Comment Idea (Score -1, Flamebait) 99
How about not wearing a trilby two sizes too small for you, you metrosexual hipster shitcock?
Comment Re:Depends how you evaluate the curve (Score 1) 425
Assuming that nobody is born able to program, play music or do any other artificial skill, then people must travelling from the left arm to the right one as they pick up experience.
So why is the "bridge" so low? There must be people on that part of the curve to top up the elites as they retire, die, join communes in Vermont etc. Do they pass through it very fast? I don't see a plausible case for that. It's not like there's one or two magic things you need to grok and voila, you're Dennis Ritchie.
Comment Re:Ratios? (Score 1) 34
Pair reading. It's like, totally agile and stuff.
Comment popular schmopular (Score 1) 267
Do we mean popular as in lots of people like it, or as in lots of people use it?
Comment Re:Nothing better than a hidebound engineer. (Score 1) 144
This is not unlike the makers of the first horseless carriages who built them with saddles instead of instead of seats.
Why would they do that? Buckboards, stagecoaches and Surreys (with or without fringes on top) had bench seats.
Comment Re:Morse Code (Score 1) 144
I think Apple patented input by means of varying durations of keypresses. It was in here a few years back.
Comment Re: "The Ego" (Score 1) 553
That may all be true, but it also isn't the reason she got elected to the Senate... She was the first Lady and Bill's wife, that is why...
Interesting. That made it mandatory to vote for her, did it?
The Challenge of Getting a Usable QWERTY Keyboard Onto a Dime-sized Screen 144
An anonymous reader writes: Researchers from Spain and Germany are building on Carnegie Mellon's work to attempt to create workable text-input interfaces for wearables, smartwatches and a new breed of IoT devices too small to accomodate even the truncated soft keyboards familiar to phone users. In certain cases, the screen area in which the keyboard must be made usable is no bigger than a dime. Of all the commercial input systems I've used, Graffiti seems like it might be the most suited to such tiny surfaces.
Comment Re:"The Ego" (Score 1) 553
You don't reach a position like she had at HP by failure and incompetence.
No, you demonstrate that afterwards.
As she did, in spades.
Comment Re:Sort of dumb. (Score 1) 553
The key phrase is "Looking for a [junior|entry level]
While there may be the odd exception - perhaps companies that like to mould people in their own style - this usually means "we're cheapskates". Nobody would take a novice instead of a master, give the choice.
Comment Re:At the same time (Score 2, Informative) 323
I'd look at some other sources if I were you.
Fighters with the guns pointing forward had been the norm since the middle of WW1. One example was the Hawker Hurricane, which was in service before the Spitfire was developed, and which outnumbered the Spitfire by about three to one in 1940. Both were generally considered inferior to the Me 109.
What really made the difference was radar plus Dowding's organisational system. Oh, and home advantage.
Comment Re:At the same time (Score 1) 323
If it wasn't for Microsoft, we would still be on mainframes and mini-computers. Paying jacked up prices. For crap, frankly.
Smells like the "great man" theory of history. Sometimes it's true, i.e. if Winston Churchill hadn't been where he was we'd probably all be speaking German now.
In this case? Nah. If Microsoft hadn't done it, somebody else would - and possibly better.
They were second choice for the IBM contract. They only got it because the guy selling CP/M goofed off & missed the meeting.
Comment Re:Stupid sudoku solver? (Score 0) 230
Maybe the Germans, for lending them a load of money which they pissed up the wall instead of using it to drag their country into the 20th century.
Apple Watch's Hidden Diagnostic Port To Allow Battery Straps, Innovative Add-Ons 113
MojoKid writes: Apple's Watch launched two weeks ago to some unbelievable hype and coverage in the press. However, it appears one feature flew under the radar and Apple actually had just one more trick up its sleeve. You see, on one side of the watch face is a hidden door that exposes a 6-pin port. It's assumed that this could be used for diagnostic purposes, but with an Apple Watch in hand, a company by the name of Reserve Strap was able to verify that it could also be used for charging. This seems pretty huge and strange at the same time: why would Apple keep such a thing quiet, when the Apple Watch's battery-life isn't what most people would consider impressive? Even more interesting is the fact that Apple didn't make use of this port to release its own charging straps — watch straps that carry a charge themselves. Apple's lack of transparency here doesn't much matter, though, as the aforementioned Reserve Strap is planning to get such a product to market as soon as possible. The company says about its first offering: "The Reserve Strap will come in White, Gray and Black and will fit both the 38mm and 42mm case sizes. The first batch of straps will be shipped in the Fall.
House Panel Holds Hearing On "Politically Driven Science" - Without Scientists 347
sciencehabit writes: Representative Louie Gohmert (R–TX) is worried that scientists employed by the U.S. government have been running roughshod over the rights of Americans in pursuit of their personal political goals. So this week Gohmert, the chair of the oversight and investigations subpanel of the U.S. House of Representatives' Natural Resources Committee, held a hearing to explore "the consequences of politically driven science." Notably absent, however, were any scientists, including those alleged to have gone astray.
