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Comment Re:favorites... (Score 1) 204

Also, programmers write software, not documentation.

I've been contributing to a project over the last 20 years (which happens to be a text editor) which has 80+ pages of documentation in texinfo. I'm not specifically recommending texinfo; it's what the project started with and it works. The point is, the build process renders a plain text version of the texinfo documentation, then a script reads the formatted docs to build several of the program source files, including hash tables of the commands, static text for the internal "help" commands, enums (it's C code), etc. You literally cannot add a new command to the program without adding it first to the documentation. It's a slick way to keep the documentation in sync with the code. The same idea could surely be implemented with many other document source formats. It's a step towards Knuth's Literate Programming without going overboard.

Programmers certainly can and should write documentation.

Comment Re:Deep down.. (Score 4, Insightful) 610

The lower classes (the 98%) don't care about default because they see it as comeuppance for the robber barons who have all the money to lose anyway. It's only a catastrophe for those with something to lose. For the rest, it's an inconvenient equalizer. (Actually probably much more inconvenient than equalizing; hope we don't find out.)

Comment Is this related to their screwed up paging? (Score 1) 729

I wonder if this is the same thinking that went into screwing up paging in Evince (a GNOME project). I find lately that middle-click in the Evince scroll bar does nothing, and left clicking causes a jump to that location (like middle-click is supposed to do, and does in other apps) rather than a page forward. And then there's replacing the menus with buttons on the right like chrome. Ugh.

Fortunately, I've moved to MATE (and mate-doument-viewer a.k.a atril).

I wish GNOME would switch to EBCDIC. Then we could finally sweep its dust from the floor and get back to having fun. Bye, GNOME.

Comment licensing vs transfer (Score 1) 191

I have no problem with licensing of patents. What I find absurd is the notion of transfer of patents. If someone invents something they ought to be able to profit from it even if they don't produce. But what sense is there in allowing trolls to buy innovation rights from others?

"Patents: license them or lose them. No sales or transferes allowed." Soon as they make me king.

Comment Re:Sign We the People Petition (Score 1) 555

It's a state politician screwing up a state law. Do you want federal politicians to be able to overturn state laws on a whim?

Since you mention it, the same Republican legislature (North Carolina) is pushing a proposal to repeal any local ordinances that go beyond federal regulations. This is their broad stroke approach to "doing away with anti-business regulation". This same bunch that's been screaming "states rights" for years is now doing just the opposite now that they've finally gained power.

Comment Re:No (Score 0) 629

"Accelerating one ton to one-tenth of the speed of light requires at least 450 PJ or 4.5 ×10^17 J or 125 billion kWh, without factoring in efficiency of the propulsion mechanism. This energy has to be either generated on-board from stored fuel, harvested from the interstellar medium, or projected over immense distances."

Or you can borrow it from the future, where it will be generated conveniently enough in exactly the right quantity by slowing that one ton down. We just haven't figured out how to shift the energy equations in the temporal dimension yet.

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