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User: GGardner

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  1. Please don't use C/C++ on Chrome 14 Beta Integrates Native Client · · Score: 2
    The phrase "C/C++", that is.

    C++, especially modern C++, is such a different language from C, that it makes no sense to talk about them as if they are the same. A decent programmer can learn everything they need to know about C in about two weeks. Modern C++ really takes years to really master. When I interview programmers, I'm immediately skeptical of anyone who claims to know "C/C++". Often, this means the most advanced "C++" feature they use is the // comment.

  2. Re:Much better anyway on Apple Removes MySQL From Lion Server · · Score: 2

    I always found PostgresQL harder to admin. It needs to be VACUUM'ed periodically. How often? The poor admin is supposed to figure that out themselves. Oh, and don't try to actually use the database during a VACUUM. Even after the autovacuum feature was added, it never seemed to work right, and my databases still needed to be vacuumed by hand, sometimes taking more than a day to run. Even with frequent vacuuming, indexes can get bloated -- I would see indexes with more pages allocated than entries, which needed to be manually reindexed. Worse, you need to tell postgres how much memory to allocate for vacuum'ing, and if you don't get it right, it 'leaks' disk space. None of these sorts of things have ever been a problem for MySQL.

  3. Re:That's not a logical statement on Lodsys Now Suing EA, Atari, Rovio and More · · Score: 2

    There are many things which are not "being obvious to someone skilled in the field" but which are easy and cheap to duplicate once the original invention has been made and published.

    That may be true, but consider that Lodsys hasn't made anything, and I guarantee you the Rovio developers hadn't read the patent before they wrote their games.

  4. Re:Better hurry before the horse leaves the barn on Amazon To Let Libraries Lend Kindle Books · · Score: 1

    There's no difference between a DRM-stripped book(which also underwent EPUB->AZW conversion, to boot) and a book which didn't have DRM on it in the first place.

    Sure about that? Confident that the Overdrive folks didn't hide some watermark of some kind into it? You better be sure, because the evidence is sitting on Amazon's servers...

  5. Re:Better hurry before the horse leaves the barn on Amazon To Let Libraries Lend Kindle Books · · Score: 1

    I couldn't tell you if it is illegal or unethical, but emailing the DRM-stripped files to an amazon-hosted email server seems ... ill-advised.

  6. Re:Really? on Open Source Programming Tools On the Rise · · Score: 1

    JDK is so not GPL.

  7. Re:Liability on Seagate To Pay Former Worker $1.9M For Phantom Job · · Score: 1

    I am so not a lawyer, but TFA claims the basis for the case is a Minnesota state statute, but the case was argued in federal court. How does that work?

  8. This should help stop cell phone theft on Pee On Your Phone STD Test · · Score: 1

    If this doesn't stop cell phone theft, nothing will.

  9. Re:The money AT&T didn't make from Bell Labs on Where Have You Gone, Bell Labs? · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The consent degree did not apply to Lucent after it was spun off, and they did even worse. Moreover, lack of commercialization was true at _all_ the privately run labs. How much did Xerox make from PARC's great Computer Science work? IBM from T.J Watson?

  10. The money AT&T didn't make from Bell Labs on Where Have You Gone, Bell Labs? · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's incredible how successful other companies were at commercializing the amazing basic discoveries or inventions that came out of Bell Labs (transistor, laser, Unix, etc. etc. etc.), and somehow AT&T never was all that successful at commercializing these discoveries, and ended up spinning off Bell Labs and selling out to SBC.

    Bell Labs held many, many patents from all this basic research, that ultimately weren't nearly as profitable as the inventions that used them. Lessons for those who insist that IP rights are key to innovation.

  11. A-380 halfway there on NASA Offers $1.5 Million For 200MPG Aircraft · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The Airbus A-380 gets roughly 100 passenger-miles per gallon, cruising substantially faster and further. Surely with only enough fuel for a short 100 mile flight, no cargo, you could cram twice as many people in it, and easily get your 200 passenger-miles per gallon. Of course, chartering one, might cost more than the prize is worth...

  12. Re:Indeed... on Huge Unidentified Organic Blob Floating Around Alaska · · Score: 2, Funny

    If Petty Officer 1st Class Terry Hasenauer is wearing a red shirt, he's probably in trouble by now.

