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Comment technetium? (Score 1) 109

by PJ6 (#46861605) Attached to: What Happens To All the Universe's Hydrogen?
One thing jumped out at me in the article in the third link... technetium's abundance looks way too high. It doesn't even exist on Earth, yet it's shown on the order of Molybdenum and Tin in the graph of relative abundance of elements in the universe.

I'm not a cosmologist and Google's no help... anyone want to chime in?

Comment Re:link (Score 1) 164

by PJ6 (#46851035) Attached to: Facebook Data Miner Will Shock You

I am not in the USA so also got the "we can't log you in" message in a new window. If you now click the blue "OK" button instead of just closing the window then it provides you with a URL in the form htttp://static.ak.facebook.com/connect/xd_arbiter/fjk6sKjilfjiowj.js?# and a scary message in 12-point bold red "SECURITY WARNING: Please treat the URL above as you would your password and do not share it with anyone."

They don't lock session-specific URLs to a single IP address? And maybe these URLs don't expire often?

Wow, FB is more hackable then I thought.

All for performance, I'm sure.

Comment Re:not an axe (Score 1) 217

by PJ6 (#46847717) Attached to: Reinventing the Axe

Not an axe, axes are not used to split wood. That is a splitting maul, mauls and wedges are used to split wood. And that is actually probably closer to a froe than a maul.

It's nothing like a froe.

Comment mostly invalid points (Score 1) 183

by PJ6 (#46847653) Attached to: The Ethical Dilemmas Today's Programmers Face
These are management issues, not developer issues. Yes, as a developer myself I like being able to use my own judgement. But I don't get paid to work on my own projects, I get paid to build for others - and frankly, the client's management is out of whack if they don't make the important decisions themselves, and I'm out of whack if I don't try to make sure they're informed enough to do it.

And the whole thing about being told to cut corners just to get stuff out the door... that's not an ethical decision, it's a business decision.

Comment take a cue from the Catholics (Score 1) 312

by PJ6 (#46784307) Attached to: Switching From Sitting To Standing At Your Desk
Sit, stand, kneel. A simple way to keep the rabble comfortable for those awfully long Latin masses. I worked out that they were onto something one day when I decided I needed to do more than sit all day. Now I sit, stand, and kneel (kneeling chair) at an adjustable desk. I even cross myself when I feel particularly silly.

Comment Re:What DevOps movement? (Score 1) 226

by PJ6 (#46770843) Attached to: How 'DevOps' Is Killing the Developer

I mean it's a great opportunity, but whoever employed you ought to have had their heads examined letting you take all that responsibility (and risk) like that.

I finished the last revision nearly a decade ago. Haven't touched it since, and it's still running today.

Comment What DevOps movement? (Score 5, Interesting) 226

by PJ6 (#46763481) Attached to: How 'DevOps' Is Killing the Developer
I had a job where I did everything once, wrote a full-blown ERP system for hundreds of users, all by myself. Everything. Though I was salaried, sometimes I worked whole weekends, or to 2 in the morning - not because I had to, but because I wanted to. No politics, no being just a cog in a machine, no project management, no BS. Just me and code, giving people what they needed and making their jobs easier. It was my dream job, my first and best job, and I've never had anything like it since.

This DevOps movement the author speaks of... I've never seen it, not in all the years I've looked to find it again. He may complain that it's bad, bad for the industry, but I would take it in a heartbeat.

Is that what I was, a DevOp? I miss it so much I can taste it.

Comment Solving the wrong problem. (Score 1) 343

by PJ6 (#46752305) Attached to: Climate Scientist: Climate Engineering Might Be the Answer To Warming
Enough of this talk of efficiency and carbon neutrality and environmentalism - in the long run none of these measures will do jack shit for the real problem.

Environmental catastrophe is not inevitable. Developed for god knows what reason, we've had the solution for years. Terrible, but costs almost nothing, and more humane than war.

Mark my words we shall see this come to pass, since restraint is against everyone's moral and religious views.

Comment Re:Give 'em your Kool-Aid (Score 1) 226

by PJ6 (#46710757) Attached to: Should Microsoft Give Kids Programmable Versions of Office?

Time was - companies like this would give this sort of stuff away to get [younger] people hooked on these technologies. Would Microsoft want to get kids hooked into nice wholesome activities like MS-SQL, C#, .net or VB - or let them pick up stuff like LAMP an Python from their friends on the street.

Giving the stuff away is a way to groom the next up-and-coming generation into drinking your Kool-Aid. If they don't do this - they have only themselves to blame when the next generation grows up to be FOSS zellots...

No, sir, and LAMP doesn't have any of its own Kool-Aid drinkers.

That shitty database MySQL...

And f*ck Python.

Actually, Python's great. Lots of brilliant work posted to Project Euler in Python. Just... scripting languages aren't the greatest for large, real applications that change. Especially if you don't want to have to cover absolutely everything with unit tests.

Yeah LAMP is used everywhere, but it's overrated.

Comment Re:Knowledge (Score 1) 1037

by PJ6 (#46687319) Attached to: How the Internet Is Taking Away America's Religion
How long is your commute?

Download Paradise Lost onto your phone and have a listen while you're driving to pass the time. Start with Book 4, Part 2.

I'm not religious, but Milton was highly intelligent and gave a lot of thought to questions like these; I found his work interesting and highly entertaining.

You like Tolkien, right? Milton's work is the great-grandaddy of Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, and every bit as good.

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