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Programming

The Latest Programming Holy War: Debuggers! 1

Submitted by
mykdavies
mykdavies writes "It all started when Giles Bowkett posted on his blog that debuggers were a waste of time: "If you're used to a crutch, you think you need it", he said, and that once you've heard of Test Driven Development, you'll never use the debugger again.

A number of keen fans of debuggers leapt in to defend the role of the debugger in TDD, including James Robertson who explained (with video) how "living in the debugger" can lead to faster development. The level of outrage in the responses got too much for Giles, who had to delete a number of heated posts. Then Reddit picked up the story and fanned the flames.

So who's right here? Are debuggers a crutch for out-of-date coders, or the tool of choice for the best developers?"
Music

Radiohead allows fans to decide on price 2

Submitted by
radicalskeptic
radicalskeptic writes "Radiohead, a band known to be unhappy with other music download services, has decided to release their next album, "In Rainbows", in two formats: a £40 boxed set and a digital download. What's the catch? Customers who purchase the digital download are able to name their own price for the album. This is the first Radiohead release since their contract with EMI expired. As "The Majors" continue to lose relevance, can we expect more of this type of experimentation and flexibility from independent artists?"
Power

Water as a fuel source? 4

Submitted by WallaceAndGromit
WallaceAndGromit writes "Watching the news today, I saw a report about a cancer researcher who has discovered a way to burn salt water while exposing it to radio waves. To quote from a news release here http://www.yorkdispatch.com/pennsylvania/ci_6851885, "John Kanzius happened upon the discovery accidentally when he tried to desalinate seawater with a radio-frequency generator he developed to treat cancer. He discovered that as long as the salt water was exposed to the radio frequencies, it would burn." There is a video on YouTube that illustrates the phenomena here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGg0ATfoBgo and is quite impressive. As stated in the York Dispatch article, "The scientists want to find out whether the energy output from the burning hydrogen — which reached a heat of more than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit — would be enough to power a car or other heavy machinery." Could this be real? Wouldn't that be great if it was. Imagine, run your Prius on H2O, and really stick it to the man."
United States

Americans are getting fatter and dumber->

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes "Ouch. Those are fighting words in some circles and just plain rude in others but they didn't stop Democratic White House hopeful Mike Gravel from making that assessment of the folks who might consider electing him their next leader.The verbal evaluation gushed from an online debate mashup yesterday that featured all of the Democratic presidential candidates. Comedian Bill Maher served up "wild card" questions on issues such as whether marijuana should be legalized. It was on one of Maher's questions that Gavel unloaded. Maher told Gravel that obesity rates are up and reading levels are down and added that the "definition of a friend is someone who tells you the truth." Gravel replied that he was willing to be honest with the American people. "I'm prepared to tell you that Americans are getting fatter and dumber," the former Alaska senator said. "I have no problem saying that."No truth to the rumor that Julie Brown's song "I like em big and stupid" was playing in the background. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/19431"
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After all, all he did was string together a lot of old, well-known quotations. -- H.L. Mencken, on Shakespeare