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User: knightghost

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Comments · 518

  1. Re:This is not new. on Can Students Have Too Much Tech? · · Score: 1

    Agreed. A better question might be "Is it a Tool or a Toy"? For most people, tech is only a toy. For those that use it as a tool... they can take off like a rocket.

  2. Re:Won't be enough on Safety Review Finds Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Site Was Technically Sound · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That's just hoping for magic. The bane of our so-called modern society.

    Yucca has always been an excellent place for mid-term (1k-10k year) radioactive storage - it's politics and corresponding misinfotainment that has destroyed our chances of low carbon safe energy.

  3. Re:Money *needs* to be removed from Politics ... on Comcast Ghost-Writes Politician's Letters To Support Time Warner Mega-Merger · · Score: 1

    Then write in C: Mickey Mouse.

    VOTE! Can you imagine how both parties would freak if a cartoon character beat them at the polls?

    Then again, it happened down in SoCal land... "I'll be back!"

  4. Re: life in the U.S. on Verizon, Cable Lobby Oppose Spec-Bump For Broadband Definition · · Score: 1

    1 connection when each person has 2-4? With bandwidth cost following Moore's law but we don't receive the benefit? Ridiculous. I deal with that crap with CableOne. Internet choices around here are Bad and Worse. The FCC does too little too late but at least something is happening.

  5. Re:Yes. on Should Disney Require Its Employees To Be Vaccinated? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Draw the line wherever you like, you don't have to work for them. I don't work for companies that want to pay me less than I want to be paid - it doesn't take any laws or rules for that to work.

    Hope you like living in a tent and scrounging for food in garbage bins.

    There are clear lines between what is personal and what affects the job. If you take drugs it'll likely affect your work and health costs (still somewhat paid for by the company) - that means the company has a valid interest. OTOH, your private emails (or facebook posts) between family and friends has very little to no affect on the company - therefore they don't have any valid need for access to it.

  6. Re:Civility shouldn't have borders on Linus On Diversity and Niceness In Open Source · · Score: 0

    There are often very good reasons to not be nice. The adage "Nice guys finish last" proves itself much more often than not.

    Being civil = far less results.

  7. Re:I'm shocked, SHOCKED! on Tesla vs. Car Dealers: the Lobbyist Went Down To Georgia · · Score: 0

    If direct sell is the only available option then the customer gets screwed. The company sets the price and acts in indirect collusion with other companies. A perfect example are airlines - they raise prices in lockstep. A few times a rogue like Southwest will refuse and everyone else has to drop back down to an old price, but it's a rarity.

    I just went though this shopping online for some higher end hiking and camping equipment. Brands like North Face, REI, Cabelas, etc all have their own brands and it's very difficult to find anything priced differently than the manufacturer sets them out.

    One of the things I love about Costco - they shop the gray market and thumb their noses at the manufacturers suggested price.

  8. Re: Renewable energy ist cheaper! on Nuclear Waste Accident Costs Los Alamos Contractor $57 Million · · Score: 0

    Which tens of thousands of garbage dumps are already doing. It's no big deal.

    Nuclear is the only viable option for base load if you want to reduce the trillions in costs from man made climate destruction. Problem with nuclear is ridiculous regulations. Problems with renewables are ridiculous subsidies and completely unrealistic expectations. Balance things out and nuclear would easily handle the next century until fusion is viable.

  9. Re:bean counters ruin another company on AMD, Nvidia Reportedly Tripped Up On Process Shrinks · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I really don't see that. Manufacturing in the USA typically runs Lean and often Cell based with process changes made in minutes. The people also tend to have a wider range of skills and experience. The states with unions pretty much don't do any more manufacturing.

    Outsourcing only works from 2 fundamentals - ignoring IP (theft) and currency manipulation.

  10. Re:Exactly this. on If the Programmer Won't Go To Silicon Valley, Should SV Go To the Programmer? · · Score: 0

    Remote work is great for competent people. That last part is what's missing.

    Why would anyone in their right mind go into STEM when an MBA gets you twice the money for less work?

  11. Re:The Best Politicians Money Can Buy on New Canadian Copyright Laws Require ISPs To Retain, Share Illegal Download Info · · Score: 2

    Everyone seems to be skirting around 2 truths:
    1. Marketing. They'll say anything to get elected.
    2. Money. That's the only vote.

    Our power? Ignore the marketing and vote with your dollar.

