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Comment Re:Fuck Python (Score 2) 268

But that's the problem with almost every language. It's the old saying, "If the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail."

Perl programmers extended Perl to be able to do stuff that it was not suited to doing.

The same thing is happening now with JavaScript and Python.

My personal problems with Perl are the hieroglyphics and the "default variable". There is an implied target variable that I don't ever actually see? Fuck that.

Comment The Luxury of Ignorance. (Score 1) 966

This is something that Eric Raymond put out in 2006 and it's just as relevant today.

http://www.catb.org/~esr/writi...

Users don't want to know what's going on under the hood as long as it's simple and works. Linux UX development still hasn't caught up to Apple and MS on the "Stupidly Simple" interfaces. And likely never will.

Comment Re:Blackberry vs RCMP (Score 2) 32

From TFA:

All three experts pointed out that the key could not be used on the BlackBerry Enterprise Server phones which are typically used by corporations and governments.

The BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) ran through BB's own server so they had to have the keys. The BES keys were never held by BB.

Comment Re:Depends. (Score 1) 521

Okay. Now think of the average home user. Do you *really* think Joe Average will know how to find that option? Will he understand what the option means? Does he even know what "caching" is?

This type of question always rustles my jimmies simply because the experts know what it means and how it works but the average user is clueless. And wants to remain so. We all need to remember Eric Raymond's other essay on the "Luxury of Ignorance". It's still very applicable today.

In other words, this is a (at least) two part answer):

To home users - and Managers - Yes, you always need to eject the drive before removing the USB.

To IT professionals, you already know the answer.

Comment Re:I guess... (Score 1) 174

To be - sort of - fair. Windows ME was supposed to be a consumer version of the NT Kernel where Windows 2000 was the business version based on the same kernel.

At some point, Microsoft dropped the NT Kernel and went back to the 95/98 kernel with some of the tools from Windows 2000 due to time constraints. The rush decision and tight timeline did not work well.

Comment Re:Not that newsworthy (Score 1) 131

Until the vendors can roll out LTE with voice over LTE (VoLTE) to cover the same area as UMTS, everyone will still be paying Qualcomm royalties. Qualcomm has the CDMA technology (which is used in WCDMA as the baseband for UMTS) all wrapped up in patents.

There is also an issue with routing VOIP calls (VoLTE is basically a VOIP call) to emergency services along with the trouble of allowing a phone without a SIM to access enough of the network to make the emergency call over VoLTE.

Comment Re:No Qual Comm would mean no CDMA. (Score 2) 131

Just to nitpick, GSM was 2G and TDMA only. UMTS was 3G and wideband CDMA (WCDMA).

Admittedly, beyond layer 2, the packet format was pretty much identical (why reinvent the wheel?), they were two "separate" standards.

Also, at some point UMTS HSPA was CDMA inside of TDMA inside of WCDMA. I think it became the poster child for over-engineering.

Comment Re:Computers don't learn (Score 1) 108

That's not entirely true. There are algorithms to handle machine learning but most of them require a trial-and-error approach. Computers can burn through thousands of choices and outcomes and pick the most effective.

The downside to this type of learning in medicine is that you have to kill thousands of people before you get the "best" treatment.

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