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User: Cafe+Alpha

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  1. Mechanism? on Cell Phone Radiation Emission Tests Assume Use of Belt Clip · · Score: 3, Informative

    While there's a European study suggesting that using a cell phone against your head increases your risk of brain cancer (by a factor of 2 I think), there's no known MECHANISM for this, since radio waves are not ionizing radiation.

  2. To make it clear what I mean by secret on Barney Frank Defends Political Hypocrisy, Game Theory Explains It · · Score: 1

    The society's organization was based on the communist party or a cult. People met in secret, spun off other groups. The idea was to indoctrinate but not to do it entirely openly and not to expose the people involved.

  3. The reason that American politics is ruined on Barney Frank Defends Political Hypocrisy, Game Theory Explains It · · Score: 1

    Isn't game theory, it's manipulation by fascists
    see http://www.progressive.org/new...
    The Koch bros are Birchers, and the John Birch society was a organization founded to spread paranoid racist lies, and attempt to do it in secret.

    And their money funded the tea party.

  4. They're only pretending to have changed anything on Eric Holder Says DoJ Could Strike Deal With Snowden; Current AG Takes Hard Line · · Score: 3, Interesting

    because of Snowden. They didn't stop collecting bulk data, they just changed the legal ownership of that data which has no effect on anyone's rights. It's all technical changes.

    Also, if I were Snowden I'd consider staying away no matter what he's offered. Corrupt Russian intelligence doesn't have the MOTIVE to off him that American leaders do.

  5. We have a government specified UI for driving a on How Bad User Interfaces Can Ruin Lives · · Score: 1

    car. The steering wheel is mandated, even though a stick would work. Etc.

  6. I have experience with people whose minds not on How Bad User Interfaces Can Ruin Lives · · Score: 3, Insightful

    strong. I don't want to say "failing" just very poor memory and the like caused by very poor health. One case is a man who was in the tech industry years ago, but that doesn't mean that as his mind was harmed by the effects of illness he could continue to make sense of Google's ever changing interface. He didn't have a problem with mail so much (he used thunderbird, so that interface wasn't changing), but he couldn't navigate Google's changing phone service interfaces. Combine that with poor eyesite and problems with phone drivers that occasionally have to reload ... and there would be days when he had no phone service until someone came by and fixed his computer.

    Keep in mind that there are people (once again the same man) who at times find simply dialing a phone too hard. Maybe they're too slow for hospital phone that gives you 20 seconds of dial tone then gives up, or worse gives you 20 seconds but no audio cue like a dialtone.

    For such people you need interfaces designed differently than ones for average customers. You need interfaces that NEVER change. You need interfaces that have no time-outs. You need interfaces that force modal interactions rather than assuming that the user will NOTICE something.

  7. Re:When Aaron was lost, Ellen and her SJWs took ov on "We Screwed Up," Says Reddit CEO In Formal Apology · · Score: 1

    the SJW took over 4chan? Oh God. What a massacre that must have been.

  8. Until they on "We Screwed Up," Says Reddit CEO In Formal Apology · · Score: 4, Informative

    1. Hire that Taylor back or
    2. Explain why she was fired

    They've done nothing at all. And the only thing to apologize for other than firing a well liked person for no apparent reason is the fact that Pao laughed at her users to their faces. And no one is going to believe that she means an apology for that.

  9. Typing this in Microsoft Bob.

  10. Re: Terrifying. on Clang Plays Tetris -- Tetris As a C++ Template Metaprogram · · Score: 1

    Pure functional programming is pretty horrible too.

    Take the classic book, "numerical recipes in Fortran"
    ( http://apps.nrbook.com/fortran... ) and try to convert all of the routines in there to pure functional style with no mutable variables, structures, arrays and no non-recursive loops.

    Big step backwards. It will be horrible, it will obscure the code and it will run slowly.

    It's funny that computer science doesn't build on old successes. They had good computer languages for doing math going back to the 50s but the latest and greatest bullshit being pushed in academia can't even do what they did in the 50's well.

  11. Re:Difference between programming and metaprogramm on Clang Plays Tetris -- Tetris As a C++ Template Metaprogram · · Score: 1

    I don't see why you can't have multistage compiling so that you can use the full power of (whatever language) at "compile" time.

    You should be able to have mutable data structures at compile time.

    You should be able to have tables and arrays.

    And custom file and network io.

    Security hole? Like running a bash script isn't a security hole.

  12. Re: Terrifying. on Clang Plays Tetris -- Tetris As a C++ Template Metaprogram · · Score: 1

    Metaprogramming is wonderful. C++ templates are horrible.

