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User: gander666

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Comments · 453

  1. Re:Bring the 10 Back on Google Announces Motorola-Made Nexus 6 and HTC-Made Nexus 9 · · Score: 1

    Word. My experience exactly. The advice? Load CM on it. Nah, it sits in a drawer unused

  2. Re:See Bayh-Dole Act on When Scientists Give Up · · Score: 2

    I am assuming you never licensed a patent from a university. I can assure you that they have become quite adept at extracting money from the licensing of some pretty pathetic patents.

    I recently inherited the handling of our licensed technology portfolio, and I can assure you that we pay a pretty penny for some almost trivial, but essential patents.

    The downside is that universities are beginning to use this calculus in their decisions to bring on key researchers, and to focus their efforts on "profitable" ventures, leaving a lot of really important, and interesting basic research to lie fallow, because there's no obvious pay out from it. Things that used to be the bread and butter of academia research.

  3. Re:Some people are too stupid on Facebook Tests "Satire" Tag To Avoid Confusion On News Feed · · Score: 1

    So you agree with me? I fucking repost shit from Christians for Michelle Bachmann, a site that is so fucking over the top satire, that you have to be a fucking moron to not realize that. Alas, a lot (not a few, but fucking A LOT) of people can't figure that out. You think that Facebook using an automatic satire tag will help? The Fox News crowd will have kittens.

  4. Some people are too stupid on Facebook Tests "Satire" Tag To Avoid Confusion On News Feed · · Score: 1

    Some people are too stupid to breathe. Or breed.

  5. Re:Only 17 months to go... on Microsoft To Drop Support For Older Versions of Internet Explorer · · Score: 1

    Great, now will I no longer be able to use a supported browser as well as be forced to use a deprecated, and highly insecure version of Java to do my job (which involves far too much Oracle fluffery.

    The fact that Oracle applications demand IE at all is quite ironic...

  6. Re:Better question... on Nathan Myhrvold's Recipe For a Better Oven · · Score: 2

    Shit, my world for mod points. Amen brother

  7. This will accelerate my transition on Apple Kills Aperture, Says New Photos App Will Replace It · · Score: 1

    I was already making the switch to Lightroom from Aperture. Apple's last update of Aperture really started messing it up, so I saw the writing on the wall, and will fully move my library to Lightroom.

    It is a shame, because when I first started using Aperture, it was awesome, about 1/2 the price of Lightroom at the time, and it was lightyears ahead of iPhoto.

    With my MacBook Air, I thought I would just use iPhoto, but gah, after not using it for 6 years or so, it still sucks tool.

  8. Re:Kilby & Noyce on 1958 Integrated Circuit Prototypes From Jack Kilby's TI Lab Up For Sale · · Score: 1

    Crap, and I without mod points. Huge +5 sir...

  9. Re:You make it... on Teacher Tenure Laws Ruled Unconstitutional In California · · Score: 1

    Crap, what a day to not have mod points. +1000 on this.

  10. Re:and front-running? on High Frequency Trading and Finance's Race To Irrelevance · · Score: 1

    It is not gambling when the top HFT companies can boast to never having a down day in 5 years. They are parasites, steeling pennies, billions of times.

  11. Re:Downsides on Could High Bay-Area Prices Make Sacramento the Next Big Startup Hub? · · Score: 1

    I live there too, and it isn't that bad.

  12. Re:Downsides on Could High Bay-Area Prices Make Sacramento the Next Big Startup Hub? · · Score: 2

    Exactly. If you were going to locate there, why not go to Phoenix where your dollar goes a LOT further, and income taxes are a fraction of the California rate.

  13. Re:Not terribly surprising on US College Students Still Aren't All That Interested In Computer Science · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Agreed. In my experience, physics majors tend to be excellent programmers, better than many CS majors. Perhaps it's because they're mostly just smart a heck, and that matters more than having taken a bunch of CS courses.

    As a physics degree holder, I would counter that. Yes, we are really good at algorithms, and the like, but without a lot of re-education we make terrible developers (I am not one, but I work with a dev group that has 3 PhD Physicists). They write cool code, but are fuck-all at doing error checking, bounds checking, and other mundane things that are important in production environments. Physicists would rather spend hours grooming their input data than have their code do some reality checks.

