Slashdot Mirror


User: PerlPunk

PerlPunk's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
125
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 125

  1. Re:What are they doing? on Perl 6 In Time For Next Christmas? · · Score: 1

    Regular expression grammars? Perl 5's regexes still beat everyone else's hands down. Significant advances here--especially if performance optimized--would be something to have a look at.

  2. Re:Perl Forever on Perl 6 In Time For Next Christmas? · · Score: 1

    Perl 6 is the developers equivalent of Duke Nukem Forever. I'll believe it when I see it.

    Appropriate simile.

  3. Journal Peer Does What?? on Does Journal Peer Review Miss Best and Brightest? · · Score: 1

    For a minute, I thought the headline said that someone who is a journal peer reviews someone nicknamed "Miss Best and Brightest".

  4. Tools not the real problem on 'Just Let Me Code!' · · Score: 1

    Tools make it easier for project managers and execs to try to collect data from developers for compliance initiatives, and the additional (and often unnecessary) burden that places on a development team in turn compromises development efforts, including those not directly related to coding.

  5. Good idea on German NSA Committee May Turn To Typewriters To Stop Leaks · · Score: 1

    I'm for it.

  6. Re:Meh on R Throwdown Challenge · · Score: 1

    I agree with the above about R. But as regards to reliability, I would prefer SAS to R, even though I hate SAS even more than R. Yes, R has lots and lots of features, good documentation, better libraries than any other out there. But sometimes I find discrepancies between R and SAS in performing the same operations, and when I test which is right SAS always seems to win. That is to say that R as an open source platform has the same problems open source platforms tend to have -- buggy code, sometimes inconsistent or barely-there documentation. Vendor-supported software like SAS does have a quality advantage.

    Also, Matlab / Octave rocks when it comes to matrix manipulation. It beats R hands down in working with matrices.

  7. The new rule is compassionate on Let Spouses of H-1B Visa Holders Work In US, Says White House · · Score: 1

    I mean, please, let them do what reasonable people should be expected to do to make a life for themselves!

    If you see the conditions some of the families of H1-B visa holders live in, through no fault of their own, you would agree to let spouses work if they can and are willing.

    This is a question of decency, and dignity.

  8. Change name of company on Ask Team Trying To Return 36-Year-Old Spacecraft From Space About Their Project · · Score: 1, Funny

    Should be Skynet

  9. Re:Oh goodness me, non-military means! on ZunZuneo: USAID Funded 'Cuban Twitter' To Undermine Communist Regime · · Score: 2

    Mod up parent, please.

  10. Lecithin to Soy Lecithin on Asia's Richest Man Is Betting Big On Silicon Valley's Fake Eggs · · Score: 1

    Soy lecithin is a good example of how plant-based replacements for eggs can succeed.

  11. Re:Am I the only one... on Britain's GCHQ Attacked Anonymous Supporters With DDoS · · Score: 1

    No, you aren't.

  12. As long as it's James Bond or Q doing it . . . on Britain's GCHQ Attacked Anonymous Supporters With DDoS · · Score: 1

    . . . I'm totally down with it.

  13. Facilitate Commercial Space Flight on International Space Station Mission Extended To 2024 · · Score: 1

    NASA should move into a role of supporting commercial space flight. Let players like SpaceX and Bigelow Aerospace create the technologies needed. Let the lawyers figure out how to grant property rights on the Moon, Mars, etc. At this point, I'm inclined to view the ISS as a LEO flying turkey.

  14. Rules are going to be used against US, not others on US Working To Kill UN Privacy Resolutions · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If you think the signatories to the privacy rules really believe in them, you are smoking some awfully strong weed. No politician--NO POLITICIAN--cares about your privacy. At best those rules will be used unilaterally and when some advantage against the US can be secured through those rules.

    On the flip-side, if you think the US is doing the same thing, you're right. This is politics, and you have to see both sides, not just one, through political lenses.

  15. Moral dilemma for the IT community on US Intelligence Chief Defends Attempts To Break Tor · · Score: 0

    On the one horn of the dilemma, we like privacy and want information to be free. So we embrace technologies like Tor, form darknets, etc. But on the other horn, there really are people out there who will use these technologies to bring harm to innocent people--for the greater good, of course (or for a profit). These people will use technology against our best wishes.

  16. Dayamn! Thjs is big! on Adobe Hacked: Almost 3 Million Accounts Compromised · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is big news. Expect untold exploits for the Adobe technology stack to emerge out of this. If someone or some group is determined to run Adobe into the ground, they are off to a good start.

  17. Connecticut? Of course! on Utility Sets IT Department On Path To Self-destruction · · Score: 1

    That was my reaction when I saw the article. According to http://www.forbes.com/sites/jimpowell/2013/08/01/how-did-rich-connecticut-morph-into-one-of-americas-worst-performing-economies/ , Connecticut dug itself a cozy little fiscal hole. Now the proverbial chickens from a whole host of public welfare schemes and public-sector union bloat are coming home to roost.

  18. So what? on NSA Chief Built Star Trek Like Command Center · · Score: 1, Insightful

    So what if it if the design is inspired by a Sci-Fi TV show? Show me that this would have cost way more than some other design had a non-Star Trek fan been responsible for its acquisition.

  19. Re:Definitely A Copyright Violation on Ministry of Sound Suing Spotify Over User Playlists · · Score: 1

    There are two questions here: an ontological one (is authorial intent immanent in a playlist?), and a moral one (would it be right to claim copyright over all of one's publicly created playlists?). Of the two, the ontological one is fundamental to the moral one. If authorial intent is not reflected in the playlist, then there is no moral argument.

  20. Re:List Copywrites on Ministry of Sound Suing Spotify Over User Playlists · · Score: 4, Funny

    I can now copywrite my grocery list? Sweet!

    You can copyedit it, too.

  21. Definitely A Copyright Violation on Ministry of Sound Suing Spotify Over User Playlists · · Score: -1, Troll

    The order of songs in an album is indeed an artistic decision. It definitely deserves copyright protection.

  22. Re:These NZ-ers have gone bonkers! on New Zealand Set To Prohibit Software Patents · · Score: 1

    You're an Anonymous Coward!

  23. These NZ-ers have gone bonkers! on New Zealand Set To Prohibit Software Patents · · Score: 1

    'Nuf said.

  24. Makes sense on Browser Choice May Affect Your Job Prospects · · Score: 0

    Given that the population we are discussing are developers and other IT people, intuitively it makes sense because FF and Chrome provide all sorts of developer tools that you don't get with IE.

  25. There is growth in some fields. on Is the Era of Groundbreaking Science Over? · · Score: 1

    Some fields where there is growth and potential for breakthrough will include the field of statistics proper and fields that rely heavily on it. The revolution in information technology has enabled growth in the field of statistics because it has allowed the investigation of theoretical questions that could not be tested before cheap and powerful computational facility came before. CART and Random Forest algorithms, for example, were made possible by the IT revolution. Fields like genetics (obviously) and sociology and psychology (less obviously) will grow because of this.

    Note that in these last two fields (sociology, psychology), there have in the last 100 years been no breakthroughs that are the equivalent of a heart-transplant or splitting the atom. So, there is indeed room for growth in these fields.

    That said, along with information technology, fields in the humanistic sciences will still probably be constrained by the ability to reliably a) observe phenomena, and b) account for a vast number of hidden variables. So advances there will be the result of revolutions in ability to observe human phenomena.