Journalist keep touting the dirty bomb concept, but even with a big blast you would not propel enough Co 60 to kill people in a wide radius. There are study on this go look it up. The only reason such a bomb would be effective would be as a *psychological* tool. Since journalist and movie media keep touting the dirty bomb danger, it becomes one in the mind of people, and they would really panick if one was really set off.
I find that some people don't even understand the difference between a 'dirty' bomb and a conventional nuclear weapon. It's an effective scare tactic. Of course if the media wanted to go into the full freakout mode, they could bring up the hypothetical "cobalt bomb"
The unfortunate human who probably opened the container with the Cobalt-60 without proper protective gear however, is most likely no longer intact.
I was thinking the same thing. Can you picture the schmucks who hijacked this?
Criminal 1: Hey man, I wonder what we got? Maybe a truck full of ps4/Xbox one systems? Criminal 2: (Opens box/removes shielding) Wait..what the f...is this?
On a more serious note, a former coworker works for a shipping company that is moving the xbox ones for Microsoft. There are a great deal of security measures on the trucks. Even though it's Mexico I'd expect they had some kind of security protocol if they were moving radioactive material.
I personally, don't like most governments, however total anarchy is worse than the government we currently have.
Total Anarchy could never exist for very long. If every government disappeared tomorrow, it would create a power vacuum which would be filled by some other entity. Perhaps a church, gang, tribal council, etc. People like controlling one another (and harming one another) way too much to ever make "overlords" extinct.
Once they get these to the point that they can hook a small camera on to the cockroach, they will be a gold mine for exterminators. Set up an ad campaign a week or two before in a nice neighborhood, go buy a few roachdroids, run them through a few houses at night and wait for the calls to come rolling in.
That's sort of the point though. Most of Yahoo's properties have been stagnant for years, some even for over a decade.
I've been playing fantasy football on yahoo since 2000. The update is awful, and most of the users hate it. It's added no discernible functionality, but changed a user interface that has been in place for at least ten years. While you can deride users for being 'change resistant', the fact is a consistent, usable interface is a feature.
Lots of times power users, or IT workers don't realize just how offputting a major UI revamp can be. While we get caught up in things like, "Agile", "Features", "Web x.0" most users just want to be left alone.
Really, though, I think this whole "I'm taking my ball and going home" attitude is quite dumb. If you're willing to leave and learn a new platform in protest, why not stay and learn the new upgraded platform where your data already lives?
Users will stay with a platform they know, even if it isn't feature rich. The opportunity cost of switching to another platform is losing the time they've invested in learning the original platform. Once that cost is forced upon them, they might as well investigate other platforms, either out of spite, or simply because they've got to learn something new anyway.
WOW may be losing subscribers, but it's still insanely profitable.
I wonder what's leading them to lose subscribers. If it's just fatigue, since the game is so old. One pattern I've noticed is as they've shortened the timeline between patches and expansions, players seem to quit more often. Once and expansion is announced, in game players (and I would assume subscriptions) drop. It seems like now it even happens in between patches. I assume it is because players feel whatever they earn will be worth less by the new patch/expansion. I wonder sometimes if they wouldn't be better served by not announcing patches so early, and having longer cycles between expansions.
Java, Javascript, JSTL, EL, JSP, regular expressions, Spring, Hibernate, SQL, etc. And, you know what? I did. I'm not an expert, of course, but I'm really interested in continuing to learn. Is my new-born career a dead end
Programming isn't a dead end. You can move into management, or if you're happy programming you can still program. If you can't find a job, you can freelance. It's not the type of skill that you need a lot of fancy equipment for (i.e.- you aren't flying planes).
, or do I have a chance of becoming good at programming?"
Being good is subjective. If you want to be good at programming simply reading the right websites, books and learning new things will put you ahead of 50% of the programmers out there. If your idea of good is "Employable as a web developer" you should be fine. If your idea of good is John Carmack, then you're probably not going to end up being "good" by that definition.
