I've been using them for years and I've never had a problem (in fact they've saved my ass on several occasions); it was just one mistake so I think I'm going to keep using them.

Why is it that with only 4 posts up (when I wrote this) I'm already pissed off? I guess I already know just how-many-stupid-things are about to be written here, and 'resigning to it in silent fury... Debating climate deniers is like getting a beer with a bunch of birthers (literally). Science has an amazing way of reinforcing crazy stupid by presenting contradicting, independently verifiable facts, sometimes it's too painful to watch.

People are still just as stupid as they've always been...

Actually, that's why people hate Apple - though it is why people are starting to hate MS. Windows 8 is great though - releasing 8 helped me build up enough bitterness that I'm installing linux as my main and putting windows on the VM :D.

I've been waiting for someone to address the serious shit we're all about to find ourselves in, and I'm glad Obama did it. I'm shocked and appalled at the stupidity that's been modded up in this thread. Here we have slashdotters focusing more on government spending like a bunch of nutters instead of the fact that we're on the cusp of an environmental tipping point. What happened slashdot? When'd you get so short sighted?

Um, when that lobbying is for the benefit of a single multinational corporation instead of the greater good of the people served by the legislature - then yes, I absolutely want to get rid of that.

Examining all sides of a scientific theory that are contrary to an established scientific theory means examining decidedly unscientific theories as if they were scientific... or, you could just say, "Teaching our students Not-Science"

Umm, I care. I'm happy to pay the dev the price because it's a nice product and it reads my e-books to me, and I haven't found an ereader that isn't too chicken to do this.

How on earth did an uninformed idiotic statement as a question make it the front page of my once beloved slashdot? I wouldn't even expect crap like this on reddit.

It depends upon the person of course, however if he's not able to learn from the feedback you're giving him it's possible that his brain might not be wired that way. In my experience (as a lead developer and lead architect) I've found developers usually sit somewhere on the spectrum between implementationists (nuts and bolts programmers) and designers (big picture programmers); and every now and then you get someone who is just so far to one end or the other it's hard for them to see, for instance, why code needs to be elegant when it's already working (or vice versa why sometimes the performance cost of a perfect design doesn't pan out).

If you think this might be the case, it doesn't mean he needs to be fired or kicked off the team though. You just have to focus on using his abilities where he's strongest (e.g. low level code, or when you need to *get the job done now, future consequences be damned*). There will be times when something that seems obvious just isn't going to make sense to someone else, and in those instances I find it's best to think of the each team member the way I might when playing an rpg; while a dwarven warrior won't have the finesse of an elven mage, sometimes it's just the kind of character you need. :-)

What difference am I'm missing between an AI generated platformer and an algorithmically generated dungeon crawl? Or are these programs using neural networks or some fancier fuzzy type of logic to design these games?

Seriously, there's a lot that's broken about Windows 8 right now, but I'm willing to give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt long term. I'm certainly not going to upgrade until they've fixed a lot of their poor UX decisions, but I'm pretty sure they'll figure it out by the next version. Microsoft "Window" is a very apt analogy at the moment, but I'm putting my money on this being a success long term.

... or have slashdot headlines been turning into total crap since they got bought out? Am I just being biased here?

I was a "Senior Software Engineer" before I got a promotion, now I'm a "Lead Developer". Aside from providing guidance to other engineers I still do the same job. Personally, I wanted my new title to be "Mr. Manager" instead, but no one seemed to like that idea :(. Seriously, I've worked in states where it's illegal to give someone without an engineering degree the title "Engineer", but I've worked with engineers who didn't finish college and found them every bit as good (sometimes much better) than the ones who didn't.