Assuming you are right, what could they realistically hack? To what end? You can get a good few miles over flat terrain, but you need a good repeater to get any real distance.

I am a HAM and I do a lot of volunteer work with my license. In large events, like the Boston Marathon, cell phones bandwidth gets limited and making calls can be difficult. Like the time of the bombing, they turned off cell phones. I have volunteered at the Boston Marathon a few times and the HAMs play a major role in coordination of medical attention for runners, getting supplies to various stops, and observing runners looking for ones that may be in trouble.

When people say amateur radio is dead or dying, it really isn't. Its kind of growing. You can get a great rig for about $200 these days (Beofung), and you can make a very good antenna for 2M and 70cm out of some wire and PVC pipe. A lot of the preppers and survivalists are also becoming HAMs.

There is a test, you need to pass it, but its about half technical and half rules and crap. You don't need to be a genius, but you will need to study a bit.

Writing software is expensive. Hiring cheap kids out of school because they write reams of it into the late hours of the night makes sense to MBAs who have no clue as to what they are doing. Kids out of school need to be mentored. They need to learn to look for viable, available, and tested solutions to the already solved problems before they drink a redbull and write their own whole new (and badly designed) solution. Self control is an important quality.

So, we have junk creeping in to the ecosystem and there is nothing we can do about it because no one is going to pay more for smaller software. My old android phone has 8G on it. Know what? I only have 1G usable. WTF?

I'm old. I learned to program using punch cards. I learned assembly on a 68000, 6502, 1802, 8080, Z80, 8086, and VAX. I learned K&R C before ANSI. I've used COBOL, Fortran, BASIC, Focal, C, C++, C#, Java, Python, etc. I remember looking for bytes so that my code would fit in ROM. Using 2s compliment arithmetic. Writing my own 32 bit multiply and divide for the 8080/Z80 systems.

I look at was passes for software design today and I just don't get anymore. Looking at Java or C++, it seems you have to follow a function through 5 or 6 jumps in a code browser before you get to any code that does anything. You may have 20,000 lines in your module, but it looks like only about 10 or 20 do anything useful. (Yes, this is hyperbole)

But, it doesn't matter. Users will continue to buy it. The old saying "you get what you pay for" can be taken two ways: (1) You get what you just bought for the price you paid. (2) You will continue to get what you are willing to pay for. If we use definition #2, we need to refuse to pay for crap we do not want.

The problem is that technology "created" this problem. Specifically the notion of "cookies" and embedded hyperlinks.

There must be a way to add a plugin to firefox that will strip information from hyperlinks, i.e. http://foo.bar.com/link.jpeg?ID=AABBCCDDEEFF112233, and render http://foo.bar.com/link.jpeg

There must be a way to have not only a "block list" but have a embedded link blacklist, i.e. embedded links get text that say "This link blocked," So, when you click on a link or take some positive action, you can do it. If the link is embedded in a page, and you don't even know its there, it will be blocked.

The question is, will anyone implement it? I certainly don't know the firefox code well enough to implement it and I don't have the time to learn it.

"Well written C# and Java is actually more efficient than C/++."

Provably false.
First problem: Define "efficient."
Second problem: You do know that java is written in C. Think about that for a moment.
Third problem: Are you including the virtual machine in that assessment?

" Probably the most evil thing that C has inflicted upon the world is counting from 0"
Yes, because roman numerals work so well in math.

I'm an old timer. I learned how to program on punch cards. That being said, I consider myself "current." I follow the trends, I look at the language fads. Try new things, etc. Pure and simple: the reason why "C" is what it is because it is a simple language who's constructs can be implemented natively on almost all computer hardware. No matter what comes next, if it can't do that, it can't replace C.

