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

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re: Dumb People? (Score 1) 316

I paid attention not because they were nice or gruff. I watched to see which ones were efficient. Same for the bagger at the grocery store. I'll take a longer line with a good team than a shorter line because I know I'll still get through faster.

The problem with self-checkout was that they went "all in" on it. It needs to be about 60/40 with 60% staffed and 40% self-service. The people who only have a few items and those that can work the self-checkout will prefer the faster lines even if it means doing all of the work. Everyone else needs a cashier.

Comment Re:Deadly combo (Score 4, Insightful) 210

I don't think EVs are to blame per se. I think they are just the final straw. The brand was already on the decline (even the post speaks to the numbers). The country is fairly split on the benefits of EVs [personally, I like them and own a PHEV and a full EV]. Because there is a group that is firmly against them, it's easy to place the blame there -- and will get clicks to the article. Additionally, their core demographic (old people) tend to be generally right-leaning politically which is the side most against EVs.

Put all of that together, and Buick is likely to be a brand that disappears soon.

Comment Re:Anyway (Score 1) 90

What about something along the lines of having to actually use the patent (either by creating a product or licensing it), say within the first 5 years of being granted. Otherwise, you lose the rights.

Also, what about getting back to patenting implementations of ideas and not ideas themselves? My biggest gripe about software patents is that they are all granted at the "a method to do some vague concept" instead of the "a specific method for doing some specific task" level. It would be the equivalent of patenting "a method of ordering a list of numbers" instead of the bubble sort or insertion sort or selection sort algorithms. This, to me, is what has lead to patent trolls. They buy some vaguely worded patent and look for as many ways as possible that it can be applied.

Comment Re: Comp Sci (Score 2) 274

What is the exam actually testing? Your knowledge of a CS concept or your knowledge of the syntax of a specific language? If my course is "Data Structures", then I need to understand Arrays, Lists, Dictionaries, Heaps, B-Trees, etc. If my course is "Introduction to C++", then obviously, I need to know how to use a for loop and how to declare a class.

The English department is obviously testing your knowledge of the English language, therefore pseudo-English is not appropriate.

Comment Re:Comp Sci (Score 2) 274

As long as the professor isn't grading on syntax (i.e. use pseudo-code), I'm all for coding on paper. I do it all the time, even today. As a senior-level developer, I spend way more time "coding in Word" than I'd like.....writing specs to give to junior developers, drawing pictures in Visio, etc. As long as you understand what it's doing, it doesn't matter what the syntax is --- syntax can be checked easily in any good IDE or with a quick search.

Comment Re: PIN (Score 1) 114

I've had the option. I could set it myself or I could have them send me one. And of course, even if sent one, you can always go in and change it (sometimes you can even change it via the phone, but I would go it).

Even back in the early 90s, I was doing a co-op in California and opened an account with Wells Fargo. I got to set my own pin, so I had set it to a 10 digit number. It was super secure, but it made it a pain to use it out in public because most terminals expect a four digit pin.

Comment Re:The "Death Tax" Lie! (was Re: Of course) (Score 3, Insightful) 1014

So, say Person A has $1M after paying any and all taxes that were owed. They die and Person B inherits that money. So you want to now tax Person B just because they inherited money. And if they immediately die and Person C inherits the remaining portion of that money, you want them to be taxed, too. And if Person C dies, then Person D would also be taxed. Even though nothing has changed about the fact that the money in question had ALREADY been taxed, you'd like to see that money all go to the government?

This would be equivalent to you being taxed on both your income and your net-worth every year. Even if you only make $50k per year, if you are a great saver and have $500k in the bank, you'd want that $500k taxed just because it exists.

Comment Re:Is Yelp still a thing? (Score 2) 156

I'm a big fan of the Chrome plugin called Video Speed Controller. You can bump the playback speed of HTML5 video all the way up to 10x. Just be warned that sound cuts out around 4x. But for those videos that you want to breeze through to find the meat, it's really handy to jump up to a multiple and then back off that speed when you find what you want. [There are hotkeys for jumping around speeds.....as long as the video player widget has focus.]

It's also handy for speeding up commercials in your online streaming, too.

Slashdot Top Deals

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth. -- Niels Bohr

Working...