Comment Romney will win (Score 1) 881
Romney is going to win. My highly accurate personal polling system predicts this to a certainty level of 98.4%.
Comment Re:See what happens? (Score 1) 281
By this time in southern New England, it was supposed to be much worse.
Still waiting. I'm finally hearing a little bit of back-tracking from the radio weather person.
Likely will be much worse from NYC to PHL.
Comment Re:Type A MBA types (Score 1) 615
This is spot-on.
The single with no kids and over 40 folks are becoming more common. They work 60 hours, and get so very little accomplished. I don't understand it...
The single with no kids and over 40 folks are becoming more common. They work 60 hours, and get so very little accomplished. I don't understand it...
Comment Orphan drugs - a lot of good work out there (Score 2) 372
Some companies (Genzyme is one example) do a lot of work in the orphan-drug area. Diseases that inflict small portions of the world population. Indeed, rare conditions.
These are often very expensive drugs, since the market is small, they often cost a patient tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year for the rest of their lives. These drugs often get extra patent protections and fast-tracking to the market.
These drugs are not created by accident.
These are often very expensive drugs, since the market is small, they often cost a patient tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year for the rest of their lives. These drugs often get extra patent protections and fast-tracking to the market.
These drugs are not created by accident.
Comment Re:Oblig: TED Talk (Score 1) 372
>> we have the gov do things that we rely on for common good. pharma should be one of them.
Yikes. You can't be serious.
Yikes. You can't be serious.
Comment Hard Core Pawn (Score 1) 515
Anyone else watch that awful TV show, which I always seem to watch, "Hard Core Pawn".
The XBox 360 is a very popular item. Not to mention laptops and other gaming consoles....
The XBox 360 is a very popular item. Not to mention laptops and other gaming consoles....
Comment I thought these were pretty much known already (Score 1) 414
I did not know that the two problems described were unsolved. I thought that "how to calculate exactly the path of a projectile under gravity and subject to air resistance" was already figured out. I guess "exact path" is the trick here. An the other about an "object striking a wall"...
Should make for even better gaming physics...
Should make for even better gaming physics...
Comment Just drop two (Score 1) 612
Drop two of the smaller bombs. Better yet, drop 3 or 4.
Comment design document vs. documenting source code? (Score 3, Interesting) 545
I've found two camps at my company. Both camps document their code with comments and meaningful commentary. It is more a matter of the "design document" that describes the product or project that is a problem. The document that is perhaps supposed to guide the overall architecture of the product, and thus, the architecture of the classes, methods, interfaces, etc., aka. "the code".
The first camp of developers just wants to get in and start coding. They often say "I need to code to figure it out." The actual web site works well, but new developers have a tough time maintaining that same site. The original developers are pretty much the only ones that can change the critical aspects of the site, and even then, as time goes by, that becomes difficult. But, they got the site up and live in the time allotted. And they wrote a 2 page "design document" when they were done - the doc was useless.
The second camp of developers writes a 50 page design, then starts coding. The actual web site works well, but the overall time to get the site up and live took 5 times longer (that includes the time to document.) The documentation evolved with the changes that were made along the way. Maintaining this same site went well at first, since the documentation was great. But, the docs slowly get neglected, and in a couple years, this site is difficult to maintain.
In the end, perhaps there is a happy medium. A "good enough" design document, and get started coding relatively soon. I used to lean toward the second camp, but now I lean toward the first camp :)
The first camp of developers just wants to get in and start coding. They often say "I need to code to figure it out." The actual web site works well, but new developers have a tough time maintaining that same site. The original developers are pretty much the only ones that can change the critical aspects of the site, and even then, as time goes by, that becomes difficult. But, they got the site up and live in the time allotted. And they wrote a 2 page "design document" when they were done - the doc was useless.
The second camp of developers writes a 50 page design, then starts coding. The actual web site works well, but the overall time to get the site up and live took 5 times longer (that includes the time to document.) The documentation evolved with the changes that were made along the way. Maintaining this same site went well at first, since the documentation was great. But, the docs slowly get neglected, and in a couple years, this site is difficult to maintain.
In the end, perhaps there is a happy medium. A "good enough" design document, and get started coding relatively soon. I used to lean toward the second camp, but now I lean toward the first camp
Submission + - 10 Years: Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Initia (net-security.org)
Orome1 writes: "This week, Microsoft is celebrating 10 years of its Trustworthy Computing Initiative. One of the most well-known outcomes of Trustworthy Computing is the Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL), which also incorporates privacy development practices. Embracing industry best practices and lessons learned from Microsoft's earlier security push, the SDL was instituted as a company-wide, mandatory policy. Companies including Adobe and Cisco have adopted security development lifecycles modeled after Microsoft's SDL. Regarded by many as a significant security push, information security veterans voiced their opinion on the first 10 years of the Trustworthy Computing Initiative."
Submission + - Homeless student is Intel Talent Search semifinali (geek.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Samantha Garvey, a senior as Brentwood High School has managed to become one of the remaining 300 semifinalists in the Intel Science Talent Search this year. Her research focused on mussels and her discovery that they change the thickness of their shells if a predator such as crabs are introduced.
Why is Garvey’s achievement so impressive? Because she, and her entire family, are homeless and rely on a local homeless shelter. Such a situation would stop many students from being able to focus on studying, let alone a research project, but Garvey has instead used her situation as motivation. In her own words she wants, “a better lifea home.”
Why is Garvey’s achievement so impressive? Because she, and her entire family, are homeless and rely on a local homeless shelter. Such a situation would stop many students from being able to focus on studying, let alone a research project, but Garvey has instead used her situation as motivation. In her own words she wants, “a better lifea home.”
Submission + - Do Be Evil (mocality.co.ke)
An anonymous reader writes: At some point I will tire of the Google stories about how they've illegally presenting their business as something it isn't, but until then I can but help to expose their hipocrisy.
Submission + - Privacy expert adds "Do Not Track" to Chrome (pcpro.co.uk)
An anonymous reader writes: Google might not want to join the Do Not Track privacy party, but a Stanford University graduate student has built a Chrome extension that could protect end users from being followed around the web by behavioural advertisers. The system is by no means fool proof, but is a step in the right direction.
Submission + - Researcher's Tool Maps Malware In Elegant 3D Model (forbes.com)
Sparrowvsrevolution writes: At the Shmoocon security conference later this month, Danny Quist plans to demo a new three-dimensional version of a tool he’s created called Visualization of Executables for Reversing and Analysis, or VERA, that maps viruses’ and worms’ code into intuitively visible models. Quist, who teaches government and corporate students the art of reverse engineering at Los Alamos National Labs, says he hopes VERA will make the process of taking apart and understanding malware’s functionality far easier. VERA observes malware running in a virtual sandbox and identifies the basic blocks of commands it executes. Then those chunks of instructions are colorcoded by their function and linked by the order of the malware’s operations, like a giant, 3D flow chart. Quist provides a sample video showing a model of a section of the Koobface worm.
Comment sometimes (Score 1) 848
>> is it wise to hold majority opinion so high that it slows down progress?
Sometimes.
Sometimes.