That last attempt at improving C was C++. Sadly, C++ fell victim to what is going to kill any presumptive "C" replacement. The language wonks are idiots. Where computer languages work (IMHO) is where they allow better organization of code, i.e. structures, classes, functions, libraries of functions, etc. in the way computers work. Structures are a grouping of variables, classes are nothing more an enforcement of a naming policy. Where they fail, IMHO, is when they try to create meta constructs that aren't really based on the underlying hardware. Take for instance "lambda functions" there is no such thing in the computer hardware.. Dump out the assembly, its just a function. It serves no purpose other than to make some language wonk happy. It doesn't make the code more readable, doesn't make it more efficient, its just there to be cool. I'm old enough to realize that "being cool" sucks.

So, getting back to my point. C is a truly functional language. It doesn't have the fashionable affectations that language wonks like, and that's why it will remain supreme in OS development.

When you read the manifesto, he uses "facts" to defend his conclusions. The facts are indeed "facts." Nothing he describes about women vs men have anything to do with aptitude. I've seen enough crappy men programmers to know it has nothing to do with being male.

In the "black lives matter" movement, opponents site the fact that the biggest problem in black communities is "black on black" violence. OMG, that's horrible, "black on black" violence!! They say this as if it means something. Well, the number one problem in white communities is "white on white" violence!!! See that, statistics being used to make a point that they don't really support.

News flash!!! Men and Women ARE different. Some "men" have difficulty with women. Get over it. 99.9% of the time, the differences are unimportant. Most professions that require skill and dedication require just that, SKILL and DEDICATION. My first computer science teacher was a woman, she was brilliant! It NEVER occurred to me that I should think less of her skills because she was a woman.

Just not for $25,000

Here's the thing... We need to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, the only viable way to do this is photosynthesis, then, we need some way to sequester the bulk material. If the numbers they quote are accurate, 275 trees, then this could be interesting. Also, I honestly don't see how something like this isn't less than about $500 worth of stuff.

The moss "filters" should be replaceable. Grow them, when they are done, remove them, dry and press them in to flat surface then laminate, violla! a new source of building material! Start a new colony, rinse lather repeat. The building material makes sense. It sequesters the CO2 and reduces the need to cut down trees in the first place, besides, "growing" green things need more CO2. The intricate weaving of fibrous growth in combination of the laminate will make a very strong structure.

The math is the troubling thing.Let's say the US emits 6000 million metric tons of CO2 every year, how many of these would we need? 25 million of them *just* for the US. We would need to make about 100 million of them to even start to make a difference in the world.

Sure, the Super Hero block busters are fun, they are like roller coasters. Not much intellectual stimulation, no real plot to speak of, no real story either. I hesitate to call them "movies," I think "blockbuster" is perfect.

Don't get me wrong, I like "blockbusters" sometimes, but there are so many really really good films being produced that have to go to netflix or amazon because there is no screen space at the theaters. "Beauty and the Beast?" are you f*&^&*king kidding me? Sure, its good to see Hermione with a day job, but its on every damned screen in the theaters.

We need to differentiate between "big" movies and all the others. The "big" movies need to cost more. The other movies should cost less. Then there will be openings for better "movies."

Dismissing something as useless is a public service (and quite helpful) if it is, in fact, useless, as this stupid list assuredly is. There may be one or two useful pearls of wisdom embedded in what is otherwise sea of nonsense. So much so, maybe the wisest thing a person can do is read the list and understand why it is stupid and wrong.

I have tried reading them and they are all trite and poorly thought out.

The point I was making was not that every programmer should be a CompSci grad, but at least study the subject matter. I'd rather have a curious high school kid trying to improve their skills by reading Knuth and Stevens, than an incurious compsci grad.

OMG, then they should not be working in the field. Computer Science is what we do.

Some of these "things every programmer should know" are just wrong. They are wrong from their observations, their non sequitur conclusions, and their misunderstanding of computer science.

BAH!

(1) Just because of all this debate, it is "reasonable" to believe that there is ambiguity in the contract.
(2) If there is ambiguity in the contract, the judgement is always for the plaintiff.

Done.

The UK, well England, Scotland, Whales, and N Ireland, its all going to be all right. These states have been at war, at peace, for centuries. The UK was only in the EU since the '70s. The events of history will unfold as they will, the people of the UK will push through and succeed. They always have, there is no reason to believe that won't now.