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User: theskipper

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  1. Re:A nightmare on A Ph.D Thesis Defense Delayed By Injustice 77 Years · · Score: 1

    Is the teacher still hot?

  2. Re:Count cards on In New AI Benchmark, Computer Takes On Four Top Professional Poker Players · · Score: 2

    I was also confused how this could work in holdem. After some googling it appears that "counting" in poker only refers to certain stud games where hands ahead of you are exposed.

    In holdem the only (?) additional info you could have over a competitor is if someone in early position folded and revealed their cards (obviously uncommon). That's info that the small blind wouldn't have had, and could be very useful if you're in late position, especially on the button. But imo that's not really "counting", just gaining info to craft your betting strategy.

    Decent answer here:
    https://answers.yahoo.com/ques...

  3. Re:Waiting for the killer app ... on Why the Journey To IPv6 Is Still the Road Less Traveled · · Score: 2

    Too long. IPV6 Youporn would drop full adoption down to 5 minutes ;)

  4. Re:Giving the customers what they want on Netflix Is Betting On Exclusive Programming · · Score: 1

    When Time Warner asked why I was cancelling the video package from my bundle, I replied that the only TV I watch anymore is Netflix and Amazon. Sounded weird at the time but was the absolute truth.

  5. Re:The current URL on Google Sunsetting Old Version of Google Maps · · Score: 1

    Like the others, thanks for posting that link! The old version doesn't crash Palemoon like the new one. Of course now that they're sunsetting it...argh.

  6. Re:Odd MS patched it today then, eh? Not... apk on Microsoft Starts Working On an LLVM-Based Compiler For .NET · · Score: 1

    The IP of the MS update server must have been set to 0.0.0.0 in his hosts file. Mystery solved.

  7. Re:Make them pay on Smoking Is Even Deadlier Than Previously Thought · · Score: 1

    Not going to specifically defend what the AC said but perhaps the statement was related to alcohol's benefits being walked back recently:
    http://www.bmj.com/content/350...

    Coupled with the resveratrol marketing scheme over recent years, it's getting very difficult to make any unequivocal comments about the benefits of alcohol consumption.

  8. Re:So how many Sparc Systems does Oracle Run? on Five Years After the Sun Merger, Oracle Says It's Fully Committed To SPARC · · Score: 1

    Have you considered typing that question into your Ask toolbar?

  9. Re:Speculated at for over a year on Massive Layoff Underway At IBM · · Score: 1

    Officers of the company (i.e. insiders) would naturally want to exercise their options at the highest price possible. Increasing dividends makes the stock appear more attractive to institutional investors.

    When institutions buy, that increases the pressure for the price to go up (retail investors don't move a market cap like this, only the big boys do). When the price per share goes up then that's more money that the officers can collect when they exercise their free options; in this case it looks like all the strikes were no higher than around $100. Or they simply sell some of their common position into the open market. The higher the stock price, the higher the profit. Tax strategies play a huge part too.

    Any decent financial site will list insider transactions and their values, here's IBM's:
    http://finance.yahoo.com/q/it?...

  10. Re:From the outside... on US Senate Set To Vote On Whether Climate Change Is a Hoax · · Score: 1

    Just to clarify, it's not just the nutty Hollywood liberal types like Jenny McCarthy spewing this nonsense. Conservative Christian churches have been railing against vaccination too. This has directly lead to outbreaks of measles:

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/em...

  11. Re:Hmm on A State-By-State Guide To Restrictive Community Broadband Laws · · Score: 1

    Well put.

  12. Re:Spam Mimic on To Avoid Detection, Terrorists Made Messages Seem Like Spam · · Score: 1

    Interesting, and looks like it's been around a while based on whois (2000). Wouldn't be surprised if the evildoers were dumb enough to use that exact site. Also wouldn't be surprised if the 3-letter agencies have been watching the plaintext entries for many years.

  13. Re:It was the best Windows on Microsoft Ends Mainstream Support For Windows 7 · · Score: 1

    Huh? The reason why Windows 8 flopped was not because Microsoft didn't force users to upgrade hardware. It's because the user interface in Windows 8 sucked.

  14. Re: Mobile e-mail requires a mobile data plan on The Slow Death of Voice Mail · · Score: 1

    Re: $300, it really depends on your overall blend of cell usage. I've used Ting's pay as you go service for a couple years and do the same thing the op does, turn on $3/100MB mobile data for email on my S3 when I'm traveling. They're a Sprint MVNO, so coverage is predictable by looking at the Sprint maps.

    Bottom line is that if all three parts of your voice/text/data usage are low, then $25/mo is not only doable, it's actually a little high.

