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User: Latent+Heat

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  1. Ooo-mahn fee-males on The Changing Face of Software Development · · Score: 1

    Just so long they don't where clothes. That is the ultimate depravity.

  2. Philistines on Sinkhole Sucks Brains From Wasteful Bitcoin Mining Botnet · · Score: 1
    One likens such thieves to the Biblical Philistines.

    The account is that the Israelites received Divine Punishment For Something that the Ark of the Covenant was captured by their enemy, the Philistines.

    Now the Ark didn't do much good for the Philistines either. I guess they took it as a war trophy or because it was kewl, but they didn't believe in the religion behind the Ark so their possession of it was a sacrilege. In the Hollywood movie, the Ark melted the faces of the Nazis, who coveted the Ark but they weren't Good People who would benefit from the Ark. What happened to the Philistines? Depending on the translation, they got rectal lesions -- hemorroids or even rectal cancer, depending on whom you believe.

    So if a thief, say, swipes 100 dollars, you are 100 dollars poorer and the thief is 100 dollars richer. Suppose the thief swipes your prized vinyl record collection. To you, the collection was beyond value, irreplacable 60's vintage recordings in their original jackets. To the thief, let's say the thief gets only 1 cent on the dollar "for that junk." That thief took something of value from you but did not obtain anything of value to him. That thief is a Biblical Philistine.

  3. The Swiss dude on Ask Slashdot: Prioritizing Saleable Used Computer Books? · · Score: 1

    Although not (major) language inventors, I still see value in the writings of the Dutch dude and the Scandinavian-American dude . . .

  4. What's in your wallet? on Ostrich-Egg Globe Believed Oldest To Show New World · · Score: 1

    But didn't the Vikings carry a credit card that gave them more usable Rewards Points for their overseas travels?

  5. Native Americans navigated IFR? on Ostrich-Egg Globe Believed Oldest To Show New World · · Score: 1
    Maps are for VFR pilot weenies.

    IFR navigation is largely following directions in relation to radio beacons, largely VOR headings marking "Victor airways" and the intersecting points of VOR headings.

    Pre-9-11, I had conversations with cockpit crews and was told that IFR nav, in turn, is for General Aviation weenies as the Big Guys up in the Positive-Control Airspace of the Flight Levels and Terminal Control Areas do it by The Great Spirit in the Sky giving them radar vectors . . .

  6. Meteorite origin, I suppose it had enough nickel to qualify for Stainless and was on the Stone Age bride registry?

  7. Navajo Nation on Datacenter Gives Internet To 70 Percent of Navajo Nation · · Score: 3, Insightful

    My understanding is that the Navajo Nation is as much a valid political entity as, say, the State of Wisconsin. Navajo Nation is almost but not completely unlike one of the 50 states in our Federal system. So if you Find and Replace "Wisconsin" into the parent post, it doesn't seem at all racist.

  8. Oprah Winfrey on Request to Falsify Data Published In Chemistry Journal · · Score: 1
    Oprah was refused to be shown a handbag by a Swiss shopkeeper claiming it was too expensive for her.

    In a fit of pique, she purchased the entire country and now Stedman is evicting all its citizens to make way for condos . . .

  9. We don't even know what a "job" is on Back To 'The Future of Programming' · · Score: 1
    Yeah.

    We don't even know what "employment" is, what a "salary" is, and what "benefits" are . . .

  10. You mean like the Antikythera Mechanism? on Back To 'The Future of Programming' · · Score: 1
  11. What about the woman sidekick? on Should the Next 'Doctor Who' Be a Woman? · · Score: 3, Interesting
    C'mon people, Dr. Who has always had a female sidekick, a very youthful and "pneumatic" (borrowing a term from Huxley) female sidekick, or somehow acquires such a woman companion in the course of the particular adventure or story arc. One such companion was a "cave woman" dressed in (poorly draped, yes!) skins; another was a flight attendant from an airliner that got caught up in a time warp.

    These sidekicks are hot by the standards of women on British TV where the extremes in cosmetic dentistry, dermatology, and plastic surgery are not followed as rigorously as in Hollywood.

    So would the female Dr. Who have a beefcake dude sidekick? Would the female Dr. Who be a babe or perhaps a mature woman in the tradition of Helen Mirren, Judy Dench, or Amanda Richardson? Or maybe a West Indian babe with a delicious regional accent as the police captain who thinks Holmes is a dangerous vigilante and medler into police business as in that Sherlock Holmes reboot (and gosh no, not the Robert Downey Jr. one).

