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Comment summary (Score 1) 199

by rackeer (#30147342) Attached to: Samsung Sponsors the Development of Enlightenment
Summary from TFA:
Samsung is sponsoring Enlightenment so that they can obviously deploy this lightweight and robust window manager on some of their mobile devices, but we do not yet have confirmation on what devices or when they may start surfacing... It sounds as though Samsung is still early on into their love affair with Enlightenment and that many more changes and work are still to come, which means that it may be some months before seeing any devices.
We also have been forwarded some YouTube videos of recent Enlightenment advancements (user-interface improvements) that have been made possible through this hardware company's sponsorship. The video demos are quite interesting and worth checking out.
Video here.

Comment Re:I agree, with reservations (Score 1) 660

by rackeer (#30128270) Attached to: If the Comments Are Ugly, the Code Is Ugly
That's probably true for all areas, not just programming (although you should make allowances for dyslexic and so on). This is also mentioned in TFA. The original article is BTW 30 years of C. It's actually only a paragraph there:
2. Good programs do not contain spelling errors or have grammatical mistakes. I think this is probably a result of fractal attention to detail; in great programs things are correct at all levels, down to the periods at the ends of sentences in comments.
“Aw, c’mon! You’re kidding!” You might think that nit-picking like this is beneath you, whereupon I will start pointing out errors in your code. It was embarrassing the first couple times this happened to me.
I think this categorical statement ("does not contain") is a bit harsh, but there's certainly a relationship between clear thinking in language and style and the quality of content (the code).

Comment Re:humans (Score 1) 536

by rackeer (#29895473) Attached to: Neanderthals "Had Sex" With Modern Man
You are playing to the popular image of Neanderthals uncultured. They were long believed to lack complex culture (language, etc.), however this is slowly changing. Neanderthals had a bigger brain volume than humans, were physically capable of speech and practiced ceremonial burial. If anything, they maybe lacked social skills. So your joke is not to the point.
The Matrix

Submission + - SPAM: Why Our Brains Will Never Live in the Matrix

Submitted by destinyland
destinyland writes: Professor Athena Andreadis answers the question, "Why Our Brains Will Never Live in the Matrix," contrasting "mind uploading" predictions with "the major stumbling block to personal immortality" — namely, that our biological software is inseparable from our hardware. There's practical problems. ("After electrochemical activity ceases in the brain, neuronal integrity deteriorates in a matter of seconds.") But she also argues that what we call "the mind" is also an artifact of a specific brain, and copying it "is an excellent way to leave a detailed memorial or a clone-like descendant, but not to become immortal."
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Have The Search Engines Ever Dropped Your Site?

Submitted by grumpyjack
grumpyjack writes: I am working as a developer on an online store. Before we launched last week there was a holding page at http://www.makers-online.co.uk/ which the search engines had indexed and a search for the domain name returned the holding page. When we launched, Googlebot came and indexed some 200 more pages and everyone was happy — awaiting all the real pages to appear in the index. Then some days later the opposite happened — not only were the new pages not indexed, not even the homepage was indexed and it's not clear why. Is this normal after a launch? What should be done differently?

Submission + - SPAM: Symptoms of Male Menopause

Submitted by cheeka
cheeka writes: The condition and the symptoms of male menopause are comparable to the ones women experience and can sometimes be as worse. However male menopause does not affect all men, at least not with the same inclusion. Only some of the men between the age of forty and fifty can experience the condition and most of the symptoms of male menopause.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - How to deal with a know-all jerk programmer? 5

Submitted by boxlight
boxlight writes: I am working with a know all jerk programmer who can't keep his nose out of everyone's business. For example, he's responsible for the object-persistence layer only, but he's always mouthing off to everyone about how they are "supposed" to be doing their work (UI programmers, application server guys, DBAs, and so on) when he's not in charge of anything. Basically he's micro-managing everyone when he's not even the manager!

At one time or another everyone on the team has complained about him, and because I work very closely with him people often come to me to ask me what his problem is.

Whenever anyone confronts the guy he flies completely off the handle. It's like he has a screw loose and is unable to accept other people's ways of doing things; it's always an all-or-nothing approach with him; he either gets his way, or he gives a reluctant eye-roll and a "whatever", only to bring up the issue again in a week or so until, ultimately, the other person give in just to shut him up.

The other unfortunate piece of this is he's always in the boss's office doing a song and dance about how hard he's working and how wonderful he is at solving so many complex problems. So he appears to have the boss's ear. Like, when the boss wants to take the temperature of the project, he goes to this guy.

So far I've managed to keep my cool and keep the peace by pretty much giving in on things he wants; . But I feel like there's an anger in me that's simmering under the surface and I'm afraid one of these days I'm going to freak out on him and them *I'm* going to look like the source of the problem to the boss. I don't want to get into daily shouting matches, and I really don't want to lower myself to his level and start sucking up to the boss for perceived credibility either.

Also, I don't want to quit because everyone else at the company are great to work with and the project is fun and the money is good.

So my question for Slashdot is, how do I deal with this??? Please help!
Science

Submission + - Don't Cut back on Spanish Science! (myoutsourcedbrain.com)

Submitted by rackeer
rackeer writes: In times of economic crisis, governments try to cut expenditure. While in the United States, as an answer to the economic crisis, a stimulus package increases spending on R&D, the Spanish government has decided to reduce government expenditure on research and development (R&D) by nearly 18 percent (Spanish). The author of the article gives an economic rational why R&D spending should not be reduced. Scientific research indicate that R&D spending at about 3 percent of GDP is optimal, while Spain was at 1.2 percent in 2008. The author argues that Spain should rather increase its research expenditure in order not to fall more behind United States, Japan, and the European average.

Submission + - Save Your Dad's Life or Your Own?

Submitted by pickens
pickens writes: Hugh Pickens writes

Nicholas Kristof writes in the NY Times that one aspect of America's dysfunctional health insurance system is that stepping up to save a loved one in need of a transplant can ruin your own chance of ever getting health insurance. Kristof writes that David Waddington has a genetic disease, polycystic kidney disease, or PKD, and that after losing both kidneys was on dialysis and desperately needed a new kidney. Doctors explained that the best match — the one least likely to be rejected — would perhaps come from Travis or Michael, his two sons, then ages 29 and 27. Travis and Michael each had a 50 percent chance of inheriting PKD and if pre-donation testing revealed that one of them had the disorder, that brother might never be able to get health insurance. As a result, their doctors had advised not getting tested. "At the time David needed a transplant, the people closest to him couldn't even offer a lifesaving donation — for insurance reasons," said David Waddington's wife, Susan. "My brother and I talked it over privately, and agreed that we should both go ahead and get tested anyway. It seemed like the only course of action," says Travis but both parents shot the idea down. "We had to respect their right to want to protect us. But it was enraging to be in that situation, and to be completely impotent to do anything to help." David Waddington finally got his transplant when a kidney from a deceased donor became available. But both sons are at risk for PKD and since they don't dare get tested, they don't have access to experimental medications that may delay kidney problems. "The only way to do it is to lie about your name during testing, to use a fictitious name," Susan Waddington says. "That was the advice we got from a major person in the field."

Submission + - Why Developers Get Fired (earthweb.com)

Submitted by
jammag
jammag writes: "Other coders get canned — but never you, right? From a developer who's now a manager (and who admits being fired himself) comes the inside story on how the Big Ax might sneak up on you. To prevent it, he recommends some strategic bragging, keeping a CYA folder to document your efforts, and making sure that your talent isn't frittered away so much that even your most mediocre colleagues look good. Cover your butt!"

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