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User: trout007

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Comments · 2,187

  1. Re:Technical People on The Billion-Dollar Website · · Score: 1

    And if you don't go with the low bidder they can sue and drag out the procurement process. Again this doesn't happen in business.

  2. Real problem is not understanding customers on Companies That Don't Understand Engineers Don't Respect Engineers · · Score: 3, Insightful

    In the end it is always the customer that pays the bills. If you are selling things to technical people then the engineers may have a better grasp on what the customer wants. I've been in customer meetings where we were selling a machine to the customer and both management didn't really understand the requirements. When I talked with the manufacturing engineer we both understood each other and were able to agree upon some real requirements that could be verified. In this cage management wasn't helping. Luckily they understood this and allowed the technical people to work together.

    In other cases when I worked for a company that sold services to the government I had to learn to relize the business wasn't about doing a great job. They have the contract so the business goal was to milk the government as much as possible. This means doing exactly what you were contracted to do even if it wasn't technically correct.

  3. Re:Technical People on The Billion-Dollar Website · · Score: 2

    Part of the problem is because of how contracts are awarded. A business is allowed to use their brains and not go with the low bidder because they obviously don't understand the job or have a history of being a pain to work with. The government is not allowed to do this. They have to write a perfect requirements document and put out an open request for bids. If anything in the requirements document is not perfect the contractor is legally allowed to mess it up on purpose and charge for fixing it. This type of behavior doesn't happen as often in the private sector because those firms get a bad reputation and go out of business.

  4. Re:Question on Point-and-Shoot: TrackingPoint's New Linux-Controlled AR-15s · · Score: 1

    Because we have the internet and I think asking people to do a little of their own research is better than linking to studies that I could have cherry picked myself.

    The OP didn't link to stats but a Washington Post article. Go look up official crime stats from both countries.

  5. Re:Not creative rock stars? on Getting IT Talent In Government Will Take Culture Change, Says Google Engineer · · Score: 2

    I work for the federal government.

    I have all of the benefits you mentioned.

    I telework over VPN so I can access all of the internal servers.
    I get a flexible schedule and FSA.

    I also can actually get paid OT. At my salary it's just straight time but still that's better than many in the private sector.

    The big downside is congresses messing up the projects every year or so. This is not helpful when 3 months of a year are spent on budget fights when projects should be budgeted for 10 years.

  6. Re:Question on Point-and-Shoot: TrackingPoint's New Linux-Controlled AR-15s · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Go look at the real data. Homicides are declining in Austrailia and the US. Since Austrailia banned guns the firearm murder rate dropped but it dripped faster than the overall homicide rate which means that quite a few killers still decided to kill even without a gun. In the same time the US had more guns and more people carrying guns and also saw a decrease in homicides. If you remove the places with strict gun laws the homicide rate drops even further.

  7. Re:Someone who reads random gun stuff on the net on Point-and-Shoot: TrackingPoint's New Linux-Controlled AR-15s · · Score: 1

    There were also issues when firing the same cartridge from the original length barrel
    Vs the shortened barrel.

  8. Re:Lifetime solar power in FL on Floridian (and Southern) Governmental Regulations Are Unfriendly To Solar Power · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately hurricane winds also contain debris.

  9. Lifetime solar power in FL on Floridian (and Southern) Governmental Regulations Are Unfriendly To Solar Power · · Score: 1

    Panels don't last as long in Florida when a storm comes and rips them off your roof every 20 years. Also our electricity is pretty cheap here.

  10. Re:Hamas are Terrorists on The High-Tech Warfare Behind the Israel - Hamas Conflict · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Exactly. Once they stop defending their homeland and surrender to the occupying forces the conflict will stop.

  11. Re:You having problems, John Galt? on SpaceX Executive Calls For $22-25 Billion NASA Budget · · Score: 2

    I always pictured Elon as Francisco d'Anconia.

