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User: Lawrence_Bird

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  1. H20 wireless or similar on Ask Slashdot: SIM-Card Solutions In North America? · · Score: 1

    Go to Best Buy, get a sim card for $10. Go online, activate. Minutes are in $10 increments good for 90 days, 5c a minute for talk and text

  2. Re:Landfill? on A Physicist Says He Can Tornado-Proof the Midwest With 1,000-Foot Walls · · Score: 1

    you mean in 2525 of course

  3. Why not just build real mountains with landfill Not like we don't have enough garbage to do it.

  4. Don't take the job then on Teaching College Is No Longer a Middle Class Job · · Score: 1

    If the job pays that poorly and the benefits are that lame, go elsewhere. If your skill set makes it the only job you are qualified for, get new skills. 25 years and no retirement benefits. Sounds like a lot of non-union workers who must save for their own retirement directly. And certainly it was no surprise right? 25 years is a long time to be waiting patiently for that fully funded 401k to appear.

    And that 3 credit hours amounts to teaching on the order of 30 classes, usually less due to holidays, breaks and exams. At $3500 per class taught, that works out to be $117/hour. Granted, some more hours to grade HW and exams. Even at 1/3, $39/hour is pretty good pay and a lot of people would take it. And most of these classes do not change significantly semester to semester so once a teaching plan is in place variations are going to be incremental.

    Note too that one can also try to only teach classes at night thus keeping a day job full or part time. That is pretty common with city based colleges where faculty are often employed professionally.

  5. A real statistics course on Computational Thinking: AP Computer Science Vs AP Statistics? · · Score: 1

    is a good starting point but probably needs to be combined with some type of 'critical thinking' class. I also think the question may be better off inverted - it would be far better for students to understand what code cannot and/or should not do.

  6. Re:x86 Android Virtualisation: native performance! on Android Needs a Simulator, Not an Emulator · · Score: 1

    AVD
    pick a device
    an API
    select Intel Atom(x86)
    fill in the other blanks as appropriate

    SDK
    make sure you have installed an Intel x86 Atom System Image for the API you are interested in
    make sure you install the HAXM extra (Intel x86 Emulator Accelerator)

  7. Under 1B is hard? on Draper Labs Develops Low Cost Probe To Orbit, Land On Europa For NASA · · Score: 1

    So... exactly why is it so "hard" to do this for under $1B? Launch costs are well known and are a small fraction of $1B. We have now sent dozens of probes to the planets so at the least the guidance and exterior should be well known. What else is left? Are instrumentation and mission support? Are we really needing to reinvent the wheel for each new mission? Is it that difficult to re-use (or at least upgrade) existing sensors and cameras?

    All of this should be put out to worldwide bid.

  8. Re:Good! on 2 US Senators Propose 12-Cent Gas Tax Increase · · Score: 1

    Gasp! You mean to say that states are using gas taxes (and others) to subsidize commuters? But the governments would never steal from Peter to pay Paul!

  9. Re:Good! on 2 US Senators Propose 12-Cent Gas Tax Increase · · Score: 1

    No. FIrst the argument that any tax should be set at X% is assinine. Should we have a Defense tax set at 5% of GDP? Will you be ok when DoD buys more planes tanks and other toys than it can ever hope to use because well, 5% of GDP!

  10. Re:Good! on 2 US Senators Propose 12-Cent Gas Tax Increase · · Score: 1

    If you make education artificially cheap (which it is, taxes are paid by 2/3 of the people who do not have children in school) then people will have more kids than looking for other alternatives... etc etc etc

  11. Why get into the phone biz? on Amazon Announces 'Fire Phone' · · Score: 1

    This is really all about their extra software. Why not just license it to phone mfgs?

  12. Re:No, what devs need is specifc device emulation on Android Needs a Simulator, Not an Emulator · · Score: 1

    I think the issue is more one with the skinning and mods which the vendors do than the hardware itself as that is easily emulator for just about any device.

    I note you mention the Nook. Did you ever have wierdness with the screen dimensions sometimes counting and sometimes not the area where the nook button is? Given it is end of life I decided to not bother putting in a nook adjustment to things which needed to be centered.. its a tiny bit off but I don't expect too many nook users (other than me using it as a big screen for testing)

  13. Re:Emulator? Simulator? Pfffttt... on Android Needs a Simulator, Not an Emulator · · Score: 1

    You can make any number of virtual devices which will get you stock android on the most widely used device configurations. Its not hard at all because AVD manager comes with predefined examples you can copy and then modify if you so chose.

  14. Re:x86 Android Virtualisation: native performance! on Android Needs a Simulator, Not an Emulator · · Score: 2

    Wow.. dude you are lame ok? HAXM is an option in the SDK. Is it that difficult to check the box? And creating an AVD is not exactly rocket science. I use IntelliJ (as opposed to Android Studio which came out later) and have had no issues with emulation. In fact I often have a physical device and one or more emulators attached to ADB. And one click to build and send to the 'device' isn't too hard either. On any modern PC the x86 emulator runs without a hitch.

    As to your "issue" with an emulator not appearing - this can sometimes happen in IntelliJ (and probably A.Studio too) when the machine has come out of sleep. It is not an issue with the emulator, rather the ADB and IntelliJ not communicating.

  15. Re:You make it... on Teacher Tenure Laws Ruled Unconstitutional In California · · Score: 0

    And you have the right to leave at any time as well

  16. Mexico on Brownsville SpaceX Space Port Faces More Regulatory Hurdles · · Score: 2

    Would probably approve this in 24 hours.

  17. Staples Easy Button? on Millions of Smart TVs Vulnerable To 'Red Button' Attack · · Score: 1

    I knew the Easy Button could do a lot of things but this is just incredible

  18. Re:Who is being taxed, exactly? on Fixing China's Greenhouse Gas Emissions For Them · · Score: 1

    If US industry can only produce those goods when the price is raised through tariff, then no, they will not as demand will also tank.

    Krugman remains the most dangerous man on the planet.

  19. Re:FreeBSD on New OpenSSL Man-in-the-Middle Flaw Affects All Clients · · Score: 1

    oh man why you ruin my day

  20. $17.6 Billion on Why NASA's Budget "Victory" Is Anything But · · Score: 0

    is not trump change. Perhaps NASA should try to pick better priorities? Or better yet, NASA should get out of the launch and manned business completely? Design research probes in conjunction with university researchers and pay private industry to launch.

  21. FreeBSD on New OpenSSL Man-in-the-Middle Flaw Affects All Clients · · Score: 1

    at least my install still uses 0.9.8n though who knows what other nasties lurk in that one

  22. Last gasps of supersymmetry on Lepton Universality In Question, a Standard Model Assumption · · Score: 1

    Honestly.. a 2.6 sigma result? History is littered with 3 sigma results that vanish as more data is taken and detectors and other experimental hardware/software become better understood and modeled.

  23. Will they include MI5, MI6 and GCHQ? on Life Sentences For Serious Cyberattacks Proposed In Britain · · Score: 1

    the whole "cyberattack" thing is grossly overblown and is primarily a) outrage of US/UK against those doing the same to it as it does to them and b) a mega growth industry to complement or be absorbed by the current military industrial complex.

  24. why not... on US Secret Service Wants To Identify Snark · · Score: 1

    "Why not just force Twitter to change TOS to require sarcasm tag?""

    Why not the government mind their own fucking business and stopping reading everybody else's shit?

  25. This is so 1990s on Linux Mint 17 'Qiana' Released · · Score: -1

    Honestly are distro updates really news anymore? Certainly not front page type news.