  14. Re:When will Yahoo admit it? on AOL Finally Admits They Were Hacked · · Score: 1

    Yeah, great. It is just that the people I know who are Yahoo mail users aren't smart enough to do 2 factor authentication.

  15. Re:When will Yahoo admit it? on AOL Finally Admits They Were Hacked · · Score: 1

    I was being facetious, I do know the difference. But it has to be more than poor password discipline that causes Yahoo mail accounts to be so susceptible.

  16. When will Yahoo admit it? on AOL Finally Admits They Were Hacked · · Score: 3, Informative

    Seems like 2 or 3 contacts a week with Yahoo mail accounts gets hacked every week. I really wish Yahoo would get their shit together too.

  17. Re:Management 101 on Ask Slashdot: Intelligently Moving From IT Into Management? · · Score: 1

    This. I am in the hell of being the replacement, and my boss won't do more than dribble the responsibilities out. 2+ years, and I still am grasping for more, yet he is drowning, and won't give up any control.

  18. Re:As a big comixology user, this *sucks* on Amazon Turns Off In-App Purchases In iOS Comixology · · Score: 1

    I am not a heavy comic reader, but I always went to the Comixology site to buy rather than the in app purchase. I figured that Comixology deserved the full price, and not the 30% skim that Apple took.

  19. Re:What passes for rigorous thinking apparently on Google: Better To Be a 'B' CS Grad Than an 'A+' English Grad · · Score: 1

    I know what you are trying to do, but I would like to shout out for economics. I have a degree in Physics, a minor in Maths (two classes more and I would have had a double major). While I was working on my undergrad degree, I tutored someone who was working on their advanced degree in economics. They were doing nasty, non-linear partial differential equations in their models, without the formal mathematics background. I was impressed with their methods, and how they solved these equations without 4 years of preparatory mathematics courses.

    The truth is a lot of degree disciplines that seem like a waste to you turn out to have their own character building assets. One of the best AFM applications scientists I have ever worked with got his degree in History. He did an internship at a small company, and not only loved playing with Atomic Force Microscopes, he actually had a talent with it. In a field dominated by physicists and chemists, he is right up there.

  20. Re:Why do people listen to her? on Jenny McCarthy: "I Am Not Anti-Vaccine'" · · Score: 1

    Well put. Wish I had mod points.

  21. Re:I have a degree in computer science. on Ask Slashdot: Are You Apocalypse-Useful? · · Score: 1

    Well played...

  22. Re:The value of a Stradivarius on Elite Violinists Can't Distinguish Between a Stradivarius and a Modern Violin · · Score: 1

    Amen brother. They are mighty sweet playing guitars though...

  23. Re:The value of a Stradivarius on Elite Violinists Can't Distinguish Between a Stradivarius and a Modern Violin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That is fine for a collector. For someone who plays for a living, not so much. Most of the artists who play the Stradivarius' don't own the instrument. They are loaned to them from their benefactors.

    I play guitar. I have a few nice guitars, and I thought I had an expensive habit. A friend who is a concert viola player has a "mid range" viola from a good maker, and it cost $45K about 15 years ago. Probably worth $60K or so today. And that isn't from one of the better modern makers.

    And my wife gives me grief for my $2k used Tom Anderson guitar.

  24. Re:This is kinda gross. on Was Eich a Threat To Mozilla's $1B Google "Trust Fund"? · · Score: 1

    Uh, Werner von Braun.

    John von Neumann was a hungarian mathemetician who came to the US in the 30's I think.

  25. Re:Does everything need to be smart? on Nest Halts Sales of Smart Fire Alarm After Discovering Dangerous Flaw · · Score: 4, Insightful

    YMMV, but my house is wired for a burglar alarm. It is monitored. All the smoke detectors are wired to the main alarm. If one of them goes off, the alarm system notifies the monitoring company, and they call me to see if there is a fire (actually looking for false alarm). If I don't respond, they send the fire department. It is the ONLY reason there is a land line at my house these days.

    My understanding is that Nest does this via Wifi. In the event of an emergency, I trust the POTS far more than the cable internet and wifi to call the cavalry. Perhaps one day Nest will make this all fool proof. But until that day, I will stick with the land line/alarm monitor.

    Oh, the monthly cost to monitor is like $6.00.