Also to most employers, especially ones who don't delver software as their main business function the idea of a good programmer is someone who can deliver on deadlines, adapt to changes in specs, and get along with their coworkers. If you're going to work for a company that makes software as their main business practice, their standards will be higher. Their idea of a good programer is probably someone who has read TAOCP, knows design patters, knows whatever framework is currently trendy and can read the mind of their interviewer and know what books/blogs they like/respect.
Good luck. My dad was a programmer, just as I am. He was laid off when he was in his late 50s, and the only thing that kept getting him jobs were his contacts he built up over his long career. Another piece of advice: Make "friends" who appreciate your skills.
Because at the end of the day you will pay either way. Either pay more for your products and give your fellow citizens a reasonable living or pay more in taxes for their unemployment, food stamps and welfare and on top of that deal with the social ills such as higher crime rates that can come when someone has nothing to lose.
So when the libertarians are lying on the ground after a car crash the emergency personnel would know not to interfere with their lives. They could be exempted from having to buy insurance.
Of course, they might be able to do something radical...like pay for it themselves!
Apple isn't perfect. They have the occasional hardware issue with their rev A systems and a poor OS update here and there. As a whole their systems are usually pretty darn stable, but they still get major issues.
My experience with apple products:
My iMac at home- Mouse doesn't work correctly because of static problems. I had to replace mouse with a non-apple product. My iMac was also awesome because it came with a dead pixel out of the box, right in the middle of the screen. Too bad apple's return policy states you need 5 dead pixels or more to return a monitor.
Defective apple G5's - Another fun experience I've had is with apple g5 computers that are liquid cooled. Seems they're defective by design....the liquid coolant leaks, and basically destroys the computer.
Now, I waited for the second generation iPhone to purchase one, and I have to deal with this. I was thinking about getting an apple notebook, but why bother when they have such a shitty track record ?
The conclusion I've reached is that apple hardware is at least as shitty as your average PC vendor, if not worse. The fact that they make both the software and hardware doesn't matter much, since they screw up hardware design so frequently.
I've found that the real humor in quitting WoW is in their 'last gasp' message. I decided that school and money came before a silly game, so hit the unsubscribe reason and picked "I need the time for school". They helpfully displayed a little message that went along the lines of, 'You don't have to go! A lot of other people who pick this reason found that they have lots of friends they want to talk to in WoW!'
Addiction is an option, and if you put it in, they don't try to win you back with the last message.
I unsubscribe every month just so I can complain to the devs about what I don't like. I'm sure they get the messages when they're attached to a cancelled account. Then again, my account is probably flagged by now....
And thus Microsoft dominates. The prevailing attitude is to pay for new features, but not to pay for stability, security, or optimization.
It's hard to sell stability or security to OS X users, because they already believe their platform is stable and secure. Hell, stability is probably a hard sell to XP or 2000 users too at this point since those OS's are fairly stable compared to others in the past.
but we're comparing it to Windows 3.1 here! Even if you disregard the bugs in Windows 3.1 code itself, the thing used cooperative multitasking and unprotected memory, so your computer crashed every time the buggiest program you ran had a particularly bad flaw.
I really wonder, when people make posts like the one you replied to if they ever actually used 3.1. 95 was light years ahead of 3.1 in many areas, and stability was a huge one.
You know, the ones repealed and/or not passed in the late 80's and 90's in order to help the economy grow...which then led to shady banking practices that begat our current 'credit crunch'.
It wasn't just 'shady banking practices' that led to the credit crunch, it was constant inflation in order to avoid recessions.
Slashdot Mirror
Journalist keep touting the dirty bomb concept, but even with a big blast you would not propel enough Co 60 to kill people in a wide radius. There are study on this go look it up. The only reason such a bomb would be effective would be as a *psychological* tool. Since journalist and movie media keep touting the dirty bomb danger, it becomes one in the mind of people, and they would really panick if one was really set off.
I find that some people don't even understand the difference between a 'dirty' bomb and a conventional nuclear weapon. It's an effective scare tactic. Of course if the media wanted to go into the full freakout mode, they could bring up the hypothetical "cobalt bomb"
The unfortunate human who probably opened the container with the Cobalt-60 without proper protective gear however, is most likely no longer intact.
I was thinking the same thing. Can you picture the schmucks who hijacked this?
