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Comment So you could use this tool to make your code anon. (Score 4, Interesting) 220

Write a version of pretty-printer that rerenders your code into a different style.

Have a lexicon of mipelled words for each "personality".

Another lexicon of variable names.
a vs inta vs int_a vs x.

Refactoring and unfactoring for subroutines.

Run the comments through google translate and back to english.
ukrainian
japanese
chinese

Synonym and antonym substitution in the comments.

The mind dances at the possibilities to mess with this algorithm.

Comment Re:Damn! (Score 1) 129

That's pretty trivial and already occurs.

The convention center effectively gets no signal due to the way it was constructed anyway and so the major brands have repeaters inside the hotel while the minor brand phone's don't work.

DFW Hyatt is a good example of this. If you are not on Verizon- good luck using your phone inside the convention center downstairs.

Comment Re:Terrible names (Score 1) 378

Microsoft may not care because, as you say, I am probably not their target market, but that has nothing to do with it.

Of course it does. Saying product X doesn't work properly because it doesn't do use case Y for which is was never intended is fallacious. "This wine glass sucks because when I try and use it to hammer nails it shatters" is simply silly.

This is the sort of thing that Microsoft tends to say, and completely avoids a number of important points. What are you basing this determination on? I could believe the "uses more features" claim -- that can be measured -- but what about the "more effectively" claim? Whenever Microsoft says things like that, they're basing it on stuff like how many keystrokes/mouse clicks it takes to do something. That's a very poor measure of how effective users are, though.

The most common testing Microsoft does is giving experienced Office users a series of tasks often using features of Office that they aren't familiar with or necessarily even know exist. For example someone who frequently does PowerPoints may not know about transitions between slides, tell them to change the transition in a presentation. The level of success is then measured.

Prior to the ribbon, using menus, the typical Office user could complete 30% of those tasks successfully. With the first release of the ribbon it doubled and we are in the latest beta at 80%. That's a huge change in effectiveness.

They can also measure based on those tests how many of the tasks the typical users were able to complete immediately i.e. which ones they know how to do before taking the test. That number has gone up as well though not as much. They also look at time to complete simple tasks which is what you are talking about with the mouse clicks. That changes a bit with context sensitivity but the huge drop in effectiveness by that measure was moving away from keyboard shortcuts when people transitioned from WordPerfect.

Comment Re:Escaping only helps you until a war. (Score 1) 339

So you are actually asserting that taxes after the money has been taxed once are unfair?
In the face of all the taxes that we have to pay after we've paid income tax and social security premiums which I removed from the list ( might have missed a couple )

#1 Air Transportation Taxes (just look at how much you were charged the last time you flew)
#2,3,4 Biodiesel Fuel Taxes #3 Building Permit Taxes #4 Business Registration Fees
#5 Capital Gains Taxes #6 Cigarette Taxes #7 Court Fines (indirect taxes) #8 Disposal Fees
#9 Dog License Taxes
#10 Drivers License Fees (another form of taxation)
#11 Employer Health Insurance Mandate Tax
#12 Employer Medicare Taxes
#14 Environmental Fees
#15 Estate Taxes
#16 Excise Taxes On Comprehensive Health Insurance Plans
#19 Federal Unemployment Taxes
#20 Fishing License Taxes
#21 Flush Taxes (yes, this actually exists in some areas)
#22 Food And Beverage License Fees
#23 Franchise Business Taxes
#24 Garbage Taxes #25 Gasoline Taxes #26 Gift Taxes #27 Gun Ownership Permits #28 Hazardous Material Disposal Fees #29 Highway Access Fees #30 Hotel Taxes (these are becoming quite large in some areas) #31 Hunting License Taxes #32 Import Taxes
#33 Individual Health Insurance Mandate Taxes
#34 Inheritance Taxes
#35 Insect Control Hazardous Materials Licenses
#36 Inspection Fees #37 Insurance Premium Taxes #38 Interstate User Diesel Fuel Taxes #39 Inventory Taxes
#40 IRA Early Withdrawal Taxes #41 IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax) #42 IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax) #43 Library Taxes
#44 License Plate Fees #45 Liquor Taxes
#46 Local Corporate Taxes #47 Local Income Taxes #48 Local School Taxes #49 Local Unemployment Taxes #50 Luxury Taxes
#51 Marriage License Taxes
#52 Medicare Taxes #53 Medicare Tax Surcharge On High Earning Americans Under Obamacare
#54 Obamacare Individual Mandate Excise Tax (if you donâ(TM)t buy âoequalifyingâ health insurance under Obamacare you ill have to pay an additional tax)
#55 Obamacare Surtax On Investment Income (a new 3.8% surtax on investment income)
#56 Parking Meters #57 Passport Fees
#58 Professional Licenses And Fees (another form of taxation)
#59 Property Taxes #60 Real Estate Taxes #61 Recreational Vehicle Taxes
#62 Registration Fees For New Businesses
#63 Toll Booth Taxes
#64 Sales Taxes #65 Self-Employment Taxes #66 Sewer & Water Taxes #67 School Taxes
#68 Septic Permit Taxes
#69 Service Charge Taxes
#70 Social Security Taxes
#71 Special Assessments For Road Repairs Or Construction
#72 Sports Stadium Taxes
#75 State Park Entrance Fees
#76 State Unemployment Taxes (SUTA)
#77 Tanning Taxes (a new Obamacare tax on tanning services)
#78 Telephone 911 Service Taxes
#79 Telephone Federal Excise Taxes
#80 Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Taxes
#81 Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Taxes
#82 Telephone State And Local Taxes
#83 Telephone Universal Access Taxes
#84 The Alternative Minimum Tax
#85 Tire Recycling Fees
#86 Tire Taxes
#87 Tolls (another form of taxation)
#88 Traffic Fines (indirect taxation)
#89 Use Taxes (Out of state purchases, etc.)
#90 Utility Taxes
#91 Vehicle Registration Taxes
#92 Waste Management Taxes
#93 Water Rights Fees
#94 Watercraft Registration & Licensing Fees
#95 Well Permit Fees
#96 Workers Compensation Taxes
#97 Zoning Permit Fees

