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Comment Re:Excellent; (Score 1) 362

No, I seriously doubt the government is going to give up tax revenue. The merchant is still going to pay 13 cents on that .99 purchase. The merchant will lose 2c. Or, as is more likely, they'll raise their prices accordingly; if they charge $1.01 for it, it'll get rounded up to $1.15.

Comment Re:You write code for humans... (Score 3, Insightful) 683

That's nice in theory, but in practice, the "top priority" of code is to meet the deadline and get shipped. Everything after that is secondary.

This. This is exactly why 99% of code written under corporate auspices sucks major ass. Try getting a Director/VP/C-suite to understand why unmaintainable, shitty code sucks and hurts the business. Believe me, I've tried. Maybe 1 in 100 understands. The rest have the same response: "we met the ship date, it works. So what? And by the way, since you can't understand that, you're not an asset to the business. So don't bring me this crap again."

I don't know the answer to that particular debacle, myself - such that I usually just shut up about it and tell the devs working for me that, "yes, you can write shitty code. It will get you a pat on the back from management and a slap in the face by the guys you have to work with every day. Your choice."

Comment Re:You don't (Score 4, Interesting) 683

If management wants your opinion of your coworkers, they'll ask for it.

Not necessarily; having managed a few dev teams I actually appreciated it when someone would come to me with issues like this (privately, non-confrontationally, without a lot of arrogance, etc - any of those things would probably just make me ignore you). Management isn't telepathic; they can't see every single problem like magic.

That said, if your manager a) doesn't have at least enough understanding of coding best practice to know why the stuff you're bringing him is bad, b) is an arrogant asshole himself, or c) is one of those types that believes the ladder to success is built from the heads of underlings, then yeah - STFU. And start job-hunting.

Comment Re:Gingrich & Huckabee Weigh In (Score 1) 1168

Yes. That doesn't matter - the point still stands. If you take only countries where that isn't the case, you still can't draw a definite line showing that high gun crime is directly linked to gun ownership by the populace - and that still doesn't address the fact that gun deaths in the US are extremely low - low enough that gun death can't even be considered a leading cause of death in the US. Not remotely.

Comment Re:Gingrich & Huckabee Weigh In (Score 1) 1168

Your data doesn't pan out, boss. Check this out: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/jul/22/gun-homicides-ownership-world-list Sort that chart by "Rank by rate of ownership" and you'll see a problem. The US has a relatively high murder rate (compared to 1st-world countries) by firearms, and the US is #1 in gun ownership. But the problem is that Switzerland, Finland, Serbia, and Cyprus are ranked 3, 4, 5 and 6 in gun ownership - and they have very low homicide rates by firearm. The problem that data presents to you argument is that it undeniably demonstrates that gun ownership does not directly affect the murder rate. If it did, you would expect a gradual and more-or-less parallel drop in the murder rate as the gun ownership rates drop as well. But that just isn't the case.

The other interesting point this data makes is the fact that the murder rate by firearms (rate per 100,000 population) is not very high in 1st-world countries. In the US, where the rate is relatively high, less that 3 people are killed each year per 100,000. Cancer, on the other hand, causes 178.7 deaths per 100,000 people in the US ( http://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/all.html ) each year. Accidents or inintentional injuries: 38.4 per 100,000 per year.

I'm not purporting to know what the cause of incidents like Newtown and Aurora is; that's beyond my abilities. But what I can say, based on hard data, is that gun ownership is not a direct cause of gun deaths, and gun deaths in the US are not high enough to warrant this kind of fanatical attention. You want to really cut down on senseless violence? Go after cancer and the other big terminal killers. Guns just aren't that big of a problem.

Comment Re:$45 a month unlimited Everything (Score 1) 353

Every business has a phone. Failing that, most folks in the rural US will be happy to make a call for you (on their landline) if you ask nicely and don't look and smell like a bum. Hitch-hiking is a lost art, but in a real pinch even that might work. If you're not in the rural US (meaning you're in the urban US; I don't know how this works elsewhere), you're near a business, and it's gonna have a phone.

Again I ask, how do you think people pre-1995 did this? Just sat in their cars and starved to death?

Comment Re:OK, so how is that monopoly removed? (Score 2) 353

Essentially what you're pointing out is that capitalism, while admirable in terms of the freedom it provides in its early stages (anyone can start a business and probably be successful just by working hard), eventually always ends in monopolies (eventually those businesses will be bought up or bullied into selling, creating one central mega-power - first one in each market, but eventually even different market verticals are all controlled by the same umbrella corporation - that's why you can buy bullets, baby diapers, and a gallon of milk at the same checkout at Walmart). There has to be a system to keep power decentralized - whether it's by regulation, taxation, incentive - whatever.

The sticky point, though, is that whatever method is used to keep that power decentralized must not either a) infringe on individual freedom, or b) simply make the government the monopoly.
Star Wars Prequels

Submission + - Star Wars and Mayan Temples Intersect (reuters.com)

kodiaktau writes: Mayan temples located in the Guatemalan rain forest near Tikal are expected to be flooded with visitors during the last rush or tourist excursions leading up to Dec 21st. The Tikal Four were the same temples that Lucas sent his production crew to capture to represent Yavin 4 in the 1977 production of Star Wars: A New Hope while the country was enduring a civil war.

Submission + - Security Comcast, I'm Calling you Out

truck87bp writes: In late November of 2012 I called Comcast support because my DVR wasn't recording properly. I received a greeting from a nice male voice in well spoken English but sensed that this person was not located in the USA. I asked where he was located and he said India. I started to explain that my DVR was not recording as I had programed it to.

We need some information before we can continue. Name, Address, City and Zip and My Social Security Number...? I told him, I'm not giving you my S.S. number but the last 4 digits are xxxx. He says OK, Thank You! He immediately began to help me which says he verified my SS number. Unplug the DVR to reset it and it should work fine in about a half hour. Is there anything else I can help you with? I replied Nope! and he said to have a nice day and thanked me for using Comcast.

The little problem I have is, why does a call center outside of the United States have access to my S.S. Number? With the amount of Idenity theft in the digital world, it seems all of a sudden as though Comcast does Jack Shit to protect it's customers. You are my ISP and you be the first one on my list if anything ever happens to my Idenity!

You and any other call center in the USA have NO Right making my S.S. personal information or anyone else's available to outside the USA.

I also apologize to all people working in foreign call centers around the world because this is how you earn a living. This is not your fault but the fault of the greed displayed by big business around the world to get a job done as cheap as possible.

Comcast, No excuse will ease my mind, NONE!
Iphone

Submission + - Every Apple-Made App On Your iPhone Can Be Replaced By A Better App (businessinsider.com)

Andy Prough writes: "Business Insider's Steve Kovach writes that he has now replaced all of Apple's built-in iPhone apps with those made by 3rd-party developers: Gmail for Mail, Google Maps for Apple Maps, Fantastical for Calendar, Chrome for Safari, Camera+ for Camera, Clear for Reminders, Evernote for Note, Adappt for Contacts, and others. Kovach states, "And now, all of the Apple-made apps are now in a folder labeled with an Emoji of a smiling pile of poop." While Kovach believes this is a good thing for iPhone users to have access to superior software, the San Francisco Chronicle posits that "it's becoming conventional wisdom that Apple isn't particularly good at making software for the iPhone"."

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