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User: pudknocker

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  1. This is an attempt to get us to give up on FWD.us Remixes the Statue of Liberty Greeting · · Score: 1

    We don't have enough "influencers and dreamers" so we need to get them from somewhere else. Instead of working to generated increased interest in STEM and increase the number of skilled workers here, keep college tuition unaffordable to even further discourage our youth from pursuing tech careers.

  2. Office is so dumbed down... on What Keeps You On (or Off) Windows in 2013? · · Score: 1

    That the biggest reason for staying on Windows is gone. I use Cygwin a lot. Lots of apps are still on windows, but the advances in VMs, , the cloud (online apps), etc. are going to gradually erase the reason Windows is necessary.

  3. I'll believe it when I see it on Lawrence, KS To Get Gigabit Fiber — But Not From Google · · Score: 1

    I am a former Lawrence resident and still live nearby. The company has had a couple of names in the past. Though some are hopeful, few take the announcement seriously It is hard to see how the company can get the financial backing to do a significant deployment. No need to feel envious.

  4. Patent protection seems logical, but... on Economists Argue Patent System Should Be Abolished · · Score: 1

    Who would have thought that open source would have become as prevalent as it is now? For the same reasons, initially it did not seem to have a viable business case. Maybe this applies to other fields, perhaps not.

  5. Re:inventions lead to lawsuits on Are There Any Real Inventors Left? · · Score: 1

    Wait, I'm sure all the human attorneys will find a reason to sue me before my AI defense attorney has passed the bar! Never mind.

  6. Re:inventions lead to lawsuits on Are There Any Real Inventors Left? · · Score: 1

    AI attorneys! That would save people and businesses some money. I'll get right on it.

  7. Few practical inventions/innovations on Are There Any Real Inventors Left? · · Score: 0
    No consumer robotics. Roomba has been around for how long?? Why do I have to wash my windows, wash my laundry, and mow my grass?
    • No advances in space travel in 50 years
    • No major aviation advances
    • Medicine has seen new inventions and innovations, but no cure for cancer.
    • No flying cars
    • Self-driving cars? Maybe, but I wonder when we will really see them. Commute to work is still a pain, probably worse than 20 years ago.
    • Construction? Buildings and infrastructure. Incremental improvement, but I don't have an integrated home control system, and few do.

      • BTW, does anyone realize it is 2013?
  8. The most valuable lesson on Ask Slashdot: How To React To Coworker Who Says My Code Is Bad? · · Score: 1

    If a co-worker can't present criticism in a constructive way, his road to success in a company is going to be long and steep.

    Anyone who's written any serious code knows that compromises are made too often because of schedule or resource limitations. If you haven't done that you work for an imaginary company or you are lying. Code/software architecture can almost always be improved, but if there is not a business case (and often, even if there is), it will still not be improved.

    The most valuable lesson this intern needs to learn is that you work with people and they are human. If you call my children ugly, then anything else you say is not going to be greeted warmly.

  9. Code is considered to have little no value on Real World Code Sucks · · Score: 1

    So it is hacked, poorly designed, and gets more fragile with each fix/change. Experience coders know: You may not have time to do it right, but you'll have time to do it again. I was surprised to see all the comments justifying crappy code.

  10. US: Waste and managment incompetence raise costs on In a Symbolic Shift, IBM's India Workforce Likely Exceeds That In US · · Score: 1

    Everyone knows that large corporations (all that I have worked for anyway, including IBM) have so much bureaucracy and obstacles that it raises costs. Probably true in India, too, but at least the wasted time doesn't cost as much. Sometimes, Dilbert is too true to be funny. Make that most times.

  11. Re:"WHAT?!" on Postgres Project To Go NoSQL · · Score: 1

    Or is the QUEL entry in Wikipedia an April Fools joke, too?

  12. Re:"WHAT?!" on Postgres Project To Go NoSQL · · Score: 1

    I shouldn't admit it, but it had me going for a minute, too. Now I know there is such a thing as QUEL, though.

  13. Re:Let me get this straight on Space Station Partners Bicker Over Closure Date · · Score: 1

    Your idea is a better one, except.... it would take NASA (or the government) a billion dollars to organize everything, and then lobbyists would be hired by the aerospace conglomerates who would try to get the rules defined so to favor their companies.... and it would end up "business as usual" in Washington.

    Just give the money to Burt. :-)

  14. Re:Let me get this straight on Space Station Partners Bicker Over Closure Date · · Score: 1

    Answer:
    Yes

    I vote for giving the NASA budget to Burt Rutan and see what he could do with a couple billion dollars.

    <Insert clever sig here>

  15. Re:Dragging his family along on Man Wins Partial Victory In Circuit City Arrest · · Score: 1

    No, the bad guys win because we don't spend our time trying to stop lobbyists from controlling government, or government pork that could have gone to provide medical care to the needy (substitute your worthwhile endeavor here), instead we worry about the rights of guys who won't show a receipt at the door in Best Buy.

