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Comment Genetic legacy... (Score 1) 355

by madmarcel (#43670405) Attached to: Mars One Has 78,000 Applicants

I'm not sure which one bothers me more...

A) It is a scam. 78000 people fell for it. Thanks for your money.
or
B) It is not a scam, but the project never gets anywhere. Thanks for your money.
or
C) It is not a scam. They get to Mars. Based on some arbitrary selection process any one of these 78000 people may become responsible for a good part of the genetic makeup of all future Martians...

Comment Re:Working Remotely (Score 1) 455

by madmarcel (#42998387) Attached to: Why Working Remotely Needs To Make a Comeback

Not at all. Read this:
http://www.businessinsider.com/why-marissa-mayer-told-remote-employees-to-work-in-an-office--or-quit-2013-2

- Many of these people "weren't productive,"
- A lot of people hid. There were all these employees [working remotely] and nobody knew they were still at Yahoo.

You do have to wonder how you could 'loose track' of your employees in this day and age...

Comment It requires... (Score 5, Interesting) 455

by madmarcel (#42998259) Attached to: Why Working Remotely Needs To Make a Comeback

Working from home requires a certain work ethic.
Not all of us possess this.

I've also heard from friends who do work from home that they struggle to distinguish between work/home and personal/business. It seems that the physical acts of leaving for work and coming home from work are required for some people to be able to keep the two (mindsets?) separated.
Sci-Fi

Submission + - Doctor Who's Dalek Designer Dies at 84 (guardian.co.uk)

Submitted by
SchrodingerZ
SchrodingerZ writes: "Raymond Cusick, a production designer for the BBC show Doctor Who from 1963 to 1966, has died from illness. 'Terry Nation, who died in 1997, wrote the 1963 story The Daleks, in which the "satanic pepperpots" first appeared, but it was Cusick who came up with the machines' distinctive look, including the bobble-like sensors, eyestalk, sucker and exterminator weapons.' His horrid creation has remained a prime enemy in Doctor Who for over 50 years, and have remained relatively unchanged. His tireless work however was never fully awarded, as his only pay for the project was about £100. Cusick also worked on such shows as Z Cars, Dr Finlay's Casebook and The Forsyte Saga to The Duchess of Duke Street, When the Boat Comes In and Rentaghost. He officially retired in 1987. Claire Heawood, Cusick's daughter has said that her father was 'suffering from an illness and died peacefully in his sleep on Thursday.'"
Python

Submission + - Python wiki was hacked (python.org)

Submitted by madmarcel
madmarcel writes: The python.org wikis for Python, Jython and the Python Software Foundation (PSF) were subject to a security breach and later attack which caused all of the wiki data to be destroyed on January 5 2013.

Comment Don't be so difficult (Score 1) 570

by madmarcel (#42826767) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Buying a Laptop That Doesn't Have Windows 8

Meh. Why bother. You are being too difficult. You are artificially limiting your choice and possibly forcing yourself to make a sub-optimal purchase.

After all the horror stories I'd heard about Win8, I went shopping specifically to buy a laptop with whatever OS (preferably win7) so that I could either wipe it or make it dualboot and install Ubuntu/some flavour of linux. I figured I'd have a good play with win8 in the shops and see what the fuss was all about.

Ended up buying a Samsung laptop with Win8 on it at the start of January. (8Gb Ram and it was cheap ;) First time since DOS that I've had to watch a tutorial to figure out how to do basic stuff in an OS, other than that it's ok-ish. Win8 was $%^%$^$% frustrating in the first week, but now it only gets in the way occasionally. (Having said that, I haven't used it for development yet)

I was going to make it dualboot with Ubuntu, but slashdot tells me that this might brick the laptop, so I'm using VirtualBox to run Ubuntu 12.10 and next week I'll create another VM for the latest version of Fedora (honesly, how bad can it be ;)

I can see a point coming up where Win8 will start to annoy me, and then I'll wipe the whole thing and install some flavour of linux permanently.
It doesn't matter what version of Windows is on your laptop, you're not stuck with it and you can still install whatever OS you like.
Unless you buy a Samsung laptop like I did - but I believe there is a fix available, I'll wait for the next version of Ubuntu before I risk it :)

TLDR; Win8 is ok, it's not that different from Win7. Just buy a Win8 laptop with the specs that you like and get over it.
Piracy

Submission + - GCSB illegally intercepted data in Dotcom case (scoop.co.nz)

Submitted by karit
karit writes: Prime Minister John Key today announced he has requested an inquiry by the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security into the circumstances of unlawful interception of communications of certain individuals by the Government Communications Security Bureau. Mr Key says the Crown has filed a memorandum in the High Court in the Megaupload case advising the Court and affected parties that the GCSB had acted unlawfully while assisting the Police to locate certain individuals subject to arrest warrants issued in the case. The Bureau had acquired communications in some instances without statutory authority.

Comment Finally (Score 0) 130

by madmarcel (#41391479) Attached to: New <em>Hobbit</em> Trailer Debuts

Direct link to download HD version (quicktime)
http://trailers.apple.com/movies/wb/thehobbit1/hobbit-tlr1-3mm4_h1080p.mov

Also, Hobbiton is 37km's that way from my house [[points]] but of course when I went to visit they hadn't started on the Hobbit yet.
We got a discount and a tour of the farm with the owner. Best quote: "You wouldn't pay NZ$60 to go and see some bloke's paddock"

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