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Submission + - The Hardest Things Programmers Have To Do (itworld.com) 6

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: Software development isn't a cakewalk of a job, but to hear programmers tell it (or at least those willing to grouse about their jobs on Quora and Ubuntu Forums), what makes programming hard has little to do with writing code. In fact, if the list compiled by ITworld's Phil Johnson has it right, the #1 hardest thing developers do is name things. Are you a software developer? What's the hardest part of your job?

Submission + - The Hardest Things Programmers Have To Do (itworld.com) 6

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: Software development isn't a cakewalk of a job, but to hear programmers tell it (or at least those willing to grouse about their jobs on Quora and Ubuntu Forums), what makes programming hard has little to do with writing code. In fact, if the list compiled by ITworld's Phil Johnson has it right, the #1 hardest thing developers do is name things. Are you a software developer? What's the hardest part of your job?

Comment Re:My spider sense in tingling.... (Score 1) 634

by Ash Vince (#45163915) Attached to: British NHS May Soon No Longer Offer Free Care

Actually there is a free market success in the medical field. Laser eye surgery started out expensive and not covered by insurance. Now it's cheap enough to pay for out-of-pocket. I saw an ad just the other day for Lasik eye surgery for just $299.00 per eye. Not bad at all - cheaper than buying glasses in the long run.

The free market works when you let it.

Laser Eye surgery is a luxury, try applying free market models to treatment for a flu epidemic.

With something like a Flu epidemic if treatment is not free then loads of people will try and make do without. That means the epidemic goes untreated amongst large parts of the population and spreads much more easily and damages productivity as more people call in sick.

The reason we in Britain came up with an NHS was not solely out of some do gooder nature, it was to make sure people were able to get their arse to work in factories and produce stuff without infecting all their co-workers with a disease that made even more people sick the next day.

Submission + - Aeromobil Flying Car Prototype Gets Off the Ground for the First Time (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: There is a saying in flying: “If it looks good, it will fly well.” Stefan Klein, a designer from the Slovak Republic, has announced the first flight of his Aeromobil Version 2.5, a flying car prototype he has been developing over the last 20 years. This vehicle is a strikingly beautiful design with folding wings and a propeller in the tail. But will its flight capabilities match its looks?
Facebook

Facebook 'Stalker' Tool Uses Graph Search For Data Mining 38

Posted by Soulskill from the at-least-somebody-finds-it-useful dept.
angry tapir writes "Mining small details from Facebook has become even easier with Graph Search, the site's new search engine that returns personalized results from natural-language queries. Graph Search granularly mines Facebook's vast user data: where people have visited, what they like and if they share those same preferences with their friends. 'FBStalker' is a Python script debuted at the Hack in the Box security conference in Kuala Lumpur. In its current form, FBStalker runs in the Chrome browser on OS X, entering queries into Facebook's Graph Search and pulling data. Even if a person's profile is locked down to strangers, their friends' open profiles can be examined, giving an indication, for example, who the person may be close with. FBStalker uses Graph Search to find photos in which two people are tagged in, comments on profiles and more."

Submission + - Report: Fisker Automotive Sold To Hong Kong Billionaire Richard Li

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes: Its looks like an investor group led by Hong Kong tycoon (and early Fisker investor) Richard Li is the likely winner of a government loan owed by Fisker Automotive, the dormant maker of plug-in hybrid sports cars. Buying the loan would allow Li to try and restructure the company even as its still at risk for bankruptcy. The originally company won a $529 million government loan in 2009, took venture capital investment, and created a lot of buzz around its flagship car, the $100,000 Karma plug-in hybrid. But the company had delays launching the car, struggled financially and has not built any cars since July of 2012. Is Li the new savior?

Submission + - Full Screen Mario: Making the Case for Shorter Copyrights

Submitted by barlevg
barlevg writes: A college student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute spent nine months meticulously remaking Super Mario Bros. based on the latest web standards. His project is open source and the code freely available through Github. The site recently gained widespread media attention, which unfortunately brought it to the attention of Nintendo, which has requested that the site be taken down.

