Russia would like for us to continue gifting them with cash for 40-year-old missle motors, it's our own government that doesn't want them any longer. For good reason. That did not cause SpaceX to enter the competitive process, they want the U.S. military as a customer. But it probably did make it go faster.

Also, ULA is flying 1960 technology, stuff that Mercury astronauts used, and only recently came up with concept drawings for something new due to competitive pressure from SpaceX. So, I am sure that folks within the Air Force wished for a better vendor but had no choice.

No way, man. He can only afford a new iPhone every other year! That's bordering the poverty line.

Don't think he was a duck. From the fact that he was about to give us a list of real languages but then failed to do so, I can only assume the last "ducks" was him exclaiming at being overwhelmed by a wave of ducks, that subsequently ate him.

Yes, I am quite sure the real problem is he was a victim of.... fowl play.

That's entry level C++? That list sounds like at least a mid-level C++ programmer... how are they supposed to be entry level but have had the experience to understand a wide range of legacy code?

This ends a situation in which two companies that would otherwise have been competitive bidders decided that it would cost them less to be a monopoly, and created their own cartel. Since they were a sole provider, they persuaded the government to pay them a Billion dollars a year simply so that they would retain the capability to manufacture rockets to government requirements.

Yes, there will be at least that Billion in savings and SpaceX so far seems more than competitive with the prices United Launch Alliance was charging. There will be other bidders eventually, as well.

I forget where but recently I read a really good point - the radiation shielding someone on Mars might want to wear a lot (especially outside) is actually quite useful, because it adds weight that puts stress on your bones to the same degree Earth gravity would, thus reducing the problem of bone loss through everyday movement instead of just exercise periods.

As mentioned though, it seems like any mars settlement could make good use of the canyons there to help with shielding.

Most links on slashdot are underlined to me.

Poke around with a mouse sometime over many of the two lines of text above each post... many things are clickable, and are not underlined until you hover over them.

In IOS the indicator that something could be interacted with was meant to be similar to an underline, in that buttons took on the tint color for the app - so when you saw that color you would know you could press.

I personally prefer outlines either, but it's not Ive's fault if some designers did not follow those guidelines in UI designs with textual buttons.

If you want fair competition, you have to do it under the same rules as everyone else.

Uber is under the same rules - might makes right.

Both taxis and Uber have drivers working for a large organization with lots of money trying to compete. It's just that governments fight competition through fear and intimidation; companies like Uber fight competition through better service.

If you like fear and oppressive rule, by all means cheer the taxis on.

If the resources of the government can be brought to bear ....

Then they will fuck everything up, and burn hundreds of millions of dollars in the process that could have gone into doing something real.

The problem will go unsolved and everyone living around the problem will be a hundred times worse off than they were before.

Coding jobs can be easily outsourced to wherever the going rate for labor is cheapest.

SOME coding jobs can be, but many cannot - there is aways going to be a market for good coders that pays far above minimum wage, and is also vastly more enjoyable than most other jobs.

At the very least we should not steer people away from a career than can be very enjoyable, even if you are right about pay dropping (which I see no sign of for good coders)...

I'm of the opinion that we shouldn't push girls into programming exactly but we should present appealing options for them to learn (like all girl coding camps), just for the sake of more women making a more informed choice as to what to study in college.

He's just saying that making the choice to be home-maker should be just as valid for women as any other choice they could make. And he's right; it's not even close currently, as many look down on "homemaker" almost as much as they would "prostitute" or "stripper".

Why should choosing to be a home-maker be a choice any less honorable? And YES that also goes for Men, though if you think about it there's less of a societal stigma for men becoming a house maker than a woman!

Pretty sure the "brogrammer" is a creature wholly found in Silicon Valley (MAYBE NYC). As you say in practice I've never found a professional programmer that comes close to this.

If you think about it it only makes sense that fracking in America creates underground pressures which *must* force volcanos to erupt worldwide to alleviate the pressure. Frackers Drilled, Volcanoes Killed!

Look for my paper on this in Science next month. It contains MANY data points which took me ages to fabri---er, collect.

And why on earth would I want to do that? Facebook has nothing of value to offer me that I care about

Well apparently now it does, or you wouldn't be complaining.

ProTip: It's not like you need to give Facebook any real data to sign up, and you can access it in privacy mode to thwart tracking cookies.