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  1. Re:Culturally Relevant == Irrelevant to CS on Is Computer Science Education Racist and Sexist? · · Score: 1

    I appreciate your opinion in the context of actual CS. It's science. Do it, or don't. Do it well, or do it poorly. It a discipline based on logic.

    This isn't really about CS. It's about CS education . Education and educators are their own thing. Their own "tribe" or culture. And as much as they like the concept of education being data-driven, and thus scientific to some degree -- it's not.

    Because educators are inherently educated. They're attracted to the institutions, culture and bias of education. They craft the questions to elicit the response their bias needs. They build the educational systems to provide the desired biased outcome.

    Someone will be very happy to be adding the work described in this article to their resume. It's a fine example of the kind of work that is rewarded by education and educators. So, in that respect, I disagree that the problem is inherently "political". I believe it's a culture clash between science/logic and education/educators.

  2. Re:No company can build well with a bad spec on How Much Is Oracle To Blame For Healthcare IT Woes? · · Score: 1

    How about a little RTFA?

    "Oracle could find itself the target of much more blame in the Oregon case, where it was reportedly the sole contractor and overseer." ...

    ... "Oregon has spent more than $40 million to build its own online health care exchange. It gave that money to a Silicon Valley titan, Oracle, but the result has been a disaster of missed deadlines, a nonworking website and a state forced to process thousands of insurance applications on paper.

    Some Oregon officials were sounding alarms about the tech company's work on the state's online health care exchange as early as last spring. Oracle was behind schedule and, worse, didn't seem able to offer an estimate of what it would take to get the state's online exchange up and running." ...

    ... "The state hired Oracle to make that possible and has paid the company $43 million so far. But Oracle has missed deadline after deadline.

    Kline is fed up with the delays for the rollout. "They told us Oct. 1, they told us Oct. 15, they told us Nov. 1, they told us Nov. 30," Kline says. "Come on!" ...

    Maybe you should stick to posting anything-about-state-government-is-bad feedback at the Oregonian.

  3. Mission Accomplished on Ask Slashdot: Best Laptops For Fans Of Pre-Retina MacBook Pro? · · Score: 1

    Came looking for Apple fanbois to basically tell the OP to shove off and deal with it.

    Am not disappoint.

  4. Re:I guess I'll see on Next World of Warcraft Expansion: Warlords of Draenor · · Score: 1
  5. Not. Acceptable. on GIMP, Citing Ad Policies, Moves to FTP Rather Than SourceForge Downloads · · Score: 4, Informative

    Please inform your "corporate parent" that installer hijacking is a dick move.

  6. No Time for the Damn Video on David Craddock and Two Blizzard North Co-Founders Answer Your Questions (Video) · · Score: 3, Informative

    Please produce transcripts. Thanks.

  7. Re:Personally on Most IT Workers Don't Have STEM (Science, Tech, Engineering, Math) Degrees · · Score: 1

    I once was interviewed by a company that was all wound up about schooling and degrees. As such, they showed their inability to evaluate real-world criteria and failed my screening process. I hired a different company to employ me instead.

    The company asking for my transcripts 15 years after my last class went out of business within 4 years. So please, do continue. We need more evolution in action in the job market.

  8. Re:you really want to know what obamacare is? on Obamacare Website Fixes Could Take Two Weeks Or Two Months · · Score: 2

    The Oregon website seems to be working well also. I was surprised by the number of insurance carriers, and the number of plans.

    Who knows how long some folks will scream and kick about it all, or if their tantrums will prevent progress.

    The lowest tier plans along with subsidies should work as intended to promote preventive care and health partnerships instead of bankrupting folks going to emergency rooms, and leaving the rest of the system holding the bag. It will still leave a lot to be desired, like dismantling the "we've got a pill for that" western medicine profit machines.

  9. Re:Jobs vision was Eberharts vision on Larry Ellison Believes Apple Is Doomed · · Score: 1

    "the cloud dream of ubiquitous sensing and computing" - - seriously?

    They make shit. I use the vulgar, derogatory term because in no way does your life really depend on anything they make.

    They want - need - you to buy their shit. So they can make money. Money money money money money money money! That's what it's all about! Simon says! Because they're a publicly traded company.

    And that's it. No pie in the cloudy sky dreams fulfilled, unless that's part of their marketing shpiel designed for the sole purpose of making more money.

  10. Summary Appears to be Wrong on Swirls In the Afterglow of the Big Bang Could Set Stage For Major Discovery · · Score: 3, Insightful

    From TFA:
    "...But first scientists must detect B-modes of any kind. That's what the team with the South Pole Telescope (SPT), a 10-meter dish in Antarctica, has done. B-modes can come from "foreground" radiation from within our galaxy, or when the gravity from the vast web of matter that fills the universe distorts the image of E-modes in the CMB. That distortion is called gravitation lensing, and SPT has observed lensing-induced B-modes..."