In a column on the Washington Post website, tech blogger Timothy Lee makes the case for how this is a prime example of copyrights hindering innovation and why copyright lengths should be shortened. Among his arguments: copyrights hinder innovation by game designers seeking to build upon such games, and shortening copyright would breathe new life into games who have long since passed into obsolescence.
The Media

Snowden Says He Took No Secret Files To Russia 220

Posted by Soulskill from the but-he-stores-all-his-ebooks-on-microfiche dept.
mspohr writes "There's an interesting interview with Edward Snowden in the NY Times. He talks freely about his decision to start collecting documents. His experience in reporting problems and abuse convinced him he would be discredited. He also states he didn't take any of the documents to Russia and that the Chinese don't have them either. 'What would be the unique value of personally carrying another copy of the materials onward? There's a zero percent chance the Russians or Chinese have received any documents,' he said. Snowden turned them all over to the journalists. He also corrects last week's NY Times story about the derogatory comment in his personnel file; it was due to him discovering and trying to report a vulnerability in the CIA's internal software."

Submission + - 1.8 million-year-old skull suggests three early human species were one (nature.com)

Submitted by ananyo
ananyo writes: A 1.8 million-year-old human skull dramatically simplifies the textbook story of human evolution, suggesting what were thought to be three distinct species of early human (Homo habilis, Homo rudolfensis and Homo erectus) was just one. 'Skull 5', along with four other skulls from the same excavation site at Dmanisi, Georgia, also shows that early humans were as physically diverse as we are today (paper abstract).

Comment Re:One Down (Score 0) 321

by geminidomino (#45163211) Attached to: Scientology's Fraud Conviction Upheld In France

How about this for some morality: Killing people, except in defense of self or someone else, is wrong (and worshiping a different invisible guy or the same invisible guy differently isn't a very good reason). Torturing people is wrong. Raping people is wrong. Hurting people, except in defense of self or someone else, is wrong. Stealing (however done) is wrong, but less wrong than hurting, raping, torturing, or murdering.

It's fantastic, if you're six years old.
Transportation

Redesigned Seats Let Airlines Squeeze In More Passengers 466

Posted by Soulskill from the how-long-until-they-give-you-a-stool dept.
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "AP reports that U.S. airlines are taking out old, bulky seats in favor of so-called slimline models that take up less space from front to back, allowing for five or six more seats on each plane. This gives airlines two of their favorite things: more paying passengers, and a smaller fuel bill (the seats are slightly lighter). Whether the new seats are really closer together depends on how you measure. By the usual measure, called 'pitch,' the new ones are generally an inch closer together from front to back as measured at the armrest. The seats Southwest has put on nearly its entire fleet are 31 inches apart, about an inch less than before, allowing them to to add an extra row of six seats to each plane. International passengers are feeling crowded, too. As recently as 2010, most airlines buying Boeing's big 777 opted for nine seats across. Now it's 10 across on 70 percent of newly-built 777s, Boeing says. American's newest 777s are set up 10-across in coach, with slightly narrower seats than on its older 777s. Airlines say you won't notice. And the new seats are designed to minimize this problem. Airplane seats from 30 years ago looked like your grandmother's BarcaLounger, says Jami Counter, senior director at SeatGuru.com, which tracks airline seats and amenities. 'All that foam cushion and padding probably didn't add all that much comfort. All that's been taken out,' he said. 'You haven't really lost all that much if the airline does it right.'"

Comment Shortcuts (Score 1) 1

by cffrost (#45162913) Attached to: Tyranny

"Tyranny, because it needs no consent, may successfully rule over foreign peoples, it can stay in power only if it destroys first of all the national institutions of its own people."

— Hannah Arendt,"The Origins of Totalitarianism"

Certainly, observing the destruction of (organizations genuinely representing) the peoples' welfare/interests* serves as an important indicator or tyranny, but it cannot be solely relied upon for detecting the existence or emergence of tyranny: Consent itself can be tampered with (e.g., rigged elections, "approved" candidates (e.g., Larry Lessig's "Lesterland"), etc.), or it can be "manufactured" outright.

I think that perhaps by using various techniques, the illusion of both consent and freedom can be maintained, thus allowing tyranny to run amok, unburdened with widespread resistance.

* Having not read "The Origins of Totalitarianism," I've made an assumption here as to what Arendt was referring to as encompassing "national institutions."

Comment Re:Rose-tinted view indeed (Score 1) 634

by Uberbah (#45162875) Attached to: British NHS May Soon No Longer Offer Free Care

And what's with this bullshit of calling Romneycare a "Republican plan"?

You bullshit. It's the same plan the GOP has been pushing since Heritage Foundation came up with it as an alternative to what the Democrats were pushing in the early 90's.

Republican Herbert Walker Bush ran on it in '92.

Republican Robert Dole ran on it in '96.

Republican Mitt Romney finally signed it into law in 2006.

But when a Democrat signs on, you guys all of a sudden lose your minds (insert Joker meme here). Good news everyone, gun control is now a Republican issue, because Mike Bloomberg supports it!

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