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Comment Re:Good for apple (Score 1) 1078

I don't have a car, but I don't need to walk to work. There are other options you know... Maybe not where you're from, but that's hardly normative. The point is that you're not *entitled* to a car, but you have a choice to spend your money on one. Something you can chose to pay for is more like a privilege than a right.

Comment Re:Reporters aren't the only one with deadlines (Score 1) 169

The problem imo is not that developers are incapable or unwilling to help out reporters. I wrote the better part of an article on InfoQ about a project I'm committer on once, and I can't imagine that most developers would not want to take some credit for their work if the timing is right.

The problem is that the timing is usually not right. I work one day a week on OSS. If I'm into something, I usually just ignore the phone, and read my email only when I'm done. If you're lucky enough to get a hold of me on a Friday afternoon when I'm stuck on something you'll get two hours of my time and probably something with less spelling errors and more to the point than if you'd had written it yourself.

The reason that I'm ignoring my mail and phone is not because I don't want to be helpful, I simply can't without wreaking havoc to my productivity. There are a few interesting articles to explain why that is. An example: http://www.byte-vision.com/ProductivityArticle.aspx

The only thing I can think to do to help out reporters is to publish my personal schedule so they can see when it might be useful to bug me. If you're constantly on a 3 hour deadline with no heads up, you're shit out of luck, sorry.

In the end having a project but no story is better than having a story and no project

Comment Re:Usually, poorly communicated in every way (Score 1) 169

None. Being a good developer is all about language. Being a brilliant developer is all about the art of making hard problems easy to understand.

How many programs have you ever seen in business that require more than the most basic mathematics? 3?

How many programs have you ever encountered that were hard to read?

Comment Re:Richard Dawkins (Score 1) 799

You know, there are a lot of people who don't have a problem combining religion and science... so I don't see how that part of your comment has anything to do with anything...

Grandparent is talking about a possibly irrelevant personal experience, but sort of stays on topic (mentioning the name of a science hero). You are responding to the personal experience only and are thereby completely off topic (by your own definition).

To me it's actually quite interesting to provide my kids with a way to evolve their thinking beyond needing religion, but as you suggest, they can look up to science hero's before doing that.

Comment Re:Learn to dance (Score 1) 1354

Yeah, my wife has pressured me into taking dance lessons with her. I'm expecting a divorce soon. Girls love guys who can dance, but they don't love guys that prove they can't learn to dance.

I'm just saying you might be better off learning to cook, or some other less dangerous hobby. In seriousness, just get away from the computer. It's not just that girls don't like nerdy behavior, like any other anti social behavior, it blocks other people from interacting with you, hence you won't make any friends while absorbed in it.

Comment Re:Blimps maybe? (Score 2, Insightful) 345

Yes, rail travel requires resources of iron and such to lay down infrastructure, but that infrastructure is used and maintained for many years and pays off over the long haul. Once down, a diesel locomotive can move immense amounts of cargo for a lot less per mile than other modes of transportation, so it should balance out.

Yeah, it should shouldn't it... so why are you avoiding any kind of quantitative arguments about it? The point is to figure out if it *does* balance out.

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