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Comment Re:Reminds me a contact from Google (Score 1) 233

by simoncpu was here (#42024331) Attached to: Hounded By Recruiters, Coders Put Themselves Up For Auction
Some guy from Google contacted me too, and I wished he screened me by asking how to design a solution for a very deep and technical problem, instead of expecting me to memorize things that can easily be googled or browsed through the man pages.

Fresh graduates have an edge with Google's hiring process. I've been developing software for quite some time now, but I no longer remember the Big O thingy for standard sorting algorithms.
Piracy

Submission + - The real reason why the MPAA fears piracy (aardvark.co.nz)

Submitted by
NewtonsLaw
NewtonsLaw writes: "I'm pretty sure that everyone reading this will be aware of the movie Iron Sky.

I've been waiting for a long time to watch this movie and finally it has been uploaded to YouTube so I watched it on the weekend.

As the title credits rolled, I rushed off and pre-ordered the BluRay disk of the movie, which isn't due for release here in NZ until December 14th.

I am proof that making your wares available for free can actually promote sales — but only so long as your content is good enough (which Iron Sky certainly is). So, perhaps the reason that the MPAA fears piracy is because it lets people see just how crappy most of their material is *before* they fork over their hard earned cash.

I blogged about this in more detail today"
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Surface Touch Cover "Splits within Days" (guardian.co.uk) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Guardian reports: 'Some early users of the Touch Cover of Microsoft's Surface tablet say one of the edges splits to expose a wire just days after they starting using it. A number of users on the Surface Forums site have reported the problem, which has also been experienced by Tom Warren, a writer on the Verge website and Matthew Baxter-Reynolds, a Windows developer. The defect is identical in each case: the cover, which has an integral keyboard, begins to split at its seam where the device attaches magnetically to the main computer. Microsoft did not respond to a request from The Guardian for information about how many reports there had been of the problem. Baxter-Reynolds was told to return his Touch Cover to Microsoft for a replacement, and Microsoft has been swapping faulty covers for users where it has retail stores. It's unclear whether the problems that people have encountered are due to a faulty batch or are a subtle problem that will become more apparent as more people use it for longer- but the fact that users in the US and the UK have reported the problem suggests that it is not isolated to a single manufacturing batch.'

Submission + - Adding forums to a website, what is the best way?

Submitted by
DustyMurray
DustyMurray writes: "I am considering adding forums to my website, and am just getting confused by all the options. My first reaction is always DIY. You get better website integration, and it looks and feels 100% how you want it to look and feel. However looking at things like phpBB and Vanilla forums, I will be hard pressed to build a better user experience in a reasonable amount of time. Also these out-of-the-box solutions seem to be shouting "Easy to integrate with your website". So, considering this, how easy are these ready build forums really to integrate in your website. I remember one of my favorite site, going completely blabla when they started to use a generic forum instead. I even stopped going to them after a while... I definitely do not want that for my site.... So I want things like, looks and feels in integral part of the rest of my site. Want to be able to insert stuff on certain pages, so it's not either the forums, or my site... It must be a mix. And I do not want a second login system on my site. And last but not least, I definitely don't want to have this typical generic look that most forums sport, they just reek "out-of-the-box-very-vanilla".... So can all that be delivered with the out-of-the-box forums that exist today? And which one is the most flexible regarding these wishes."

