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Comment Re:What's the problem with building self-sustainin (Score 1) 248

Too busy spending money on killing people and figuring out more efficient ways of killing people.

Well.. it should be noted that when we went to the moon we were also rather involved in killing people. I could also be argued that we went to the moon with a largely military goal, and thus (at least indirectly) with the purpose of killing people. So lets not just pick popularized cliché critiques to hammer home what we must learn from Armstrong's legacy.

I am saddened that while our government bleeds out money on 'pork' and wasteful spending, they have cut the most successful and lucrative government program ever established. We are heavily in debt, but I could personally list a number of things I'd cut before the one thing that has brought such a great measure of success. But then, what do I know?

I believe our actions are often judged unfairly, but I readily admit we an imperfect nation. I will say, however, that if we fall it will be our own doing.

Our success or failure hinges on many factors, but I believe the more we can listen to, learn from, and be inspired by men like Armstrong, the brighter our future may be.

Comment Microsoft is not the great satan (Score 1) 118

I think it's unfair to say that they are the only company funding this sort of research. Plenty of research is done by other companies such as Intel, IBM and Google. Granted, since (as usual) it seems the real issue being debated here is whether Microsoft is evil or not. I'd have to say that the answer is a resounding No. I applaud this accomplishment. I still despise their products and general philosophy, but credit should be given where credit is due, and this deserves credit. I think this development sounds really cool and I hope that their research department continues to delve into interesting issues like this. Time alone will tell what will come from this. Whether I like the company or not.
GNU is Not Unix

Linux 3.4 Released 385

jrepin writes with news of today's release (here's Linus's announcement) of Linux 3.4: "This release includes several Btrfs updates: metadata blocks bigger than 4KB, much better metadata performance, better error handling and better recovery tools. There are other features: a new X32 ABI which allows to run in 64 bit mode with 32 bit pointers; several updates to the GPU drivers: early modesetting of Nvidia Geforce 600 'Kepler', support of AMD RadeonHD 7xxx and AMD Trinity APU series, and support of Intel Medfield graphics; support of x86 cpu driver autoprobing, a device-mapper target that stores cryptographic hashes of blocks to check for intrusions, another target to use external read-only devices as origin source of a thin provisioned LVM volume, several perf improvements such as GTK2 report GUI and a new 'Yama' security module."
Microsoft

Submission + - Forbes Names Microsoft's Steve Ballmer names worst CEO

_0x783czar writes: Microsoft haters gleefully have latched on to the latest scoop that a Forbes columnist has named Steve Ballmer the worst CEO. It seems that the article has leveled some strong accusations of irresponsible and ineffective business practices; claiming that Microsoft has not progressed over the last 12 years of Ballmer's leadership.

http://www.bgr.com/2012/05/14/microsoft-steve-ballmer-worst-ceo/

(full disclosure: I'm not a Microsoft fan myself and tend to agree with this piece.)

Comment Re:High Elvish/High-Level Programming Languages (Score 1) 316

In old english it had a silightly different meaning, and in the opening of the Hobbit he goes in depth about its etymology and how it is not related to other words in any direct fashion, although he does accept some derivative nature:

"The word is, as far as I am concerned, actually derived from Old English orc 'demon', but only because of its phonetic suitability" ~J.R.R. Tolkien

Comment High Elvish/High-Level Programming Languages (Score 1) 316

Its true that you can copyright a language. But to use the Languages of Middle-Earth as an example is not the best argument. The Tolkien Languages' copyrights are not heavily enforced. For instance the word "Orc", decidedly a Tolkien invention, is used widely by many different fantasy franchises.
The argument in my mind is not weather a Programming Language can be copyrighted, but whether they should be. Or rather, where do you draw the line of fair use.
One way or another, Oracle does need to be careful how they tread here, since Java IS a heavily derivative work itself.

Comment Re:WTF? (Score 1) 922

That attitude is dangerous in the long run. I do not believe that a man has a right to shout fire in a crowded room, but let a man write what he likes. Freedom is the right to be wrong.

If you believe that it is right for him to be imprisoned for that, your signature is ironic.

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