    "Captain, you're asking me to work with equipment which hardly very far ahead of stone knives and bearskins. " - Mr. Spock

  13. Good pitch. on Someone Will Die Playing a Game In Virtual Reality · · Score: 1

    Now write the screenplay!

  14. Re:Terrifying. on Clang Plays Tetris -- Tetris As a C++ Template Metaprogram · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Nonsense.

    No one should ever have to work with C++ metaprogramming in their work.

    It should not be encouraged. It's a horrible dead end. Sadly it isn't the only dead end in computer science.

  15. Re:Syntax on Clang Plays Tetris -- Tetris As a C++ Template Metaprogram · · Score: 1

    It's also that C++ requires so many workarounds for template metaprogramming, so many help libraries, so many types, that writing, say template metaprogramming library that plays nice with Boost takes an infinitude of time and detail.

    Syntax isn't the majority of the problem. The rest of it is even worse.

  16. One sad thing on Clang Plays Tetris -- Tetris As a C++ Template Metaprogram · · Score: 1

    someone was asking for the luajit implementer, Mike Pall, to add copying data structures as something optimized by the compiler and he was told that not sharing structures was a "code smell"

    Oh God. The implementer is so out of touch and focused on low level efficiency that he doesn't recognize the basics of reliable programming.

  17. Blink. Horrible. Really horrible. on Clang Plays Tetris -- Tetris As a C++ Template Metaprogram · · Score: 2

    I've done that sort of metaprogramming. Years ago I wrote a compile-time Lisp interpreter. It's a HORRIBLE language.

    Look, say you have some advanced feature. You could write a library in scheme - it will take you 1 day to a week.

    You could write it in C++ templates. It will have a worse feature set than the scheme version, it will be much less readable (not that scheme is readable) and much harder to use. It will have unusable error messages. And a mockup version will take you months to write.

    Getting your mockup embedded in Boost and working well with it will take the help of a bunch of experts and a two or three times as much work.

    If you want it included in the Boost libraries, you'll need a couple years of work integrating it and getting it approved.

    Horrible.

  18. not in your lifetime on Analysis: Iran's Nuclear Program Has Been an Astronomical Waste · · Score: 1

    old stuff is old

  19. It doesn't matter in the slightest what Iran was on Analysis: Iran's Nuclear Program Has Been an Astronomical Waste · · Score: 1

    in 1953.

    That said, Barry Rubin was a disappointment to me. He spent the last few years of his life inciting the tea party tards on PJ Media throwing mad tantrums over Obama, afraid that anyone who doesn't seem 100% deferential must be working for Satan himself and bringing the final Holocaust.

  20. In short, despite your ego, it's not about on Analysis: Iran's Nuclear Program Has Been an Astronomical Waste · · Score: 1

    you

  21. On a higher level than their neighbors on Analysis: Iran's Nuclear Program Has Been an Astronomical Waste · · Score: 1

    only because they fight their wars IN their neighbors borders. See Lebanon and Syria. Also note that they manage to not have a civil war against another sect, see Syria.

    Ok, they're also not as culturally backward as Egypt or some of their neighbors, unless you count their leadership.

  22. Self centered morons on Analysis: Iran's Nuclear Program Has Been an Astronomical Waste · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Actually the problem with Iran has nothing to do with the US. Iran and similar countries are thoroughly dysfunctional without needing any reference to the US, see Syria.

    All utter failures of authoritarian messes and delusions need to declare normal countries their enemy, otherwise their captive populations would demand a system like ours that wasn't Kafka's worst nightmare.

  23. That's nothing, the Republicans claim that our on Kim Jong Un Claims To Have Cured AIDS, Ebola and Cancer · · Score: 1

    president caused ebola.

  24. So they don't want reference materials or on Amazon Is Only Going To Pay Authors When Each Page Is Read · · Score: 1

    educational materials to be published at all.

    I buy a reference book and only read the chapter I need for a current job, then the author is only compensated for 1/20th of what I paid Amazon and Amazon gets the rest?

    Someone sue Amazon publishing so hard that they can't find their god damn feet ok?

  25. Re:Oh god, who cares? on The Problems Apple Music Needs To Fix Before Launch · · Score: 1

    Not true. I'm a generation after the Beatles and all of my friends in high school knew all of their music and had all of their lyrics memorized.

    And if you really care you can get good digital copies of their music though the sources are odd. For instance the best copy of Abby Road is from the initial Japanese CD release (one of the first CDs ever made)... They were slapped down and told they didn't have the right to release it by the parent company, but since digital is eternal, there are flac files out there.