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Comment Re:Yes? (Score 1) 106

The biggest reason for user optimised search is because of commercial disputes over who gets on the first page and in what order. When you make it user optimised,everyone ends up having to suck it up because the search engine and the owners of the search data are not directly controlling placement, many end users are. Can you augment the user selection with some refinement algorithms, sure but at the core you still want to be able to say oh well it is the way users rate it and it would glaring and extreme over the top censorship to limit user choices.

Google is going to keep getting attacked for this and corporations will corruptly seek to gain commercial search advantage through corrupt lobbyists and biased legislation. Google has a real problem that will only continue to get worse unless is can push some of that responsibility onto others, many, many others. Cheaply recruiting all those trusted others and keeping them going, of course will not be that easy.

Comment Re:Leverage (Score 1) 671

Past reputation for the US. They only keep deals if it advantages them to do so, once the advantage ceases so does the deal, just ask Native Americans and all the treaties they signed with the Yankees. I can not see how Edward Snowden can possibly expect to return to the US, ever. The nature of the country and it's government makes that impossible. Why the negotiations, likely an immigration step, simple proof of the impossibility of returning and the legal justification for the certainties of Russian citizen status. Russian moves with RT http://rt.com/ would be an indication that is reaching out to the rest of the world. They are now more likely to create say a multi-national technological development enclave within Russia to attract people from all over the globe to develop Russian commercial technology. That kind of cerebral melting pot is far more effective that a monocultural one and it helps to create an economic climate for other commercial developments in that enclave, tourism, content development etc..

Comment Re:Maintainable... (Score 4, Interesting) 247

The biggest problem with the study is it seems to miss the whole point of refactoring code http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C.... It is not about one project, it is all about a coding company and the code it produces over the life time of it's existence, about all of it's projects, past present and future. Is refactoring a technical waste for one project, depends upon the qualities of the initial code produced. Is refactoring a waste over 100 different projects over ten years, of course not and often because far less refactoring effort will be required for latter projects than earlier projects and those latter projects will be far more efficient.

It is much like the principles of TQM http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T.... Does Total Quality management work for one project, rarely the administrative costs will readily out weigh the benefits because there is little or no opportunity to apply the improvements provided by TQM. Will TQM provide benefits for hundred projects over ten years, of course because. As there is plenty of opportunity to apply the benefits gained from the administrative efforts expended on TQM.

Comment Re:5% Gross is a terrible deal (Score 1) 143

Gees bloody easy to go bankrupt from 5% of revenue. Say you built a commercial building and you bought 10 million dollars worth of material and paid 10 million dollars for labour to put in up and the land cost you a further 10 million dollars. Now your plane to sell that building for fifty million dollars and make 20 million dollars profit didn't pan out. You are following me, I hope I didn't make it to complex for you so far? Now people think you building sucks and only want to pay you thirty million dollars for it. You got that part ie no matter what you are asking or what you hoped for you will only break even. You got it, are your sure, I mean by now you should be able to guess exactly where there is going with out me finishing it but I suppose if your silly enough to ask the question, than an answer must follow, well, not always. So you thought no harm no foul, you are going to break even but wait, the person that designed the building wanted 5% of revenue for the design and 5% of thirty million dollars is 1.4 million dollars and you don't have the money but they are demanding it. You not what happens now, yep that last 5% sends you 'BANKRUPT', I mean like duhh, homer. Yep 1% can send you bankrupt if that 1% is more than you have to pay your debts, especially when it is 1% of revenue and not profit. 5% of profits of course is very unlikely to send you bankrupt but 5% of revenue most certainly can do it every time, especially when margins end up being tight or as sometimes is the case in gaming non-existent.

You see, they do not in fiscal reality want 5% of revenue, they want to apply a 5% tax on all investments costs of development and publishing. They want a 5% tax on all project expenditures. Now I know that will also go over your head, so I will explain it. The whole idea for the producer is that revenue will pay the full cost of development and of course generate some profit on the side, so the development cost is a wash in revenue, with profit being the focus but the game engine people want to charge a 5% tax on development costs not on profits.

Comment Re:Bad idea (Score 1) 671

If the DOJ makes a promise in a legal contract, it will have to follow that contract.

no one who has been paying attention the last few decades will believe this.

the US does not even follow its own laws. lets start with that quaint old paper, the constitution. its against the C to spy on citizens without cause. yet, they do it, they are bold about it and they show no signs of changing. each day, they break major laws doing this.

that should be enough for you to mistrust the government and how it applies its laws.

its a salad bar situation; they pick and choose what favors them and only follow what gives them the edge.

the US is a has-been. world-wide, we are a laughing stock. I HATE THAT, as I was born and raised here, but I do realize that we've lost all credibility and it will be a very long time coming before it returns.

Comment Re:Secure is now illegal (Score 1) 199

Now how exactly do you decide what is fair and not fair if you never have investigations? "Is it fair to have investigation" sounds exactly like the kind of questions a very guilty party asks, hmmm. A reasonable just person would only ask about the nature of the investigation and how it was carried out, not whether it occurred or not. Yes, upon suspicion of criminal activities police investigations must always occur. The nature of the investigation logically becomes far more invasive as further incriminating evidence is uncovered or stops are relatively minor levels of invasiveness if no evidence is uncovered that warrants further investigation. Now that is totally straight up logical.

Comment Great product bloodlines (Score 2, Interesting) 56

Keith McMillan Instruments is the company that makes the QuNEO board, which I've been using in the studio and live performance for over a year now and it's one of my favorite controllers.

My only suggestion is to wait until the 2nd iteration. It's a small company and I had trouble with my first QuNEO, which had some bugs. The ones they're selling now are really great though, with top build quality.

Oh yeah, the K-Board is going for $99, which probably means it would be soon showing up for less at Guitar Center if Mitt Romney's Bain Capital (nka "Ares Capital") hadn't run Guitar Center into the ground and stripped its assets and turned it into a smoking crater of a company (for which Bain Capital was paid handsomely).

In summary: Keith McMillan Instruments is a good company that makes good, reasonably priced products. Bain Capital makes absolutely nothing and is as evil as a company can be without directly poisoning people. Any questions?

http://www.keithmcmillen.com/p...

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com...

Comment Re:He is crazy (Score 1) 671

like other have guessed, he's very likely NOT seriously thinking of returning.

but, there may be something to be gained by ACTING like you are willing to return, to see what deals the gov is willing to make.

all info you get is useful. whatever they disclose, could be useful, now or later.

I'm 99% sure he has no plans to return. he's smart and there's something else he's got in mind, out of this. dollars to borscht, I would bet on it.

Comment Re:Full blooded American here (Score 3, Insightful) 671

fwiw, do you think any of the 5 eyes (uk, oz, etc) would give him a fair trial?

no such luck!

any time you piss off the spymasters this much, you won't usually live very long, or have a good life. he ran for his life, very literally.

there cannot be a fair trail because you insulted the king and the king is very very mad at you.

Comment Re:no doubt living in Russia sucks (Score 2) 671

to be fair, the women I've met from russia and ukraine were amazing knock-out beauties!

for some reason, I get a lot of 'you might know this person' on linked-in and they often are women from ukraine (more so than russia, for some reason). 95 times out of a 100, they are model-quality in their looks.

so, being in that region of the world could have its good points... ;)

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