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User: mypalmike

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Comments · 706

  1. Re:Very original on Grad Student Rigs Cheap Alternative To $1,000 Air Purifiers In Smoggy China · · Score: 1

    Yes, I'm sure nobody in all of China already has an inexpensive HEPA air purifier.

  2. It ain't who you quote that gets you into trouble on The Major Theoretical Blunders That Held Back Progress In Modern Astronomy · · Score: 0

    "It's when your quote just ain't so." - Oscar Wilde

    http://wellnowbob.blogspot.com...

  3. Re: and... on Python 3.4 Released · · Score: 3, Insightful

    > Unless you're a framework author, chances are you'll have to care very little about mucking with bytes.

    Right, because none of us write code that interacts with other code or systems that use bytes.

    Like C libraries.
    Or binary files.
    Or network protocols.

  4. A book and a project. on Ask Slashdot: Can an Old Programmer Learn New Tricks? · · Score: 1

    > I never learned to ... write modular, DRY code

    Don't worry about frameworks right now. This is your problem right here.

    The book that helped me best in learning to write modular code was "Analysis Patterns", by Martin Fowler. (http://martinfowler.com/books/ap.html) It's ancient now (from 1996), and you can find used copies on Amazon for under 10 bucks. I came across it back around when it came out (yikes, that's 18 years ago!) while I was buying up every book I could find on OO, and this is the one that really made plain to me how to approach object design.

    With book in hand, I might recommend also trying to write a text-oriented version of a card game. Crazy 8's or go fish where the number of players can vary and the "AI" is simple.

    And if you really want to focus on modularity, I'd say write this game from scratch in Java. It's a language that definitely prods you towards modularity. Everything is in a class. One class per file. With that constraint, most developers learn to think carefully about how to organize code, and the lessons learned can be used in any language.

  5. Re:I Fully Support This on A Protocol For Home Automation · · Score: 1

    > There are too few geeks who have the time and patience to automate anything in the home to this level. Most people are sloth-lazy...

    We're too lazy to spend the energy to enable even more laziness.

  6. Gave up on Welcome to the Goodwill Computer Museum (Video) · · Score: 2, Informative

    The pre-video ad was like 3 hours long so I gave up.

  7. Not new on Car Dealers vs the Web: GM Shifts Toward Online Purchasing · · Score: 1

    Welcome to Mini Cooper a la 2006.

  8. Re:So... can they do it pre-breakup? on California Outlaws 'Revenge Porn' · · Score: 2

    The rule of law is, at its core, a way to protect one party's rights against the actions of another party. Government is the messy system we have devised to enforce said rules. This is clearly a case where one party's reasonable expectation of privacy is violated by the actions of another party. In particular, consider homemade sex videos made by a couple which are later distributed by an angry ex. Law or no law, people are going to sue.

    This sort of "revenge porn" apparently happens often enough with current technology that citizens have started to use their democratic powers to push for laws indicating what behavior is a violation of others rights with regard to sexual images. Fortunately, as a democracy, we are a government of the people, which is why "government is sticking its[sic] nose into business like this."

    As you have pointed out, extenuating circumstances may exist which make the law subject to interpretation. Guilt may be difficult to determine. That's not a new problem - all law is subject to interpretation. Property lines, who punched who first, etc. It's all a mess which fails algorithmic decomposition. Fortunately there are courts specifically designed to handle this sort of thing.

  9. Re: Nothing too good for the fruit of my loins on Ask Slashdot: Suitable Phone For a 4-Year Old? · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just make sure to get it insured. The "I Can Go Potty Myself" app frequently crashes the whole phone... Into the toilet.

  10. Re:If you notice... on Valve Announces Linux-Based SteamOS · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The icons appear to be...


    "O" - A gaming OS
    "[O ]" - A box running the gaming OS?
    "O + O" - A gaming network?

  11. Re:When you don't want a reference on Ask Slashdot: When Is It OK To Not Give Notice? · · Score: 1

    I live in Georgia and I don't get paid for unused vacation when I leave a job. When I lived in California, I did get paid for unused vacation time when I left a job.

    http://www.employmentlawhandbook.com/leave-laws/vacation-leave-laws/vacation-leave-law-summaries/

    Look for the following wording which applies in several states, including Georgia:

    "An employer may lawfully establish a policy or enter into a contract denying employees payment for accrued vacation leave upon separation from employment."

  12. Partial success == partial payment? on The Smog To Fog Challenge: Settling the High-Speed Rail vs. Hyperloop Debate · · Score: 1

    The money, to be donated by big corporations, would go to the first organization that delivers a live human from Los Angeles to San Francisco

    So what do I get for delivering a dead human?

