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Comment Re:The Administration modded this guy troll too! (Score 3, Insightful) 1057

Putting tons of hybrid cars on the ground (with the included extra huge batteries and short life spans such batteries dictate) is not the answer. Cows that burp less (WTF?) is not the answer.

True. The real solution is to have less cars on the road in general and to raise fewer cows.

Reduce,Reuse,Recycle... In that order. Global warming or not, reduction of everything that polutes and/or excessively consumes resources should be the goal.

Comment Re:I for one welcome our robotic overlords (Score 1) 240

Which is why some are designing AI that is for warfare to have the ability to refuse commands it deems to be unlawful. Something like it cannot violate rules of war, etc... Not that I'd want robot warriors really to begin with, as cool as it sounds, as it just seems to really sound like a bad idea.

Comment Re:There's a simple solution (Score 3, Informative) 455

Assuming they did not rip off too much, they should just rename the game, characters, locations, redraw the character sprites so they bare no resemblance and then release like that. If they are still not happy and are feeling daring, they can later "leak" a patch which changes everything back to as it was originally intended.

It was a Chrono Trigger rom hack. Removing all Square-Enix IP would be starting from scratch, thus not really a viable option.

Comment Re:Ad absurdium (Score 2, Insightful) 389

Who is to say that we aren't slowly killing millions (billions) with the chemically fertilized genetically modified food grown today? I find under-utilizing land to be a better prospect than over-utilizing, where we need to pump the ground full of chemicals just to continue pulling crops from it.

Comment Re:WTF EU (Score 2, Insightful) 280

It wasn't just 'dumping' that they are being investigated for. They were preventing AMD from entering markets through condition-based incentives; i.e. 'I will give you {discounts,rebates} if you don't sell product from {AMD,other competition}.' It is fairly hard to compete in a market that refuses to let you in.

Comment Re:Some, not all... (Score 4, Insightful) 731

You are mixing up 'programmer' and 'computer scientist'. They aren't necessarily one and the same. Computer science is largely the mathematics of computing, it just so happens that to physically show it often one has to write code to do it. This doesn't mean that everyone who writes code automatically is a CS major/graduate.

As an aside, you could also argue that programmers should have a good grasp on design patterns, requirements, planning, etc... Which seems to fall under the title of software engineer now. My CS department to date has required me to take a single SE course since I've been here and it'll be the only one I'll take.

'Programmer' is too vague a description, as it is just one who programs, regardless of how they learned, why they are programming, what they are programming, etc... It could be someone writing Lisp for their Masters/PhD research, some web designer writing javascript for their new website, or a CE/EE writing assembler for a new driver/BIOS for hardware.

Comment Re:Merit (Score 1) 417

This was a city looking at what was best for the residents. It went asked area ISPs for upgrades, due to many residents complaining of high prices and poor service. What do you suggest they should have done instead? "Sorry, not our problem?" They view internet connectivity as being nearly as important as water and electricity, and that sitting on their hands is doing a disservice to their residents. So they built up their own ISP. Do they have advantages due to being a city? Sure. Does TW and Embarq have advantages due to having near-monopolies and are already entrenched? Sure. The bean counting of the ISPs has cost them a city and hopefully they will learn from it.

Comment Problem Blending (Score 1) 159

So net neutrality and bandwidth caps/metering are both bad, but separate problems. I can buy that.

However, could the argument be made that Time Warner is attempting to meter/cap bandwidth in order to encourage customers to use TW cable vs. Hulu/Youtube/BT/etc... By enacting a price barrier, isn't TW indirectly prioritizing data? Wouldn't this now sort of be considered a Net Neutrality issue?

Please, correct me if I'm wrong, there is still more blood than Steaz in my system at this point.

Comment Re:Who needs to hunt down textbooks in Finland? (Score 1) 356

If they are never used in the course, why buy them in the first place? I usually refrain from purchasing any textbooks until the ... second week or so once I know what I actually need. Some courses actually require a textbook (in class work, homework) and others don't really need it at all. The number of computer science books I have bought in the last 3 years is fairly small compared to the number of computer science classes I've taken.

Comment Re:sure it is (Score 2, Informative) 1079

Adding to this, campus 'security' at UMass Amherst is a State Police barracks, fully equipped to handle any silly riot that ZooMass will come up with this time. Mind you, the 'real' state cops will make fun of the university state cops, but that doesn't mean they aren't real cops. Just means they have more of a chip on their shoulder and are fully ready to take it out on you.

Comment Re:WE should end free trade. (Score 1) 652

Additionally, there is a strong ethical argument against protectionism. "Buy American" is essentially a racist statement. You're implying that the value of an American is higher than that of someone from another country by saying that it's better to protect industries in this country to protect the jobs. At some point, we've got to start calling out "Buy American" for the racist statement that it is.

Not completely on topic, but something I'd like to add to this. When I purchase things, usually of the food variety, I check to see where it originates from. I try to avoid purchasing things like, apples from china, oranges from brazil, etc... mainly because of the transportation costs associated with such an operation. I am in inadvertently 'Buy(ing) American', but really aiming to buy local products. I am by no means saying that people should or do purchase cars based on locality, just that some types of products lend themselves more to this type of purchase.

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