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Comment New Guidelines? (Score 1) 236

by Bob9113 (#48915179) Attached to: White House Drone Incident Exposes Key Security Gap

"With the discovery of an unauthorized drone on the White House lawn, the eagle has crash-landed in Washington," says Senator Charles Schumer. "There is no stronger sign that clear FAA guidelines for drones are needed."

Umm, Chuck, quick heads up: "Don't fly over the White House" is already a rule. And you can tell the operator knew, because he or she didn't ask for it back. You are a despicable opportunist.

Submission + - How not to waste your money on the second wave of 802.11ac wireless gear (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: The best way to avoid wasting your money on Wave 2 of 802.11ac access points is to not buy them right away, and the second-best is to not overreact to their presence on your network. Wave 2 APs have been on the market for about a year, dating back to last January’s release of the Asus RT-AC87U, but the technology hasn’t yet become commonplace among enterprise users.

Submission + - Game Hack-A-Thon Attracts Multiple Teams At 480 Sites Worldwide

Submitted by BarbaraHudson
BarbaraHudson writes: Students at Michigan State University participated in the Global Game Jam this past weekend. The event is a worldwide 48-hour hack-a-thon dedicated to inspiring creativity and building a working game from scratch in one weekend. Sponsored by companies like Intel, Microsoft and Facebook it is the largest event of its kind.

All games entered for GGJ are released under a Creative Commons, share, alter, no sell license.

Members of the Spartasoft club and other eager gamers gathered on Friday afternoon in Communication Arts and Sciences Building in preparation for the event. Although the club is focused on game development, not everyone participating was a computer programmer. Artists and graphic designers were present to help create characters and models for the games.

The goal of Global Game Jam is to a stir up a global creative buzz in games while at the same time exploring the process of development.

Submission + - What Makes a Great Software Developer? (dice.com)

Submitted by Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: What does it take to become a great—or even just a good—software developer? According to developer Michael O. Church’s posting on Quora (later posted on LifeHacker), it's a long list: great developers are unafraid to learn on the job, manage their careers aggressively, know the politics of software development (which he refers to as 'CS666'), avoid long days when feasible, and can tell fads from technologies that actually endure... and those are just a few of his points. Over at Salsita Software’s corporate blog, meanwhile, CEO and founder Matthew Gertner boils it all down to a single point: experienced programmers and developers know when to slow down. What do you think separates the great developers from the not-so-fantastic ones?
The Almighty Buck

Valve's Economist Yanis Varoufakis Appointed Greece's Finance Minister 328

Posted by timothy from the finger-on-all-the-buttons dept.
eldavojohn writes A turnover in the Greek government resulted from recent snap elections placing SYRIZA (Coalition of the Radical Left) in power — just shy of an outright majority by two seats. Atheist, and youngest Prime Minister in Greek history since 1865, Alexis Tsipras has been appointed the new prime minister and begun taking immediate drastic steps against the recent austerity laws put in place by prior administrations. One such step has been to appoint Valve's economist Yanis Varoufakis to position of Finance Minister of Greece. For the past three years Varoufakis has been working at Steam to analyze and improve the Steam Market but now has the opportunity to improve one of the most troubled economies in the world.

Comment Re:Inequality's Mossad? (Score 1) 339

by Bob9113 (#48914705) Attached to: Davos 2015: Less Innovation, More Regulation, More Unrest. Run Away!

Not at all. More that the hypothesis of the Davos escapist concept is that the super-rich will fend off change as long as possible, then flee. As a result of the extreme measures necessary to resist change to the point where torches and pitchforks become a realistic threat, when that pressure is released, it will snap like a rubber band, causing severe damage to the political and socioeconomic structure. The backlash will be directed at those who won and walked out, much as it was at the brokerages in 1929, at the S&Ls in 1987, and at the mortgage funds in 2008. The difference being that if they really are fleeing from pitchforks and torches -- as the Davos escapist scenario posits -- it would imply a much more severe situation than 1929, 1987, or 2008.

And I'm not saying I think that will happen; I think that the pressure will vent sooner. I am saying that if the Davos escapist hypothesis comes to pass, there will be no place on Earth where such a person can hide and enjoy luxury. As such, it is an intrinsically flawed notion; either the escape will be unnecessary, or it will be ineffective.

Submission + - Koch Brothers Budget $889 Million for 2016 Election

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: Nicholas Confessore reports at the NYT that the Koch Brothers and their political network plan to spend close to $900 million in the 2016 election, an unparalleled effort by coordinated outside groups to shape a presidential election that is already on track to be the most expensive in history. The group’s budget reflects the rising ambition and expanded reach of the Koch operation, which has sought to distinguish itself from other outside groups by emphasizing the role of donors over consultants and political operatives. Hundreds of conservative donors recruited by the Kochs gathered over the weekend for three days of issue seminars, strategy sessions and mingling with rising elected officials. These donors represent the largest concentration of political money outside the party establishment, one that has achieved enormous power in Republican circles in recent years. “It’s no wonder the candidates show up when the Koch brothers call,” says David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to Mr. Obama. “That’s exponentially more money than any party organization will spend. In many ways, they have superseded the party.”

Espousing a political worldview that protects free speech and individual and property rights with equal protection for everyone under the law Koch says: “It is up to us. Making this vision a reality will require more than a financial commitment. It requires making it a central part of our lives.” Told of the $889 million goal, Mark McKinnon, a veteran GOP operative who has worked to rally Republican support to reduce the role of money in politics, quipped: “For that kind of money, you could buy yourself a president. Oh, right. That’s the point.”

Submission + - Latest Windows 10 Preview Build Brings Unexpectedly Large Number of Enhancements

Submitted by Deathspawner
Deathspawner writes: Following its huge Windows 10 event last Wednesday, Microsoft released a brand-new preview build to the public, versioned 9926. We were told that it'd give us Cortana, Microsoft's AI assistant, as well as a revamped Start menu and updated notifications pane. But as it turns out, that's not even close to summing up all that's new with this build. In fact, 9926 is easily the most substantial update rolled out so far in the beta program, with some UI elements and integral Windows features seeing their first overhaul in multiple generations.
Earth

"Mammoth Snow Storm" Underwhelms 397

Posted by timothy from the blame-uber dept.
mi (197448) writes You heard the scare-mongering, you heard the governors and mayors closing public transit and declaring driving on public roads a crime. But it turned out to have been a mistake. Boston may have been hit somewhat, but further South — NYC and Philadelphia — the snowfall was rather underwhelming. Promised "2-3 feet" of snow, NYC got only a few inches. Is this an example of "better safe than sorry," or is government's overreach justified by questionable weather models exceeding the threshold of an honest mistake?

Submission + - Tesla P85D g-forces hold iPhone against seat and elicit surprising reactions (dragtimes.com)

Submitted by FikseGTS
FikseGTS writes: DragTimes puts a few unsuspecting riders in the seat of a 691HP Tesla P85D while using the Tesla's "Insane" mode launch. An iPhone goes flying out of a kids hand and sticks to the rear seat from the g-forces and others have some interesting choice of words from the experience. Clean and Explicit versions of the video are availalbe.

Submission + - Tesla P85D g-forces hold iPhone against seat and elicit surprising reactions (dragtimes.com)

Submitted by FikseGTS
FikseGTS writes: DragTimes puts a few unsuspecting riders in the seat of a 691HP Tesla P85D while using the Tesla's "Insane" mode launch. An iPhone goes flying out of a kids hand and sticks to the rear seat from the g-forces and others have some interesting choice of words from the experience. Clean and Explicit versions of the video are availalbe.

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