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User: smithmc

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Comments · 1,966

  1. Re:wow on Lockheed Claims Breakthrough On Fusion Energy Project · · Score: 1

    It gets used to boil water to make steam to run a generator.

  2. Re:Nose smell recepters regenerated by stem cells? on Lost Sense of Smell Is a Strong Predictor of Death Within 5 Years · · Score: 1

    In America? Forever, probably.

  3. Contagiousness on Ebola Has Made It To the United States · · Score: 1

    AIUI it is only strongly suspected that Ebola Reston is transmissible via aerosol, not definitely proven.

  4. Re:Uhhh on Miss a Payment? Your Car Stops Running · · Score: 1

    There's probably a cheaper car out there somewhere that maybe they should have bought instead. People should not live outside their means.

  5. COBOL on Unpopular Programming Languages That Are Still Lucrative · · Score: 1

    Yeesh. My school taught COBOL and FORTRAN, but only for non-CS majors. ME students had to take FORTRAN IIRC, but CS majors couldn't receive credit for either course. CS majors started with Pascal and went from there into C, C++ and assembly (Java wasn't a thing yet).

  6. Not speed or RAM etc., but... on Do Specs Matter Anymore For the Average Smartphone User? · · Score: 1

    What matters to me these days is display size and resolution. Ideally, around 4.5-4.7" with at least 720p resolution. Most phones are getting too big, and the display resolutions are getting ridiculous.

  7. Re: Trendy != popular on Unpopular Programming Languages That Are Still Lucrative · · Score: 1

    Indeed. In fact, a lot of the guts of HFT systems are implemented in hardware - TCP/IP stacks implemented in FPGAs and such.

  8. Re:Most taxes are legalized theft on New Global Plan Would Crack Down On Corporate Tax Avoidance · · Score: 1

    The various services of government cost more than most people would be able to afford in use taxes. To have the society we have today, the poor need to be subsidized by the wealthy. That's what progressive taxation is about.

  9. Re:Hangouts is, in turn, part of plus, right? on Google Hangouts Gets Google Voice Integration And Free VoIP Calls · · Score: 1

    True, still not very much though when typical data plans are measured in GB, not MB.

  10. Re:ROI for drug development on "Secret Serum" Used To Treat Americans With Ebola · · Score: 1

    Corporations rarely do things because they're "the right thing to do" - unless one defines "the right thing to do" as "whatever maximizes shareholder value". Corporations are not moral; people are moral. And corporations are not people, people.

  11. Re:Coming to a plane journey on Ebola Outbreak Continues To Expand · · Score: 1

    There is some research that suggests that Ebola Zaire can transmit from monkeys to pigs without contact, and could possibly be transmitted from pigs to humans. One farm worker is believed to have contracted Ebola Reston (which is not lethal to humans) from an infected pig.

  12. Re:Free market economy on US Senator Blasts Microsoft's H-1B Push As It Lays 18,000 Off Workers · · Score: 1
    The term "believe" can be interpreted in different ways too. To "believe in a global free market economy" can mean:
    • "to be of the opinion that a global free market economy exists", or
    • "to be of the opinion that a global free market economy ought to exist, and/or would be a good thing".
  13. Re:Free market economy on US Senator Blasts Microsoft's H-1B Push As It Lays 18,000 Off Workers · · Score: 1

    Then you should start by proving the belief to be false, because (at least in this case) it is not obviously false. Maybe, if you believe that it is obviously false, then it says something about you...

  14. Re:Its even worse than we thought on The Last Three Months Were the Hottest Quarter On Record · · Score: 1

    So let's just all shoot ourselves in the head now. Or... maybe... we could expend some brain power figuring out how to live longer and, y'know, not die so soon.

  15. Re:We're sorry we got caught? on Comcast Customer Service Rep Just Won't Take No For an Answer · · Score: 1

    Haven't you heard? Corporations can do emotions now. At least I assume so; since they can be religious, I assume they can at least do guilt, shame, and self-righteousness.

  16. Re:Livin' in the USA on French Blogger Fined For Negative Restaurant Review · · Score: 1

    No one puts a gun to your head and makes you eat at Applebee's or Olive Garden. Get a real job, earn some real money, and eat at some real restaurants (of which the US has plenty).

  17. Re:Barbara Streisand award on French Blogger Fined For Negative Restaurant Review · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Oh, c'mon. It's not like being stupid and needlessly litigious is a uniquely French thing.

  18. Re: Rather far north. on Scotland Could Become Home To Britain's First Spaceport · · Score: 2

    French Guiana is not a colony of France. It is a departement d'outre-mer, with the same legal status and participation in French government as any of the continental departements. It is analogous to the relationship Hawaii has to the United States, with full statehood and participation in US government.

  19. Re:My biases, let me show you them on Python Bumps Off Java As Top Learning Language · · Score: 1

    My first language in college was Pascal. It's not a bad choice IMO. In part, perhaps, because it is a (pretty much) *dead* language - sort of like Latin for programming languages. Which means you *can't* get stuck on it, you *have to* move on to other languages. One disadvantage is that it may not be rich enough to use to teach concepts found in more modern languages, like objects/classes (although there are OO extensions for Pascal), maps/dictionaries, etc.

  20. Re:another language shoved down your throat on Python Bumps Off Java As Top Learning Language · · Score: 1

    OK, then, what should the teaching language be? What language would be better for teaching basic concepts and principles of programming, e.g. algorithms, data structures, control flow, events, etc.? Assembly language for MOS6502, perhaps?

  21. Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider on The Billionaire Mathematician · · Score: 1
  22. Re:So it's ok to kill US soldiers? on Court Allowed NSA To Spy On All But 4 Countries · · Score: 1

    I wasn't referring to any side. But to answer your question... well, I'm not sure I can. Certainly it was understandable for the Iraqi military to fight back against the US invasion. But as for terrorists/insurgents... are they necessarily acting on behalf of or under the orders of their country? Are they legitimate war combatants? Hard to say. There is a government in Iraq, for whatever it's worth, and any attacks on an invading or occupying force should, it seems to me, occur at their behest.

  23. Re:hexagonal? on BlackBerry's Innovation: Square-Screened Smartphones · · Score: 1

    But it doesn't address the 27 degree angle screen. Round is the only way to go.

  24. Re:Well that does solve the vertical video problem on BlackBerry's Innovation: Square-Screened Smartphones · · Score: 1

    I have QWERTYUIOP on my Android phone. It pops up when I need it and it goes away when I don't - which is most of the time. I, too, used to insist on smartphones with physical keyboards, but I have come to find that a virtual keyboard with Swype is just as good if not better.

  25. Re:A win for freedom on U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Religious Objections To Contraception · · Score: 1

    Private businesses (e.g. sole proprietorships, simple partnerships, etc.), yes. Corporations, no. Corporations are not people no matter what the Supreme Court says.