Assuming you have the means why the hell would you want to go there from all other places? Security? Isolation from the rest of the (poor world)?

I saw a documentary about solar panels in west Africa where main problem seemed to be cleaning those f. panels from dust. Guest what substance was used to remove the dust off the panels' surface.... To give you a hint - it is a drinkable liquid and there is not enough of it on a desert.

well thought out? I mean they can build there what the fuck they want - it is t heir money. Still why people live in such places and what is the purpose of this exercise is not clear to me. However I can think of building there a huge set of nuclear plants so that inevitable accidents affect limited space - that would make sense.

boring pictures - why is this a story in the first place and why assholes that obviously got to pinkmeth because of media noise about the case must post profanities there - I shall never know. People can do with their bodies what they want. If it is in their free time this should never affect their careers or relationships (this of course unless it does not reveal cheating etc). As long as no wrong doing is on the pictures they may have entertainment value but that is it. No reason to get excited. Other that now I am on the NSA terrorists list for using tor. And this is bigger story.

why C only? I think memory management is as important aspect of developing an application as anything else but there are cases where you can use gc and it will take care of it all. There are also cases where it is not available or cases where it is but you still need to know consequences of its use and where are the limitations.

It is also interesting to discuss issues like access to shared memory in concurrent env. and different paradigms that are available. I happened to work with java and c++ cohders (creating big complex real time applications that theoretically were to be highly available) and they all suck big time in anything that goes beyond the book they read when they learned their tools of trade. There were cases however, where this (lack of) knowledge was irrelevant.

There are also other areas like project management and communication techniques, planning, maintenance aspects and many other that universities do not teach at all. Why not cover those too - these are useful general skills that most of us lack.

This starts happening already. They get some of their billing outsourced to India and some of it done by machines. The linked article is 4yo now. I guess the billing is as painful as it always was but part of the profits are siphoned out of the system to few guys that own legal rights. Now if they automate and offshore the plumbers that would mean revolution. It will happen eventually.

I know this is off topic and off the main line of your argument but why do you consider M.D. in falling down as a guy who 'went nuts'? I mean the movie is (slightly) overblown but in any of the situations that we see Defence guy taking action against the system, I actually could agree that the actions were reasonable except maybe blowing up street with a missile which could injure bystanders. Come to think of it - our meaninglessness is so profound these days that just the only way we can get message across is with direct and possibly violent action as other means are not available due to corruption of the overwhelming system and inactivity of bored majority. Only then, after such direct action, we may realize that this has been pointless anyway as nobody caring watches and those that do are already blinded by many of such actions in the past.

As for the rest of your story - I wonder how it will all change (assuming no dino killing meteor event interrupting the experiment) in few years - more factories coming back to 'developed world' going full automatic so good jobs going away now not only to offshoring but also to automation. What jobs will our kids have to support their families? Human tendency is to go for utopia and end up with dystopia so ....

Saw a (BBC?) documentary about people living around in the Chernobyl Zone and research done on the food that can be grown there without risk and apparently there are ways to avoid much of contamination if one knows which plants and plant parts to eat and which not. Having luck I suppose plays also a role as there are places there where contrary to what some claim radioactivity killed almost all life. Bottom line is you do not have to die directly of radiation (of the type we talk about here). The atomic man however was exposed and suffered a lot because of that. He died of something that had no direct relationship to the accident, this much is true but I would not like to have to lead his life.

How independent is this 'independent' US government agency?

judging on the '-1' score neither group has sense of humor

any policy can be judged on its costs and benefits. Direct costs and indirect costs of this policy are dire. Damage to US reputation and to Western citizens relationship with their states and their agencies that so creatively together with NSA misinterpreted laws and regulations is huge. There is also this little item of lost business due to NSA machinations.

The question is: was it worth it?

if these were hookers then he would be guilty of paying for sex which is a crime in this great country. these were just callgirls that you know are to show you the city etc

vibrators?

yes - huge grid smooths local shortages but as far as I know we do not have such a thing like Europe/Asia/Africa grid, we may have some in Europe and possibly in some areas of Asia and Africa but calling it continental grids is an overstatement already. What we have in Europe may be _almost continental_ that is quite some zillions of investment and few 'manmonths' of work are needed. Meanwhile in Germany some offshore wind parks cannot be connected to the grid and their owners seem to be on the way to be paid for energy that they could have otherwise produced - the costs of this payment for energy that has not been consumed cover suckers like me. This little example is to illustrate not the impossibility of the task but that instead of talking about a continental grid maybe we should be fixing big local grids.

That is OT but funny how it relates to my QA assignments - I keep on hearing about products being almost ready and how future releases will bring the glory but lowly and not important 9in10 install fails are not worthwhile investigating. eh humans...

you forgot the endless bitching on /. about dumbass half brain of a scientist while at the same time not being able to explain the exact mechanics of the banjo effect.

I am half burnt now but I still remember times at school when this sort of explanations provided me with joy at learning stuff like physics and math instead of listening to explanation of a teacher that has no f. clue what he is talking about and what role his 'knowledge' has in my and my fellow students reality, combined with explanations in another subject ended with 'it is just so'. I am not sure we have to shoot things into orbit just to find out that parking lot without trees is hotter than one with them but I like when there are formulas at hand when one asks for them.