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Comment: Re:HTC should stop competing with Apple and Samsun (Score 2) 152

by tool462 (#42948339) Attached to: HTC Unveils Revamped HTC One

Nice, but you forgot one:
--HTC Pony: Designed exclusively for a hypothetical user base (probably doesn't exist) that will cost millions in development and, if lucky, will sell 10s if not 100s to easily disoriented consumers. At least two Reddit subforums will absolutely love it. The subsequent bankruptcy filing by HTC will ensure the highly collectible status of the phone.

Comment: Re:lol (Score 5, Interesting) 332

by tool462 (#42596771) Attached to: Pot Smokers Might Not Turn Into Dopes After All

In my experience (which is extensive), the theoretical physicists smoke a LOT more pot than the engineers.
The genesis of the membrane extension of string theory came about in the mid-90s due to a late night bake-out and some Cypress Hill. Who else would come up with an 11 dimension "solution" to the problem of string theory?

Comment: Makes sense. (Score 4, Insightful) 136

by tool462 (#42584027) Attached to: The Science of Game Strategy

That's why they're fun. With a solvable game, you play the game. With an unsolvable game, you play the player.

Of course, it's a lot less fun once you're playing the stock market or global thermonuclear war, but no less rewarding.
And of course of course, they're neglecting that any attempt at predicting the behavior of a market will affect the behavior of that market such that the predictions no longer hold true.

Kudos to anyone who can pull off the ultimate hack: invest your money based on your -unpublished- theory of how the market will respond the theory that you ARE about to publish.

Comment: Re:Isn't this just bulimia? (Score 1) 483

by tool462 (#42583137) Attached to: Dean Kamen Invents Stomach Pump For Dieters

to keep the obese from ruining social security ?

Strictly speaking, the very obese tend to die very young from any number of diseases (heart disease, diabetes, etc). Since you can't start collecting SS until 65 or 67 or some other "really old" number, there are a good many who will never collect a single check.

With that in mind, I'd like to present a solution to the problem of solvency in the SSA. As a "thank you" gift, the US gov't should send a bag of Cheetos and a six pack of Mountain Dew to every American who contributes to social security in a given month. People will feel like they're getting something for their taxes, and will trim that big fat baby boomer bubble off the SS payroll. America binged in the 50s. It's time for her to purge...

Comment: Re:Not easy (Score 2) 683

by tool462 (#42467181) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How Can I Explain To a Coworker That He Writes Bad Code?

In general I've found asking "why" to be an effective way of pointing out flaws in others' work.

Bad idea: "Hey, dingleberry, stop using global loop variables in all your functions! F#$&!"
Good idea: "Hey, friend/coworker/secret lover, I've run into a weird bug and wondered if you could explain to me how this works..."

First, it immediately defuses the accusatory tone that puts people on the defensive. Anybody who gets their dander up will no longer listen to reason.
Second, while this example was a pretty extreme case of brain-deadedness, there can be situations where something that looks ridiculously stupid was done that way for a reason. You could learn something. And if you expect somebody else to drop their pretensions about their code, you'd better be willing to do it yourself.
Third, if you work through the reasons that code was a problem with them, they're more likely to recognize the underlying cause of the problem and will be less prone to making the same error in the future.

It works surprisingly well, even with the interminably stubborn assholes out there. And any time you do end up pinning a mistake on someone, you need to give them a graceful out if you want them to own up to it and have a good working relationship in the future.

QOTD: "You want me to put *holes* in my ears and hang things from them? How... tribal."

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