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User: philgp

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Comments · 29

  1. Re:Sigh on Spain's Hologram Protest: Thousands Join Virtual March In Madrid · · Score: 1

    Haha, yeah. Just like the "holographic" Liam Neeson in Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds stage show.

  2. Re:If control is possible. on Computer Scientists Say Meme Research Doesn't Threaten Free Speech · · Score: 2

    How many milli-LULZ before it goes viral?

    Over 9000.

  3. Re:Challenge Declined on Researchers Dare AI Experts To Crack New GOTCHA Password Scheme · · Score: 1

    You are Jim Lahey and I claim my £5.

  4. Re:WTF? on Pre-Dawn Wireless Emergency Alert Wakes Up NYC · · Score: 5, Funny

    So what have you done with the real Lord Apathy?

  5. Re:Grammar Nazism on Dust Devils Scour Surface of Mars · · Score: 1

    I agree entirely.

  6. Re:Grammar Nazism on Dust Devils Scour Surface of Mars · · Score: 1

    ... and, of course, Slashdot bloody well goes and replaces the carriage return I put between "singular" and "phenomena" with a space.

  7. Grammar Nazism on Dust Devils Scour Surface of Mars · · Score: 1

    Phenomenon: singular phenomena: plural

  8. Re:60 days! Thats nothing. on Scientists Develop Sixty Day Bread · · Score: 1

    I've always *preferred* the taste of UHT milk, especially on breakfast cereals. None of my friends will drink tea at my house, because I never buy pasteurised.

  9. Re:I can break the sound barrier. on Mathematicians Extend Einstein's Special Relativity Beyond Speed of Light · · Score: 1

    Back in the 80s, Peter Murphy broke the sound barrier in an armchair just by listening to Maxell audio cassettes.

  10. Re:Marketing guy's function on Why Non-Coders Shouldn't Write Code · · Score: 1

    You've hit the nail on the head there. It's also partially because I'd probably have to do significantly more job hunting than I'm prepared to (and probably even relocate) to find one of those semi-mythical employers who value programmers who take the time to do things properly. So I'm fully aware that I bear my share of blame for the situation I'm in.

  11. Re:Marketing guy's function on Why Non-Coders Shouldn't Write Code · · Score: 1

    Wow. I'm in exactly that situation now. I joined a small startup a few years ago where all the code had been written by one of the company founders whose plan all along was to work on it until they'd built up a strong enough business to take on an actual programmer.

    Whenever he gives me a job to work on, he's already done all the time scheduling and promising to customers, and instead of asking me how long it'll take, he tells me when it's got to be finished, adding "can you get it done in that time?". If I try to say no, he argues me down, saying he could do it easily in that time. And, just as you said, he probably could, but it would be an almost completely unmaintainable mess.

    It's made worse by the fact that I'm having to estimate how long it's going to take *me* to modify *his* code, and he just doesn't seem to understand why it'll take me longer than him to do it! Picture a single file project, 20,000 lines of Microchip PIC assembly code, no function header comments, not even any vertical spacing to hint at which labels mark the starts of functions and which labels are internal to functions; chunks of code processing arrays copied and pasted for each array element instead of put in a loop (he seems to go to great lengths to avoid writing loops); lots of copies of functions differing slightly from each other where he didn't seem to realize he could have parametrized one function; functions with names like "CALC_MAIN1", "CALC_MAIN2", "CALC_MAIN3" etc.; and, on top of all that, no specification document.

    Reading this back, I'm shaking my head at myself, wondering why I'm even still working here.

  12. Re:Always be wary of extrapolating on Mathematician Predicts Wave of Violence In 2020 · · Score: 2

    In AD 2101, war was beginning....

  13. Re:Obligatory on Defendant Ordered To Decrypt Laptop Claims She Had Forgotten Password · · Score: 1

    What does "mnemetic" mean?

  14. Re:This is an artifact to his experiment on The Curious Case of Increasing Misspelling Rates On Wikipedia · · Score: 1

    Why not use the entirety of Wikipedia rather than a random sample? Surely a modern PC wouldn't take long to spellcheck the whole lot?

  15. Re:One of the advantages of Linux on Red Hat's Linux Changes Raise New Questions · · Score: 1

    *I* didn't know that! Wow, live CDs are even more useful than I thought they were.

  16. Re:Don't force us to use the phone in the first pl on System Recognizes Emotions In People's Voices · · Score: 1

    Why take two bottles into the shower when you can just Wash & Go?

  17. Re:Old ideas live again on "Subconscious Mode" Could Boost Phone Battery Life · · Score: 2

    -15 karma points for using the (non-)word "irregardless".

  18. Nobody reads the subject on Finding Lost IT With RFID · · Score: 1

    Submitter, type out 500 times: 'I will not type "then" when I mean "than"'

  19. Re:Not necessarily binary on The Binary Code In Canada's Gov-Gen Coat of Arms · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's the part just after the encoded 2D bitmap of a circle.

  20. Re:An apt reminder... on Acupuncture May Trigger a Natural Painkiller · · Score: 1

    I don't believe you - that pun surely *was* intended!

  21. Re:Property Values on Lord British Claims He Owns the Moon · · Score: 1

    *BOOOM* adequately describes what my head did while trying to parse your post!

  22. Re:It's always been my dream ... on UK ID Cards Could Be Upgraded To Super ID Cards · · Score: 1

    Toilet paper lasts much longer when there are no women living in the house.

  23. Re:Evacuate this universe! on LHC Shut Down Again — By Baguette-Dropping Bird · · Score: 2, Insightful

    But surely that's just another way of saying "It's impossible to create free Higgs Bosons".

  24. Re:Oh, really? on Lies, Damned Lies, and the UK Copyright Industry · · Score: 1

    And, of course, 'its' in my above post should contain an apostrophe.

  25. Re:Oh, really? on Lies, Damned Lies, and the UK Copyright Industry · · Score: 1

    You don't need to add an 's' to media to make it plural - its already plural.