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Comment Re:Still having misery with Firefox. (Score 1) 220

If you have that many tabs open you NEED flashblack and adblock+. Flash is super crash happy, and ads are a huge issue too. I similarly open many tabs often a couple hundred before I go through and clear them out (I do news feeds), and with those two things I might get a crash once every 2-3 months.

Comment My lessons (Score 5, Interesting) 548

Here's my advice, been programming for 15 years. Write comments, one per block of code that does a step, then fill in code. You will then have well commented code, and forced yourself to think through the solution before you begin coding. This saves tons of time by avoiding thought errors before you code. When hunting a bug, don't just look at what's not working. Instead look at what was most recently changed, even if it seems it couldn't possibly be related. The times I didn't do it this way have cost me many days hunting down a really tricky bug. Sometimes it really is unrelated to recent changes, but not often. If you are stuck, take a break and do something mindless, like get some water, go to bathroom etc. your subconscious keeps working without the interference of your conscious mind. Preplan your work a few days ahead if possible. You can avoid many roadblocks by thinking through things ahead of time. Persistence pays off. I've worked through many "seemingly impossible" tasks, only to find the solution after failing a few times first. Visualize what the users interaction will be before coding. I like to draw it on paper and pretend to use it. Putting yourself in your users shoes allows you to see what might be difficult to understand. I rarely keep my first design, but since it's just a drawing I'm not invested in it. If you lay it out in software, it's much more tempting to keep a poor design. Ask a colleague if you are stuck. Often, articulating the problem out loud is sufficient to solve it!

Comment Re:100 watts?! (Score 1) 208

It depends greatly on the length. 14 gauge wire can handle 20A with a short enough wire. The issue is the resistance of the wire. 100 watts is not very high and 18 gauge wire can handle that for short lengths easily, whether it's 20A at. 5V or 5A at 20V it should be fine for the lengths we're talking about.

Comment Re:OK, I'll bite (Score 2) 190

Personally I think Microsofts typescript idea is the best I've seen. Compiles to JavaScript, looks like a modern OOP language, tracks the next version of JavaScript fairly well, has a great IDE available with code completion, and is compatible with pre-existing JavaScript libraries.

Comment Neat (Score 1) 53

I could see using this, whereas I couldn't see myself using the card version. If the cost premium is reasonable this could be awesome for image processing. I have an image algorithm I use CUDA for and moving the data around consumes almost as much time as processing the data. If I had this in my servers I would have flexibility and much greater performance with this solution. --Robert

Comment Re:Don't Go On Vacation Then (Score 5, Informative) 188

I am an online retailer. I lost $8,000 in one season from credit card fraud. When the cards are stolen, the frauders use it at a store. The cardholder then does a chargeback. The bank will refund the cardholder and take it from the retailer, so the retailer assumes all risk. Many online sales have 15% margins from which you have to pay advertising and labor costs. A single fraudulent sale can take 10-20 legitimate sales just to break even! Most of the frauders are from countries like Vietnam, China etc. they will ship often to a US address and the cardholder is a US address as well. The only thing us retailers have to go by is the location of the IP address. If that's from a country other than the cardholder's that's a very strong signal that it's a fraudulent order. Size of order, fake phone number are also good signals. If you don't want an order flagged, then don't look like a frauder! Place your order from your actual IP address.

Comment Vertex 2 (Score 5, Interesting) 292

I bought a vertex 2 when it first came out due to its incredible speed for use in a server. After a year the server slowed down to way slower than hard drives. I researched it to find out, that they built in a limiter, if you exceed the IO that will burn through the drive before the warranty ended they slowed down the drive so that it would last. This made the drive useless to me. I had to replace it with an intel drive. I will never buy another OCZ SSD.

Comment Re:Hmmm I wonder... (Score 1) 229

FCC requires cable operators to rebroadcast local OTA stations, but they have to pay for that. The broadcasters can essentially charge whatever they want since cable operators are legally required to buy their product. Those operators are pooping themselves because if they stop OTA broadcasts then cable operators no longer have to buy their product, and if they continue then antenna arrays can get them around these fees, so the big cash cows that are cable operators will dry up overnight once this decision is upheld. Over time cable operators will be able to lower prices, or increase profits substantially!

Comment Re:Fantasists (Score 5, Interesting) 224

You are correct. OTOH my biological father had almost no contact with me from the age of 2 until I was 15. When I first met him it was uncanny. We talked the same, thought the same way, laughed the same. It was insane. My wife and my sister both get creeped out by how similar we are. So nurture is important, but nature is too!

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