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User: srothroc

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  1. Re:Reboot is such a poor word on Microsoft Reboots Two Classic PC Games · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The way I see it is that "reboot" and "restart" are pretty much synonymous, so outside of the computer context, people say that they're "rebooting" a show or series. The difference in that area, for me, is that "restarting" implies that there's some kind of continuity -- for example, the modern Doctor Who show builds off of the old one and shares continuity. A "reboot," on the other hand, is a ground-up revamping. It still probably annoys you though.

  2. Re:Rail System Needs on Is a US High-Speed Railway Economically Feasible? · · Score: 1

    Yeah, I live here, in Japan. That's why I'd like to see America held to higher standards.

  3. Rail System Needs on Is a US High-Speed Railway Economically Feasible? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    My problem with trains in American isn't speed.

    I'd rather have a train system that had a range of trains to different places at lots of different times, every day. But most importantly, I'd like to have a train system that actually follows the time table. Nobody wants to pay for public transportation when you have to arrive early, wait a long time, and then not leave on time... and probably not arrive at your destination on time.

    Wait, we do that for airplanes. Nevermind. Go about your business.

  4. Re:Earth return? on Space Station Module Could Carry Humans To Asteroid · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Rather than putting the module on a boom, I'd just put jets on the module and spin it up. You wouldn't need constant thrust, but on the down side, it wouldn't be able to put the module on the asteroid proper and you'd have to spin down for docking maneuvers.

  5. Re:As a self-taught programmer... on Forget University — Use the Web For Education, Says Gates · · Score: 1

    It seems to me like you're defining "the box" incorrectly... not knowing what things are called doesn't define "the box" -- to me, it just makes communication more difficult. You end up saying things like "the thing with the thing that does the thing and acts like this..." while someone else who knew the name would just say "oh, the X sort" and everyone else nods in agreement. Communication is more efficient when everyone has a common vocabulary. Imagine trying to talk programming in C with someone who didn't know what different variables were called and instead just said "oh, the thing that just holds one character, but we can make it an array for this..."

  6. Re:The Net is no Substitution for University on Forget University — Use the Web For Education, Says Gates · · Score: 1

    It doesn't matter how you save if you get a degree in a field that doesn't pay much... and went to a private school. Of course, the damage is increased even more if you came from a low-income family and didn't qualify for many scholarships.

  7. Re:Instant /msg on your school's IRC server on Forget University — Use the Web For Education, Says Gates · · Score: 1

    Considering that Gates dropped out of college and went on to great success, he may be one of the people who benefits more from information than social education. I've met several people like this -- they can read a text and extrapolate/use that information immediately on their own. Most people, I think, aren't that type, though, and so benefit from a traditional education at all levels.

  8. What's the point? on How Should a Non-Techie Learn Programming? · · Score: 1

    Seriously, what's the point? I'm not saying it's pointless, but if the goal is to learn more about technology, why programming? Unless you're actually going to use it somehow, it's going to be a tremendous pain in the butt to learn and retain all these new ideas. Even if you do learn a bit about programming, there are always going to be professionals out there that can do it faster, more efficiently, and more securely than you can -- and if it's something for a business, you should probably be going with them.

    If all you want to do is learn more about technology, subscribing to Popular Mechanics and reading it every month would be a good place to start. Or even just reading Slashdot every day.

    If the goal is to learn more about computers, then it would probably be a lot more practical to learn about hardware than programming. Learn what the different basic parts of a computer are, what they look like, what types there are, how to replace them... that kind of stuff.

    For a car analogy, instead of learning about the software that makes your car work, you should be learning about how to change the fluids and diagnose simple problems, check the tire tread... that kind of stuff.

  9. Re:Space sized bin bag on NASA's Top 10 Space Junk Missions · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What nation wants to spend money to send people up into space to clean up after what's essentially other people's garbage? There's no immediate gain, so nobody's going to do it.

  10. Re:"Toyota" really? on Long In Development, Toshiba 'SCiB' Battery Debuts · · Score: 1

    No, it's used as a noun, just like when you say "That American is very tall." "Japanese" can be used in that sense, though, yes, it does come across sounding a bit provincial or offensive, just as if you were to say "that Oriental." But then again, that's the standard in some countries -- for example, in Britain.

    It's worth noting that you can use "Japanese" as a noun in other contexts as well -- for example, "Japanese has complex grammar."

  11. Re:Puzzled in Portugal on Superheroes vs. the Westboro Baptist Church · · Score: 1

    You mean:

    A trolls B
    B sues A for libel/slander/defamation

    OR

    A trolls B
    B sues A for trademark/copyright infringement

  12. Re:Though to ponder. on Australian Enterprises Block Sex Party's Political Site · · Score: 1

    Even more than the word itself, consider the combination of letters, since it's a URL. For example, anything with the pattern *sex* would be filtered, whether it was actually a word or not -- consider "expertsexchange.com" or something.

  13. Correlation, not causation... on World of Warcraft Can Boost Your Career · · Score: 1

    Wouldn't it be equally as likely that, say, people who are driven to achieve do better in WoW /and/ real life? Actually, I find that MORE likely than the idea that WoW makes lazy people goal-oriented and gives them a personal drive...

