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Comment: Past wisdom (Score 0) 297

by SlideRuleGuy (#43535913) Attached to: Overconfidence: Why You Suck At Making Development Time Estimates
"No software project plan ever survives contact with reality." - Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, paraphrased.

"It's not the known things that get you, or the known unknowns, it's the unknown unknowns." -- heavily paraphrased from Donald Rumsfeld

Just a little wisdom from a related field...although many days it feels like they're the same thing...

Comment: Re:FORTH (Score 1) 704

by SlideRuleGuy (#42714809) Attached to: What Early Software Was Influential Enough To Deserve Acclaim?

Oh not again. When will we let that language die??!!??

I programmed in it for 6 years right out of college because the employer was desperate for anyone who didn't value their career too highly. I was only saved from it because I had C experience in school. It might have been a good scripting language if only people thought in RPN, but alas, we don't. One of the worst languages I've ever used, right down there with T-SQL and 4-D.

Comment: Re:Article summary: "I am a Mac fanboi" (Score 1) 704

by SlideRuleGuy (#42711641) Attached to: What Early Software Was Influential Enough To Deserve Acclaim?

It's not an accident that "computer science" looks forward. It's because people like to program, and a significant part of the enjoyment of programming is doing everything from scratch. I've met people who will turn their noses up at existing code in favor of writing everything from scratch, because "that's where the fun is".

So yes, we too hate studying the history of old applications because then we'd be forced to admit that it has been done before, and probably better than we could have done it. And then where would the fun be?

NIH ("not invented here") is a huge part of why software engineering is still stuck in the cottage industry stage...

Comment: Re:Stupid buzz words (Score 1) 265

by SlideRuleGuy (#42531691) Attached to: Does All of Science Really Move In 'Paradigm Shifts'?

Kuhn's focus is pretty outdated now. Until someone comes along and really exposes the effects of grants and funding, industry versus gov't research, publish-or-perish, groupthink, tenure, hard versus soft sciences, science foundations, career/income pressures on scientists, and so on, they won't fully understand science in postmodern times.

Just read /. comments from scientists over the years. They confirm the huge effect these things have on the progress of science.

Comment: Re:You don't (Score 1) 683

Been around long enough to know that the "best" code is what your superiors expect you to produce at that particular moment. It may need to be one or more of the following: {fast (in running speed), quick to produce, high quality in terms of having few bugs, easy to understand, easy to extend, compliant with a particular standard or standards (coding, security, etc.)}, and probably a dozen more such factors. You cannot optimize very many of these at the same time.

What really stinks is that if your boss or co-workers are out to get you, software is so subjective that they can always fault you for one of the above factors that you didn't optimize for.

Oh, and you'll never get people to understand the above, to be able to use it in your own defense...

Comment: Re:Hold your head high ! (Score 1) 684

by SlideRuleGuy (#42040537) Attached to: Young Students Hiding Academic Talent To Avoid Bullying

Studies (don't have time to look up the Scientific American article at the moment; it was entitled "Violent Pride") show that bullies are most often narcissists. In other words, they bully because their self-esteem is actually pathologically high. They believe themselves to be above the rules, and so can abuse whoever they choose. It's not an inferiority complex that they suffer from.

The traditional story of bullies being low self-esteem sufferers is a myth, and needs to be dispelled as quickly as possible, because it results in all the wrong sorts of solutions.

+ - Virus-free file transfer via USB stick? 2

Submitted by SlideRuleGuy
SlideRuleGuy writes "With malware jumping into systems from USB sticks, I am looking for a way to ensure that my sticks only carry what I put onto them. This is different from mere USB drive encryption, where malware could simply be encrypted alongside my good files, and hop to another machine upon decryption. To achieve this goal, it would seem to suffice to fill all (and I do mean “all”) unused space with a pattern, and then write an encrypted hash of the entire stick in a known location on the stick. The driver on the receiving end would read the entire stick, and verify the hash. I am aware that USB sticks can mark blocks as “bad”, thus leaving room for a virus to hide. For this reason, the driver would have to be specific to a particular stick brand/model, so that it would know the exact size. Once any blocks were marked “bad”, the stick would be destroyed. Does anyone know of such a driver/app, or is anyone working on such a thing? Seems like it shouldn’t be too hard (how many times have we heard that?), and ought to be in big demand these days."

Comment: Try trans-cranial direct-current stimulation (tCDS (Score 1) 237

by SlideRuleGuy (#39697335) Attached to: Treating Depression With Electrodes Inside the Brain

This is different from the magnetic stimulation, and supposedly more effective. It involves putting direct current (up to 2 mA) across the scalp. No holes required! Research is on-going, and you can google for research and surveys of research that has been done.

In fact, I'm just starting to experiment with it myself, as it appears quite safe, as long as you monitor the current level closely. (I have it set up so that if anything goes awry, the current is immediately disconnected.)

Supposedly it is able to affect depression, insomnia, and boost learning. I'd be happy if it helped any of the three...

Comment: Re:Ah, central planning. (Score 1) 611

by SlideRuleGuy (#39067117) Attached to: Aderall Or Nothing: Anatomy of the Great Amphetamine Drought

Hard liquor consumption shot up during prohibition

Not so fast there. I've heard that thrown out before without any justification. Please tell me how consumption of an illegal beverage was accurately measured _during_ Prohibition? I don't think any government statisticians were walking into speakeasies and measuring things. (Gallons seized/destroyed would not be a reliable proxy, I wouldn't think.)

(And I'm sure the government had no incentive to fudge the numbers after it ended Prohibition, in order to justify its decision. Nah, they wouldn't do a thing like that! Nor would any academic researchers have bias here...)

Comment: No, they're not really that close (Score 5, Interesting) 785

by SlideRuleGuy (#34797944) Attached to: Should Dolphins Be Treated As Non-Human Persons?
Because they live in a colder environment, their brains contain a higher percentage of glial cells, to generate warmth. We have fewer, as a percentage, but more of the neurons that actually process information. So bald comparisons of their brain size with ours are meaningless.

Advancement in position.

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