Submission + - Marine 'Treasure Trove' in Oceans may bring Revolutions in Medicine and Industry (guardian.co.uk)

Submitted by dryriver
dryriver writes: The Guardian reports: 'Scientists have pinpointed a new treasure trove in our oceans: micro-organisms that contain millions of previously unknown genes and thousands of new families of proteins. These tiny marine wonders offer a chance to exploit a vast pool of material that could be used to create innovative medicines, industrial solvents, chemical treatments and other processes, scientists say. Researchers have already created new enzymes for treating sewage and chemicals for making soaps from material they have found in ocean organisms. "The potential for marine biotechnology is almost infinite," says Curtis Suttle, professor of earth, ocean and atmospheric sciences at the University of British Columbia. "It has become clear that most of the biological and genetic diversity on Earth is – by far – tied up in marine ecosystems, and in particular in their microbial components. By weight, more than 95% of all living organisms found in the oceans are microbial. This is an incredible resource."
Security

Submission + - Blizzard Sued over Battle.net Authentication (ign.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A man has initiated a class-action suit against Blizzard over a product used to shore up Battle.net security. Benjamin Bell alleges that Blizzard's sale of Authenticators — devices that enable basic two-tier authentication — represents deceptive and unfair additional costs to their basic games. (Blizzard sells the optional devices for $6.50, and provides a free mobile app as an alternative.) The complaint accuses Blizzard of making $26 million in Authenticator sales. In response, Blizzard made a statement refuting some of the complaint's claims and voicing their intention to 'vigorously defend' themselves.
The Courts

Submission + - Tesla Motors Sued By Car Dealers (npr.org) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Car dealers in New York and Massachusetts have filed a lawsuit that seeks to block Tesla from selling its pricey electric vehicles in those states. The dealers say they are defending state franchise laws, which require manufacturers to sell cars through dealers they do not own. Robert O'Koniewski of the Massachusetts State Automobile Dealers Association says, 'Those dealers are investing millions of dollars in their franchises to make sure they comply with their franchise agreements with the manufacturers. Tesla is choosing to ignore the law and then is choosing to play outside that system.'
Twitter

Submission + - Geomapping Racist Tweets After Obama's Re-election 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Megan Garber writes that in the age of the quantified self, biases are just one more thing that can be measured, analyzed, and publicized. The day after Barack Obama won a second term as president of the United States, a group of geography academics took advantage of the fact that many tweets are geocoded to search Twitter for racism-revealing terms that appeared in the context of tweets that mentioned "Obama," "re-elected," or "won," sorting the tweets according to the state they were sent from and comparing the racist tweets to the total number of geocoded tweets coming from that state during the same time period. Their findings? Alabama and Mississippi have the highest measures followed closely by Georgia, Louisiana, and Tennessee forming a fairly distinctive cluster in the southeast. Beyond that cluster North Dakota and Utah both had relatively high scores (3.5 each), as did Missouri, Oregon, and Minnesota. "These findings support the idea that there are some fairly strong clustering of hate tweets centered in southeastern U.S. which has a much higher rate than the national average," writes Matthew Zook. "But lest anyone elsewhere become too complacent, the unfortunate fact is that most states are not immune from this kind of activity. Racist behavior, particularly directed at African Americans in the U.S., is all too easy to find both offline and in information space.""

Comment Re:Waste of money (Score 2) 215

by simoncpu was here (#41408545) Attached to: US Military Tested the Effects of a Nuclear Holocaust On Beer
2012 - 1835 = 177 years

Formula for computing the future value (FV) of an investment's present value (PV) accruing at a fixed interest rate (i) for n periods:

FV = PV*(1 + i)^n

Computing...

FV = 100 * (1 + 0.06)^177
FV = 3013964.63322

Assuming that you deposited it at a bank that gives you 6% annual interest, your $100 in 1835 would have grown to $3,013,964.63 by now.

Comment I wanna be a Rockstar (Score 1) 487

by simoncpu was here (#41187815) Attached to: The Truth About Hiring "Rock Star" Developers
'Cause we all just wanna be big rockstars
And live in hilltop houses, drivin' fifteen cars
The girls come easy and the drugs come cheap
We'll all stay skinny 'cause we just won't eat

And we'll hang out in the coolest bars
In the VIP with the movie stars
Every good gold digger's gonna wind up there
Every Playboy bunny with her bleach blond hair

And well, hey, hey, I wanna be a Rockstar
Hey, hey, I wanna be a Rockstar!

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