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Comment Congratulations (Score 1) 284

You don't know how to use pointers. And, given the opportunity to learn how, you punted when 'it got too hard'.

After doing tens of programs with pointers and stuff ...

Uh huh, guess you didn't really learn how to use them.

The point was to LEARN, so when you get in the real world, you can develop a solution where pointers (or whatever structure/technique/language feature is most appropriate) makes the most sense.

Comment Thanks for your service, brother (Score 1) 204

~ Free food: Bought at a cost ration of greatest weight per dollar, which translated into cheapest food medically allowed. Joke I heard was: Grade E Beef-substitute, suitable for Americans worst and finest, served to our military and death-row inmates. With the way the Army operates, I was lucky to get two meals a day from cooks. Breakfast usually consisted of coffee and cigarettes, a bagel if I was lucky. Lunch and dinner was at the dining facilities where everything was rationed out using grade school sized portions. I ate the best when I was in the field or on vacation.

Oh man, I'm so glad I was in and out way before the era of obscene contractor takeover. At least we knew that if the E-6 in charge of the mess served up rotten food, he would get Article 15'd at least.

Your post reminds me of one time I got in line for chow for dinner. Yum, roast beef: we could smell it form outside the building. I slide my metal, WW2-surplus tray down the line and the E-2 ladles me a nice portion.

I sit down and start tearing into the meat, but nearly gag in horror when I get a piece into my mouth. I pull it out and realize that it is 100% fat/gristle. The brown gravy camouflaged the fact that there was no meat. I dig around and find a few bits of actual meat. Maybe the size of a quarter, if you mash them all together. So, I did what I always do when faced with crap from REMFs:

I carefully pour the grease-infused watery brown gravy onto my potatoes and (white, pasty) bread, drink my water, and think of creative ways to frag low-bid contractors. If I hadn't had night duty, I probably would've Hoggled when I got back to the barracks. God damn Army.

Comment Re:Cut your own trail (Score 4, Insightful) 306

You will never be unemployed again, because you work for more than one person

FIFY.

When I am employed by a company, I have one "client". When that client lets me go (rif/outsource/fired/whatever), I have no other income.

When I have 3-4 clients and one client lets me go (can't afford my rates/personality clash/they went crazy and I had to fire them/they hired someone fulltime/etc), I have other clients that keep some $$$ coming in.

As long as I have n+1 clients (where n = sufficient income), then I'm doing well.

Comment Not so fast, Sparky (Score 1) 1160

You were saying?

Way to quote-mine Random People On The Internet, I mean, Wikipedia. Here's the next paragraph:

Historian Gregg L. Frazer argues that the leading Founders (Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Wilson, Morris, Madison, Hamilton, and Washington) were neither Christians nor Deists, but rather supporters of a hybrid "theistic rationalism".[23]

Comment Even better (Score 3, Informative) 1160

-- you go ahead and find one mention of "God" in the US Constitution... I'll wait.

Sigh. Unfortunately, we have gone through a 236-year-long exercise in Religious fanatical masturbation, with no end in sight.

During the constitutional convention, there were attempts to add Christianity to the Constitution's preamble, and they were all ignored/thrown out by the core architects (Franklin, Adams, and Madison).

During the first few decades of the new republic, several amendments were proposed to add the same; none made it out of Congress.

Eventually the religious zealots gave up and went home. Until the Civil War. Recognizing the war was a direct result of "God not being mentioned in the constitution" (yes, they actually believed that) attempts to amend the constitution to add Christianity were renewed, with the same result: epic failure.

Every couple of decades, we forget and try to do the same old thing again. As always, it fails. Thank dog.

Comment WTF am I reading? (Score 1) 1160

It's okay for these people to burn some colored cloth and pictures, and chant.

FIFY.

If you ever take a constitutional law class, you'll understand the limits to free speech, and your examples aren't outside any of them.

Speech that can incite panic (e.g., yelling fire in a crowded theater) and "fighting words" (i.e., direct, immediate threats of harm) are two examples of non-protected speech.

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