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User: MichaelSmith

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  1. Re:Two more problems with Venus on Venus May Have Been Habitable, Says NASA (sciencedaily.com) · · Score: 2

    But also Earth has shellfish which turn carbon dioxide into limestone. Venus does not.

  2. Re:Generations on Older Workers Are Better At Adapting To New Technology, Study Finds (cio.com) · · Score: 1

    Oh no I think is more the difference between makers and users. There were makers in my father's and grandfather's generation (I was born in 65) but there are so many toys available today that I just think kids are growing up as consumers. I rarely see anybody under 40 in my local electronics shop. Plenty of kids out buying phones and tablets though.

    Also a lot of new tech these days is straight out of science fiction from the 1970s and 80s. People from older generations can just say oh yeah I read about this, while younger kids are more likely to be baffled by things which don't fit their worldview.

  3. Re:Torvalds Must Die! on Linus Torvalds In Sweary Rant About Punctuation In Kernel Comments (theregister.co.uk) · · Score: 2

    Ah no I didn't mean to imply that Linus is a steaming pile of dogshit masquerading as a wannabe politician.

  4. Re:This reminds me of top-posting in newsgroups. on Linus Torvalds In Sweary Rant About Punctuation In Kernel Comments (theregister.co.uk) · · Score: 1

    I totally agree.

    Back in the day, on newsgroups, if you did that you'd get absolutely SCREAMED at for "TOP POSTING", because it was WRONG..

  5. Re:Torvalds Must Die! on Linus Torvalds In Sweary Rant About Punctuation In Kernel Comments (theregister.co.uk) · · Score: 1

    This is the problem: Torvalds has never had an actual, paying job with a boss to answer to.

  6. Re:Whether he's overall crazy or not... on Linus Torvalds In Sweary Rant About Punctuation In Kernel Comments (theregister.co.uk) · · Score: 1

    I like his preferred style too but I am not going to waste my life arguing about it.

  7. Re:He is lucky he did not get shot on the spot on Carrying A Gun-Shaped iPhone 'Makes It Much Less Likely You'll Catch Your Plane' (cnet.com) · · Score: 0

    Yeah but police who don't actually expect get shot by members of the public, during every shift they work.

  8. Re:So they're just using contrast? on DVD Player Found In Tesla Autopilot Crash, Says Florida Officials (reuters.com) · · Score: 1

    Its a 2D version if TCAS, where the vehicles have the option of coming to a complete halt if they face an impossible situation. TCAS uses communication between aircraft, so that they can negotiate a solution. So if you have two aircraft approaching head on one will tell its crew to pull up and the other to descend.

    In your scenario communication between vehicles would definitely be required.

  9. That bit only makes sense if the car had no idea how far away the truck way. As the car approached the truck the clearance should have increased and the car should have realized something was wrong if it didn't.

  10. Re:So they're just using contrast? on DVD Player Found In Tesla Autopilot Crash, Says Florida Officials (reuters.com) · · Score: 1

    Police lidars work at a hundred metres or so. Thats enough for avoiding conflicts like this.

  11. Re:You can't do autonomous half-way like this. on DVD Player Found In Tesla Autopilot Crash, Says Florida Officials (reuters.com) · · Score: 1

    Or not at all.

  12. As far as I can see the truck driver was at fault, so why is such a big deal being made about this? Of course automation is going to make drivers lose concentration. Thats been understood for decades.

  13. python 2.7.11? on Slackware 14.2 Released, Still Systemd-Free (slackware.com) · · Score: 2

    Its like they are not even trying. Python 3.5 is perfectly okay.

  14. What about first or reverse?

  15. Re:Have you ever actually used Python?! on ECMAScript 2016: New Version of JavaScript Language Released (softpedia.com) · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Minification is a nasty hack for languages without a binary format. Python compiles to .pyc

  16. Re:hated language becomes a success on ECMAScript 2016: New Version of JavaScript Language Released (softpedia.com) · · Score: 1

    The language, the runtime libraries and the browsers were all changing rapidly at the time. It got us to where we are now. Javascript got a head start by ignoring some of the stuff which made java a pain for new programmers, like strong typing and security.

  17. Re:hated language becomes a success on ECMAScript 2016: New Version of JavaScript Language Released (softpedia.com) · · Score: 1

    Java ran in the browser before javascript. It was a little slow at the time but what wasn't?

  18. Re:The power operator? Really? on ECMAScript 2016: New Version of JavaScript Language Released (softpedia.com) · · Score: 2

    Thank God for unit tests

    Handy when static analysis is all but impossible.

  19. Re:Too bad on async functions on ECMAScript 2016: New Version of JavaScript Language Released (softpedia.com) · · Score: 1

    I don't see how locking between threads can work when their entire namespace is so mutable.

  20. Re:Before the inevitable comments on 23 Seriously Ill MS Patients Recover After 'Breakthrough' Stem Cell Treatment (telegraph.co.uk) · · Score: 1

    My father in law died when chemotherapy for cancer killed his bone marrow, and thus, his immune system. Maybe it would be a good idea to take samples of marrow stem cells before doing something which could kill the marrow entirely, so that the marrow could be re-booted, so to speak in the case of disaster.

  21. No doubt both sides are spending big dollars on SEO to feed data into google's databases.

  22. Re:How about just building a feasible cleaning bot on ASUS Unveils $599 Home Robot 'Zenbo' (computerworld.com) · · Score: 1

    Its really hard to do. It takes a lot of force to clean some surfaces. That requires a heavy robot. Then it needs to dispose of debris it collects so it has to be able to dump that somewhere appropriate. It needs to take care not to damage delicate things as well.

  23. Smoke detector on ASUS Unveils $599 Home Robot 'Zenbo' (computerworld.com) · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Given the number of old people who eventually die by falling asleep while smoking, an intelligent smoke detector might be a good idea.

  24. Re:Waterfall vs dog food on Upcoming OS/2 Release Will Be Called ArcaOS 5.0 (techrepublic.com) · · Score: 1

    One issue I found working with very formal waterfall-like processes is that a typical project might generate several thousand problem change requests (PCRs). Each PCR is given to a developer to fix and that person makes whatever change which will make the problem go away. Do that a couple of thousand times and there is nothing left of your original clean architecture. Its just a mess.