Slashdot Mirror


User: pablodiazgutierrez

pablodiazgutierrez's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
527
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 527

  1. Vote yes on proposition 1A on China Sets Sights On Rail Record · · Score: 1

    There's a big struggle to put the proposition on the ballot, and lots of information in this partisan blog. All I have to say is that, as a Spaniard, I'm amazed at how easily high speed trains are being developed in the country with the highest unemployment rates in the whole EU, compared to the richest state in the most powerful country in the world. Come on, get your act together, California!

  2. Re:Ok... on The Power Grid Can't Handle Wind Farms · · Score: 5, Funny

    Storage? Springs. Lots of them. A massive booby trap farm that releases at night.

  3. Re:Like intentionally uncomfortable benches on Seattle Flushes $5M High-Tech Toilets · · Score: 1

    Very true, but you can go one step further: Why don't they have homes? Wouldn't giving them a home be the equivalent of giving them fish? Why is it that in the richest country in the world so many people can't sustain a decent life? Is there a solution to this problem? Even harder, is there a solution to the problem that doesn't mean hindering the economic development of the rest of the society? I don't know the answers.

  4. Re:COBOL. on California Can't Perform Pay Cut Because of COBOL · · Score: 1

    COBOL-74 had excellent capabilities for creating very structured, COBOL-85 even more.

    I'm sure it does, however it seems to mess with the way you talk after you've been programming for a little too long.

  5. Re:Absolutely True, Supply and Demand at work on The Impact of Low Salaries At Apple · · Score: 1

    Specialization is the key. If you are good in something specific enough that not many people can do your job, your bargaining chips multiply. Getting a PhD in a hot topic is a good way. Plus you stay out of the real world for a good 5-6 years, which is something I enjoyed.

  6. Re:Helping Small Farmers Minimize Capital Costs on How Does a Poor Economy Affect Tech Innovation? · · Score: 1

    It is often done, but most cases fail. Usually, farmers know how to farm, but not necessarily how to run a large business. The few successful cases I know about do well because a third party (not farmer, not intermediary) is on charge.

  7. Mod parent up on How Does a Poor Economy Affect Tech Innovation? · · Score: 1

    Slightly off-topic, but dead on response to the GP. The fact that farmers in developed countries like the US or most places in the EU get subsidies does not make them rich; It merely allows them to compete with cheaper imports. There is a cost to society as a whole, of course, but in my opinion, this is dwarfed by the advantage of avoiding being food-dependent on foreign countries. It's enough with being oil-dependent.

  8. Business opportunity on Why Buy a PC Preloaded With Linux? · · Score: 1

    It seems to me that there's a clear business opportunity by adding crapware to the preloaded Linux version and charging for it, this way lowering the sale price far lower than the Windows counterpart. It would blow the competition out of the water (and inside the support-linux track).

  9. Diameter on Six Degrees of Wikipedia · · Score: 1

    It would be interesting to find the furthest pair of articles, also known as the diameter of the graph. The funny thing is, I'll bet my hand that shortly after someone finds and publishes it, most likely someone will shortcut the path. It'd be ironic if they did so via an article titled "The diameter of Wikipedia".

  10. Re:Waste of legislation. on President Bush Signs Genetic Nondiscrimination Act · · Score: 1

    I would like to know what do you have against people with 6 fingers per hand.

  11. Re:Finaly! on Vatican Says Alien Life Plausible · · Score: 1

    The initiation of life does not need to be very likely at all. It suffices to explain how it is sufficiently likely to happen at least once in the lifetime of the Universe. By its own nature, it lives on after that. We may never know exactly how it happened, because it might have been a superbly unlikely combination of molecules nobody might dream to produce in an experiment.

  12. Re:Finaly! on Vatican Says Alien Life Plausible · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Biologist Francisco Ayala calls that the god of the gaps, because it only occupies those gaps of human knowledge that haven't been explained yet. I like picturing science slowly eroding the terrain of superstition, but then again, that's just a way to say that religions simply adapt to survive, and then move on with the same old crap.

