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Comment Why even run it on servers? (Score 1) 487

In every professional environment I've worked in we choose the best tools for the job; it was usually Windows, Solaris or some form of Linux. I've only seen one instance of using FreeBSD and even then we were migrating to CentOS. Why? It's the maintainability and time-savings, stupid! Not only are the tools you need widely available for those platforms, the updates are easily accessible as well, they're generally configured to work out of the box (granted it may not be optimized but you can "spend the extra time to tune it"), and far more people know how to use those platforms vs FreeBSD.

Comment To rip off Keith Law: small sample size (Score 1) 141

I've heard many a player interviewed when they say they're OK with umps making a mistake during the regular season because they all even out during the course of those games. During this last ALDS I thought the umps were terrible with calling balls and strikes, especially during Game 3 of NYY @ DET. There were many instances of CC Sabathia not getting strike calls when his pitches hit the edges of the strike zone (pitchers would very often get that call during the season), while Justin Verlander would get strike calls when the pitches were sailing over the inside edge of the other batter's box. Mistakes like this cannot be evened out during the course of a 5- or 7-game series; such mistakes have an obvious impact on the outcome of a series.

Businesses

Groupon Loses COO, Drastically Cuts Reported Revenue 131

itwbennett writes "Groupon COO Margo Georgiadis has quit after just 5 months on the job and is returning to Google to be the company's president for the Americas. Groupon's founder, Andrew Mason, wrote in a blog post that the company has undergone a reorganization with Georgiadis' departure, and now sales, channels, international and marketing will report directly to him. In other bad Groupon news, the company revealed in an SEC filing Friday that it was reporting revenue before it paid fees to merchants using Groupon. 'The effect of the correction resulted in a reduction of previously reported revenues and corresponding reductions in cost of revenue in those periods,' according to the filing."

Comment Re:USA (Score 1) 129

WE'RE TRYING!!!!! It doesn't help that the sane people who vote in those who they thought were also sane were ( bought off by monied interests | turned his/their back on their base constituents ). And it takes time to change minds to at least change (if not dismantle) the military-industrial-intelligence complex.

Comment Re:Timothy strikes again! (Score 1) 954

I don't think Timothy necessarily did a disservice with posting this. This article exposed another effort by an "intelligent design proponent and global warming denier" hack to influence the public discourse (in favor of his corporate backers | to reflect his own evangelical beliefs). There's another mole that needs to be whacked. Again. *sigh*

Image

Sheikh Carves His Name In Desert So It's Visible From Space Screenshot-sm 336

While it isn't as cool as carving his name on the surface of the moon with a giant heat ray, Hamad Bin Hamdan Al Ahyan's enormous signature is quite an accomplishment nonetheless. Measuring 1,000 meters high and two miles long, the sheiks name is now visible from space. From the article: "And rather than allow the writing to be washed away by the ocean, the letters actually form waterways that absorb the encroaching tide.The ruler's name is even visible on Google's map service. Hamad dreamed up the idea and had his workmen toil for weeks to craft the enormous piece of sand graffiti. It is not known how much it cost to make."

Comment Re:An engineer's reaction (Score 1) 505

If something is that mission critical, and the cost of failure is measured in human lives, then engineers, inspectors, regulators, and operations crew damn well better make sure the likelihood of failure is as close to zero as can be.

Your comment made me recall the causes of an airplane disaster:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_Airlines_Flight_981#Cause

Per the article:

"In the aftermath of the Flight 96 incident, the NTSB made several recommendations. Its primary concern was the addition of venting in the rear cabin floor that would ensure that a cargo area decompression would equalize the cabin area, and not place additional loads onto the floor. In fact, most of the DC-10 fuselage had vents like these: it was only the rearmost hold that lacked them. Additionally, the NTSB suggested that upgrades to the locking mechanism and to the latching actuator electrical system be made compulsory. However, while the FAA agreed that the locking and electrical systems should be upgraded, the FAA also agreed with McDonnell Douglas that the additional venting would be too expensive to implement (emphasis mine), and the FAA did not demand that this change be made."

Comment Was it Norman Borlaug's fault? (Score 1) 1070

His heart was definitely in the right place, but as the saying goes - the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The Green Revolution certainly alleviated the immediate issue of his day, which was to feed hungry people, but now we've realized it leads to a humongous demographic bulge of the under-30 population. Even if we can use technology again to feed people, provide energy and extract raw materials, it'll take more energy (human and physical) and political will to do it and in less time. And in time the need for even more will strip the ability of that technology to sustain us. Why can't people just admit there are just too many humans? Why do some people, especially over-religious ones, press for policies that will lead to the suicide of humanity on this planet?

The vast majority of our problems are directly or indirectly a result of that issue - food and energy consumption, sub-standard education, illegal immigration, employment, the need for more raw materials, pollution/global warming, government spending for healthcare and entitlements, you name it. Fortunately the solutions are very straightforward: more education for girls and expanded access to birth control.

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