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User: pscottdv

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Comments · 419

  1. Oh, COME ON! on Fighting Scams Targeting the Elderly With Old-School Tech · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Slashdot. Seriously? The Post button is all but completely hidden and elements are randomly overlaying other elements. Sigs are on top of the reply links. "You may like to read links" overlay the "voting on submissions" text. Buttons appear and disappear as you hover over them. Everything just has a smashed-together feel.

    Is it really so very, very hard to just leave things alone?

  2. Re:Other skills have agents on Attention, Rockstar Developers: Get a Talent Agent · · Score: 1

    Interestingly, that is exactly the situation the article describes as ideal for hiring an agent: developers who want short-term contracts.

    It goes on to say that a regular recruiter might be the best route for someone looking for a permanent position.

  3. Re:Need to consider this on Theory of Information Could Resolve One of the Great Paradoxes of Cosmology · · Score: 1

    It's not 120 times. It's 120 orders of magnitude or 1,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

    (the spaces are to get past the lameness filter)

  4. Re:Such potential on Nim Programming Language Gaining Traction · · Score: 1

    Touché. I guess I wasn't clear. #define lets you change which symbol you use to enclose code blocks. But when you said your language should give you a choice, I thought you meant "a choice between using indentation and using block enclosing symbols."

  5. Re:Such potential on Nim Programming Language Gaining Traction · · Score: 1

    Wait... You work in a language that gives you a choice of how to enclose code blocks? What language is that?

  6. Re:So not Python, but VB? on Justified: Visual Basic Over Python For an Intro To Programming · · Score: 1

    multi-line anonymous functions for the pedantic. A lambda function is usually referred to as "a lambda" in my circles.

  7. Re:So not Python, but VB? on Justified: Visual Basic Over Python For an Intro To Programming · · Score: 1

    I started with BASIC on a TRS-80 myself. I am convinced it gave me a certain level of brain damage that took years to remove. On the TRS-80, everything interesting (graphics, sound) had to be done by poking into memory anyways, so it's not like BASIC gave me any powerful constructs to do those things. Mostly it got in the way. Honestly, C would have been better.

    But that's besides the point. I agree with you that C is a bad language for a beginner these days, but for the reasons you cited, not the ones in the summary. Specifically, because it is boring, not because it is "complex".

    That doesn't make Visual Basic the right choice.

  8. So not Python, but VB? on Justified: Visual Basic Over Python For an Intro To Programming · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I use Python every day and I love it, but he may have a point about variable declaration. Statically typed languages are important to learn about.

    I do find it hard to imagine what other constructs he is teaching his beginners that cannot be done in Python. Anonymous functions, maybe? Does VB do that yet? It didn't when I last used it. Tail-end recursion? I don't think VB does that either.

    But with so many languages to choose from, VB seems like it would be way down on the list.

    I also disagree about C being "incredibly complex for a beginner". I found C to be very easy to grasp and very good at exposing what the computer is actually doing under the hood. I would agree that programming C well is complex (and also time-consuming), but that is because it is simple, not because it is complex.

  9. Re:How dare you talk down about Reagan like that! on What's Wrong With the Manhattan Project National Park · · Score: 1

    Volcker kept ratcheting up interest rates to stop inflation and it wasn't working because while it brought down demand, it also brought down productivity because it became more and more expensive to borrow for capital investment. Reagan's policies were designed to combat the problem of low productivity. An increase in payroll taxes also served to dampen demand which also helped reduce inflation. I still contend that these were the right policy decisions at the time.

    Reagan is not to blame for the fact that later Republican politicians (and constituencies) refused to change course when the economic situation changed.

  10. Re:How dare you talk down about Reagan like that! on What's Wrong With the Manhattan Project National Park · · Score: 1

    The mid to late 70's was NOT prosperous for the middle class. Interest rates were nearly 20% and inflation was huge as well. The US was suffering simultaneously from low productivity and high inflation. Reagan's solution was to boost productivity by cutting taxes and regulation. And, while it took a couple of years, it worked.

