Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Seems good (Score 3, Insightful) 85

Nice positioning. Search and rescue staff will still fly around in helicopters with mk1 eyeballs because they don't trust the drone. However, while trying to sell the image-recognition package as a bolt-on to a heli will fail due to pushback from observers, selling in a drone package will be considerably more palatable, psychologically.

Comment bikes, not cars? (Score 5, Interesting) 161

Seems more practical to recharge bikes (either electric-assisted, or motorcycles), rather than cars.

  • You can physically get a bike closer to the telephone box than you can a car.
  • You can fill a bike battery an appreciable amount in an hour, given the system's power generation constraints.
  • You can fit a bunch of charging bikes around a box with bike rack technology
  • There's thousands of bike riders in that country already, unlike the car-heavy US

Comment Re:Anyone else think is was a .NET Fortran? (Score 1, Interesting) 267

According to wikipedia (yeah, I know, I know), FORTRAN is "a general-purpose, procedural, imperative programming language that is especially suited to numeric computation and scientific computing.".

F#, on the other hand, is a "multi-paradigm programming language [...] that encompasses functional programming as well as imperative object-oriented programming disciplines."

In summary, FORTRAN is for Formula Translation, I guess? F# is Functional, but with language support for OO or C-style programming.

I admit I know bugger all about Fortran, but I suspect it doesn't have the full functional programming support that, say, Haskell boasts. At any rate, even if it did, it's likely that the last 50 years have advanced the field of programming sufficiently to make a new language worthwhile. So if you're up for functional programming on the .NET platform, F# is a great addition.

Comment Asking for it (Score 3, Insightful) 938

Wow, that article really has a 'blame the victim' mentality, with the coda "and here's why".

The article even ends with the appeasement of "what can you change about the way you act to avoid being bullied"

Just like Battered Wife Syndrome, bullying is something that, ultimately, is the fault of the aggressor. Appeasement is not the solution.

Comment Twilight (Score 2, Interesting) 269

This article reminds me of the short story Twilight by John W. Campbell. I read it when I was a kid and it left a lasting impression that, should humans lose their curiosity, the striving for knowledge might yet continue.

And then when I read about the current state of the education system, I get just a bit worried...

Comment What's in it? (Score 5, Insightful) 1698

Insurance industry practices such as denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions would be banned, and insurers would no longer be able to charge higher premiums on the basis of gender or medical history.

I'm not from the US, but isn't that the main bit of you guys' healthcare system that's most in need of fixing?

In my country, pre-existing conditions just mean that you can't claim anything for 12 months after joining. It doesn't affect premiums or anything, and no health insurance provider can reject your application.

So, I guess, welcome to the 20th century!

Comment Bean Sprout Farming (Score 5, Insightful) 783

Seriously. You can start with one bag of seed and a few plastic buckets and sell to local businesses (especially organic businesses and asian stores since they sell larger quantities) and scale up from there. Inventory isn't a huge problem since it only takes 72 hours to grow the sprouts, and you can buy the seed by the 25kg bag.

Obviously, I'm simplifying things, but honestly it's a business that's incredibly easy to get into, resistant to non-local competition due to the perishability of the sprouts, and if you can 'get it right', you can definitely market on quality

Slashdot Top Deals

Real Programmers don't eat quiche. They eat Twinkies and Szechwan food.

Working...