  13. Re:When you don't want a reference on Ask Slashdot: When Is It OK To Not Give Notice? · · Score: 1

    In the USA vacation time is an earned benefit for a regular employee, short of bankruptcy they can't stiff you.

    This is the stuff of state laws. Many states allow "use it or lose it" vacation time accrual policies in employment contracts.

  14. Re:Serious problem on Android Co-Founder: Fragmentation "an Overblown Issue" · · Score: 1

    > The problem is that most phone vendors (basically all except Google) never update the Android system after the phone is released.

    Even Google doesn't keep Android up to date on older devices. The once-flagship Nexus One, introduced in 2010, only got official updates for about a year, taking it from version 2.1 to 2.3.6.

  15. Re:That's just not a viable option. on Why JavaScript On Mobile Is Slow · · Score: 5, Funny

    > Yet C developers... rarely depend on shitloads of libraries.


    $ ls -l /usr/lib | wc -l
    shitloads

  16. Re:Oh thank ${DIETY} on Firefox OS Smartphones Launching, But Will Anyone Buy One? · · Score: 1

    The "I before E" exceptions are so many, they needed a poem.

    http://nothings.org/writing/tb/ie.html

  17. Re:Why not make dollar signs optional? on PHP 5.5.0 Released · · Score: 1


    if token.type == TOKEN_TYPE_STRING {
        if keywords.contains( token.value ) {
            handle_keyword(token);
        } else {
            handle_variable(token);
        }
    }

  18. Re:PHP 6.0 without the stupid? on PHP 5.5.0 Released · · Score: 1

    "Hardly complicated."

    s/Hardly/It's/

  19. Re:I wonder which... on Latest Target In War On Drugs: Google Autocomplete · · Score: 1

    There is growing evidence that the dogma of taking all your antibiotics is mistaken. Or at least oversimplified. The theory is essentially that antibiotics kill off healthy flora while leaving antibiotic-resistant microbes to thrive and conquer.

    http://blogs.plos.org/publichealth/2012/11/29/are-we-causing-antibiotic-resistance-by-trying-to-prevent-it/

  20. Re:Yes on Proposed NJ Law Allows Cops To Search Phones At Crash Scenes · · Score: 1

    More likely:

    Officer A: "Look, a crash. Let's get all the cell phones of everyone in the nearby area. Law says we can."
    Officer B: "OK."

  21. Contractors on Inside PRISM: Why the Government Hates Encryption · · Score: 1

    The government probably hired out a lot of this work to contractors who were like, "Yeah, we've got direct feeds from microsoft, google, yahoo... and paypa... umm, pal...talk. That'll be $100M please."

  22. Re:My friend had that game. on Salvaging E.T. In Software, Instead of New Mexico · · Score: 1

    It's true. The game was unplayable without the manual, but actually an OK game with it. It was not great by any means, but it was playable and there was some challenge to finishing in the time allotted.

    I got the game on cartridge when it came out. The copy I got came in a box without the manual for some reason. My friend and I tried to play by guessing what you were supposed to do. It seemed a lot like the old Superman cartridge which we liked (and which could be played with no manual). But after falling into pits for about 1/2 hour, we abandoned it since it seemed totally random.

    Not long ago, I revisited it just to see if it was as bad as I remembered. And it was just as bad and random... until I downloaded and read the manual. The goals of the game and even some "tactics" might have been deduced by experimentation. But if you couldn't decipher the cryptic mode icon in the corner of the screen that changed as you moved around, you had no chance of understanding what you were doing. Once you could decipher it, the game actually made sense.

  23. No need for units on White House: Use Metric If You Want, We Don't Care · · Score: 4, Funny

    Given that relativity is well established, those signs should be unitless. Instead of 55 mph, just have them say 0.000000082.

  24. Doesn't add up on ATMs Compromised, $45M Taken · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "In New York alone, eight people hit 2,904 ATMs in 10 hours, withdrawing $2.4 million."

    OK, if they split up and worked individually, that means 363 ATMs per person in 10 hours, which is around 36 ATMs per person per hour. Each of those 8 people would have to average under 2 minutes per ATM over the course of 10 full hours without interruption. Even if you had a really well-planned route, that seems like an impossible pace.

  25. Re:Four ways to profit on One Bitcoin By the Numbers: Is There Still Profit To Be Made? · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure you'd call it practical, but there's at least one exchange, http://mpex.co/, where you can apparently trade bitcoin options. A bearish position would involve buying puts and/or writing calls. Options are risky in the best of circumstances, and btc volatility and the lack of a mature market greatly magnifies that risk. Even if you are right about btc going down in value, timing and liquidity issues could easily cause you to lose 100% of the money you risk (or worse in the case of writing naked options).

    Which leads to the other way to make money in bitcoin...

    5. Create a bitcoin exchange and charge transaction fees.