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Comment Re:A bunch of nuns? (Score 1) 800

Maybe that's the best solution, really. Is it the vehicle manufacturer's job to play moral philosopher? They're just trying to sell a useful product, and the most useful behavior in that regard is to do whatever benefits the owner the most. Of course, if your ex-wife is trying to run you down with your car, it may not be able to detect that...
United Kingdom

Microsoft Cheaper To Use Than Open Source Software, UK CIO Says 589

colinneagle (2544914) writes "Jos Creese, CIO of the Hampshire County Council, told Britain's 'Computing' publication that part of the reason is that most staff are already familiar with Microsoft products and that Microsoft has been flexible and more helpful. 'Microsoft has been flexible and helpful in the way we apply their products to improve the operation of our frontline services, and this helps to de-risk ongoing cost,' he told the publication. 'The point is that the true cost is in the total cost of ownership and exploitation, not just the license cost.' Creese went on to say he didn't have a particular bias about open source over Microsoft, but proprietary solutions from Microsoft or any other commercial software vendor 'need to justify themselves and to work doubly hard to have flexible business models to help us further our aims.'"

Comment Re:It's a turd that's slowly being polished (Score 2) 435

It was Bjarne himself who said that there are two kinds of programming languages: those everyone complains about, and those that nobody uses.

I'm sure that was said more or less as a joke, but it rubs me the wrong way. The basic suggestion here is that no language that reaches sufficient usage is going to be without its problems. That's fair, but I'm reading from it an implication that the criticism is purely due to its popularity, and that's not fair. There are a lot of problems with C++; some are fixable, some are too inherent in the design to be fixed. A lot of what could be fixed has been, and that's fantastic, but there's still plenty of room for legitimate criticism that has nothing to do with hating what's popular.

Regarding languages that "nobody uses," that doesn't necessarily say anything about their quality; some things just don't take off for whatever confluence of reasons. It remains to be seen whether D specifically will or will not, but from what I understand, it is very well-designed and avoids a lot of the design issues present in C++. That's really cool if true and I'm looking forward to seeing if those claims hold up.

Comment Re:It's a turd that's slowly being polished (Score 1) 435

When I'm working on any project of significance (which isn't often anymore), I tend to write in C, so what you said is about as far off-base as you can get.

I don't know why you're fanboying about a language like C++ (or any language, for that matter; being a fanboy is stupid, and that is what you're doing), but I was just airing my thoughts on the topic, which is what TFS asked for. If you can't possibly comprehend why someone would deign to suggest your glorious C++ is anything but the result of angels crying tears of code, here's one perspective on some of its issues; it's certainly not the only one of its kind (but it's more in-depth and better-written than anything I'd come up with in a comment on /.).

Comment It's a turd that's slowly being polished (Score 1, Insightful) 435

I can't stand C++, but they are doing a good job of making it considerably less horrible with every iteration. If they keep it up, the end result will be a well-polished and beautiful turd that is, nonetheless, still a turd. I don't think it's salvageable; if we want something good that serves the same role as C++, it will need to be something completely new with similar goals. D sounds interesting, but I don't really know much about it other than it sounds neat.

Comment Re:True for two main reasons (Score 1) 278

The problem is that some tools are worse than others. Yes, an artisan craftsman can make a good house with a carp and some thumbtacks, but that doesn't mean those are good tools. C++ is not a good language, nor are any of the languages he mentioned, and they just make things all-around worse for everyone involved.
Businesses

GitHub Founder Resigns Following Harassment Investigation 182

An anonymous reader writes "Late Yesterday, GitHub concluded its investigation regarding sexual harassment within its work force, and although it found no evidence of 'legal wrongdoing,' Tom Preston-Werner, one of its founding members implicated in the investigation resigned. In its statement, GitHub vows to implement 'a number of new HR and employee-led initiatives as well as training opportunities to make sure employee concerns and conflicts are taken seriously and dealt with appropriately.' Julie Ann Horvath, the former GitHub employee whose public resignation last month inspired the sexual harassment investigation, found the company's findings to be gratuitous and just plain wrong."
The Military

Expert Warns: Civilian World Not Ready For Massive EMP-Caused Blackout 271

schwit1 (797399) writes "An electromagnetic pulse is a burst of electromagnetic energy strong enough to disable, and even destroy, nearby electronic devices. In the first few minutes of an EMP, nearly half a million people would die. That's the worst-case scenario that author William R. Forstchen estimated would be the result of an EMP on the electric grid. 'If you do a smart plan — the Congressional EMP Commission estimated that you could protect the whole country for about $2 billion,' Peter Vincent Pry, executive director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security and director of the U.S. Nuclear Strategy Forum, told Watchdog.org. 'That's what we give away in foreign aid to Pakistan every year.' He said the more officials plan, the lower the estimated cost gets. 'The problem is not the technology,' Pry said. 'We know how to protect against it. It's not the money, it doesn't cost that much. The problem is the politics. It always seems to be the politics that gets in the way.'"
Education

Ask Slashdot: Hungry Students, How Common? 390

Gud (78635) points to this story in the Washington Post about students having trouble with paying for both food and school. "I recall a number of these experiences from my time as grad student. I remember choosing between eating, living in bad neighborhoods, putting gas in the car, etc. Me and my fellow students still refer to ourselves as the 'starving grad students.' Today we laugh about these experiences because we all got good jobs that lifted us out of poverty, but not everyone is that fortunate. I wonder how many students are having hard time concentrating on their studies due to worrying where the next meal comes from. In the article I found the attitude of collage admins to the idea of meal plan point sharing, telling as how little they care about anything else but soak students & parents for fees and pester them later on with requests for donations. Last year I did the college tour for my first child, after reading the article, some of the comments I heard on that tour started making more sense. Like 'During exams you go to the dining hall in the morning, eat and study all day for one swipe' or 'One student is doing study on what happens when you live only on Ramen noodles!'

How common is 'food insecurity in college or high school'? What tricks can you share with current students?"

Comment Re:tldr (Score 1) 235

I don't think so. New ones *will* stop being found, or at least the rate of finding will slow down, especially if they're being patched. The effort required to find such exploits will also go up, which will also raise the price on the black market. Past a certain point, blackhats will likely just focus their efforts elsewhere.

Comment Re:Let it die (Score 1) 510

One of the problems I've heard for people who get them in late (heck, it's a problem for me and I have no hearing problems whatsoever) is that you can't really shut it off. That's constant stimulus that you have that you never had before, and that can lead to serious sleep problems.

The funny thing is, this seems like it has an easy enough solution: just research a way to let people turn them off at will. Maybe it's not that easy, though.

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