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User: ameline

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  1. Re:Kudos to AMD for this, but... on AMD Publishes Open-Source Radeon HD 8000 Series Driver · · Score: 0

    Pedant. :-)

    How about comparing on the most recently available hardware...

    My point is that, while open source drivers are a good thing, they are of limited usefulness unless they are competitive with closed source ones for performance, stability and completeness of functionality.

  2. Kudos to AMD for this, but... on AMD Publishes Open-Source Radeon HD 8000 Series Driver · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How is the stability and performance compared to their drivers on Windows for the same hardware?

    Functional parity (GL version and extensions) would also be nice.

  3. "The pill is expelled" on Tiny Pill Relays Body Temperature of Firefighters In Real-time · · Score: 1

    Nice use of the passive voice. I imagine this process won't feel so passive in the first person. Neither will recovering it from the other "expelled" material.

  4. The most dangerous to security... on Ask Slashdot: Should Employers Ban Smartphones? · · Score: 1

    The most dangerous thing to security is a disgruntled employee.

    If your regulations increase the likelihood of annoying your employees, they are actively counter-productive to security.

  5. The key... on Ask Slashdot: How To Gently Keep Management From Wrecking a Project? · · Score: 1

    Speaking as someone who, without realizing it, has become one of those old fart programmers;

    The key to not appearing selfish is not being selfish.

    (I'll also let you in on my secret of weight loss -- *whispering silently* eat less, exercise more.)

  6. Re:Tablet support? on Qt 5.0 Released · · Score: 1

    You're being a little Linux biased there -- I think the OP was referring to tablet support on windows. And I believe that it is broken in Qt 5 on windows. (I'd be happy to be wrong on this.)

  7. I'm More concerned... on Is Intel Planning To Kill Enthusiast PCs? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm more concerned about this trend to solder RAM onto boards (Apple, I'm looking at you here.) -- RAM goes bad over time -- a shockingly short time. (google the papers (by google) about RAM failure rates, and what they do after 18 months). After a couple of years error rates go up -- way up. (ECC would very definitely be your friend here, but intel only makes it available on xeon series chips (the circuitry is there but fused off in consumer grade chips) )

    My experience has been that after 24 months, you should just toss the ram dimms in the trash and start with new ones -- and you might as well max out the ram at that point. Otherwise the machine starts getting flaky as soft and uncorrected errors happen with increasing frequency.

  8. I suppose this is the equivalent... on Research Suggests Apes and Humans Separated By a Single Gene · · Score: 1
    I suppose this is the equivalent of flinging poop at y'all...

    I wonder how long it will be before someone tries splicing this into a chimp or great ape genome and see what happens... :-)

  9. Re:Just another way to bash someone's success on Could Testing Block Psychopaths From Senior Management? · · Score: 1
    Yes, it could definitely be considered discrimination on the basis of a medical condition or disability.

    Cue the A.D.A.

    :-)

    (Got karma to burn today, so I feel ok with posting this little nugget of flame-bait :-) )

  10. Re:Give them away on Ask Slashdot: What To Do With Found Calculators? · · Score: 1

    c/thing/think/ -- damn typos!

  11. Re:Give them away on Ask Slashdot: What To Do With Found Calculators? · · Score: 2

    I still thing the 15C was the best calculator ever made -- with the added numerical excellence from the god of FP math William Kahan.

  12. Re:not really practical application on Gamera II Team Smashes Previous Best Human-Powered Helicopter Flight Time · · Score: 1

    Yes -- Ground Effect will be significantly in play while the craft is within 0.5 of a wingspan/rotor span of the ground -- but it does drop off fairly quickly as you increase distance. It's hard to say with a craft like that just when GE stops having a strong effect -- but judging from those videos, It's likely not nearly enough once you're past 50 to 100cm. The Sikorsky prize specifies 3 M off the ground for 60 seconds. I doubt that human powered craft will achieve that any time soon.

  13. If it were trading at google's P/E on Facebook Shares Retreat Below IPO Price · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It would be trading at under $8 per share.

    I would not be at all surprised to see it in that vicinity in the next 6 months.

  14. Re:The Screen on Apple Unveils New iPad · · Score: 1

    The 17 inch macbook pro is 1920 x 1200 As far as I know it's the only laptop available at that resolution.

  15. Ads on Startup Wants To Peek Through Your Home's Wired Cameras · · Score: 1

    Look, the last thing I need is more penis enlargement ads.... :-)

  16. Re:Multi threading on Khan Academy Chooses JavaScript As Intro Language · · Score: 2

    Most programmers don't fully grok multi-threading issues. Ask your typical programmer what a lock convoy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock_convoy) is and you'll get a blank stare.

  17. Re:Offshore testing on America's Future Is In Software, Not Hardware · · Score: 1

    My team works like this, and it is very effective. You get bug reports while the code is still very fresh in your mind. So I agree that there are significant productivity benefits to having a QA team 12 hours or so out of sync with your developers.

    But it in the area of development things are a bit more mixed. My team has a number of developers in the far east, and a few in Europe too. They are all outstanding engineers. But the costs of the pure labor are equalizing fast. There is little and diminishing cost advantages to off-shoring development. In a few more years there will likely be no place left where there is a significant talent pool of skilled and educated software engineers that are appreciably cheaper than they are in North America or Europe.

  18. Too Important on Physicist Uses Laser Light As Fast, True-Random Number Generator · · Score: 4, Funny

    The generation of random numbers is too important to be left to chance.

  19. Re:Management discovered SMP and threading... on Intel and DreamWorks Working On Rendering Animation In Real-Time · · Score: 1

    It is *way* harder than you imagine. One of the smartest people I have ever met is very involved in this -- one of the principal engineers. It is an incredibly tough thing to achieve, and if anyone can pull it off, he can.

  20. Re:It's the Majel Barrett effect on Why Computer Voices Are Mostly Female · · Score: 1

    GLaDOS begs to differ. And if you argue, perhaps a little neurotoxin and a few sentry-bots will persuade you. :-)

  21. And how is this different than a bank? on Feds Call Full-Tilt Poker a 'Global Ponzi Scheme' · · Score: 1

    Banks don't have cash on hand to pay every account holder should they all choose to cash out their accounts.

  22. Re:Hehe, so much for cooperating on Movie Industry Files Injunction Against UK ISP · · Score: 1

    De donkere leegte is vrij aardig, dankt u.

  23. Re:Been using it for years on Canada Rolls Out Plastic Money · · Score: 2

    But you can still roll it up and snort the coke off a hookers ass.

  24. The map is not the territory on The End of Cheap Labor In China · · Score: 4, Informative

    Have you actually been there? (I just got back.) Shanghai is an interesting place, that's for sure. Wages for university educated and skilled people there are rising quickly. (You can't use unskilled farmers as programmers.) At the present rate of growth, they will match North American wages for equivalent work in about 4 to 5 years. Now I'm perfectly prepared to entertain arguments that the present rate of growth is unsustainable, so lay them on me... (And explain how they won't also depress wages here.)

  25. Re:Hate when my predictions come true on The End of Cheap Labor In China · · Score: 2

    Arbitrage is always temporary.