  12. Ebonic headline on New Doctor Who Actor To Be Revealed This Sunday · · Score: 2

    I read "New Doctor Who Actor" as Ebonic grammar . . .

  13. Engineering to compensate for mental lapse on Ask Slashdot: Is Tech Talent More Important Than Skill? · · Score: 1
    I have an 18 year old car with 186,000 miles. I drove it a couple miles, parked the car for an hour, and then I proceeded to drive home.

    The engine had trouble shifting out of 1st gear. I pull off the road, turn off the engine and restart to "reboot", drive off, and it shifts, but the engine labors.

    I pull into the garage at home, and I am starting to trail smoke. Turn off the motor and the car smells real bad. Oh oh, the transmission just gave out and time to call the scrap dealer.

    Curiousity takes over and I pull the transmission dipstick, and the fluid looks clean and smells fresh. Hmmm.

    I start the car up thinking that an alternator or water pump is frozen, but the belt runs OK and no burning smell. I take the car up the road and pull over. It shifts OK but is running kinda sluggish. I had a problem with stuck brake calipers so a spit real good and touched each rotor.

    The front rotors are cold. A back rotor is hot. Is that brake acting up again, just had the back brakes done. The other back rotor is hot. Is the parking brake dragging? Open the driver's door and, dang, I had left the parking brake on.

    The brake light doesn't light anymore, and I parked in a public lot on a slight incline, so I set the brake. I put a sheet of paper over the steering column as a reminder. I had got in the car, pulled the sheet, and promptly forgotten what I had done so I drove away. No car problem -- I have a brain problem. Pop spent his last days in long-term care and I am age 56.

  14. Skill, talent, and head banging on Ask Slashdot: Is Tech Talent More Important Than Skill? · · Score: 1
    Is there a box to check for willingness to pound one's head against the wall solving a problem?

    I had a vanity Web page where I posted a workaround in a once popular programming language/system.

    I received a "cold call" in effect interviewing me for a job. I guess there is not a big market for skill in the once popular programming language/system, but when a person needs that kind of developer, that need that kind of developer and cast a wide net.

    I guess the solution I posted communicated that I had a lot of skill in that system. The person calling proceeded to ask me a lot of interview-type questions, "Did I know feature X? Did I know feature Y?"

    I guess I didn't need to change jobs or I wasn't going to leap at freelancing when I had enough work to do or I may be lacking in some social skills. I guess I blurted out that I didn't know any of those things because I used this system but didn't have that level of skill in it. I explained that I really needed a solution to the problem I had encountered and I didn't let my lack of skills stop me from reading source code to that system to get to the bottom of what was happening and I posted what I came up with should anyone else benefit by that discovery as I am in an academic environment. The finding didn't rise to the level of a publication but it merited a vanity Web page.

    A colleague describes that as "banging your head on the wall." Some hardware or software doesn't work according to spec, you can't scrap it, so you keep testing and debugging and searching and head scratching until you come up with a fix. It isn't skill, it isn't talent, it is simply a willingness to do whatever work it takes and not quit.

  15. Friendly "hey dude" from the control tower on Second SFO Disaster Avoided Seconds Before Crash · · Score: 2

    Yeah, but ATC had to tell the crew, "hey dude", you are coming in too low. This is good of the tower to give them that help, but it is like your passenger calling out to you that you are about to drive off the road -- it is really the pilot's/driver's responsibility to stay on path. If your passengers are calling out warnings of impending crashes to you, you might want to better look where you are going.

  16. As I was saying on Interactive Nukemap Now In 3D · · Score: 1

    Oppenheimer's pith, poetic, and prophetic "I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds" makes for a great quotation, but it probably has as much to do with the original text as say, the King James Bible.

  17. Ba doom boom! on The Book That Is Making All Movies the Same · · Score: 1

    I think we get the joke . . .

  18. Is that all? on Interactive Nukemap Now In 3D · · Score: 1
    Only 40%?

    I had heard of nuclear mining and excavation in the Plowshare Program.

    Nuclear construction demolition of old buildings?

  19. I asked actual Hindus about that on Interactive Nukemap Now In 3D · · Score: 1
    I ran that Oppenheimer quote past some T.A.s from India, and they couldn't make sense of it either.

    Seems Oppenheimer studied Sanskrit and that was his own translation into English.