  12. Re:5 billion per launch already looking optimistic on SLS Project Coming Up $400 Million Short · · Score: 1

    NASA employes about 15k full time employees. That's about $3 Billion out of a $18 Billion budget. All the rest goes to contracts of various types. NASA isn't designing all of SLS. Most is contractors.

  13. Re:Southwest Boarding Policies on Man Booted From Southwest Flight and Threatened With Arrest After Critical Tweet · · Score: 4, Informative

    Don't forget that you can upgrade to A-List for $12.50 a ticket. If it's that important to board with your family pay for the upgrade.

  14. Re:Should the United States accept more foreigners on Western US States Using Up Ground Water At an Alarming Rate · · Score: 1

    Poverty doesn't cause obesity. There is a correlation in the modern world because food is cheap and the ability to delay gratification leads to poverty and obesity.

  15. Re:Welcome to engineering on 'Just Let Me Code!' · · Score: 1

    I think the problem is that on many projects the requirements are not known enough for a complete definition. Agile and spiral design processes work well for these designs because requirements are discovered during each cycle.

  16. Re:De-salination? on MIT Combines Carbon Foam and Graphite Flakes For Efficient Solar Steam Generati · · Score: 1

    But you could burn away the carbon and have an unlimited supply of sea salt.

  17. As someone that works at KSC on NASA Names Building For Neil Armstrong · · Score: 1

    The real name of the building is M7-0355. This is most likely just going to involve a little sign in the lobby.

  18. Re:Cost of living tracks minimum wage on States That Raised Minimum Wage See No Slow-Down In Job Growth · · Score: 1

    You don't need big data. If people have more cash they will buy more which is all the indicator a store needs to raise prices.

  19. Florida Best Performance. on States That Raised Minimum Wage See No Slow-Down In Job Growth · · Score: 4, Informative

    The best performer is Florida which only raised it's minimum wage to keep pace with inflation by 14 cents/hr.

    "The number of jobs in Florida has risen 1.6 percent this year, the most of the 13 states with higher minimums. Its minimum rose to $7.93 an hour from $7.79 last year."

    In reality inflation is much worse for low income people in Florida so in real terms the minimum wage decreased for those people.

  20. This one is pretty interesting and you can own it on DARPA Successfully Demonstrates Self-Guiding Bullets · · Score: 1

    This system isn't guided but you can preselect your target and enable the rifle.
    When you aim where the computer predicts impact it will automatically fire.

    http://tracking-point.com/prec...

  21. Re:Can see how own network, messaging is being use on Microsoft Lync Server Gathers Employee Data Just Like NSA · · Score: 1

    We had an email go out saying that people were using Bittorrent from home over the VPN and to please stop since it's illegal and taking up bandwidth.

  22. Re:I know one on Good Engineering Managers Just "Don't Exist" · · Score: 1

    I'm lucky enough to have an excellent engineering manager right now. When he got hired most of us were thinking "Oh great here is another manager:" He came in and said "You guys do great work. My job is to make it easier for you to do your job." We didn't believe him at first but he has proven himself. He came up with a project management database that helped us get our crap together. Instead of jobs falling through the cracks we now have it documented. He was flexible with what we had to fill in. When we complained a field was taking too long to fill in he got rid of it. It has really helped with upper management because when they come around to ask what do we work on we have thousands of records of every little task we do and for whom.

  23. Re:and then need to build all kinds of walkways / on Government To Require Vehicle-to-vehicle Communication · · Score: 1

    No. You could have a crosswalk button that will make a break in traffic for you for a certain period of time and track you as you cross.

  24. Re:No more bridges? on Government To Require Vehicle-to-vehicle Communication · · Score: 1

    Jumps.

  25. No more bridges or traffic lights!!! on Government To Require Vehicle-to-vehicle Communication · · Score: 1

    If every car was self driving you could eliminate bridges and traffic lights. You could have full speed ground level crossings where the cars seamlessly weave past each other.