  15. Re:Lost His Balls on Viacom's Messy Relationship With YouTube and The Rise of Stephen Colbert · · Score: 1

    Never heard of this Anita person before, but after watching the interview it looked to me like just a standard/funny Colbert interview. Shrug.

    Btw, your youtube link was wrong. Here's the correct one:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  16. Re:$32 million of greed. on Calculus Textbook Author James Stewart Has Died · · Score: 1

    Put it this way, before 1980, sure. But over the last 30 or so years it's been a different ballgame.

    There were 100 baggers available by selling at the top of the internet bubble. Or buying MDVN 10 years ago or tucking away some AAPL in the dark days. And these opportunities aren't dying out; for example, the same scenario is playing again right now in immuno/gene therapy.

    Expand that out to real estate, Forex, domain names or just about any other investment/speculative vehicle over that time and you're talking a massive # of individual opportunities that yielded multi-fold returns. Returns that could be parlayed into further opportunities.

    So imo it's not unreasonable for someone to turn $1m into $30m over a 20 year span even with average discipline, intelligence and luck.

  17. Re:$32 million of greed. on Calculus Textbook Author James Stewart Has Died · · Score: 2

    Most likely not. Based on a cursory look at Scholastic, McGraw-Hill and John Wiley, only the latter has returned close to a 10-bagger in the last 20 years. Of course the obvious stock in the book space is Amazon at 100x+.

    But the point is that there have been tons of investment opportunities that yielded extraordinary returns over that period. Being "astute" means you get rewarded for great due diligence, mixed in with good timing and some luck. It's the same for everyone who takes risk by investing, he shouldn't be pilloried for success imo.

  18. Re:$32 million of greed. on Calculus Textbook Author James Stewart Has Died · · Score: 3, Insightful

    RTFA. It clearly says that it wasn't all from textbook sales but also from "astute investments". Sounds like the guy worked hard and had his shit together financially.

  19. Re:Check your math. on Apparent Islamic Terrorism Strikes Sydney · · Score: 1
  20. Re:Check your math. on Apparent Islamic Terrorism Strikes Sydney · · Score: 1

    None? Is civil disobedience a crime? By its very nature it is. So lots of Christians have committed lots of crimes over the years in the name of their religion. Over issues like civil rights, gays, school prayer, to name a few.

    Now the shooting of abortion providers in the name of Christianity is of course an actual indisputable crime. Only a few, but in fairness you did express the extremist view and say none.

  21. Re:Cheers for Mint on Linux Mint 17.1 Cinnamon and MATE Editions Released · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Cinnamon was the antidote to the dumbed-down interface craze for me. Switched to it a year ago and haven't looked back.

    Nemo alone is worth the switch, it's a file manager that doesn't treat you like a child and "hide the knives" (and trees in the sidebar are intuitive to me, ymmv). Workspace management via panel, hotkeys or OSD all work well. The system menu is usable and makes sense. Applets are actually easy to install and manage. A couple clicks and sane scrollbars are back. And simple things out of the box like being able to resize a window without the idiocy of trying to hit a single pixel in the lower right corner reflects the productivity mindset it targets.

    Maybe all this has been fixed in Unity/Gnome 3/etc. but I haven't paid attention and don't care at this point. Sure there's still bugs and features that need polishing but imho it's worth setting up a vm to test it out.

  22. Re:Or just practicing for an actual job on Duke: No Mercy For CS 201 Cheaters Who Don't Turn Selves In By Wednesday · · Score: 1

    Well said. And it's not just for extending thinking to new areas, it's mandatory within the development process itself. Being able to debug quickly, develop test coverage and refactor efficiently requires that deeper level of understanding.

  23. Re:yeah but on PC Cooling Specialist Zalman Goes Bankrupt Due To Fraud · · Score: 2

    But it looks like management really blew it. Will be a cold day before investors warm up to it again.

  24. Re:You need enough rope to hang yourself on The Effect of Programming Language On Software Quality · · Score: 1

    "Test" refers to if(foo). "Document" refers to printf(...).

    When both are frantically performed hundreds of times at 2am the night before going gold, that's called "coverage".

  25. Re:It's Fun on Silicon Valley Swings To Republicans · · Score: 1

    Don't know, not much of a history buff. So was just curious if you had a citation about the etymology of the term.

    Regarding changing the term in common language, as an old fart I tend to not pay attention to political correctness efforts like that. If the change shows up in the USPTO trademark database then I'll consider changing the usage. Until then, it sounds to me like a bunch of old women arguing about Sally's new boyfriend over Sunday tea.