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User: methano

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Comments · 281

  1. Bring it on! on Beware Headlines Saying Chocolate Is Good For You · · Score: 2

    I work in an academic lab doing research. If some company wants me to work on chocolate and is willing to supply it, lots of it, hell, I'll find any damn result they want.

  2. Huh? on Ask Slashdot: Best Options For a Standalone Offline Printing Station? · · Score: 4, Funny

    I thought the only time one would consider a ChromeBook is when you expect to have easy internet access at all time and not some crappy 3G connection.

    My dad is thinking of getting a car but he lives in the ocean. Is there some way for him to get to the grocery store? I have an Arduino and and a Raspberry pi.

    Poseidon

  3. Re:Knuth vs. whom? Thomas Haigh? OK. on Donald Knuth Worried About the "Dumbing Down" of Computer Science History · · Score: 1

    Give the poor guy a break. He's got a PhD in the sociology of computer science. He's got to do something with that degree. This seems about as useful as anything you can do with a PhD in the sociology of computer science. What else is he gonna do?

  4. Re:Got out of Ford on Ford Ditches Microsoft Partnership On Sync, Goes With QNX · · Score: 1

    I sold in 2008 for $7.20 and bought aapl

  5. Got out of Ford on Ford Ditches Microsoft Partnership On Sync, Goes With QNX · · Score: 1

    I sold my Ford stock a few years ago when I saw they were teaming up with M$ for their in-dash info and music system. What were they thinking?

  6. Re:My personal favorite of the past few years... on Excuse Me While I Kiss This Guy: The Science of Misheard Song Lyrics · · Score: 1

    I like this interpretation of Joe Cocker at Woodstock

    here

  7. Against it on Ask Slashdot: Where Do You Stand on Daylight Saving Time? · · Score: 1

    I'm against it, that's all. That's all you wanted, right?

  8. Re:That's what college is for! on It's Time To Revive Hypercard · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is nonsense. I learned a little programming back in chemistry undergrad when they decided to use x-ray diffraction calculations to teach us some FORTRAN. I've been programming here and there since. Some of it has even been useful. I wrote a number of HyperCards back in the day and really liked the environment. It was quick and easy to put together a nice little program for specific tasks. There was a low barrier to entry and it was easy to make useful things that you could never find an IT whiz to do for you.

    Here's the problem. It's a lot easier and more likely to happen that a chemist learns a little programming to get a job done than to try to teach chemistry to a programmer and get his management to approve him spending the time. If a project ever gets escalated to where "real' programmers are needed, the scientists can, at least, have realistic expectations and do a better job explaining the problem. I've helped with the design of data models, which greatly lowered a project's complexity, because I knew a lot more about how the data was used.

    I have a good knowledge of my limitations. I now have a pretty good knowledge of yours except that I don't know who you are.

  9. Where my points? on Blood For Extra Credit Points Offer Raises Eyebrows In Test-Mad China · · Score: 3, Funny

    I've given about 90+ pints over the years. Too bad my kids are out of college. I guess I'm not in China either. Maybe we could institute some Social Security points so that I could retire earlier.

  10. Re:I dunno about LEDs, but CFLs don't last on The Great Lightbulb Conspiracy · · Score: 1

    I would agree. I haven't done the statistics on who made what when, but I've taken a boat load of those stupid CFL lights to the recycle bin at Lowe's. At least with the old incandescents I didn't feel so bad about tossing them in the trash. And they're cheaper and give off nicer light. The LED's we've tried seem to last and the light is about the same as the incandescents. So I plan to skip the CFL technology and move to LED, slowly. To help counter the greater cost, I bought some Cree stock.

  11. Re:I'm older but in the same boat on Ask Slashdot: How To Pick Up Astronomy and Physics As an Adult? · · Score: 5, Informative

    Don't do it, man! You'll have a hard time finding a good (read interesting) job without a PhD and with a PhD, you'll be out of work at 50. And you'll be bitter. Oh, and that PhD needs to be from a top ten university and you need to work for a big name and you'll have to work a lot harder than you think unless you're real smart. Oh, you'll also have to do a post-doc at an even better university and with an even more famous professor. If you're real smart and lucky you can make six-figures. Maybe, till you turn 50. Then you have to find something else to do. Or maybe you can get an academic job and you'll have to work 80 hours/week for 5 to 7 years after that post-doc till you get tenure, if you do. If you don't then you start over. And you may never make six-figures. It's a lot harder to be a happy chemist these days.

