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User: nani+popoki

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  1. Re:Yeah, No on CEO Says One Laptop Per Child Project Has Achieved Its Goals · · Score: 2

    But the goal of OLPC wasn't to teach programming but rather to provide a programmable platform that was good for teaching. As a contributor to the OLPC activities library, I'm a little sad to see the project die "not with a bang but a whimper". (My contribution was a set of four programs that taught the night sky.)

  2. Old dog on Ask Slashdot: Can an Old Programmer Learn New Tricks? · · Score: 3, Informative

    I started programming 45 years ago. Over the years, I've learned to write code in about 12 languages, six of them professionally. I coded in PL/1, Fortran, BASIC, lisp, Pascal, Ada, FORTH, C, C++, Delphi, Java, Python and a bunch of assembly and shell script languages. I admit that I find it harder to learn a new language nowadays but some of that is because the languages have become more complex. It's been about five years since I had to learn a new language (that one was Python), so I expect I'll be teaching myself something new soon -- and I'm 65. So, I guess I'd have to say you have no excuse not to study another language.

  3. Back in the day... on The Poor Neglected Gifted Child · · Score: 2

    I was born in 1948, so I grew up in the era of the "space race". Back then -- at least in the suburban public school system I attended -- the system did emphasize academics for those who scored above average on the standardized tests. (Not that it prevented us nerds from being excluded from the social circles that courted the football jocks.) Science club, math club -- we had them. Local, regional, state and national science and math fairs were common and us over-achievers were expected to participate. AP science, math and English were offered. Yes, the system wasn't as PC as today. But most of the kids who graduated from high school could at least name all the planets in order of distance from the sun.

  4. Re:Entitlement millstones on NASA Wants To Go To Europa · · Score: 1

    Except its those over-65-ers like myself who grew up in the glory days of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo who are NASA's biggest fans. So your proposal would be self-defeating, I think.

  5. Yes, but on NSF Report Flawed; Americans Do Not Believe Astrology Is Scientific · · Score: 5, Funny

    How many who could correctly define astronomy still believe that it can be used to predict your future. Because that's astrophysics.

  6. Too much brainpower expended on Not Just Healthcare.gov: NASA Has 'Significant Problems' With $2.5B IT Contract · · Score: 1

    on coming up with an acronym and not enough on proper planning and execution. This seems to be an endemic problem with our government. Beaurocracy at its best!

  7. Let me see if I understand this right... on The App That Tracks Who's Tracking You · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is an app that exploits a security hole to detect apps that are exploiting a security hole? What's wrong with this picture?

  8. Clifford Simak predicted this on The Human Body May Not Be Cut Out For Space · · Score: 3, Interesting

    In his novel Time is the Simplest Thing, he wrote [paraphrasing] the human body was not cut out for space travel, a man dies to easily from radiation when passing through the Van Allen belts. This was written in 1961 -- just after the Van Allen belts were discovered and just before the first manned spaceflight.

  9. Is it a plague or more like the common cold? on Facebook Is a Plague That'll Burn Out In a Few Years, Says Study · · Score: 5, Funny

    On the other hand, Facebook might be more like a cold -- something that everybody dislikes but cannot entirely avoid.

  10. Maybe he should date a supermodel? on Python Scripting and Analyzing Your Way To Love · · Score: 1

    Saw this article just after reading this one:
    http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/20/...

  11. R.I.P., John on Telescope Designer and Astronomer John Dobson, 1915-2014 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's a sad day. He did so much to advance the art of telescope making and to make the night sky accessible to everyone.

    Perhaps a fitting memorial would be a national "dark skies" law, so that we all can have a night sky worth looking up for.

  12. Re:What the fuck is wrong with people? on How Quickly Will the Latest Arms Race Accelerate? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Insanity -> mad -> M.A.D. -> mutually assured destruction. There's definitely a connection here.

    It's not like this should be news to anybody. Humans have been throwing rocks at each other for thousands of generations. We've just gotten better at it lately.

  13. I've got a poor memory anyway on Ask Slashdot: How To Protect Your Passwords From Amnesia? · · Score: 1

    So I keep all my credentials written down in a Rolodex file. And I lock the file in a safe. This strategy has saved me no end of grief already. The most-frequently used creds I can remember; the more infrequently-used ones I have to access by one level of indirection. I figure if I forget the combination to the safe, I can always hire a locksmith. This also solves the problem of how your estate handles things like your on-line assets: your executor might need to access your accounts and everything is already organized to do so.

  14. The FDA could (will!) have something to say... NO! on The First Prescription-Only App · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I work in the medical products field as a software developer. You would not believe the amount of red tape involved in making a piece of software that is used to advise treatment. Such software is classified by the FDA as equivalent risk to an implanted defibrillator!

  15. wearable computing on Interview: Ask Limor Fried About Open-Source Hardware and Adafruit · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Do you intend to take the idea of wearable computing much beyond the eye-candy fashion accessories AdaFruit currently offers? It seems to me that there are opportunities for things like shoes which provide a built-in pedometer, for example.

  16. Re:But can you trust xavier2dc? on How I Compiled TrueCrypt For Windows and Matched the Official Binaries · · Score: 2

    Ken Thompson once presented a hack where he modified the C compiler to insert a backdoor in the generated code for the UNIX login code (and only that one specific module!). So trusting the compiler to do what you say is NOT an "of course".

  17. It had to be said... on Torvalds: SteamOS Will 'Really Help' Linux On the Desktop · · Score: 5, Funny

    If Linux is gathering Steam then it can't just be vaporware.

  18. The universe computes on third shift on When Does the Universe Compute? · · Score: 1

    On first shift, you submit the keypunch forms.

  19. As long as we're unlocking phones... on Obama Asks FCC To Make Carriers Unlock All Mobile Devices · · Score: 1

    ...could somebody figure out how to unlock Washington so that the electorate could switch carriers more easily? The two we carriers seem to be stuck with also need more competition!

  20. But on New Research Could Slow Human Aging · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...when 900 yeas old you be, look so good you will not!

  21. It's been done before on Box With Hidden Camera Travels Through the Mail · · Score: 1

    The camera arrived broken.

  22. 1984 comes around again on Will Microsoft Dis-Kinect Freeloading TV Viewers? · · Score: 1

    As the old joke goes...
    In soviet Russia, TV watches you.

  23. Seems like too few on KDE Announces 4.9 Releases · · Score: 1

    Why don't they just round up and make it 5.0 releases?

  24. Call me a novel addict... on What's Next For Superhero Movies? · · Score: -1, Troll

    ...but I don't think that the demographics work for a TV adaptation. If you are into comic books, I doubt you want a "richer and more complex story telling experience".

  25. Re:I support Dictator Obama on Executive Order Grants US Gov't New Powers Over Communication Systems · · Score: 1

    he already has. the black helicopters are in the air.