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Comment Re: Or how about no jobs? (Score 1) 307

No we can be pretty sure that central planning doesn't work. People who keep insisting on it just prove insanity by repeating the same actions and expecting different results.

We can also be pretty sure that if people don't have a way to earn a living provide for themselves they will take it out on society.

Comment No more or less than anything else (Score 4, Insightful) 323

Unless you are going to be developing a site that is directly related to an EE field (mathematics/signal analysis/electronic parts etc), why would you expect your knowledge to be any more use than say someone else's knowledge of law ? If you want topics that would be useful but aren't directly related, art/art history/graphic design/advertising all come to mind.

I know from experience my undergrad was EE and I have Professional Engineering license and it really doesn't overlap much except for problem solving skills and logical thought.

Comment TELCO / ISP spending before and after (Score 4, Informative) 62

http://www.freepress.net/sites...

This image tells all you need to know about Cable/Telco promises.

Once you have a monopoly that has no competition there is no reason to improve service or product quality and every incentive to drive it down to as low a level as you can without people rioting outside your offices.

Comment What is this ? Keep asking the same question (Score 1) 291

Until you get the answer you want ?

Why not, why don't we teach everyone electronics engineering ?
Why don't we teach everyone sales and marketing ?
Why don't we teach everyone the law ?

Arguably the above would all be more useful for people to know in a non professional fashion than how to code.

Comment Re:Climate models (Score 0, Troll) 264

But that isn't science. Here is how science works I have learned this from the warming people.

1. Make predictions that are only testable after you retire
2. Look at predictions and complain that people are destroying the world.
3. When your predictions fail, let a new generation make new predictions and tell everyone this is how science works.
3A. If someone questions your process label them a denier and call them anti science.

Submission + - Linux-based Mobile Manipulation Robots Due Soon (linuxgizmos.com)

__aajbyc7391 writes: Silicon Valley startup Fetch Robotics, which just announced $3 million in VC funding, plans to ship two mobile manipulation robots running ROS on Linux in the second quarter, targeting logistics and light industrial applications. The company, whose core team hails from seemingly-defunct Willow Garage spinoff Unbounded Robotics, was originally named FYS (Fetch Your Stuff), hinting that the company intends to compete with the Kiva robots that currently speed-up human workers at Amazon's fulfillment centers.

Submission + - The Mathematical Case for Buying a Powerball Ticket 4

HughPickens.com writes: Neil Irwin writes at the NYT that financially literate people like to complain that buying lottery tickets is among the silliest decisions a person could make but there are a couple of dimensions that these tut-tutted warnings miss, perhaps fueled by a class divide between those who commonly buy lottery tickets and those who choose to throw away money on other things like expensive wine or mansions. According to Irwin, as long as you think about the purchase of lottery tickets the right way — purely a consumption good, not an investment — it can be a completely rational decision. "Fantasizing about what you would do if you suddenly encountered great wealth is fun, and it is more fun if there some chance, however minuscule, that it could happen," says Irwin. "The $2 price for a ticket is a relatively small one to pay for the enjoyment of thinking through how you might organize your life differently if you had all those millions."

Right now the Multi-State Lottery Association estimates the chances of winning the grand prize at about 1 in 175 million, and the cash value of the prize at $337.8 million. The simplest math points to that $2 ticket having an expected value of about $1.93 so while you are still throwing away money when buying a lottery ticket, you are throwing away less in strictly economic terms when you buy into an unusually large Powerball jackpot. "I am the type of financial decision-maker who tracks bond and currency markets and builds elaborate spreadsheets to simulate outcomes of various retirement savings strategies," says Irwin. "I can easily afford to spend a few dollars on a Powerball ticket. Time to head to the convenience store and do just that."

Submission + - Inside the Internet's hidden science factory (pbs.org)

tcd004 writes: Sarah Marshall has completed roughly 20,000 academic surveys. Clay Hamilton has finished about 40,000. Marshall and Hamilton are part of a small but highly-active community of paid online study participants who generate data at break-neck speed to fuel modern scientific research. But can a person who's completed thousands of surveys still provide good data? Here's a look at the humans feeding science from inside the machine.

Submission + - Tindie Biz, the Yelp for electronics manufacturers (hackaday.com)

Theoxenmooving writes: Emile Petrone, founder Tindie, sometimes called the 'Etsy of electronics' has launched a new tool to help tinkerers and product designers find the right manufacturers. It's called Tindie Biz, and it's basically Yelp for the maker community.

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