Comment Re:I'll be first to say WTF (Score 1) 700
Yes, exactly! In fact 0.333... is just a notation for the number that is the limit of the series: 0.3, 0.33, 0.333,
Comment Re:How Absurd (Score 1) 545
I feel the same. I spend most of the time at my job thinking, not typing. That said, there are moments once in a while, when I feel like the code is just flowing out of my brain, through my body and fingers, directly into the screen. Now these moments make me really appreciate touch typing.
Comment synthetic biologist Christopher A. Voigt (Score 1) 117
Does he pass the Voigt-Kampf test?
Comment Even vs Odd (Score 1) 162
It seems from the poll results that the even days (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday) are more productive than the odd ones.
Comment Re:Word to the wise (Score 1) 200
"Capturing requirements is pretty useful and having a repeatable, reproducible way of doing this is also useful. Need to take over some other person's 3 year old steaming pile of spaghetti? Requirements are a good start. Need to replace a home-grown system with a market solution? Requirements are pretty useful in negotiating a contract with the vendor (unless you don't mind the vendor nailing your balls to their invoice because you couldn't actually tell them what you needed their software to do)."
Yes, IF your contractor is COMPETENT ENOUGH to give reasonable requirements. In reality this rarely happens. And while you can point a finger at them, that their requirements were stupid, they will think you just deceived them. They will pay you, but they will not come back.
Comment Re:Word to the wise (Score 1) 200
I agree with you except:
The list of "institutional causes" can be addresses through process
This is FALSE. In fact, "institutional causes" are ALWAYS lack of communication, lack of REAL teamwork, lot of ass-cover, responsibility avoidance, bureaucracy and fear. This is exactly CAUSED by such processes.
Comment Re:My sympathy for you (Score 1) 200
AAAAAH! Now I remember! Now I remember all the pain! These memories were suppressed, and buried deep down in my mind... This explains all the nightmares. Oh God. I need a therapist.
Comment Re:$SUBJECT (Score 2, Insightful) 266
If I understand correctly, you can run your own Diaspora server, is it right?
Well, then there must be a protocol to communicate between Diaspora servers. If that protocol is sound, then I will just write my OWN server with all the security features I need.
Do we know anything about the security of the protocol? I am more interested in that not in the security of the webapp.
Submission + - Microsoft to acquire Unix copyrights (securityweek.com)
IGnatius T Foobar writes: As part of Attachmate's acquisition of Novell, Novell announced it would sell certain intellectual property assets to CPTN Holdings LLC, a consortium of technology companies organized by Microsoft Corporation, for $450 million in cash. Since the SCO lawsuit determined that it is Novell, not SCO, who owns the Unix copyrights, this means that now Microsoft owns them. Is it time for the Linux world to brace for another round of lawsuits?
Submission + - A Cyber-War of Words: China's Internet Hijack (arbornetworks.com)
An anonymous reader writes: While China's hijack of thousands of Internet destinations in April may (or may not) be the opening salvo in cyber-war / espionage, the debate over the hijack has turned into an escalating war of words between dueling researchers and even the Chinese government. After McAfee hyped the hijack as diverting a "15% of all Internet traffic", Arbor returned with statistics showing the hijack diverted at most a few hundredths of a percent. Not to be outdone, McAfee quickly retorted that Arbor measured the wrong ISPs. On Friday morning, the Chinese government also entered the fray denying the well-documented Internet hijack had ever even occurred.
This morning, Arbor countered with additional statistics re-validating the limited scope of the hijack. Though, Arbor Network's Labovitz noted traffic volume has little to do with the threat posed by a hijack: "If the intent was to hijack traffic for a small set of sensitive US government machines, then we might see TCP connections diverted for only a few machines in a man-in-the-middle attack, relatively low volumes of diverted traffic, and thousands of bogus routes announced as a smokescreen... In other words, basically close to what we observed on April 15th."
This morning, Arbor countered with additional statistics re-validating the limited scope of the hijack. Though, Arbor Network's Labovitz noted traffic volume has little to do with the threat posed by a hijack: "If the intent was to hijack traffic for a small set of sensitive US government machines, then we might see TCP connections diverted for only a few machines in a man-in-the-middle attack, relatively low volumes of diverted traffic, and thousands of bogus routes announced as a smokescreen... In other words, basically close to what we observed on April 15th."
Submission + - The software that failed to compete with Windows (technologizer.com)
harrymcc writes: When Microsoft shipped Windows 1.0 back in November 1985--it turned 25 on Saturday--it wasn't clear that its much-delayed windowing add-on for DOS was going to succeed. After all, it was a late arrival to a market that was already teeming with ambitious competitors. A quarter-century later, it's worth remembering the early Windows rivals that didn't make it: Visi On, Top View, GEM, DESQview, and more.
Submission + - 'Secret' Spy Satellite Largest Satellite Ever Made (msn.com) 1
digitaldc writes: A huge unmanned rocket carrying a secret spy satellite for the United States roared into space Sunday, delivering what one official has touted as "the largest satellite in the world" into orbit.
The giant booster — a Delta 4 Heavy rocket — blasted off at 5:58 p.m. ET from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, carrying a classified payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office.
"This mission helps to ensure that vital NRO resources will continue to bolster our national defense," Air Force Brig. Gen. Ed Wilson, commander of the 45th Space Wing, said after the successful launch.
The satellite, called NROL-32, launched after a series of delays from technical glitches. The most recent glitch, a pair of faulty temperature sensors, thwarted a Nov. 19 launch attempt.
The exact purpose of the new spy satellite NROL-32 is secret, but one NRO official has hinted at the huge size of the reconnaissance spacecraft.
The giant booster — a Delta 4 Heavy rocket — blasted off at 5:58 p.m. ET from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, carrying a classified payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office.
"This mission helps to ensure that vital NRO resources will continue to bolster our national defense," Air Force Brig. Gen. Ed Wilson, commander of the 45th Space Wing, said after the successful launch.
The satellite, called NROL-32, launched after a series of delays from technical glitches. The most recent glitch, a pair of faulty temperature sensors, thwarted a Nov. 19 launch attempt.
The exact purpose of the new spy satellite NROL-32 is secret, but one NRO official has hinted at the huge size of the reconnaissance spacecraft.
Comment Re:Space! (Score 1) 614
Erdos Pal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erdos_Pal (I cannot reproduce Hungarian umlaut in slashdot)
Although an amphetamine taking mathematician is maybe not the best hero for an 8 year old
Comment Re:patents/capita (Score 2, Insightful) 302
There simply is no good metric. You have to judge the quality of the papers and authors by reading them. Tht is not the answer accounting departments want to hear, though.
Yeah, and this mechanism hinders deep research. The problem is that the most interesting research subjects are also the riskiest ones. You cannot publish papers on failures, therefore you are highly pressed to go for the low hanging fruit. This means that journals will be full of the (n+1)th refinement of a well known algorithm/technology/formula/theorem.
We need more scientific risk-taking.
Comment Re:This is gonna be good (Score 1) 315
It is great to see that we can produce scientific puzzles in the 21th century that are based on simple mechanics (no quantum theory, no higher math), and confuses the hell out of a lot of knowledgeable people! Really intriguing!
