Comment Re:Code? (Score 2) 238
CamelNotation ? IAssumeBecauseOfTheLackOfComments : '';
Comment Re:The typical answer (Score 4, Interesting) 341
5) Sell the unpaid invoices to a collection agency and let them worry about it, and never work for the company ever again. You won't get anywhere near what you were supposed to get paid. But it will be off your books and done with, you won't have to worry about it any more, and depending on your local tax laws the loss is most likely deductible.
Comment Re:Terrible summary (Score 1) 221
I propose creating graphics with this system that consist entirely of an 2D grid of vectors where each vector has the same start and end point, along with an associated color and brightness.
Comment Re:the point? (Score 4, Interesting) 252
*THIS* exactly.
As several anthropology professors told me, there are really only two kinds of jobs left in anthropology, teaching and working for the CIA. When an anthropologist starts studying your community, you know you are in for some deep shit! She's clearly a fuckin' spook!
Comment Re:Why? Becasue people know it sucks. (Score 1) 362
This... and the fact that no branch of the military really wants to have an accurate record of anything they do or spend. Congress pushes it on the Pentagon, the Pentagon (or insert branch of military here) keeps moving the goal post on the contractor until the project turns into a great big ball of shit. Then Congress or the Pentagon pulls the plug on the project and blames the contractor!!!
Comment Re:Countermeasures Deployed (Score 2) 295
Google lets you block entire sites from search results. You'll never see them.
The feature is kind of hidden at....
It appears that this only works if:
a. you have a google account.
b. you are logged in to that google account while you are doing searches.
Comment Re:Seriously? (Score 2) 302
if you are interested in personal freedom and privacy, use Firefox, with third party cookies and location info disabled, and AdBlock, Request Policy, HTTPS Everywhere, and BetterPrivacy add-ons installed. Period.
Fixed that for you. Firefox doesn't have great privacy by itself, but it can be made to have better privacy with add-ons and changing some of the default settings. But those add-ons and settings do have equivalents on Chrome. Chrome's sandboxing and integrated Adobe flash player updates might give it a slight edge on security, sometimes.
Submission + - Beyond Agile Myths: What the research shows
Esther Schindler writes: "Scott Fulton wrote two in-depth articles about the current state of Agile development, based on research from two computer scientists about what developers really do, rather than what the developers might like to think they do. And, as the newscasters teasers say, the results might surprise you. (Don't worry. Nobody is saying that Agile Sucks. This is more about how it's being used in the real world, and what successful Agile teams have in common.)
First, in “Agile” Often Isn’t, Scott looked at the cultural effects of Agile methodologies on workforces. The researchers made two unanticipated discoveries, he reports: One, companies adopting Agile actually struggle more to cope with the side-effects. Two, development teams that succeed in producing better products and pleasing customers aren’t exactly using Agile after all. For example:
First, in “Agile” Often Isn’t, Scott looked at the cultural effects of Agile methodologies on workforces. The researchers made two unanticipated discoveries, he reports: One, companies adopting Agile actually struggle more to cope with the side-effects. Two, development teams that succeed in producing better products and pleasing customers aren’t exactly using Agile after all. For example:
Entitled “Agile Undercover,” the first report from Hoda and her colleagues demonstrated conclusively that Agile development teams were failing to communicate with their customers — not just occasionally, but mainly. And in order to ameliorate the impact of these failures, teams and their companies were making active, intentional efforts to keep customers in the dark about their development practices, including their schedules of deliverables.
...
“Teams are very keen on pleasing their customers, and it’s hard for them to bring up issues with customer collaboration,” Hoda tells me. So to keep the customer at bay and out of their hair, development teams hire or appoint a customer proxy. An ambassador, if you will. Or, to be more truthful, a sales associate.
The second article, Is Teamwork Dead? A Post-Agile Prognosis, looks more at the dichotomy of "team success." Culturally, when we "win," we tend to give credit to the team ("Gosh, it wasn't just me...") but when a project fails, there's an assumption it's one person's fault, even if we don't look for a scapegoat. Making a team more than a bunch of people in the same room is a special skill, and one that Agile methodologies rely on — remember the part about self-organizing teams? "Though they may not go about this process consciously or intentionally, individual group members employing Agile for the first time, Hoda’s team found, tend to adopt one of six roles," Scott reports, such as mentor, coordinator, and promoter.
See if the research agrees with your Agile experience."
Submission + - FBI issues Android virus warning (ic3.gov)
Dupple writes: The IC3 has been made aware of various malware attacking Android operating systems for mobile devices. Some of the latest known versions of this type of malware are Loozfon and FinFisher. Loozfon is an information-stealing piece of malware. Criminals use different variants to lure the victims. One version is a work-at-home opportunity that promises a profitable payday just for sending out email. A link within these advertisements leads to a website that is designed to push Loozfon on the user's device. The malicious application steals contact details from the user’s address book and the infected device's phone number.
Submission + - CIA: Flying Skyhook wasn't just for James Bond, it actually rescued agents (networkworld.com)
coondoggie writes: "This had to be one hell of a ride. The CIA today said it added a pretty cool item to its museum archives — the instruction card for officers being plucked off the ground by a contraption that would allow a person to be snatched off the ground by a flying aircraft without the plane actually landing."
Submission + - Skydiver Baumgartner sets YouTube live view record (bbc.co.uk)
another random user writes: Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner smashed a number of records with his "edge of space" stunt — including for live streaming.
More than eight million people flocked to their devices to watch the 43-year-old break the speed of sound live on Google's YouTube site. It is the largest number of concurrent live streams in the website's history, Google UK confirmed to the BBC.
More than eight million people flocked to their devices to watch the 43-year-old break the speed of sound live on Google's YouTube site. It is the largest number of concurrent live streams in the website's history, Google UK confirmed to the BBC.
Comment Report is pretty soft on the USA (Score 5, Funny) 112
According to report linked to in TFA, the US government has no internet surveillance and does not spread misinformation! Sounds like their report was censored!
Comment Re:Wow (Score 2) 396
Especially since any atmosphere created for terraforming purposes would be ripped off by solar winds in short order due to the lack of a significant magnetosphere.
Comment Re:Prior Art (Score 2) 147
Found an article referencing the water spray idea.
Comment Prior Art (Score 1) 147
I recall a plan from waaaay back in the 1980's of equipping the space shuttle with a high pressure water nozzle. I forget the exact details of how it worked, but it was something like the water would turn into a stream of frozen water particles that would hit the debris, absorbing kinetic energy of the debris as it vaoprized...or some such shit.