Criminal 1: Hey man, I wonder what we got? Maybe a truck full of ps4/Xbox one systems?
Criminal 2: (Opens box/removes shielding) Wait..what the f...is this?
On a more serious note, a former coworker works for a shipping company that is moving the xbox ones for Microsoft. There are a great deal of security measures on the trucks. Even though it's Mexico I'd expect they had some kind of security protocol if they were moving radioactive material.
I personally, don't like most governments, however total anarchy is worse than the government we currently have.
Total Anarchy could never exist for very long. If every government disappeared tomorrow, it would create a power vacuum which would be filled by some other entity. Perhaps a church, gang, tribal council, etc. People like controlling one another (and harming one another) way too much to ever make "overlords" extinct.
Once they get these to the point that they can hook a small camera on to the cockroach, they will be a gold mine for exterminators. Set up an ad campaign a week or two before in a nice neighborhood, go buy a few roachdroids, run them through a few houses at night and wait for the calls to come rolling in.
That's sort of the point though. Most of Yahoo's properties have been stagnant for years, some even for over a decade.
I've been playing fantasy football on yahoo since 2000. The update is awful, and most of the users hate it. It's added no discernible functionality, but changed a user interface that has been in place for at least ten years. While you can deride users for being 'change resistant', the fact is a consistent, usable interface is a feature.
Lots of times power users, or IT workers don't realize just how offputting a major UI revamp can be. While we get caught up in things like, "Agile", "Features", "Web x.0" most users just want to be left alone.
Really, though, I think this whole "I'm taking my ball and going home" attitude is quite dumb. If you're willing to leave and learn a new platform in protest, why not stay and learn the new upgraded platform where your data already lives?
Users will stay with a platform they know, even if it isn't feature rich. The opportunity cost of switching to another platform is losing the time they've invested in learning the original platform. Once that cost is forced upon them, they might as well investigate other platforms, either out of spite, or simply because they've got to learn something new anyway.
Java is per definition a programming langauge for amatuers
The definition of Amateur is unpaid, not too many people would use Java if they weren't being paid for it.
WOW may be losing subscribers, but it's still insanely profitable.
I wonder what's leading them to lose subscribers. If it's just fatigue, since the game is so old. One pattern I've noticed is as they've shortened the timeline between patches and expansions, players seem to quit more often. Once and expansion is announced, in game players (and I would assume subscriptions) drop. It seems like now it even happens in between patches. I assume it is because players feel whatever they earn will be worth less by the new patch/expansion. I wonder sometimes if they wouldn't be better served by not announcing patches so early, and having longer cycles between expansions.
Wedel has since found new work as a quality engineer
He's checking the accuracy of the drive thru orders at McDonald's.
Java, Javascript, JSTL, EL, JSP, regular expressions, Spring, Hibernate, SQL, etc. And, you know what? I did. I'm not an expert, of course, but I'm really interested in continuing to learn. Is my new-born career a dead end
Programming isn't a dead end. You can move into management, or if you're happy programming you can still program. If you can't find a job, you can freelance. It's not the type of skill that you need a lot of fancy equipment for (i.e.- you aren't flying planes).
, or do I have a chance of becoming good at programming?"
Being good is subjective. If you want to be good at programming simply reading the right websites, books and learning new things will put you ahead of 50% of the programmers out there. If your idea of good is "Employable as a web developer" you should be fine. If your idea of good is John Carmack, then you're probably not going to end up being "good" by that definition.
Also to most employers, especially ones who don't delver software as their main business function the idea of a good programmer is someone who can deliver on deadlines, adapt to changes in specs, and get along with their coworkers. If you're going to work for a company that makes software as their main business practice, their standards will be higher. Their idea of a good programer is probably someone who has read TAOCP, knows design patters, knows whatever framework is currently trendy and can read the mind of their interviewer and know what books/blogs they like/respect.
Good luck. My dad was a programmer, just as I am. He was laid off when he was in his late 50s, and the only thing that kept getting him jobs were his contacts he built up over his long career. Another piece of advice: Make "friends" who appreciate your skills.