  20. They came for the smokers, but I was not . . . on Obamacare Software Glitch Will Limit Penalties Charged To Smokers · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I am not a smoker and have no intention of taking it up. As a child, my dad smoked a lot, and I found the smoke seriously unpleasant. That people cannot smoke in public buildings is such a blessing.

    But why are we choosing to charge smokers more? I thought smoking was an addiction and we are supposed to offer health care regardless of pre-existing condition?

    Are we going to charge single women or "slutty" women more for reproductive health care because, like, they shouldn't be "doing it"?

    Are we going to charge fat persons more?

    Are we going to charge people more if they admit to other drug dependencies?

    Are we going to charge gay men more unless they can prove they are monogamous? Straight men more unless they can prove they are not "cheating"?

    And how do we enforce this? If we catch you smoking and we cancel your health insurance? Put you in jail?

    What about an occasional cigar smoker or someone who takes a drag when "a joint is passed around"?

    Are the authorities going to stick a OBD-II dongle in your car to make sure you aren't driving too fast?

    What about drinking and binge drinking? Are you going to get a rate break for abstaining, and does your rate go up if someone spots you taking a sip of champaign at a wedding?

  21. Fools, all of you! on Industrious Dad Finds the Genetic Culprit To His Daughters Mysterious Disease · · Score: 2
    I am trying to pin down the movie trope that I call "Fools, all of you!", but I am not finding the right references or calling it by the right name.

    The updated version is in Ghostbusters, where the Ghostbusters have been riding around in their salvaged ambulance rounding up ghosts in reponse to calls from worried property owners, and they have these ghosts confined in their "confinement grid" inside the one-time firehouse that they have converted into their place of business/headquarters.

    The "anal retentive dude" "from the EPA" shows up, not fully understanding what they Ghostbusters are doing, and demands that the Ghostbusters shut off their confinement grid as he charges is is an "illegal hazardous waste storage facility."

    In a classic movie, this would be the peasants charging Dr. Frankenstein's castle, demanding that he stop doing what the peasants are afraid of but don't understand but is claimed to be done for their "own good" anyway, releasing The Monster (i.e. "Frankenstein's Monster" or simply "Frankenstein") in the process, with Dr. Frankenstein (the mad scientist, not the monster) yelling, "fools, all of you!" (for unleashing the Monster out of the peasants' ignorance).

    Bill Murray's hip version of this is that the Mayor is in the entourage with anal EPA dude, after the Mayor hears from the Ghostbusters that disconnecting the "confinement grid" will bring great harm "to the city", the Mayor asks Murray, "Is this all true" to which Murray responds, "Yes, this is true, this man (EPA dude) has no d__k (a retort Murray's character had made to the EPA dude in response to EPA dude's officious bluster).

    Any ideas? Maybe what I am looking for isn't called "Fools, all of you!" (my Web searches turn that up as spoken by the sci-fi Lovecraft-esque villian, that the citizenry cannot resist the bad supernatural forces unleashed by the villian, rather than a "good guy" made scientist who is made out to be the villian because of the Luddite attitude of the peasants-with-pitchforms?)

  22. Work with me, people on How Did You Learn How To Program? · · Score: 1

    OK, OK, so you started with a plug-programmed card sorter. Play along here with the Dana Carvey "Grumpey old man." There must be stuff about that system you can think of that resulted in personal injury that you simply shrugged off because it was in "olden times." Maybe something to do with the belt drive on the pulley . . .

  23. Why, when I was young . . . on How Did You Learn How To Program? · · Score: 1
    Weee didn't have those fancy punch cards and FORTRAN compilers like you young whippersnappers.

    Weee had to walk 10 miles to the University computer center. And it was uphill in each direction.

    And we had to enter raw machine code in binary using the front-panel switches, which we did until our fingers bled. And we liked it!

  24. My commencement address on A Commencement Speech For 2013 CS Majors · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Show up to work. 99 percent of success is being there.

    Be resourceful. Find ways to do your job without complaint or constantly and chronically asking for the next task to be done.

    Do these two things and your will be prosperous.

    (sits down to great cheers for having ended the speech in 30 seconds)

  25. What is it I am supposed to learn? on What Professors Can Learn From "Hard Core" MOOC Students · · Score: 3, Interesting
    OK, people are "addicted to MOOCs" much as people are "addicted" to TV or to the Internet.

    How does this help me teach people to be engineers?