  16. Re:Proud-- of a JERK? on Man Wins Partial Victory In Circuit City Arrest · · Score: 1

    Am I the only one that things this guy just wanted to see how he could "stick it to the man" in a some small way and be able to smirk at his little joke on the way out of the store. The phrase "chip on the shoulder" comes to mind. Is this the first time he's walked out of the store w/o showing a receipt? If not, why this time?

    There is a time to stand up for fairness and justice. Raising a fuss over an issue so trivial as this is laughable. There are plenty of other, more important, issues about which one should make a stand.

    Consider looking at the larger issue. Shoplifting is a major problem that increases the prices of everything we buy. --So just show them the receipt, and, perhaps, complain the next time they fail to do so.

  17. Kiss of Death on How Big Will the iPhone Become? · · Score: 1
    Nothing really new, just put a bunch of things together in one package and add the Apple logo... what's clever/ingenious about that?

    This much hype is almost always the "Kiss of Death" for a tech product. I'm thinking Segway..... However, Apple has the power of "hip" which should never be underestimated.

  18. Re:What? on Want To Work At Google? · · Score: 1

    From what I was told, each prospect goes through 5 interviews before being hired, I made it through 2 1/2 (1/2 being the technical screening questions by the recruiter) interviews before I was told "no thanks". I didn't even apply (never did find out how they got my name and contact info, not that it should be hard for "them"), just got a call out of the blue from a recruiter. What I wonder is, if they skim through so many people (as it appears from the other posts), once they've gone through everybody, do they lower their "standards", and start back through the people they've pissed off?

  19. Jet vs. Rocket confusion on Rocket Men · · Score: 1

    It surprises me to see little discussion of the performance differences between a jet and rocket engines. Clearly a rocket is never going to be able to provide thrust for any reasonable amount of time. I saw an article in Popular Science in the 70's that talked about a jet pack with a running time of up to 45 minutes.

    Jet packs are surely less reliable than a simple hydrogen peroxide system that only requires that valves open in order to work, but the lure of free flight for minutes instead of seconds should have inspired someone to expend some effort in this direction.

    Why hasn't it?

  20. Re:Your question has nothing to do with lefties. on Left Sided Windows Scrollbars? · · Score: 1

    Just a "Me too". My mouse is usually much closer to the left hand side of the window (I'm a rightie) and to go to the scroll bar all the way on the right side of the window is a lot more effort.

    Back in the X11 days I would always set the scrollbars to be on the left and it was much more convenient. Such a simple thing...it should be easily configurable in any decent windowing environment.

  21. Re:I really liked the first season on Sci-Fi Channel Renews Battlestar Galactica · · Score: 2, Interesting
    This show could be so good, but the plots and acting are so childish. E.g.:
    • A commander would really put the whole fleet at risk to rescue one person like Adama did to rescue Starbuck? Especially after her oxygen would have run out and there was no reason for hope?
    • The whole fighter pilot corps really be expected to stay awake for 100+ hours.. they and the bridge crew don't have multiple watches like a real ship would have?
    • The military courtesies and bearing of all the warriors is slipshod and inconsistent. They salute when the writer tells them to salute
    • Little things like that make aren't hard to do, but they make a big difference.

      This show could be really good. More perspecive on the Cylons was what I always wanted from the original show and it could make this one more than another mediocre show with a big budget. But, it has a long way to go.

  22. Re:Gaming Will Go Open Source... Sorta on Behind the Guildhall - The Story of the Students · · Score: 1
    For those who have been *cough* "working" with computers for longer than we want to admit, we've seen everything go in cycles, big multiuser computers (mostly before my time), "personal" computers (before expensive commerical software), the "modern" PC/windows, and now Linux/Open source.

    In 5 years things will change again, in a significant way. Don't know exactly how, but I suspect that Open Source/Free software will be the biggest part. Just draw the trend lines, they will probably continue going the same direction for a bit longer.

  23. Re:The Shuttles are Being Phased Out on Space Shuttle to re-launch in May · · Score: 1

    This is correct. However he did it on $20 million, NASA couldn't fund a study to do investiagate the feasibility of such a project for that amount.

  24. Re:The Shuttles are Being Phased Out on Space Shuttle to re-launch in May · · Score: 4, Informative
    Replacements for the shuttle won't be flying anytime soon. The X-33/VentureStar was canceled a couple of years ago. The X-38/Crew Return Vehicle/Space Taxi, which was being considered as a crew module atop an expendable rocket, was canceled even though development seemed to be proceeding well.

    And then there is the new CLCS (Command and Launch Checkout System) a replacement for the shuttle launch consoles and computers which was also canceled after 100's of millions of dollars.

    NASA should fund Burt Rutan (if he'd take the money), then something would get done.

  25. Re:Wow, they did it on Two New TLD's Near Approval · · Score: 1

    Heck, most local organizations don't know. The local city goverment where I'm at uses .us instead of .gov. The schools use .org instead of .edu, and the local soccer club uses .com instead of .org. I'm betting this is the norm. More TLDs just mean more TLDs to be incorrectly used.