  14. "early?" on Matt Smith Leaving Doctor Who Already? · · Score: 1

    I don't see how this is early, if you look at the record of the modern Doctor Who franchise. Paul McGannis lasted all of one TV movie; Christopher Eccleston lasted for one year, and then David Tennant lasted for three. So Matt Smith at two would hardly be "early" -- just sooner than Tennant. Also, as pointed out before, The Sun is hardly the most reliable source.

  15. Re:Standardized tests on TI vs. Calculator Hobbyists, Again · · Score: 1

    I've never heard them called "graphic calculators" -- that sounds almost like an eggcorn to me. I've always heard them referred to as "graphing calculators," for their ability to draw graphs.

  16. Re:Physical games on Apps For Healthy Kids — Where PC Meets PCs · · Score: 1

    What about the educational aspect of it? I played the crap out of the Oregon Trail and enjoyed it when I was a kid. It seems to me that you could do the same thing in a different setting -- say, captaining a ship across the Atlantic in the Age of Sail, or even from Earth to Mars. Put the kid in charge of outfitting his ship with radiation shielding, balancing between fuel/engineering tools/plants/dried food/vitamin supplements, and let him go. I would play the hell out of a game like that, too... and it would be both relevant AND informative!

  17. Re:Eventually they'll get it right on Second Straight Rocket Failure For South Korea · · Score: 1

    I think it does matter; anything from North Korea or China would hit its target far before missiles from America.

  18. Re:Lies, lies, and mistruth. on Official Kanji Count Increasing Due To Electronics · · Score: 1

    Uh, a turtle is a pretty common animal and the kanji really isn't that complex. It's also in a fair number of surnames, when you're definitely not going to replace it with "kamei." I mean, look at some of the other ones they added -- , which is in probably 80% of the surnames in the nation, , which is also in huge number of surnames as well as several prefectures... and a bunch of other equally common ones. These are things that should be in the curriculum.

  19. Lies, lies, and mistruth. on Official Kanji Count Increasing Due To Electronics · · Score: 4, Informative

    I live in Japan and I've talked to Japanese teachers about this; I've also seen the kanji they're adding. It's not "because of computers" or "because they need computers to write kanji" -- the kanji they took out are very, very rarely used, with one being an archaic form of measurement equal to around 350 grams or something. A lot of the kanji they added are kanji that ARE common-use kanji as a matter of fact, just not officially. Many of the ones they added are simple ones that show up in a ton of names. Another example is the kanji for "turtle" -- something that comes up often enough that you'd think it would have been in the original set to begin with. It's not some gigantic "Oh god nobody speaks our language and everyone's stuck on computers" deal; it's just MEXT updating their "official" set to reflect the changing times and vocabulary... and fix some mistakes from the past.

    People forgetting how to write kanji due to always using cell phones or computers IS a problem, but unrelated to the update to the Joyo Kanji.

  20. Dogfooding on Google Reportedly Ditching Windows · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Google makes its own mobile platform (Android) and is working on another for general computing (Google Web OS), so it only makes sense that they'd move away from a closed, proprietary platform like Windows. If there are any Mac OS X machines, I'd imagine those are being migrated to something else as well... though some people may get clearance for software like Photoshop or Final Cut Pro.

    Even for testing/development, they can just run virtual machines.

  21. Re:Much ado about nothing on Cutting Through the 4G Hype · · Score: 1

    Did you read the article? His point is that 4G isn't a big deal compared to 3G, which is why he's filling it with those "weasely gems." He's saying it's just hype and more hype will be coming. It's not supposed to be some technical manual discussing the merits of 4G.

  22. Re:alright on The Hurt Locker Producers Sue First 5,000 File-Sharers · · Score: 1

    I never bought into this argument. "I want something you guys could make but don't... this is totally wrong of you guys, so I'm just going to help myself to everything else you do make." Come on, seriously? You don't have a "right" as a person or a consumer to a certain kind of product if someone chooses not to make or release it. No amount of wishful thinking lets you just take things they make because the world isn't what you want it to be. I realize though, that this isn't a popular position to take on Slashdot, of all places.

  23. 5000 barrels? on Gulf Oil Leak Plugged? · · Score: 1

    I thought the 5000 barrel estimate came from BP, but the article lays it at the feet of the Coast Guard... is this just mistaken reporting, or did it really come from the Coast Guard? If I put on my paranoid hat for a minute, this is BP engaging in post-operation PR cleanup...

  24. What a portmanteau.. on New iConji Language For the Symbol-Minded Texter · · Score: 1

    The name seems to be a portmanteau of "icon" and "kanji," or perhaps just "icon" and "ji," which is Japanese for "character." That's the first thing that came to mind when I read the name... small, discrete symbols that represent a concept.

  25. Re:My question is... on Benchmark Software For Windows 7 Rollout? · · Score: 1

    I never suggested that anyone skimp on memory or slow users down -- just that in a corporate environment, if you want to buy something, you'll probably have to justify an additional cost with something a bit more concrete than "I think it's faster."