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Comment Re:Doesn't matter in the end (Score 2, Informative) 472

Yeah, that sounds much more efficient. Nothing like letting the developer work through the (bad) optimization design, code it... get the test failure and then waste more time debugging it instead of just warning them off up front.

Belts and suspenders -- test your corner cases, but document the pitfalls.

Comment Re:If $3000 is the societal cost to you not (Score 2) 2416

Because the government is the servant of the people, not the determinator of "societal costs" or the enforcer of "how some bunch of elitists think the rest of us should live". Most especially, the Federal Government is supposed to have limits (that pesky 10th Amendment which is clear to anyone with basic reading comprehension but just gets ignored for folks who want to use the Fed to push *their* agendas, whatever those are).

If the government can tax/fine/penalize [read: FORCE by however they name it] you to do this by virtue of merely existing because of a hypothetical future cost to society, then they can similarly "save society money" by enforcing what you eat, how much you exercise, where you live, if you have children and how many... pretty much every decision you make as an adult citizen. While I know that's a dream for some (the California Air Resources Board and Mayor Bloomberg's Health Board off the top of my head), that is directly antithetical to the concept of a free citizen of a country.

We are not the children of the government, we are not the serfs of the feudal lords of Washington DC. Micromanaging our lives by wrapping it up in arbitrary taxes is still taking away our freedom of choice.

Comment What a strange article (Score 5, Interesting) 658

The opening paragraph has to be the most rabid bit of product love I can recall, especially compared with the actual content.

"upend the video games market"... Really? Just because the screen (if you have a laptop [aka can use the computer anywhere near your sofa] and the AppleTV box) can be wirelessly mirrored to the TV? And using hypothetical controllers that don't exist? Uh-huh.

"For the consumer market ... may be the most significant OS release since Windows 95". A fairly bold statement, given there's nothing in the article that even tries to back that up. Is the new security model supposed to be that big of a paradigm shift (for users, not for vendor lock-in)? Is it the "ooh... you can post to a blog quicker!" stuff? It pretty clearly looks like a point-release to an existing OS that is mildly interesting, but hardly redefining the consumer space.

Comment Re:Why do I have a hard time believing this ? (Score 2) 116

Why anti-grav? I would think a reasonably heavily armored (which a lot of it has to be anyway) Orion drive craft would suffice. Yeah, you'd get whining about the emissions in the atmosphere on the way up -- but balanced against all space programs shut down and presumably loss of the existing satellite capabilities, you could credibly believe that at least one country would get over it and just do it.

Programming

Has Apple Made Programmers Cool? 378

An anonymous reader writes "CNET suggests that Apple has totally changed the general public's perception of programmers: It's now suddenly cool to code. No matter what platform you're on. They argue that App Store millionaire success stories have 'turned a whole generation of geek coders from social misfits into superheroes.' Apparently, gone are the days when a programmer was the last person you wanted to talk to at a party: 'Mention to someone that you make apps and their interest will pick up instantly. This is an astonishing change from what a programmer in the '80s could have expected in reaction to their job description.' The App Store millionaires, or 'Appillionaires,' may have done all of us programmers a huge favor. Programming is now socially acceptable: 'Previous generations strapped on electric guitars and fought for super-stardom in sweaty dive bars, but today's youth boot up Xcode on their MacBook Pros.'"

Comment Re:Wow (Score 1) 373

Ok... now I'm really curious. What coasts are you referring to, and if they're the US Atlantic and Pacific coasts (not Gulf Coast to Atlantic or something silly) -- just what train did you find that only takes 2 days?

I'm seriously asking - since every one I looked at ended up going through LA then up to Chicago and back down (to Atlanta -- maybe Chicago to NY is somehow faster). If you have a link to a 2 day train which is reasonably priced (say $1k per person tops), I'd love to consider that for our next trip.

Comment Re:Wow (Score 1) 373

Depends on the number of people, really.

Sample annual trip just made (CA to GA): 2438 miles.

Airline cost per-person, cattle-class [not adding in taxes, fees and per-bag costs or whatnot they stick you with now] started at $450 per person round-trip.

The 2005 Impala got between 29 to 30 US mpg on the highway, call it 29 to be generous (to your claim).

Similarly, gas ranged from $3.459 to $4.759 per US gallon, but generously use $5 assuming rising prices. That's $420.35 one way, $840.70 round trip.

Since this was 2 adults and one child (not young enough to fly free -- and even if it was possible, who would take a 4+ hour flight in cattle class with a squirming/upset infant on their lap... assuming they had any confidence in said infant not taking a tumble in turbulence), that $450 starts at $1350.

Car has to tack on hotels (depends on how aggressively you push it -- 2 days is possible with 5 hour sleep breaks or so), airline has to tack on transport to/from airport [either mass transit or rental car or long term parking], etc.

The big wins for me are having the trunk of the Impala available at no additional charge, no hassle with rental cars -- and most importantly, no getting handled as if I'd created a felony. The last point frankly would keep me driving even at a 2x cost factor, but you can't claim that "you're paying more for gas by driving" as that simply isn't true outside of lousy SUVs and driving solo.

And before someone brings it up -- the trains were *more expensive* than the car, and took a week to get there by routing through Chicago. Get Amtrack to get a reasonable continental train going somewhere between airline and car prices but taking 2-3 days tops and I suspect a lot more folks would choose it.

Robotics

Robotic "Tongue" Lets You French Kiss Over The Internet Screenshot-sm 136

If you think the idea of french kissing someone over the internet with a robotic tongue is kind of gross, go outside and enjoy your afternoon. For those of you still sitting here, The University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo has just what you've been looking for. The Kiss Transmission Device is a motion-sensing receptacle that records your tongue's movements and then sends that information to a corresponding machine in your partner's mouth. From the article: "In addition to real-time smooching, the Kiss Transmission Device can be programmed to 'remember' specific rotations. The pre-recorded information can then be accessed by multiple recipients. According to the inventor, this could be a good way for celebrities to get closer to their fans." The University gave no word on the possibility of tentacles in future models.

Comment Re:Decadal count is more important (Score 1) 554

Mea culpa. Or -- don't do math just before sleep, it doesn't work out well. Brain switched decades to millenia in there somewhere. I'll accept the dum-dum for that one, certainly -- though an option to mod your own comments "danged stupid, don't look at this" would be nice right now.

I'd make a comment that more than that matters (does the potential damage outweigh the cost of what's needed to prevent damage, or are we better off just dealing with the damage in a longer scale transition?) -- but given the egregious stupidity above, I should shut up while I'm behind. Thank you for only mocking slightly.

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