  13. Re:Is that the worst they could come up with? on The Worst Workspaces In Tech · · Score: 1

    I had to work once a week for a while in a warehouse in a metal chair with no one else around and an ancient piece of computer technology.

    Luxury! I used to share an 8086 with 5 other programmers. I had to code using edlin and only the "qwertasd" keys, taking turns for the space bar. We were foot-tied to the table and the owner would send a thug twice a week to hose the floor and throw some breadcrumbs at us.

  14. Sounds a lot like Emacs on A Guardian Angel In Your Cell Phone · · Score: 2, Funny

    But does it run Linux?

  15. SPOILER ALERT! Twilight Zone on NASA Offers $5000 a Month For You to Lie in Bed · · Score: 1

    That reminds me of this Twilight Zone episode where two guys go on a bet that one of them cannot keep his mouth shut for a year. Sure he does, but in the end you learn he did so by cutting his vocal cords. You just have to find something that is worth less than $15,000 and that you wouldn't mind parting with if it helps you being able to stay in bed 90 days.

  16. Re:Long but hopefully useful on Party Ideas For Math Nerds? · · Score: 1

    Wow, I expected many more low factors. Anyway... If you have JavaScript enabled, clicking "preview" loads up your message and shows you how it will look. Then it enables a "submit" button.

  17. Re:Is there a technical reason not to allow both w on Pidgin Controversy Triggers Fork · · Score: 1

    The text input box resizes as you type, and there's no way to change its size manually.

  18. Re:Long but hopefully useful on Party Ideas For Math Nerds? · · Score: 1

    Unrelated, but do you have any idea how many prime factors your ID has?

  19. Re:Parallel on Is Mathematics Discovered Or Invented? · · Score: 1

    The answer to that would probably have something to do with the disappointing realization by this former college student that most relevant work on AI is essentially a form of constrained searching.

  20. Re:Literate programming... on Donald Knuth Rips On Unit Tests and More · · Score: 1

    I know laugh about it, but I remember in my Intro to Programming class, which was the first one taught in C, the teacher advised us to #define BEGIN { and END } so that the code looked more like Pascal (the previous language of choice at that institution).

  21. Same thing for Dreamworks on Pixar to Release All New Movies in 3D · · Score: 1

    I was told by an employee (so I assume it's public information already) that they're going to do the same starting with the feature following Kung Fu Panda.

  22. Re:Skin smoothness on Women's Attractiveness Judged by Software · · Score: 1

    I would imagine that another reason might be that what you could call "imperfections" are random deviations from some measure of symmetry (which has been shown as one of the most determining factors that influence beauty). Averaging random and independent deviations would necessarily converge towards symmetry.

  23. Meh, he's just mad he can't fit in on Tetris Creator Claims FOSS Destroys the Market · · Score: 1

    Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all this week. Don't forget to tip the waitress.

  24. Everything I wanted in a keyboard on Optimus Keyboard Starts Shipping · · Score: 1
    From TFA, says it all:
    • Typing on it, well, sucks. We kind of hate to say it, but this thing more than likely won't replace what ever keyboard you're writing your novel on - it's better off used as an absurdly configurable swiss army knife for tasks like gaming, Photoshop, or just about any other productivity app that doesn't require a lot of typing.
    • Okay, why does typing on the Optimus suck, you ask? Well, although the keyboard uses mechanical switches and a lot of high quality components (evident when we pulled off some keys), and there is some clicky tactility to keypresses, as a whole it just requires way too much force to depress keys. And the larger the key, the more force is required, so enter is easier than space, but harder than tab. Let's put it this way, we sit around and type all day long and this thing wore us out in about 30 seconds to a minute. Carpal sufferers, beware.
    What better way to spend well over a grand, I say!
  25. SageMath on AJAX Version of Mathematica Coming · · Score: 5, Informative

    The open source mathematic software compendium Sage already has something similar that you can test right away in SageNB. Interestingly, one of the possible backends is Mathematica.