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Comment Who cares, it flies! (Score 2) 265

Though scientists are not sure why this happens...

Combine it with an EM drive: double the speed & double the mystery. Maybe if you mix baffling with confounding you get a multiplier effect instead of just doubling. (That's the way the entropy seems to work with compounded software bugs.)

Comment Brilliant sci-fi (Fantastic Voyage) (Score 3, Insightful) 27

That movie was sci-fi at its best: mostly plausible*, educational, entertaining, suspenseful, memorable, timeless, and it made you think. And it had Raquel Welch!

* Except maybe for the shrunken human passengers part, but in the near future, remote "virtual" control operators may play similar roles the way military drone operators do now. They may end up having to make quick decisions in difficult circumstances in terms of the patient's life and say limitations of batteries etc. on potentially patient-customized probe(s).

Comment Re:Exactly. (Score 2) 318

I cannot comprehend this entitled attitude. on cable tv you see ads. in a magazine or newspaper you see ads. before movies you see ads. during movies you see ad placements. so it's not like Netflix is proposing a crazy new concept

I cannot comprehend this apathy about the ongoing invasion of every bit of space and time by attempts at mind control. ("Buy! Buy! Buy!")

Once upon a time you actually could pick up some magazines and see very few ads, or even none at all. There were not ads before movies. Product placement was inconspicuous or non-existent. There was even less ad time on broadcast TV -- one guy estimates that the time spent on commercials more than doubled since the 1950s.

Ads as we know them are memetic toxins. Anyone unconcerned about them is unconcerned about their own mind.

Comment Re:Too cheap! (Score 1) 583

Caveat: I forgot to mention that not all organizations will accept this "aspergers discount". If they find you "difficult", some orgs will simply let you go rather than cut your salary.

It's kind of like ball teams: some team managers want consistency and predictability in players, and pay a premium for it.

Other teams are willing to take "damaged goods" to save money on players or take a gamble, and have staff that is used to dealing with unpredictable personalities. (It may be lack of "team" skills, habit of missing practices or being late, or a criminal/drug background.)

Ben Wallace pretty much won the Detroit Pistons the championship a decade ago by keeping Shaq at bay with vigor and skill usually seen in a more expensive player. But, he has a record of ticking off other players and staff on his team.

Both types of teams can and do win the big trophy, BUT you have to fit the profile of the team expectations to stay with such a team.

Comment Re:Some random things I would tell myself (Score 1) 583

One of the very best managers I ever worked for was a woman. The two worst managers I ever had were women. Women tech managers will either be fantastic or horrible beyond belief. The bad ones were orders of magnitude worse than the worst male managers I've ever had.

I find this strangely true: women managers seem to be at the more extreme of the spectrum. Men managers tend to fall in the middle more often. I have no idea why. I kind of suspect it's because women on average are better tuned to social cues and play complex social games, and can thus use that against people if they want. They essentially have an "extra sense" they can use for good or evil.

Comment Re:A couple of things (Score 1) 583

Amen! Have big ears and a small mouth. Think of yourself as an anthropologist among a herd of CubicleChimps. Your main goal is to observe and learn about CubicleChimp behavior. You are not there to overhaul their social structure, otherwise you wouldn't be an anthropologist.

Later on as you gain more experience with people, the domain (line of business), and machines, you'll get a valid chance to make changes. But don't rush that step. You first have to let the CubicleChimps accept you as a valid member of their herd. Otherwise, the alpha people (not always males) will put up barriers and jab a horn into your rump*.

And, learn to go with the flow. When in Rome... accept for the lazy parts. It's not good for newbies to copy lazy organizational behavior. If you show you can copy the good parts first, then they'll later cut you some slack.

I remember traveling with a seasoned employee early in my career, and I copied some shortcuts he used on his travel expense report. The Expense Dept. didn't like it one bit and I took heat for that. My boss fortunately patiently explained to me that the seasoned employee gained enough trust to take shortcuts. I had yet to pay my dues.

* You can be a know-it-all newbie jerk at work, but you'll have to accept a pay-cut to be allowed to be that way. You're essentially paying an asperger-social-skills tax, which is about 10 to 20% off what an amiable employee would get in the same position. (There are exceptions for high-demand specialties/fads.)

Comment Re:Good ruling [Bullying Rant] (Score 1, Insightful) 144

Indeed. I've seen my fair share of trolls who danced on the border of legality also. If we bust every excessively obnoxious troll our jails would be full (if they are not already).

We should probably just learn to grow a thick skin and ignore eNuts (unless they talk of weapons, matches, etc.)

It's something that irks me about the anti-bullying campaigns. I hate to say it, but being bullied is part of growing up. Life is inherently full of jerks and sociopaths; if you don't learn how to deal with them as a child, then your adult life will be more difficult.

I've dealt with idiots at work also that use similar tactics. It's not as blatant, but essentially bullying techniques packaged in a work-acceptable fashion. Paraphrased example: "If you don't go along with our [devious or illogical] plan, I have ways to get you fired and you won't know what hit you. You'll get a pink-slip, a box to pack your ugly desk trinkets, and a finger pointing to the exit door".

I was bullied as a kid and I certainly didn't like it one bit, but I am a stronger person for it. The earlier you learn to face difficult people, the better.

The best lessons tend to be the hardest lessons.

Comment Re:Watch-sized (Score 1) 41

not nearly as fun as with a joystick

But if you are stuck in an airport, queuing at the DMV, or in a boring meeting/lecture, being able to play a simple game on your watch is a great option. (Especially if you forgot your phone or its battery is low.)

Being able to tap on the right, bottom, left, and top of the watch face for direction control is all you need. A simplified version of Pac-Man seems like an ideal game for a smart-watch.

Comment CMU struggles to retain talent with low pay (Score 4, Insightful) 234

...is how the headline should read.

I would wager that none of these guys are pathologically short-sighted rubes falling for false promises of more money. They more than likely made sure that the money was real, the freedom to develop their work was real, etc.

Every time I hear these "Foo poached all the talent from bar" stories I just automatically reverse the message to "Bar wasn't paying their talent enough."

Comment WARNING: WOT still flags SF as "Trusted" (Score 2) 384

This behavior should get SourceForge blacklisted as both cyber-squatters and adware, possibly malware vendor.

I agree 100%. 10 years ago sourceforge was a great site. Now it's basically a malware haven. Unfortunately, plugins like Web of Trust (WoT) seem to have been slow to catch up ... WoT is still marking sourceforge as green ("trusted"). Perhaps blackholing the site in DNS really is the best answer...

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