    It then goes on to basically admit that other teams are better equipped to find actual B-modes in the CMB.

    A fine job of pattern-matching, but not what is advertised.

  11. Re:Car to Car Spectrum is needed. on Carmakers Oppose Opening Up 5GHZ Spectrum Space For Unlicensed Wi-Fi · · Score: 1

    The problem with this article is people have no idea why the car manufacturers are upset, all they see is some big corporation opposing the release of more profit (and some sensationalist WIFI BS by bloggers). Or course this draws out the communists among us that want all corporations to go away.

    This all fails to miss the entire point of why the Auto companies are opposing this. This profit is directly adjacent to profits allocated for profit. What is profit? It's profit that was allocated a number of years ago to allow profits. What is the point of that? Well one of the key aspects of this profit is that without it you don't have reliable profits which will greatly hamper profit.

    See, if you are going to have profit those profits need to be able to communicate with each other, they need to tell the profits around them that they need to change lanes, or that they are breaking. The holy grail of profit is a situation where profits are driving 70MPH with about 2 feet between them. This will greatly increase the density of profits and allow the freeways to operate about 200% more efficiently than now. But for that all to work the profits have to tell each other what they are doing so the other profits can react. Even with no perception-reaction time for computers you will greatly decrease the possible efficiency if the profits can't communicate real time. The only way to make this safe is profit with low interference.

    If we have thousands of WIFI signals in adjacent profits there will be so much interference that the systems won't be reliable, the result will either be safety problems or drastically reduced efficiency. Profits are a holy grail of ITS (intelligent transportation systems) that has been being pursued since the early 90's. It will result in freeways that are so much more efficient than today that you could fit 3-4 times the number of profits in the same freeway without any slow downs or rush hour traffic jams. Not only that but you could read a book while driving to work.

    We don't want to impede or endanger profits. The profit manufacturers concerns about interference need to be taken seriously.

    ----------

    FTFY. Realist, not Communist.

  12. Completely Normal and Predictable on Schmidt, Daughter Talk About North Korea Trip · · Score: 2

    Shocking? Not even.

    NK hosts a staged visit for a famous US businessperson. It's a prestige move. Cue the Stuart skit from Mad TV -- "Look what I can do!"

    US businessperson visits NK. Sees through the eye of his personal reality tunnel, which ignores most everything except how he can profit. What must change so he can profit. How can he use what he's experiencing for PROFIT.

    Nothing to see here, move along.

  13. Welcome to Big Data Research on Forbes 2013 Career List Flamed By University Professors · · Score: 1

    Welcome to Big Data Research, where the algorithms can't lie. Actually evaluating the stressors of real jobs using scientific methods is so old-school. And if the outcome appears incorrect we just need a bigger database...

  14. This isn't "Malware". This isn't "Hacking". on Ask Slashdot: What To Tell Non-Tech Savvy Family About Malware? · · Score: 1

    This isn't "Malware". This isn't "Hacking". It's just Phishing.

    Read this: http://www.securingthehuman.org/newsletters/ouch/issues/OUCH-201112_en.pdf

    Explain that email was invented in the mid-70s and hasn't really changed that much. Security wasn't a factor back then, and its easy to write an email that appears to come from anyone.

  15. Re:From the original article... on Judge Issues Temporary Order Blocking Expulsion For Refusing To Wear RFID Tag · · Score: 1

    Yea... But infowars.com looks a bit like the Time Cube site with like-minded advertising...

    Methinks they'd print anything as long as it was way far-right leaning and/or controversial.

  16. Re:darn! on Roaming Robot May Explore Mysterious Moon Caverns · · Score: 1

    So... You want to see a hole-y rover, then.

  17. Not the Same on To Google Friends Or Not To Google, That Is the Question · · Score: 1

    General searches will tell you a lot more about what somebody was like in the past. People change... particularly over the course of decades. And now we're accumulating those lengths of histories on the 'net.

    Also, some sources will reflect who you are in relation to the theme or concept you interacted with. LinkedIn is a great example -- it tells how a person is when they're posturing for job contacts.

    I do also agree with some of the previous statements regarding trust, as it's the basis of any relationship.

    And social accountability? I'm reminded of that phrase, "None of us is a dumb as all of us."

