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User: msobkow

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  1. Re:It's job security on Choose Your Side On the Linux Divide · · Score: 4, Insightful

    System admins both old and new that are worth anything don't want things changing just for the sake of change.

    It boils down to the old adage: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

    Which further boils down to something admins care very much about: stability and reliability. Changing something that's been in production for 5, 10, or more years just because someone decided to roll out the new "shiny, shiny" is not an effective use of the admin's time.

    Last but not least, admins are often responsible for systems from multiple vendors. Having a unique configuration model for each system goes against the whole point of things like POSIX APIs and standardized startup processing.

    Sure on a desktop or developer system, the difference is probably irrelevant. But when your main job is configuring and maintaining services on servers instead of just using a box, the arguments and priorities change for damned good reasons.

  2. Re:They're not gamers. on Among Gamers, Adult Women Vastly Outnumber Teenage Boys · · Score: 1

    *sigh*

    Look, just because a bunch of magazines decided that their "gamer" demographic was going to be teenagers and specific sub-genres of computing games doesn't mean their definition is anything other than marketing tripe.

    But given how many people go around wearing overpriced clothing emblazed with the brand names of sporting goods companies, I'm not surprised that you suckered into the marketing hype.

    What I've described is factual history. You can argue against it all you like, but you can't change facts just by being stubborn. If anyone "co-opted" the term "gamer", it's the gaming magazines and the kids who fell into their marketing traps.

  3. Re:Chinese control from center is fatal flaw on A New Homegrown OS For China Could Arrive By October · · Score: 1

    China is no more "controlled from the center" than any other government-run country. They have local governments and bureaucrats, they have fiefdom cities, they have states/provinces. As with any other country, there is a hierarchy of management.

    And unlike the communist days, there is little to no "central management" of resources in China any more, other than the government investing in large projects that would be studied to death and never approved here in North America.

    People just seem to love bashing on China, but most of their "facts" are as outdated as they would be if they were to bash the Germans for being "Nazis" in modern times.

  4. Re:They're not gamers. on Among Gamers, Adult Women Vastly Outnumber Teenage Boys · · Score: 2

    In other words, the people who just published this "study" have just realized that women who play trivial games on their cell phones are a much larger (and probably more profitable) demographic than their old focus on teenaged boys playing first person shooters.

  5. Re:They're not gamers. on Among Gamers, Adult Women Vastly Outnumber Teenage Boys · · Score: 2

    Dude, you're missing the whole point. I'm not insulting people, I'm making fun of a business that was so foolish as to narrowly define their demographic instead of accepting the standard public-use definition of the term. Anyone who spends an inordinate amount of time playing games of any kind is a "gamer."

    The term has been in use since before computer games were mainstream. Your local DnD league that runs 3 day sessions on the long weekends with only 4-5 hours of sleep a night are gamers. Your grandmother who plays bridge for 2-3 hours every day after lunch is a gamer. The people who play the computerized versions of old card, board, and strategy games for hours on end are gamers.

    But, hey, I remember being young and using "cool" terminology that my parents disagreed with, too. Don't worry. Someday you'll be older, the kids of your day will try to redefine the use of the language, and you'll be on my side of the fence laughing at their stupidity. It happens to everyone.

    And after you've seen a few generations of people trying to redefine the use of words to solely mean whatever is the latest technology rage, you'll shrug your shoulders, laugh, and realize it's all marketing shills through the centuries, trying to make a fast buck on the latest fad. It's a bunch of leeches trying to define a "demographic" so they can sell to it, and nothing more.

  6. Re:What's the point? on If Java Wasn't Cool 10 Years Ago, What About Now? · · Score: 1

    The "point" of Java is portability amongst vendors. It was never designed to be the fastest, most scalable, or most elegant language on the planet. It was designed to be portable.

    And it succeeds at that goal, for the most part, so it is and continues to be used widely.

    Don't confuse the extensions of the JEE environment or the various JCP packages with the core of Java's mission: running business code across diverse platforms.

    Or have you forgotten Java's original tag line? "The Network IS The Computer." And the network includes all kinds of platforms.

  7. Re:Nope on If Java Wasn't Cool 10 Years Ago, What About Now? · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Those "suits" you refer to included every major hardware vendor on the planet. Java was only sold as a silver bullet for portability, not speed, not efficiency, not scalability, but solely for it's ability to be shifted from one vendor's platform to another's.

    When it comes to straight forward business service and batch job processing, it succeeds admirably at that goal, which is rather rare for what you claim was a "silver bullet."

    The "problem" is that all kinds of people have visions of Java doing this, that, and the other thing, ranging from the addition of database bindings that don't allow for stored procedures to 3D graphics. Java's "problem" is that it's gradually becoming too much of a "kitchen sink" instead of staying focused on what it was designed for: portable business programming.

  8. Re:They're not gamers. on Among Gamers, Adult Women Vastly Outnumber Teenage Boys · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You're the one who's confused. There is no "mancave" involved in gaming, except for reclusive pimply-faced acne victims in Momma's basement.

    Over the years "gamer" has evolved from meaning someone who played pen and paper rule-based, card, or board games to include video games, and all the sub-genres thereof. The typical portable device nowadays has far more CPU and graphics power than the 386's that ran the Doom series, never mind the original Atari or Nintendo platforms.

    It's only *kids* who think "gamer" has anything to do with a particular style of game or a particular demographic. Gamers are of all ages, genders, and races. But, hey, if you're convinced that "gamer" means pimply faced male playing first person shooter wargame on My Favourite Platform, knock yourself out. You're wrong, of course, but I've learned many years ago you can't convince people who "know they're right" of anything.