  12. Re:Windows XP on Ask Slashdot: What Old Technology Can't You Give Up? · · Score: 1

    I kinda feel the same way. I can't tell that 7 has solved any problems and has created a few. I now run 7 on VM fusion at work and parallels at home. Had to buy the one for home. And I had to upgrade quickbooks 2004 to 2014 ($$). I didn't do 8 cause the whole idea of putting fingers on my monitor screen freaks me out big time.

  13. Insightful comment lost! on About Half of Kids' Learning Ability Is In Their DNA · · Score: 0

    I was typing something really insightful about this and the stupid page reloaded and it all disappeared. Well, I'm not gonna type it again.

    But, I will call BS on this "generalist genes" concept.

  14. Not a bad idea! on China Bans Government Purchases of Windows 8 · · Score: 1

    Maybe the US government should consider doing the same thing.

  15. Build a moat. Oh yeah, get some boiling oil, too.

  16. Bad Attitude on Ask Slashdot: Computer Science Freshman, Too Soon To Job Hunt? · · Score: 1

    Wow, not much modding up on these posts. Lots of bitter people. Maybe you should consider a career in health care.

  17. Re:They didn't pay the rent? on Star Cluster Ejected From Galaxy At 2,000,000 MPH · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately, all the passengers would be smushed to a 1 mm thick puddle in the back of the capsule. That is if we got them to that speed in a lifetime. Or maybe not. I need to go do some more math.

  18. Dynaco A-25's on Ask Slashdot: What Tech Products Were Built To Last? · · Score: 1

    My Dynaco A-25 speakers still worked fine when I sold them on Craig's list a few years ago. I would have kept them but I no longer had a receiver to drive them. I asked for $30 each, the same price I paid in 1973. The guy paid that, saying it seemed like the right price and made a good story.

  19. Been there. on Investors Value Yahoo's Core Business At Less Than $0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I used to work for a biotech company. After we went public our stock did nothing but sink. There was a period of time where our total value was substantially less than our cash in the bank. In other words, a pile of money in the hands of our management was worth less than the same pile of money just sitting on a table. I tended to agree with the market on that one.

  20. Re:But Kansas! on Kansas To Nix Expansion of Google Fiber and Municipal Broadband · · Score: 2

    North Carolina also passed legislation like this a few years ago after the City of Wilson showed they could get much better internet if they did it themselves. The cable guy was so upset that he had to buy off the legislature and get this law passed to enable competition. Really?

  21. BS on Programming Molecules To Let Chemicals Make Decisions · · Score: 0

    I am an organic chemist. I'm not the smartest guy in the world but I do know a little bit about making molecules and their chances of doing useful things in the body. I've been doing this for 35 years and I have some credentials though I'm not a Harvard professor. My opinion is that this article is pure, extremely well crafted, bullshit. Throwing in all that math only makes it more so.

  22. Re:Well, it's something. on Google and Microsoft To Block Child-Abuse Search Terms · · Score: 1

    It seems that there is no problem so bad, that the coders don't think it can be solved by writing more code.

  23. Mac Word 6.0 by David Pogue on Does Software Need a Siskel and Ebert? · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I knew that the future of reliable reviews at the NYT was over when David Pogue gave MS Word 6.0 for the Mac a good review. It's almost universally seen as one of the worst software upgrades in history.

    I emailed him and told him I was disappointed.

  24. Re:The answer is SIMPLE on Why Can't Big Government Launch a Website? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The answer is simple: Wernher von Braun

    You need somebody in charge that knows what it looks like when it's finished.

  25. in vivo biology is not all science on How To Better Verify Scientific Research · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's important to remember that in vivo biology is not all of science. It's a lot harder to know what you're doing in biology. If you want excellent reproducible science, let's just roll balls down inclines, measure that and hope we don't get sick.