That much money spent on a failed software product? I think releasing it in the public domain would violate a dozen geneva convention regulations. It could be legitimately argued that the code base would constitute a weapon of mass destruction.

No, the only way to effectively handle that steaming pile of...code...is to destroy all copies but one, which you then entomb in a sealed vault miles under the surface of the earth with warnings in every language imaginable.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I feel so much better about my government violating my 4th amendment rights six ways from sunday as long as the phone companies aren't challenging it, as told by a secret court.

Whew!

All kids should have adults looking out for them, helping them grow into successful adults.

This is truly an idea who's time has come.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigid_airship

From TFA: The purpose of technical documentation is to take someone who has never seen your project, teach them to be an expert user of it, and support them once they become an expert.

No. Experts in their field shouldn't need to be taught how to understand your system; that's part of being an expert ( or indeed, even a professional ). All documentation should be doing is explaining the sticky bits and providing details and/or examples ( whichever is relevant ).

Just my opinion of course. But having stepped in to countless networks/codebases, I can tell you that I just get annoyed when the documentation gets in the way of the information I need to complete my job.

Has anyone else noticed that damn near EVERY UI project out there is getting a terrible redesign? MS, Google, yahoo all are in the process of fucking up common interfaces for the sake of....well, I really don't know, but they seem to have a goal.

Hell, the last /. redesign kind of fucked things up too, now that I think about it. A lot of common pages were buried several links deeper than they used to be. I can't tell if that was done to increase ad impressions or if the designers are just morons.

I'm just going to file this in the "Deeply suspicious" file, shall I?

But you all try it, let me know how it goes.

But all I think they've cured is the need for research funding for a year or two.

Let's not forget your coworkers, and their importance in future employment opportunities. You leave unexpectedly, it's not management that has to put up with the sudden departure issues, it's your coworkers.

These same coworkers in the coming years will be the ones that remember you when time comes to look for new employees at their different jobs.

I was being facetious. The last time a politician managed to surprise me was...multiple decades ago.

I was calling bullshit on WMD before we stepped foot into Iraq the second time. The data was there, it showed the lie for what it was for anyone willing to look for it. But no one cared. The public, who was still enraged by 9/11, was fed a convenient lie that eased their conscious. No one wanted to kick up the truth and anger the public.

You know, at least politicians of yesteryear would *convincingly* lie to us. I really appreciated the time and effort they went to to construct these elaborate castles of "inaccuracies", all in an effort to appease the masses.

These new politicians...I dunno...they don't even *try* anymore. It's like they're too busy screwing us and just phone in the excuses.

While I'm not quite sure how a concerned citizen who exposed an unconstitutional government program at great personal expense is not a patriot, what's of more interest to me what you'd call a political leader who defends unconstitutional government programs.

I'd suggest it's a behavior that's related to cost. The more something cost, perhaps even the more of a luxury item it is, the more likely someone is to be biased.

My hypothesis:

1) Products with positive comments are more likely to be purchased.
2) People identify themselves by their choices, and no one wants to make a bad choice. Ergo, almost by definition, any choice people make is "the right one". At the very least, people are predisposed to liking what they spent money on.

Remember; When discussing all things retail, it's not how good the product is, but how well it satisfied the need. At least half the time, that need is largely imaginary.

Sure, I could RTFA, but this is more fun.

The unit of the DEA that distributes the information is called the Special Operations Division, or SOD. Two dozen partner agencies comprise the unit, including the FBI, CIA, NSA, Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Homeland Security. It was created in 1994 to combat Latin American drug cartels and has grown from several dozen employees to several hundred.

Had I read for just a minute longer, I'd have found this. So it would seem I was correct.