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Comment Re:"Hiding Things" (Score 1) 564

It's quite possible to make a clean, simple interface for a computer. They are called Application programs. The OS manufacturers don't know anything about them and should not be applying theory from them to the OS, which is different. i.e, A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and the OS manufacturers have little or no knowledge of Applications interfaces. (Thats why I have a job, to make up the lack.) 8-)

Comment Re:Good operating systems Dont. (Score 1) 564

The crap ones like Windows and OSX, they hide it because they assume the user is a drooling moron.

And most of the time they are right.

No, actually they are wrong. Everyone is a "moron" when they are out of their area of expertise, but that's different. Most of those people are plenty smart, they just are not interested in learning -your- area of expertise. That's what IT is for.

You can fall into this state, too, by doing your own corporate taxes or acting as your own lawyer or dosing yourself with pills when you are sick. Or just giving advise about other things, that is not worth what it cost. 8-)

Comment Re:Bugs in Win 7 UI (Score 1) 516

3. Delete a file
4. Whoa, the file is STILL THERE in the list

Err, wut? ...

I have seen that problem with Windows Explorer in Win7, but not for a couple of months. Maybe they fixed it...
It was also locking files in the folder it had open, which would cause errors in my builds. But that also seems to be better.

Advice: Wait to buy the new Windows OS until the next one is out. By that time it has a few patches and is safer to buy. Like, right now the Win8.1 is getting usable, but maybe next year...
.

Comment Re:If you hate Change so much...... (Score 1) 516

If I had to guess its because Microsoft isn't just pursuing change for its own sake here. It's icons. On new modern seriously high DPI screens. I think they're trying to future proof themselves.

No, actually they are trying to make them compatible with low resolution cellphone screens. But by the time they get it done the cellphones will (do?) have much higher resolution screens. It's a fools choice...

Comment Re:If you hate Change so much...... (Score 1) 516

Change just for the sake of it is marketing. It's the same thing as mutating the taillights (and in the 1950's, fins) of a car just so that everyone will know that you couldn't afford to go out and replace the perfectly good car you already had.

I think if the auto manufacturers had changed the position of the brake and gas pedals, they might have gotten themselves in a bit of trouble. This is not just the "look and feal" they are changing, they are changinmg the necessary controls. And they have been at it since XP, that is one reason Linux is getting more popular.

Comment Plausable (Score 1) 106

It is possible that it could make steel much stronger, by preventing microcracks from starting at the surface. Cracks start at defects in the metal or in uneven surface features like micro-scratches. If a coating can smooth and reinforce the surface, then it can stave off cracks starting and push the breaking point to much higher levels.

We already have methods of preventing defects inside the metal, and I assume they are already using those methods.

We also have used surface hardening to strengthen metals and other things (see Corel dishes). So if the coating is stronger we know it will help.

Comment Duh (Score 1) 448

"Here's 1.2 mil. We want you to tell us that it is possible that global warming is being caused by the sun"

The Sun causes all warming, there is no other source of energy for us. (And no, things that originally came from the sun don't count...)

But, if you want to know if it is possible that the Sun could cause what is called "Anthropomorphic global warming", then yes of course it could. It is already known to do so. The berden of proof is on the other side, to prove that it is -not- caused by changes in the sun !

Comment Already (Score 1) 266

We already have "robots" that write code! They are called Compilers and Linkers, and they have put all of the Assembler coders out of work.

Except me and a few others. But I have not actually done assembler for a long time.

The next step up is code generators, like what the Clarion development system has. They are run by scripts which can be written by coders, if necessary. So instead of writing assembler or writing source code, to run the app, we write "Template" code to run the code generators.

But Clarion has been around for more than two decades, so it is not that new... 8-)

Comment Re:Numerology (Score 1) 183

Is it just me, or does all this math wrangling seem like what Geocentric scientists were doing to properly figure out the path of stars in our night sky to align with their theory?

Epicycles? Yes, it does sound like that...

By the way, it is actually a valid way to model irregular repeating functions. Only now we call it a Fourier Series! 8-)

Comment Re:Perhaps it wouldn’t pass today’s .. (Score 1) 286

Ingested uranium was even used in the treatment of diabetes before the discovery of insulin.

Arsenic was used to treat syphilis. Doesn't mean it worked. ...
We used to treat headaches with leaches. Doesn't mean there's any actual science behind the treatment.

The arsenic was somewhat effective, in the days when they had nothing better.
They now treat those smashed toes with leaches. And it can save them from amputation.
Don't get so sure of yourself, it's dangerous... 8-)

Comment Re:Sweet F A (Score 1) 576

I'm not quite sure if you understand how Stealth works then...

The idea of Stealth aircraft is to not reflect EM radiation at all. It bounces it away in another direction or absorbs it outright.

If detecting stealth was as simple as using a different frequency, then it would be worthless.

Precisely... and it -is- worthless, unless you know the radar systems it needs to defeat. They try to make the effective frequency band as wide as possible, but it is still limited and tuned to the ones we know about. Particularly if detection systems use laser light, or very low frequency. In WWII they even used passive sound detectors for short range, like a few miles.

Of course, the "stealth" aircraft use multiple types of systems to defeat detection. But no-one should think they are "undetectable".

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