    Yes, this led to a situation ripe for growing inequality, but the real problem is that self-described "conservatives" think that since Reagan's recipe for fighting "stagflation" worked once, it is the solution to every economic problem which it is not. Today the US (along with most of the world) is dealing with unhealthily LOW interest rates and inflation. Large businesses are sitting on giant piles of cash while many households have unhealthy levels of debt. Yet the so-called "conservatives" want to fight our problems with "Reaganomics" instead of developing new solutions that fit today's problems.

  11. Re:Cloud on Is Enterprise IT More Difficult To Manage Now Than Ever? · · Score: 1

    So you are saying that [Citation Needed] has jumped the shark?

  12. Re:No on Should IT Professionals Be Exempt From Overtime Regulations? · · Score: 1

    I remember the 70s. I have no idea how anyone could think it was a "golden age". We had high inflation, high unemployment, terrible service and low quality products and were only just starting to recover from all the many ways we had been poisoning our environment with lead, pesticides and sulfur.

  13. Re:What if... on Hawking Warns Strong AI Could Threaten Humanity · · Score: 1

    Thanks! I don't know how people remember this stuff. Even Einstein got it wrong twice in his name!

  14. Re:What if... on Hawking Warns Strong AI Could Threaten Humanity · · Score: 1

    Already been done in Marvel's Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D.

  15. Re:This is a common misunderstanding on Want To Work For a Cool Tech Company? Hone Your Social Skills · · Score: 1

    Social skills and teamwork ability are great things to have, but when these words are used in relation to a job, they invariably mean submitting to existing hierarchies. If I refuse to be a paid slave that doesn't make me an antisocial egotist.

    No, but your demeaning description of how 95% of the world earns their living kinda does.

  16. Re:In Finland on Ask Slashdot: Why Is the Power Grid So Crummy In So Many Places? · · Score: 1

    That sounds great, but I'll tell you what, a wood-frame house sure is nice when you want to make changes to the floor plan.

  17. Re:Classification on Most Planets In the Universe Are Homeless · · Score: 1

    Actually these are not planets according to the new classification.

    The IAU classification only applies to bodies within this Solar System. It does not apply to bodies outside the solar system.

    RESOLUTION 5A

    The IAU therefore resolves that planets and other bodies in our Solar System, except satellites, be defined into three distinct categories in the following way:

    (1) A "planet" [1] is a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit.

    (2) A "dwarf planet" is a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape [2], (c) has not cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit, and

    (d) is not a satellite.

    (3) All other objects [3], except satellites, orbiting the Sun shall be referred to collectively as "Small Solar-System Bodies".

    Emphasis mine.

  18. Re:Not Planets on Most Planets In the Universe Are Homeless · · Score: 1

    The IAU definition only applies to objects in this solar system. It says nothing about objects outside this solar system. It is very clear about that.

  19. Re:So the taxpayer pays for overage, got it on Steve Ballmer Gets Billion-Dollar Tax Write-Off For Being Basketball Baron · · Score: 1

    There would be the revenue from Balmer's income taxes over the next 15 years.

  20. How Does Docker Work? on Microsoft Partners With Docker · · Score: 1

    When I first heard about Docker, it looked to me like it was a set of tools to simplify the setup and management of chroots. But this announcement makes it look like there may be more to it. Can someone explain to me the difference between a docker container and a chroot?

  21. Re:Cue the Bozos on ISIS Bans Math and Social Studies For Children · · Score: 1

    Hilarious. I wish I had mod points.

  22. Normal characters are boring. Only characters with huge character flaws are entertaining.

    This has nothing to do with the Big Bang Theory. All successful sitcom characters abnormal.

  23. Re:Thermodynamic equilibrium is not required on Information Theory Places New Limits On Origin of Life · · Score: 2

    The thermodynamic and information theory definition of entropy are the same, which is why "bringing thermodynamics into biochemical or origin of life questions" is entirely relevant.

  24. Re:13 year old on 13-Year-Old Finds Fungus Deadly To AIDS Patients Growing On Trees · · Score: 1

    Now you've got the trees being deadly.

    A fungus deadly to AIDS patients was found by a 13-year-old to be growing on trees.

    The passive voice has it's uses.

  25. Re:Jurisdiction 101 on UK Police Warn Sharing James Foley Killing Video Is a Crime · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    English subjects subject to English law.

    FTFY