Comment: Re:A really slow news day (Score 1) 303
what's next? researchers use beads to do arithmetic?
Never heard of an abacus?
Comment: Re:Ukraine's borders were changed by use of force (Score 1) 230
Honestly I don't get the stance of some ppl from the US against Russia.
Russia is the best friend and has been the most loyal, the strongest and the most valuable ally for the USA. Really. At times of apocalyptic events Russians and Americans stood together. It was before and it may be again when we have to save the Earth itself. Nobody can help the US but Russia when things get hot. Alienating Russians is what make things worse.
Those things are called movies. The space aliens didn't really invade Earth.
Idiot, he was referring to the documentary about the asteroid that they blew up with the nuke. You know, when Daredevil makes out with Arwen.
Comment: Re:Shareholders profits? (Score 1) 133
Replying to myself: I assumed they would cut expenses to feed the shareholders but I was wrong. TFA explains:
Amazon generated a whopping $74.45 billion in revenue for its financial year to 31 December 2013, but just $274 million in net income, a margin of roughly 0.3 percent. It sells Kindles at cost.
Compare this with Google, which saw net income of $12.9 billion on revenues of $59.8 billion for the year to 31 December 2013, a margin on 21.6 percent; or to Microsoft, which posted revenue of $77.9 billion for the year to 30 June, with a net income $21.9 billion, a margin of 28.1 percent
Question is: how do they manage to make shareholders accept that?
I'm guessing the investors expect Amazon to become and stay the Walmart of the internet (or perhaps the Sears and Roebuck from catalog days) and be be able to either ramp up margins or pay them at that level for a LONG time.
Comment: Re:base it around my OS (Score 1) 362
IIRC, the standard deduction this year was $6900 for single payers. Pretty easy to top that via mortgage interest.
Comment: Re:A win? (Score 1) 313
Here, there's a fee to pay for the rain that lands on your property. It's a drainage fee - you have to pay the company that operates the storm drains to take it away.
Fellow MD resident?
Comment: Re:Seriously (Score 1) 313
Looks like the rest of your comment was truncated. Let me help:
"Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. "
Comment: Re:Think of all those poor accountants! (Score 1) 363
"Then candidate Bush referred to this as what? Something d-o-o economics. Anyone? Anyone?"
Comment: Re:I Pay (Score 1) 313
Problem with that line of argument (besides the stupid personal attacks which do not contribute) is that this was never on Netflix's end and that has been confirmed over and over again. Problem only affects people on comcast, and only after someone at comcast got the bright idea to shake Netflix down. Comcast customers (the few of them with the technical knowledge that is) could get around the breakage by disguising their traffic and many did so.
I hope you are getting paid well to astroturf here, enough to compensate you for your integrity.
I hope you are getting paid well to astroturf here, enough to compensate you for your integrity.
Comment: Re:Why is this crap on the internet (Score 1) 70
It was actually wishful thinking rather than faith. I've seen the same things you describe. I've also seen where things like this are swept under the rug forever. Then, the root cause analysis comes back and people flip shit because nothing was done about it in the past. Well, nothing other than ignore the recomendations of us morlocks...
Comment: Re:I Pay (Score 1) 313
"It is not Comcast's responsibility to provide enough bandwidth for you to stream a 3rd party software at maximum bandwidth"
Yes, if you paid them for that bandwidth, it is indeed their responsibility to provide it. Third party software? Everything on your computer is third party software, what else would you be using?
Your argument appears to make no sense whatsoever.
Yes, if you paid them for that bandwidth, it is indeed their responsibility to provide it. Third party software? Everything on your computer is third party software, what else would you be using?
Your argument appears to make no sense whatsoever.
Comment: Re:Wat? (Score 3, Insightful) 368
"The problem here is that people have been using the argument that Open Source is better because these issues can't happen "because" of the visibility."
No, just no. No one with any sort of a clue ever argued these issues cannot happen with Free Software. It's good practice, it helps, but it's no silver bullet. That's just as true as it ever was and this news in no way contradicts that.
No, just no. No one with any sort of a clue ever argued these issues cannot happen with Free Software. It's good practice, it helps, but it's no silver bullet. That's just as true as it ever was and this news in no way contradicts that.
Comment: Re:Why is this crap on the internet (Score 1) 70
Ah; but the guy down at the station babysitting the PLC probably wants to get his Facebook fix too -- so he hooks up a wireless USB stick and presto! The entire national WAN is now online....
And the next day, he finds a pink slip waiting for him.
Comment: Re:Ex Post Facto Law (Score 1) 583
And yet Article 1, Section 9 makes no distinction between civil and criminal. How did the 'precedent' (pronounced 'bullshit') get set that this only refers to criminal issues?
If what he said is true, then this is yet another (out of many) example of the courts 'creatively interpreting' (in other words, modifying it with invisible ink) the constitution.
Sure, it's a wikipedia link, but it's trivial to verify.
Comment: Re:Ex Post Facto Law (Score 1) 583
The underlying offense is the same. The law is written to play legalistic games.
Comment: Re:The whole approach is wrong (Score 1) 159
"Or at least no such thing as a project that only employs or accepts contributions from such programmers."
You could probably find a few drawing decent salaries in less public areas, but certainly it's a skill that the tech world in general has no appreciation for at all. And even though I hate it I can understand why - if you have two companies developing a similar product, one does it quick and cheap, the other takes the time to do it right - the first one will 'own the market' before the second can get there. And with that position it has the cash flow to keep paying programmers, while the second one closes their doors.
The same dynamic still plagues non-commercial projects as well, a quick but shoddy project can gain mindshare and take off before one that does things right has a product to show at all.
There are a few places where people are willing to pay the price for secure code, and the way things are going I suspect that is increasing, but it's still a tiny minority of available positions.
You could probably find a few drawing decent salaries in less public areas, but certainly it's a skill that the tech world in general has no appreciation for at all. And even though I hate it I can understand why - if you have two companies developing a similar product, one does it quick and cheap, the other takes the time to do it right - the first one will 'own the market' before the second can get there. And with that position it has the cash flow to keep paying programmers, while the second one closes their doors.
The same dynamic still plagues non-commercial projects as well, a quick but shoddy project can gain mindshare and take off before one that does things right has a product to show at all.
There are a few places where people are willing to pay the price for secure code, and the way things are going I suspect that is increasing, but it's still a tiny minority of available positions.