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Comment Eventually, we'll all give up and be criminals (Score 1) 536

Guess I'll keep illegally listening to those downloads. I started out downloading music because I was broke and lazy, now I consider it civil disobedience. Thanks music industry! Until juries start refusing to enforce ridiculous laws and people refuse to follow them, the thought police will keep criminalizing the most basic of human instincts: to share stories around a campfire.

Comment Re:Here we go! (Score 1) 699

They don't show anything internal, so body cavity bombs wouldn't show up even after the cancer-causing scan anyway. Have you even looked at the studies? Why do you want the illusion of safety at all? I'd much rather feel unsafe and be alive than feel safe and die, personally. Of course, I've watched knives be accidentally carried on planes multiple times, so I am certain security is nothing but theater.

We're lucky that there are only a few terrorists in the world and most of them, like most everyone, aren't particularly good at what they do. After all, if they were smart they'd have launched a front corporation to funnel money through to Republican-supporting PACs and try to get Congress to refuse to raise the debt ceiling again next time it comes up. A default would cause far more American infidel pain and suffering than another terrorist attack.

Comment Re:C programmers? Wanted! (Score 1) 582

The way a handax is a very powerful tool. Sometimes it's the simplest, cheapest tool. Sometimes it's the tool you have on hand. Sometimes it's the only tool you have access to (say in some place without electricity). Sometimes you want to use one tool for any number of jobs. However, it is very seldom the "best" tool; it is just the most commonly used one.

Comment Re:Hague Treaty (Score 1) 172

Rape is gendered because it is gendered violence. Men who are targeted (and men make up 15% of rape victims) are more likely to be children or teenagers than female survivors, and more likely to have intersecting oppressions otherwise. Rape is a crime of power, and men of perceived lower status are vulnerable just like women. However, if we actually want to prevent rape we need to stop rapists from raping. That means targeting the men who commit rape is the most effective solution, since men commit 98% of rapes. If we wipe out 96% of rapes and suddenly rapists are gender-balanced, it will make sense to focus equal resources. However, both male and female survivors will be best served by dismantling the patriarchy that enables rape culture, that makes rapes against women "natural" and rapes against men a joke. There is nothing anti-male about it; it is anti-patriarchy, which harms both men and women.

If there are men reading this who seek support, resources do exist. http://www.pandys.org/malesurvivors.html has links to national hotlines that can provide referrals.

Comment Re:Hague Treaty (Score 1) 172

We have no information about whether he pursued legal means at all. Since he wasn't pursuing legal means, in fact, my first suspicion would be that his son was legally living abroad. As you point out, treaties exist for cases where children are unlawfully transported across borders.

Comment Re:Why I'm not sympathetic with Doxer ... (Score 1) 172

You are assuming "justice" is automatically on his side. We have no information about the case: whether she was granted sole custody, whether he left them or why they were estranged in the first place. We don't know if they were even married in the US; he could have been working abroad and returned to the US alone.

I'm not saying that his wife is an angel, or that he might not have been devastated by the loss of his son, but when his primary worry when dealing with the undercover FBI agent was making sure bad things happen to her I'm pretty sure that she's not lying if she claims he's a dangerous "stalker".

Comment No need to go that far forward in time (Score 1) 772

There is a ton of work available in C++ where I am. I've worked in C++ for about 8 years, having come from the Java world, and routinely worked with coworkers nearing retirement. Even better, many of the skills and good habits you may have acquired in more functional and finicky languages can prove useful.

If you want to pick up something cutting-edge and fresh, I'd highly recommend generic GPU programming. Highly sought after by computer vision and scientific computation, it feels like assembly and writes like C on LSD. There also just aren't all that many people in the field yet, so it's still at the point where writing a frame differencing algorithm on your home machine can be a foot in the door.

Comment Re:Lets run the fogcreek numbers per hiring catego (Score 1) 378

We usually see fewer women make it to our interview process, but hire a lot more of those who do. I've usually chalked it up to women being less likely to bluff or bluster; we more often find that we've brought in dudes who talk a good game and can write a function, but when push comes to shove either the skills aren't there or their ego is big enough it'd need its own cube. Women we're more likely to be able to filter out early on. "How good are you?" usually gets a nervous chuckle followed by a diplomatic but pretty accurate assessment, for example.

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