Yeah there is software out there that will enforce things like tabs, naming conventions, whitespace and even comments.
Visual Studio and Netbeans both have built in "Code Analysis" tools. I'd imagine other IDEs have them as well.

Unfortunately there are plenty of bad programmers who write code that works but is on the whole unsupportable by anyone but them,
and no amount of formatting software is going to stop someone from writing crappy code.

Just stay at a company long enough and eventually you'll be supporting everyone else's code anyways
as your peers quit and move on to bigger and brighter futures. (i.e. places with free coffee)

That's kind of where I see this one going.

We're long overdue for a ruling protecting privacy of electronic devices.

I never understood why it's illegal for them to search your locked glove box where you might have a small book,
but totally legal for them to search your phone which could store THOUSANDS of books.

Next comes the bickering over what constitutes "locking" - Is an Android unlock pattern good enough?

To some extent but reduced labor cost isn't the whole reason.

Robots can also speed up production time, reduce on the job injuries, and improve product quality.

Manufacturing plants overseas are using robots too, so if we don't automate on the domestic front then we're really behind the curve.

Yep, multiple rounds, and multiple levels of proofers and formatters
who have to earn the right to access those higher rounds
by completing hundreds of pages and passing a few tests.

Chrome OS bug:
The CVE-2013-0913 hack was was a buffer overflow in the GPU for Chrome OS / Linux.
http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2013-0913

Chrome browser bug:
Last year's PinkiePie hack chained multiple Chrome (browser) bugs together to be able to get to the GPU.
http://www.webpronews.com/google-chrome-cracked-by-six-bug-combo-2012-05

They didn't release details yet, but odds are since it's the same person he probably used a similar method to hack the browser and get access to the GPU of the OS.

Big problem there is that you need money to build up those Super Pacs, and the hacking community is largely decentralized and poor.

There are plenty of technical companies that have jumped in the ring like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, but they're usually more concerned about fighting for their own corporate gains than protecting the geeks that write their software.

Great summary.

FTA: "the final sample included 30 females and 30 males"
So one group of scientists tested 60 people, one time.

If this exact study was repeated multiple times by different scientists with different subjects it might show an actual correlation,
but 60 people is a ridiculously small sample size to draw any conclusions from.

Hence why we have multiple social networks and search engines out there.
Multiple people with the same idea but different execution.

Even if you have the idea AND execute it, and maybe even spend millions (friendster, myspace, google+) that still doesn't guarantee your success.

I often hear the "I have a great idea for an app/site/company" line from full time working programmers.

My response: Oh yeah? If you programmed that, how much do you think you'd make every year in profit?
More than your salary?

There are plenty of people who take the time to implement great ideas for phone apps or websites, and make PENNIES, or even lose money.

Of course he left a trail somewhere.

I'd say there's a pretty good chance he did have an account on slashdot. Or 4chan. Or reddit, Facebook, Twitter, Google+
SOMETHING that he used pretty regularly.

1337 h4xorz these days don't spend much time just messing around with their computer, they're all over the interw3bz.
Even the anonymous and lulzsec guys screw up sometimes and connect to their IRC channels without TOR.

The thing I'm wondering is, are the high and mighty gods of the tubes off scouring their own records for anything that looks like L4nzAd92?

And if they find it, would they offer it up to the cops, or seriously scrub the crap out of their data
so it was gone forever and they didn't get the big scary government breaking down their doors demanding copies of their backups?

If the po-pos released technical information like IP address, any usernames or emails he discovered,
I have to believe the internet geek squad would be hella fast at digging up all the online traces.

Seriously, waaaay too small to jump to conclusions.
Plus the study needs to be repeated multiple times in different areas by other independent researchers before the results are dependable.

The odds are just as high that the area in Utah they surveyed is home to the ONLY 5 supertaskers in the world.

Or as Atwood put it: You can write fortran in any language

Excellent and horrible coders exist no matter what language you choose.

The logic that a single language can spoil your mind would only lead to you experiencing fewer languages in order to avoid damaging your precious brain!

I'd wager that most of the top programmers in the world have written significant amounts of code in at least 10 different languages.

Actually watching that movie scared the crap out of me, and I had nightmares for years. The kid whose house I was at was a psycho and tortured animals, etc.

I wouldn't blame the movies for him being a psycho, I would blame the parents for not taking into account the maturity of their child and filtering content appropriately, and for neglecting their child in general.

As a parent I'm actually thankful for the ratings.
Not so much for me, I'm a geek so I know better than to buy my 5 year old the latest GTA, but for grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.

If I inform them when birthday time comes around to check the labels, then I don't have to go through the pain of returning games my kids shouldn't be playing.
Plus I can use that as a catch for the kids too if they go to a friends house, they are not allowed to play T or M games or whatever.

I don't honestly think it's a perfect system though, even if the ESRB ratings were made law kids would still get their hands on them.
I remember watching Nightmare on Elm Street when I was just a kid at my friends house who's parents didn't give a crap.

In the end I still say it's not the game that makes kids violent, it's the lack of parental responsibility and accountability.

Sounds like a variant of the dancing pigs problem

They will completely ignore every error message and try to find a way to get what they want.

I try to keep the error messages as simple as possible, and then have the system email out an error message.
If your company isn't gigantic it can work well, then when you get a call just check the email to see what the full message was.

I would agree with that specifically on the "all they need to know" part.

I got my BSCS, and I can say that having a little knowledge about how the big O or big theta stuff works can help you understand what makes a chunk of code more or less efficient, but learning how to exactly properly calculate things like that aren't really necessary for 90% of the programming jobs out there.
Maybe if you're writing hardware level programs or something and efficiency is a big deal.

Lots of the CS degree is more focused on the science of computing, than on how to be a good programmer.
I've been a full time programmer for over a decade now, and I've never had to determine if any of my algorithms were turing compliant, or use BCNF for database design.
That doesn't mean there isn't a use for that knowledge, just that for the masses it will not make you a better or worse programmer.

Here are the things from my CS degree experiences that I would say have actually useful been useful to me in the business world:
- Programming Languages: we reviewed different types, from functional languages to OO, etc and what makes a language
- Networking: Learned a lot about the topic, and even wrote some TCP/IP programs
- Operating systems: Learn how different operating systems work and what's under the hood a little. Not super helpful as it was more theoretical than practical, but still interesting
- Non-CS classes: Honestly the BS classes that people complain about, like social studies and arts focused classes did a world of good for me. Improved my writing and presentation skills, and gave me a much broader view of the world than I would have had if I never left the podunk town I grew up in.