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Comment Re:Maybe this is a generational thing... (Score 1) 318

I suppose you can't charge $xxx/hr as a consultant or book author merely by telling the boss to set up something like a medieval blacksmithing guild, gotta come up with some new twist on the old story.

Actually, writing about such an approach would likely sell like hot-cakes. Repackaging an old idea in new marketing is an age-old formula that works surprisingly well. (See recent references to Caveman diet) Plus, the time is ripe for the next fad to replace pair-programming.

Comment The result of science-as-PR (Score 0) 900

If you ask me, this is a perfectly rational response to the current state of scientific "research". Today's science is much too expensive to be self-funded, even by a university. So you have science that is funded by grants and sponsorships. A scientist has all the freedom in the world to publish results that contradict the expectations of the sponsors, but that scientist will likely have to apply elsewhere for a grant for the next project.

The end result isn't that a scientist will deliberately doctor the results, but you will have a preponderance of research that only reaffirms original expectations.

Comment Re:GNOME 3 HATERS: Please keep posts in this threa (Score 1) 117

???

Hate: (verb) to dislike intensely or passionately; feel extreme aversion for or extreme hostility toward; detest
Critical: (adj) inclined to find fault or to judge with severity, often too readily

Seriously? Hate is the more appropriate word? Extreme hostility and passionate dislike?

Me thinks that people on the internet exaggerate too much...

Comment Re:eminently (Score 1) 140

Are we seeing the birth of a new business phrase? I can't believe that anyone would just happen throw around the phrase "eminently suitable" several times unless it's ingrained. That is, all the suits at the office and VC meetings are throwing around the term so often that he just repeats it without thinking about how awkward it is.

Comment Not Anti-Intellectual. Skeptical. (Score 2) 949

Speaking for myself as a geek, I don't consider myself anti-intellectual. It's just that over the years I've come to discover that a lot of conventional "wisdom" is BS. Pert of being a geek is doing things a different way, experimenting, and seeing what happens. Well guess what? Some of those experiments actually pay off and you discover how ass-backward the rest of the world is doing things. Over time, these life experiences accumulate to form a general skepticism of all authority in general.

Comment Re:...in the future (Score 1) 220

Agreed. The one thing I haven't seen visual languages address well is what happens when you have a program with several kilo-blocks. How do you find the block that you want to link to? Do you scroll through them all? Pick from a hierarchical menu? Zoom through a 3D representation?

Inevitably, you're forced to name the blocks, which means that you type the name of the block that want to link to. Tell me then, how is all that clicking and typing any easier than simply typing "foo = bar * baz" in a text editor?

Comment Re:Separate them (Score 1) 467

Best solution to keeping your boss out of your personal stuff? Don't do personal stuff on company time.

If only the reverse was true. That is, the company doesn't expect me to do company stuff on personal time. I can't count the number of pagers, cell phones, pda's, laptops, and smart phones that I've had to lug around with me over the years.

Comment Marketing outlet (Score 1) 460

I think mainstream media has an irrational exuberance over twitter because it sees it as a cheap and effective marketing channel. It's like the mid-90's where having a .com web page was seen as hip and got you some extra attention. Likewise, the twitter subscribers will eventually become numb and bored with the novelty, and corporate tweets will become nothing more than shouting in the wind.

Comment Re:Yeah OK (Score 1) 340

*sigh* If governments are truly concerned about child welfare, sexual abuse and exploitation are in about, oh, I don't know, 32nd place on the list of real problems. Somewhere below domestic violence, child negligence, lack of proper health care for the impoverished, undernourishment, and illiteracy.

I guess the problem is that those can't be addressed by token laws targeting internet surveillance.

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