Because at the end of the day you will pay either way. Either pay more for your products and give your fellow citizens a reasonable living or pay more in taxes for their unemployment, food stamps and welfare and on top of that deal with the social ills such as higher crime rates that can come when someone has nothing to lose.
Humans will continue plodding along exactly as they always have
Yes, I remember reading about how 1000 years ago people plodded around the interrnet, went to the moon, and worried about their environment.
I have no idea how anyone could find your comment insightful, it is dimwitted and shortsighted.
Given the rate of decline in Facebook stock Opera might just wait a few weeks and buy facebook.
They should have just asked me, I obviously knew this four years ago.
So when the libertarians are lying on the ground after a car crash the emergency personnel would know not to interfere with their lives. They could be exempted from having to buy insurance.
Of course, they might be able to do something radical...like pay for it themselves!
linux can never compete with apple. commercial development drives things END USERS WANT.
Perhaps sometime soon economic conditions will make end users want something Free and Open.
The Creationist mods have,to mod critics down. Their invisible superbeings aren't capable of doing things on their own.
Maybe they are. Have faith, and remember you don't get to meta-moderate God.
If you run a sovereign nation and have developed nuclear technology at your own universities and scientific facilities, then yes.
I'll secede my apartment from the US tommorow and name it Javalandia and get to work on this.
However, they are as entitled to the technology as anyone else, especially if it is home-grown.
Does this mean I get to have one too?
Apple isn't perfect. They have the occasional hardware issue with their rev A systems and a poor OS update here and there. As a whole their systems are usually pretty darn stable, but they still get major issues.
....the liquid coolant leaks, and basically destroys the computer.
My experience with apple products:
My iMac at home- Mouse doesn't work correctly because of static problems. I had to replace mouse with a non-apple product. My iMac was also awesome because it came with a dead pixel out of the box, right in the middle of the screen. Too bad apple's return policy states you need 5 dead pixels or more to return a monitor.
Defective apple G5's - Another fun experience I've had is with apple g5 computers that are liquid cooled. Seems they're defective by design
Now, I waited for the second generation iPhone to purchase one, and I have to deal with this. I was thinking about getting an apple notebook, but why bother when they have such a shitty track record ?
The conclusion I've reached is that apple hardware is at least as shitty as your average PC vendor, if not worse. The fact that they make both the software and hardware doesn't matter much, since they screw up hardware design so frequently.
My daddy IS a COBOL programmer! It would take a lot of cash for him to move to California though.
I've found that the real humor in quitting WoW is in their 'last gasp' message. I decided that school and money came before a silly game, so hit the unsubscribe reason and picked "I need the time for school". They helpfully displayed a little message that went along the lines of, 'You don't have to go! A lot of other people who pick this reason found that they have lots of friends they want to talk to in WoW!'
Addiction is an option, and if you put it in, they don't try to win you back with the last message.
I unsubscribe every month just so I can complain to the devs about what I don't like. I'm sure they get the messages when they're attached to a cancelled account. Then again, my account is probably flagged by now....
And thus Microsoft dominates. The prevailing attitude is to pay for new features, but not to pay for stability, security, or optimization.
It's hard to sell stability or security to OS X users, because they already believe their platform is stable and secure. Hell, stability is probably a hard sell to XP or 2000 users too at this point since those OS's are fairly stable compared to others in the past.
but we're comparing it to Windows 3.1 here! Even if you disregard the bugs in Windows 3.1 code itself, the thing used cooperative multitasking and unprotected memory, so your computer crashed every time the buggiest program you ran had a particularly bad flaw.
I really wonder, when people make posts like the one you replied to if they ever actually used 3.1. 95 was light years ahead of 3.1 in many areas, and stability was a huge one.
You know, the ones repealed and/or not passed in the late 80's and 90's in order to help the economy grow...which then led to shady banking practices that begat our current 'credit crunch'.
It wasn't just 'shady banking practices' that led to the credit crunch, it was constant inflation in order to avoid recessions.
. The chances of us stumbling upon an alien signal and recognizing it as coming from an intelligent source (they won't exactly be speaking English)
Damn aliens never speak english, we ought to pass a law! Someone call Tom Tancredo.