Slashdot videos: Now with more Slashdot!

Oh, and this semi-Beta slashdot sucks. Possibly worse than the previous Beta we've seen.

If they do, they're criticized for being too intrusive.
If they don't, they are criticized when someone puts a teeny bit of info out there, and the Overlord Facebook does nothing about it.

That's the change: they've come to the realization that they can't lock developers down to anything, at least not like they used to. I think it's long past due, but that's from an outsider's perspective where it's easier to see the whole landscape, not just focus what goes on in Redmond.

Microsoft is a very different company than they were under Gates or the Sweat-hog. They long ago figured out that their cash cows were kind of fragile, and they more recently figured out that they alienated a lot of developers. They are now trying to find ways to woo developers to any of their product families, not just to Windows. And they've done some great work on a lot of software engineering fronts, including secure development, powerful tools, integrations, and are even dabbling in open source,

I think I understand your point that it's a bad thing, but I missed your argument as to why Congress would be against funding a bad thing.

There's a BIG difference between working and building up a pension, and then retiring and sitting around, vs starting the sitting around thing at age 19, and doing that forever.

Death.

We are born helpless, we require lots of attention.

When we die, the same happens.

Gradually you will become a child again. You will become bed ridden, infirm and for a brief while rely on others in the same way you did as a child.

Each path we take when we come and go, the stuff that makes it all worthwhile is at the end and beginning.

It makes the stuff in between bearable.

A 'video' I'd do would be very short, and only 2 parts.

1. Be a good person (TM)
2. Don't take crap from anyone.

Anything 'geek related' will quickly be out of date.

And talk to her like you'd talk to an adult. She is only little for a little while. She will soon be 20-25-30

I feel your pain on this journey. Good luck.

Why not spend that actual time with her now?

My point was that DDT was the first large scale agricultural pesticide that was engineered specifically to be less toxic to humans. You could use cyanide gas on a field, but your farm hands or animals would die if they wandered into the cloud. That meant a farmer wouldn't apply those kinds of poisons except in severe infestations.

DDT made the application and use of pesticides measurably safer, and led the way to routine applications of pesticides on all kinds of crops. Today's pesticides can be deployed on a schedule as a preventative measure to ensure reliable crop yields, and not just applied on an as-needed basis. For that matter, GMO crops are now engineered to express all kinds of toxins throughout the plants, with the plants' own cells serving as microscopic pesticide factories from germination through harvest.

As I recall, the agricultural pesticide industry was initially derived from the chemical weapons industry, not the other way around. Poisons had been known for centuries, but weren't widely applied as they were toxic to both humans and pests. Large scale agricultural applications of pesticides began with DDT, which wasn't developed until 1939.

The second you approve of a policy that restricts action X based on moral grounds, you have defined a vulnerability that a less ethical enemy will exploit.

Furthermore, when you're in a war, it's chaos. Bad stuff happens. Collateral damage happens. You certainly don't plan to inflict 1000 civilian casualties, but you can predict that in a city of 1 million people undergoing an all out conflagration, there will statistically be civilians killed, displaced, wounded, orphaned, starving, etc. You don't stop a war just because you're better at math.

War also isn't the first choice of a rational society. Diplomacy, negotiations, sanctions, pressure, demonstrations, all these kinds of activities are intended to solve the problem before it degenerates into war. But there is always another side, and if it degenerates to war, it's because at least one side was acting in bad faith. ISIL isn't even acting as a rational society. They don't negotiate - they enter an area, kidnap and rape the girls and take them forcibly as wives, and kill, conscript, or indenture the males. They use civilians as human shields, betting that an opposing force won't bomb their headquarters if they have them located in a schoolhouse full of children.

An outside society can do two things: allow the continued expansion of slavery and genocide, or attempt to stop it. If non-military resolutions fail, what would you have them do? "Sorry, you can't fight those insurgents because they duct-tape kidnapped children to the front of their vehicles." "Right, we'll just let them continue on their homicidal path because we can't place those children at risk."

It's not like anyone in the West wants civilian casualties. The moral high ground may not be perfect, and it may not be absolutely 100% civilian casualty free, but you can't claim a millimeter of moral high ground if you let the atrocities continue unchecked.

Not only on Slashdot, more's the pity.

Chillax. It's just a reference to the plot of a science fiction movie that's quite popular with nerds.

Simply because:

1) They all have ON/OFF buttons. That comes in handy every once in a while.
2) If they get an attitude problem RESET fixes it.
3) Made in USA is good, Made in China is better.
4) They play some of the best music, videos (Especially Lord of the Rings) and you know, they love it!
5) They provide excellent feed back on my code. If it sucks they let me know.
6) Excellent life partner and teacher. It seems she knows everything.
7) Even when she gets old I can upgrade.

Yeah, Asian women. Love'em.