  13. Re:Michael who? on News Sites Slammed By Michael Jackson Traffic · · Score: 4, Funny

    Michael Jackson, great guy, wrote books about beer, died a couple of years ago: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson_(writer)

  14. Re:Incompetence led to their downfall? on Auto Warranty Robocall Scammers Busted · · Score: 1

    1) The JW only have one "product", and can't switch to selling another one.
    2) The JW have only stopped by my house once in the last three years, not 30+ times.

  15. Incompetence led to their downfall? on Auto Warranty Robocall Scammers Busted · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What I don't understand is why I, and so many others, got so many calls. I must have received over 30. If these crooks were in business for two years, and made over a billion calls, they were clearly calling everyone they could reach in the US multiple times. Isn't there some point where they hit diminishing returns? TFA says their mantra was "hang up; next" (perl?), that is to not try to convert anyone who sounded remotely skeptical. But if they give up on the sale two second in, why call that same person back, again and again? Had they not called back people they rejected, I suspect that people would be nearly so upset with them, and the FTC wouldn't have gone after them.

  16. Re:Okay, it's done, but what was the net gain/loss on Auto Warranty Robocall Scammers Busted · · Score: 2, Interesting

    According to ftc.gov, violators of the do not call list can be fined up to $16k per call (has the ftc ever fined anyone this much? Anything?) TFA claims they made over a billion calls. I say we hit them up for 1 billion counts @ $16k per call.

  17. Re:Excellent.. on BIND 10 Development Now Fully Underway · · Score: 2, Funny

    You jest, but this one line program is incredibly buggy!

  18. At least third marriage on Intel Buys Embedded Software Vendor Wind River · · Score: 1

    Remember how three years ago Intel sold off the XScale division, to get out of the embedded space, and focus on servers and desktops? (Look it up) I bet some new vice president decided that they needed to get back into this business, knowing nothing about the reasons they sold off XScale. This reminds me of GM dumping the EV1 electric car, and ten years later, starting from scratch on the Volt.

  19. Re:I can see it now on Mozilla Preparing To Scrap Tabbed Browsing? · · Score: 4, Informative

    Try using your "wide screen" monitor in portrait mode. Awesome for coding and reading.

  20. Re:Strategy on How To Show Code Samples? · · Score: 1

    What the heck? If I'm going to be spending my working days manipulating a large base of existing code, why can't I see it before I sign on the dotted line? I'm perfectly happy to show you mine, as long as you show me yours...

  21. Turnabout is fair play. on How To Show Code Samples? · · Score: 1

    Remember, you are interviewing the company just as much as the are interviewing you. So, I'd ask them to see a sample of their code base you'd be working on. If they stammer and say it is proprietary, well, maybe the code you've worked on in the past is too... If they apologize for the code, then maybe you know what you might be getting into.

  22. Supercomputer price/performance: Do the math! on Building the World's 4th Fastest Supercomputer · · Score: 1

    BlueGene/P systems cost roughly $1.4 million per rack. The second fastest computer on the top 500 list is a sixteen rack BlueGene/P system.

  23. Bigger problem -- waterfall process on U.S. Bars Lab From Testing E-Voting Machines · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Even bigger than the immediate problems is the assumption that the waterfall method works for testing the correctness and security of software systems. Let's say that this testing organization finds a serious security problem with the already "finished" system, one that can't be quickly and easily fixed? What then? There will be huge pressure to force a quick fix in place. Instead, the security audit should happen in parallel with design and development, so security problems can be found and fixed closer to their commission.

  24. What about the Vista shutdown interface, Joel? on Norman & Spolsky - Simplicity is Out · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In this article, Joel on software claims that simplicity is overrated, that users want more features, and the single thing his company does to drive more sales is to release a new version of an existing product with more features. What's notable is that a week earlier, he wrote this well-circulated post lambasting Microsoft for having too much choice in the shutdown menu in Vista, and advocated for a simple, one-button shutdown solution.

  25. Disks aren't getting faster fast enough on iPod To Eventually Hold All the Video In the World? · · Score: 1

    While storage technology has been growing in capacity at a remarkable rate, transfer speeds seem to be growing at a much slower rate. Let's say I've got an Ipod that can hold all the world's videos -- how long it might it take to get them all to it?