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User: u38cg

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Comments · 2,754

  1. Re:useless without infrastructure on Ask Slashdot: Permanent Preservation of Human Knowledge? · · Score: 1

    Bequeath them writing, printing, a basic run-down of Adam Smith, and a concice description of the scientific method. If you get those right you can do the rest yourself in a few hundred years.

  2. Re:Bank fees on Employers Switching From Payroll Checks To Prepaid Cards With Fees · · Score: 1

    Actually, the interest the bank earns on lending very easily covers the cost of servicing your accoubnt and a healthy profit on top. Fees are just icing on the cake.

  3. Re:Any news on his last book? on Iain Banks Dies of Cancer At 59 · · Score: 1

    Not quite as ironic as the subject matter of The Quarry, which was written pre-diagnosis.

  4. Probably just a very enthusiastic dictionary attack and a crappy password.

  5. Re:You don't have to open the door on U.S. District Judge: Forced Decryption of Hard Drives Violates Fifth Amendment · · Score: 1

    Actually you do. It is a contempt of court not to co-operate with a warrant.

  6. Re:I'd rather not be a 'king'. on Richard III Suffered an Ignominious Burial, Researchers Find · · Score: 1

    How much wood do you have to burn to heat up 200 litres of water?

  7. Re:Fat Hatred on Med Students Unaware of Their Bias Against Obese Patients · · Score: 1

    Now repeat that calculation, but include the contribution the individuals make to their healthcare cost. Suddenly, the obese and the smokers don't look so cost efficient.

  8. Re:How about cutting Notes? on Goodbye, Lotus 1-2-3 · · Score: 1

    Because the only thing harder than staying on Notes, for us, is transitioning off it. Damn thing is like the Borg, except slightly better at adapting.

  9. Re:Competition is often complex. on Bill Gates Opens Up About Steve Jobs · · Score: 1

    It was in fact quite common at one time. Kaiser Wilhelm (Victoria's grandson) was an Admiral of the British Navy and Colenel-In-Chief of the 1st Royal Dragoons and exchanges and friendships were common enough that meetings between opposing officers after engagements in the early days of the war were often friendly reunions.

  10. Re:Yawn on Realtime GPU Audio · · Score: 1

    I find it a bit odd, because this is stuff that's been around for ages. You can buy commercial packages off the shelf for many instruments, particularly piano, and they sound fantastic.

  11. Re:Petty thieves on ATMs Compromised, $45M Taken · · Score: 1

    Essentially, yes. This is seriously embarrassing but from an operational point of view, barely note-worthy. They'll spend more money hedging liabilities. The real impact of this is reputational (and for the person responsible, who is now Executive Director in Charge of Applying for New Careers).

  12. Re:Good on Google Formally Puts Palestine On Virtual Map · · Score: 1
    Actually, Israel has a serious problem, and they need to come to an accommodation sooner rather than later. The problem is, they can't manage their internal disputes to achieve significant action.

    The problem is that the Palestinians have a significantly higher birth rate and Jews will effectively be a minority in the not-too-distant future. At that point, they lose democratic legitimacy, so they need to come up with a satisfactory settlement before that happens.

  13. Re:ah, warranties and insurance for every second on Is Buying an Extended Warranty Ever a Good Idea? · · Score: 1

    You make a good point. For most people, the real value of insurance is covering catastrophes - not in a Katrina sense, but house burning down and destroying everything kind of way. If you've ever added up the total replacement cost of every item you own, you'll know it is a terrifying number.

  14. Re:Warranty or insurance? on Is Buying an Extended Warranty Ever a Good Idea? · · Score: 1

    You're assuming all people who take out warranties use them to their full coverage. It's well known that in home/contents insurance a massive portion of covered events are never claimed. It's not unknown for people to have their house burnt down and they don't claim on their insurance. No, I don't understand it either.

  15. Re:Anti sexist policies are almost always sexist on Changing the Ratio of Women In Tech: How Etsy Did It · · Score: 1

    I'm not talking about race as such, just the simple fact that in a company of hundreds of people, finding one who was born or brought up within a couple of miles is like finding hens teeth. That seems odd to me. I don't blame anyone in particular for this state of affairs, but once you recognise it I think there's an argument to be made for addressing it.

  16. Re:Anti sexist policies are almost always sexist on Changing the Ratio of Women In Tech: How Etsy Did It · · Score: 1

    Yeah, actually I don't care that much. I work in central London and it's painfully obvious that none of our workforce come from local communities. I'd be quite happy to see us lower our hiring standards just a little to bring some of these people in. I don't believe for a second they're actually worse - I think they just don't know how to play the corporate game.

  17. Re:Excel error? on Excel Error Contributes To Problems With Austerity Study · · Score: 2

    I agree it is user error, but I feel very strongly that this is the fault of Excel, not the user. My job is effectively being a professional spreadsheet driver and you eventually learn to become rigid about range checking, row counting, balancing totals, etc, because the structure of Excel makes these errors inevitable.

  18. Re:Would they arrest him if he had won money? on Trader Pleads Guilty To Illegal Purchase of Nearly $1B In Apple Stock · · Score: 1

    Well, no. There may be a pay-off but it's unlikely you'd ever trade anyone else's money again. And if the risk controls are done right, then such actions are entirely transparent to the SEC.

  19. Re:from the original FBI press release: on Trader Pleads Guilty To Illegal Purchase of Nearly $1B In Apple Stock · · Score: 1

    Traders have limits they cannot (well, should not) breach. And normally, you'd hedge your exposure as well, so you're not just exposed to the stock going up in smoke.

  20. Re:Would they arrest him if he had won money? on Trader Pleads Guilty To Illegal Purchase of Nearly $1B In Apple Stock · · Score: 1

    If your risk controls work properly, you treat unauthorised wins as severely as you do losses. Unfortunately, that doesn't always happen. However, it does happen more often than you think - just with no attendant publicity.

  21. Re:That's the inconvenient truth of "the simple li on Iceman Had Bad Teeth · · Score: 1

    Actually, once you strip out the effects of child mortality and the violence, healthy lifespan through history is not much different. Nowadays we get an extra ten-twenty years through geriatric medicine, but if you were a healthy 30yo back then you had more or less the same chance of ending up a 70yo as you do now.

  22. Re:Its almost like... on North Korean Missile Raised To Firing Position, Says US Official · · Score: 1

    It's simpler than that. We understand very little about the internal dynamics of the North Korean government, but you can be fairly sure of one thing: Kim does not have the option of picking up the phone and asking the US or anyone else for a quiet chat. He's riding a tiger, and he has to ride the line between being killed by one of his people and starting a war where he'll be killed by one of ours. As for our response, it's the best way to manage it. NK would not take kindly to a short sharp shock and they have the manpower to be a bloody nuisance - fighting them would be Japan 1945, not Iraq 2003.

  23. Re:Unlikely to work when needed. on Iranian Lab's Quadcopters To Rescue Swimmers · · Score: 2

    In addition to the other replies, presumably a major use case for this technology is stupid tourists, who rarely go swimming during major storms.

  24. Re:Depth and Warmth on Direct-to-Vinyl Recording Makes a Comeback (Video) · · Score: 1

    Congratulations, you're not far off. Humans use music as a group bonding tool, and once we form groups (goths, emos, punks, indie...) with close-knit social bonds, the need for the music is no longer as strong and it fades over time.

  25. Re:Do it right! on CS Faculty and Students To Write a Creative Commons C++ Textbook · · Score: 1

    I actually think Stroustrup's introductory textbook does this quite well. He clearly separates out the simple drills that get you familiar with syntax and assigns more complex exercises, and frequently relates it back to real world operations.