---
Your position is unrealistic. The one thing most noticable about these taxes is that most of them are FIXED amounts. So they fall heavily on the poor, are burdensome to the middle class, but are miniscule to the wealthy. Almost all of them are extremely regressive taxes.

Comment Re:Terrible names (Score 1) 378

You were using your personal experience, "I do this X, I do Y". That's not valid because you aren't the target market.

The people who use Office constantly most likely are able to use more features more effectively more often as a result of the ribbon. If they were to look at there 2003 documents and compare them to their 2013 documents they would see a difference. I'm not sure if you are pulling a valid sample or not, your typical Office user doesn't have strong opinions on computer issues and likely is easily led in the conversation towards and opinion depending on who they are speaking with.

Comment Re:Escaping only helps you until a war. (Score 2) 339

Moving gold or large amounts of dollars from your basement when the country goes to hell doesn't happen. Over and over, wealthy people have had to leave their physical wealth behind when they fled for their lives.

So put it in electronic banks? Well -that "wealth" can be invalidated by an over turn in the government and new policies with the stroke of a pen. That also happens all the time in less stable countries.

It is very much in the wealthy segment's self interest to promote a stable happy society where they are currently based.

Most people don't need a lot of money to be non violent. Give them 3 squares, a roof over their head, some entertainment and a couple grand of spending money a year and they will never be a problem.

Once they lose faith in the system and lose hope, they are capable of anything. It is in every one's self interest to avoid letting people get to that state.

Comment Re:Escaping only helps you until a war. (Score 1) 339

China is making huge investments in their military. It is just obscured by low labor costs. They can build an aircraft carrier for half (or less) the cost the united state does. I think china is preparing for war or at least to be able to back down the U.S. in their corner of the world.

Their economic policy is really just warfare without guns too. I think china has a massive superiority complex laying over a foundation of an even more massive inferiority complex. Bad combination.

Comment Re:Who eats doughnuts with the doughnut men? (Score 1) 468

Actually, the population is about 200 million (give a current google).

So it's about 40 citizens killed by police vs 1240 citizens killed by united states poice.

The list of citizens killed in uk by police in 2014 is
Dean Joseph (5 September 2014 in London)
That's it.
We don't even officially track about 800 citizen deaths at the hands of united states police.

Thanks for the link! It was late- I was tired.

Comment Re:Microsoft would be onto a winner if... (Score 1) 378

People who need to stand and use a interface a tiny minority? Google's estimate on number of computer panels currently in all uses is 10b globally. If even .1% are being used for an extended period of time that's a substantial chunk of the market.

As for artist,s, architects... they come in around 2% of users. More than say developers.

Comment Escaping only helps you until a war. (Score 5, Insightful) 339

A bunch of rich people with no real military protecting them will be like ripe fruit for the picking (as they have been over and over and over for centuries).

They would really be much better served by being in a functioning healthy country. Give up 10% of their money to taxes and spread it around the population and they will be immeasurably safer.

But I think their greed just gets the better of them. As it has over and over and over for centuries.

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