    Maybe there are some positive use-cases to this concept. But there are definitely some huge pitfalls. No panacea of human matchmaking will be found here. And our propensity to attach a label to someone -- "they are a ..." -- based on something they did in the past and then never re-evaluating the person they've become... It's pretty lame. It's like we can't be bothered to find the reality of a person. And I can see this amplifying that propensity.

  18. Re:Not impressed on Microsoft Surface Review: a Tale of Two Tablets · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "legacy" x86 apps? What?

    When you're referring to the entirety of the -current- Windows software ecosystem, except for a few corner cases that have been ported, "legacy" hardly seems the proper label.

  19. Re:WGAF? on iPhone 5 GeekBench Results · · Score: 1

    You, sir, have mis-spoken.
    When you compare the new iPheone to any Android-based device in real-world conditions, you'll see that the iPhone is much faster.
    And by real-world conditions, I mean how fast the scroll list will go bouncy when its flicked really fast. So show me an Android that can do that better!



    ...


    No, pay no attention to the pack of growling, drooling lawyers behind me... C'mon... Show me! I dare ya!

  20. Fear of Failure on Are You Gaming For the Right Reasons? · · Score: 1

    The things that people pin on "fear of failure" really crack me up. Some people are better at some things than others, and running with your areas of expertise while eschewing others seems perfectly reasonable.

    And then so much of life is a roll of the bones anyway... Why aren't you playing the lottery? It must be your fear of failure...

  21. Opinions are Like... on Bill "The Science Guy" Nye Says Creationism Is Not Appropriate For Children · · Score: 1

    Always black and white with this subject when the multiverse is grey...

    Belief in God is fine. It feeds the soul. It speaks to the world of spirit. It's a really great thing. But it's a really rare belief system that demands it's practitioners to be -in the moment- and holding spirit with presence. The Bible points us toward that state of mind, but too many are worshiping the words instead. That leads to absurdities like expecting the words to literally explain all that is in a dynamically changing environment.

    Belief in Science is fine. It feeds the mind. It speaks to the world of experience and logic. It's a really great thing. But it's a really rare belief system that demands it's practitioners to be willing to toss aside all theories to consider another. Science demands that we treat all our scientific knowledge as theories, but too many are clinging to our models as facts, and the map is never the territory. This leads to absurdities like scientism and the belief that science can fully explain all aspects of our existence and consciousness.

    Life contains many mysteries. Use all your lenses, including science, spirituality, and any other reality tunnel you've got, to see the mysteries from many perspectives.

  22. Re:For the masses? on Satellite Uplinks For the Masses · · Score: 1

    I've been very disappointed with 3G and 4G connectivity in many places... Even with excellent radio signal, I've had similar experiences trying to perform remote administration. Congestion on cellular can be crazy these days. A 1G link without congestion would be preferable to this...

    There are locations that my employer is considering having a point-of-presence with a need for access to email and a couple of Citrix XenApp applications. The only thing apparently available is satellite, and I loathe the thought...

  23. Re:I bought one on Cherry MX Mechanical Keyboard Switches Compared · · Score: 1

    I've bought 3 ... it's the only thing I want to type on. I've had one for over 3 years and it seems indestructible. The key printing isn't rubbing off either.

    What's great is how they've become viral at work since I've brought mine in. It's great to hear the clickety-clack coming from other offices.

    Relevant to this article, I bought a Rosewill to try. The build quality is less-than-desirable, and I suppose I'll be trying out their warranty service with the referenced USB port issue. I've stopped buying Rosewill -- it seems that too many of their products have some fatal flaw on an otherwise okay and cheap component. Such a waste of good switches.

  24. Re:Why The Fuss? on Samsung Admonished For Releasing Rejected Evidence · · Score: 1

    It may help to make more sense if you'll notice that both "capitalistic" and "dystopia" are merely adjectives. They're used to describe the subject of: view of the "information age"

    This -view- is all too common to gigantic, capitalistic corporations as well as individuals and other entities. My opinion, or lament as you've described it, regarding this view involves a myopic focus upon the monetization of information rather than evolving our species from its primitive state.

    Your lack of cognitive dissonance is my goal. Please let me know if there's more I can clarify.

  25. Why The Fuss? on Samsung Admonished For Releasing Rejected Evidence · · Score: 1

    The outcome of this case is painfully obvious -- I don't understand why there's so much debate about it...

    From patents to SOPA to the *AAs running the Justice Dept. and every little thing in-between, the "new economy" of the United States is a particular dystopian capitalistic view of the "information age".

    Apple is the poster child of this movement. Like a Babe Ruth of it's time... like a blue-ribbon apple pie... Apple is the epitome of American elitism expressed as a company.

    They can't lose. Not right now. Not on home turf. Not until after a critical mass of the planet's governments stop buying into the dystopian vision.