  12. Re:But but but on 11 Trillion Gallons of Water Needed To End California Drought · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There is no drought. There's just overpopulation and pumping water hundreds of miles to farm in a desert. Their #1 electricity use is pumping water for those farms.

  13. Re:Screw you white boys on Google Suggests Separating Students With 'Some CS Knowledge' From Novices · · Score: 2

    Most people I know have half a dozen geographies in their genetic background and everyone is a different shade of color. Race is now irrelevant.

    What does matter is what people do. Having someone - anyone - in a class that screws up the bell curve makes others feel bad. In most of those classes the ace student is celebrated, but obviously not here. PR over results.

    CS is overrated anyway. 10% should be CS, 30% should be Software Engineers, and 50% grunt work Programmers. All very different education.

  14. Re:Motives on Seeking Coders, Tech Titans Turn To K-12 Schools · · Score: 1

    Why aren't there more programmers? Because anyone smart enough to achieve a CS degree could instead get an MBA then a job with half the work and twice the pay.

    A similar problem happened with Petroleum Engineers but with different results. They increased the pay and a couple years later there were plenty of qualified engineers.

  15. Re:Solar Lanterns already available on Using Discarded Laptop Batteries To Power Lights · · Score: 1

    IBM did this for PR. It'll likely take far more resources to reuse the old laptop batteries than manufacture a good solution from scratch (like the one you referenced).

  16. Re:So? on British 'Porn Filter' Blocks Access To Chaos Computer Club · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No, that caused the problem. "Save the children!" and other lemming stampede inducing sayings will always be abused by those in power.

  17. Re:I have nothing better to do... on Should IT Professionals Be Exempt From Overtime Regulations? · · Score: 1

    so why not stay at work and get stuff done?

    At work I'm productive for the employer but don't expand my skills. At home I work for ME - putting investment into expanding my skills which helps both me and my employer in the long run.

    Salary = Wage Slave. The entire concept of a salary was for people that owned a chunk of the business. 99% of people should be hourly.

    Good IT = Engineering, not art. Taking 12 hours to do 1 hour of work is due to lack of education and experience, not flexibility.

  18. Re: Are they really that scared? on Why Elon Musk's Batteries Frighten Electric Companies · · Score: 1

    Only if you get people to vote that way... or even vote. Impossible.

  19. Re:Yes on Ask Slashdot: IT Career Path After 35? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You're one of the few. Age discrimination and outsourcing are huge. Migrating to management will get twice the pay for half the work given an MBA and a decade of engineering experience.

    Half of STEM workers don't find work in their field after graduating.
    3/4 of STEM workers leave the field for better areas.
    The flood of STEM visas and outsourcing in IT has reduced wages by 1/3.
    Still want to stay in the field? You better enjoy what you do and live on a strict budget.

  20. Re:Competitive within 30 years? Try 2. on Jackie Chan Discs Help Boost Solar Panel Efficiency · · Score: 1

    A biased web site cooking the books through subsidies, tax dodges, and unrealistic projections.
    Solar here costs 60 cents/kw (down from 90 c/kw a decade ago). Hyrdo is 3 c/kw. Wind is 4 c/kw. Natural gas and coal are 9 c/kw. Nuclear is 12 c/kw.

  21. Re:Another way to get cheap labour on UK Announces Hybrid Work/Study Undergraduate Program To Fill Digital Gap · · Score: 1

    CS degrees should be dumped in favor of 90% Software Engineering degrees because that's where the jobs have been for 20+ years and will continue to be.

    Students need to know both the fundamentals and the application - and to never stop learning. So maybe this is a step towards the right direction of always learning while working.

  22. Re:Copyright? on Jackie Chan Discs Help Boost Solar Panel Efficiency · · Score: -1

    Yea, at this rate of efficiency gains it'll only be ANOTHER 30 years until they're economical.

    Seriously... don't you people measure anything? And you call yourselves engineers...

  23. Re:He still plead guilty to something ... on Hacker Threatened With 44 Felony Charges Escapes With Misdemeanor · · Score: 0

    Local prosecutors have to follow ethics rules. Federal prosecutors do not.

  24. Re:He still plead guilty to something ... on Hacker Threatened With 44 Felony Charges Escapes With Misdemeanor · · Score: 0

    Good point. The DoJ needs it's budget cut by at least 1/3.

  25. Re:Yo, its 2014! on Is Ruby On Rails Losing Steam? · · Score: 0

    Makes sense, since RoR is for programmers that are afraid of databases. They just can't deal with real data.