it can be a double-edged sword and though I thinks it's great GOOG is having this experiment it can sometimes backfire. There's the whole problem with imposting 'western' values on the rest of the world and how that can erode positive inroads. Prime directive and all that.

  18. Re:This made me laugh on Bev Harris of Black Box Voting Releases Accenture's Voting Software · · Score: 1

    "there simply aren't any alternatives"

    I'm pretty sure elections predate computers.
    I thought one of the virtues of democracy is that your vote is secret. What's all this stuff about 'voter history'?

    No voting mechanism is above abuse, but automated mechanisms offer the possibilty of abuse at scale, which is untenable. On election night, Canada counts 100% of their ballots *by hand*. There is abuse but it is localized and relatively easily identified.

  19. What difference does it make on Despite Game-Related Glitches, AMD Discontinues Monthly Driver Updates · · Score: 1

    if your OEM locks you out of driver updates in the first place? I've had no end of frustration with my Lenovo laptop and the fact that they unlock a new AMD driver about once per year.

  20. I guess perl and python must be dead too? on Free Desktop Software Development Dead In Windows 8 · · Score: 1

    Just because I can't write c# console apps doesn't mean I can't write console apps...

  21. Re:This happens more than you think on Missouri High School Principal Resigns After Posing As Student On Facebook · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It took 300 people before *any* suspicions were raised...
    Seriously- I don't care how many mutual friends I have with a random invite, I'm not going to share my personal life with them until I know who they are. I have been known to accept LinkedIn requests from strangers, where I see some professional value in doing so, but I don't post pics of my family on linkedin...

  22. Re:This happens more than you think on Missouri High School Principal Resigns After Posing As Student On Facebook · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The real alternative is to teach our children not to accept friend requests from strangers. I find it shocking that 300 people accepted her friend requests without so much as raising an eyebrow.

  23. When will physicists learn? on New Particle Discovered At CERN · · Score: 1

    It's turtles all the way down.

  24. Re:Primary school students do not need computers on OLPC Project Disappoints In Peru · · Score: 1

    Wholeheartedly agree. There is zero educational value in teaching a kid how to format a doc or use a spreadsheet. They can learn that much later. On the other hand, there is some value putting laptops in the hands of educators, where they can be used to make their lessons more efficient.

  25. Abolish private schools on X-Prize Founder Wants Ideas For Fixing Education · · Score: 1

    Seriously...
    http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/12/what-americans-keep-ignoring-about-finlands-school-success/250564/

    Fundamentally, education is a social (and socialization) process. It has to come from the community. Middle-class teachers commuting to poor neighborhoods will rarely bridge the cultural gap needed to form a successful connection between teacher and student.

    Beyond that, metrics get in the way of the intangibles that represent what really matters about learning. Kids these days are super-stressed and need down-time that isn't tied to a performance metric.

    Eliminate screen time K-8. They get enough (too much) of it at home. There is zero competitive advantage in having a nation of kids that can use a mouse and click on icons all day. It's the most basic of skills to learn- no one is 'left behind' by an absence of screen time.
    Double the time spent on physical education, with a focus on getting *outdoors*. Get some vitamin D and fresh air.
    Bring back music and arts programs. So many intangible benefits- de-stressors, creative outlets, social engagement, neural development, etc, etc.

    I spent hundreds of hours in band rehearsals. When I wasn't in rehearsal I ran cross-country. I paid a small amount of attention to homework and graduated first in my high-school class and then first in my engineering class. If I'd been educated under some standardized test regime I would have missed out on some of the most educational social encounters of my life. Fundamentally, I was successful because I felt I was part of a community that cared about success. Also, I was taught by teachers I could relate to.

    FWIW I went to public school. Private schools were relatively rare, growing up. There was the sense that if you had to go to private school it was because you were struggling in the public system- a weak student who needed more 1:1 time. Times have certainly changed...