  9. Re:Or... on Among Gamers, Adult Women Vastly Outnumber Teenage Boys · · Score: 1

    Your sounding defensive and looking for hatred where I read only a statement of facts. Facts don't hate. Gamers are people who play games. Period. End of story. The phrase has never meant "teen aged boy."

  10. Re:Wait a second! on For Microsoft, $93B Abroad Means Avoiding $30B Tax Hit · · Score: 1

    Clearly you've never worked anywhere but the US if you think that.

    No matter where you live and work in the world on a visa, you'll be expected to pay the local income and sales taxes on the money you earn while working there.

  11. Re:Nature of tort reform on 33 Months In Prison For Recording a Movie In a Theater · · Score: 1

    Nonsense. I buy my cannabis from mom & pop growers who only sell enough to cover their costs of growing their own. I also grow a little (very little.) There is no "black market" or "organized crime" involved at all.

  12. Buy Microsoft on Ask Slashdot: What Do You Wish You'd Known Starting Out As a Programmer? · · Score: 2

    My sole advice to myself when I started out would have been to buy Microsoft stock.

    More than buying a house, a car, or anything else, I started out when Microsoft was a penny stock and could have cleaned up big time just by investing a few grand in their stock instead of a car. :P

  13. Re:Actually, it's the PERFECT name on Microsoft Considered Renaming Internet Explorer To Escape Its Reputation · · Score: 1

    Under Debian with KDE, most of my menu items describe what the application does rather than using it's name. So at least at the foundation of a huge number of distros, there is no excuse for relying on the "cute" names application developers have come up with.

  14. Re:Gotta say it on Facebook Tests "Satire" Tag To Avoid Confusion On News Feed · · Score: 1

    Details, details, details. :D

  15. I've learned the hard way on Windows 8.1 Update Crippling PCs With BSOD, Microsoft Suggests You Roll Back · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I've learned the hard way over the years. Never let Windows Update install a driver of any kind. Ever.

    I've had them blow out network cards, video cards, sound cards, and low level on-board devices. I've had them completely bork systems to the point where they were unbootable.

    Go to the vendor and get the official updates.

    I don't know how they do it, but Windows Update perpetually mis-identifies hardware and installs the wrong drivers, delivers broken drivers, and otherwise screws up when it comes to drivers. Yet the official vendor's drivers (such as Intel) work just fine.

    Go figure. One would think Microsoft is just redeploying those same drivers, but years of being burned have taught me that's not the case.

  16. Gotta say it on Facebook Tests "Satire" Tag To Avoid Confusion On News Feed · · Score: 1

    <SATIRE>Facebook users are so smart!</SATIRE>

  17. A rose by any other name on Microsoft Considered Renaming Internet Explorer To Escape Its Reputation · · Score: 1

    A rose by any other name still smells as sweet.

    And a steaming pile of shit by any other name still has flies buzzing around it.

  18. Re:im a music mixer in hollywood... on Is Dolby Atmos a Flop For Home Theater Like 3DTV Was? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What I'd like to hear is an orchestra recording which mics each instrument and gives each of them a channel. It'd be interesting to see how well Atmos can recreate the sound stage of a full orchestra.

    If it can't do that properly, then it's a useless fad, because that's just presenting a "static" sound image, not a moving one. I have a strong suspicion it relies on moving sounds to mask the fact that it's not very accurate about positioning them.

  19. It's so fashionable to hate China on Not Just For ThinkPads Anymore: Lenovo Gets OK To Buy IBM Server Line · · Score: 2

    I find it absolutely hilarious the way everyone disparages Chinese manufacturing while 95% of all electronics, clothing, and gadgetry is made in China or other asian countries.

    Scariest of all are the ill-informed masses who think that IBM, HP, Dell, etc. actually make any of their own parts any more. They're US companies in name only.

    Wake up. Globalization has already happened.

  20. Then spend time *with* your family! on Ask Slashdot: What Recliner For a Software Developer? · · Score: 1

    If you're going to spend time with your family, spend it *with* them!

    Dad sitting around with his head in a screen and clacking away on the keyboard is *not* "spending time with your family."

    Aside from that, you'd be far more productive to spend, say, 7-9 with the family while the kids are up and then focus on work for another couple of hours before going to bed. Interrupted work is not productive work; you're just putting in time and fooling yourself that you're "productive".

  21. Re:Drop the idea of "top apps" entirely on Apple's App Store Needs a Radical Revamp; How Would You Go About It? · · Score: 1

    My understanding was that the system primarily sorts apps by number of downloads, though.

  22. Re:Define Troll on Web Trolls Winning As Incivility Increases · · Score: 1

    By that I mean that no amount of discussion or "correction" of abuses of the term will correct the general public's use of it.

    See also "cracker" vs. "hacker".

  23. Re:Define Troll on Web Trolls Winning As Incivility Increases · · Score: 1

    Much as downmodding is not the "disagree" button.

  24. No THC? on Hemp Fibers Make Better Supercapacitors Than Graphene · · Score: 2

    Sorry, but every cannabis sativa plant, whether of the recreational, medicinal, or hemp varieties produces some THC. Granted, hemp is a miniscule fraction of a percentage THC, but it does have THC.

  25. Re:Everything hits poor people harder on Cisco To Slash Up To 6,000 Jobs -- 8% of Its Workforce -- In "Reorganization" · · Score: 1

    Note: I'm not talking about communism, which dictates what a person is going to have the opportunity to do. I'm talking about a social evolution more akin to Star Trek than anything else.