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Comment More often than... (Score 1) 331

I bet I have used languages with the same frequency as this kind of question comes up on /. -- current favourite is alpasisp+++^21

Seriously, it's all just syntax, convention, and architecture, so I don't bother to track. Off the top of my head, I'm up to 30+ "languages" in 30+ years. Throw in media (yes, starting with punch cards), then it gets worse.

I think a more relevant question is how often does one advance their architecture, paradigms, and most importantly debugging skills. Anyone can write a program that compiles and does something. Building something that is understandable, useful, usable, and maintainable, now that's a discussion.

Comment Re:It depends (Score 1) 486

"Was their paper peer reviewed?"

I think all the other students were too busy writing exams, so no...

Okay, that's mean. To be fair, one author is a Project Manager. However, another is an Associate Professor who teaches "W2014 - SENG 533 - Software Performance Evaluation"... this is a concern for his students.

Comment Re:Not that hard to defeat (Score 4, Interesting) 80

Most places have a faraday cage in which the classified material and any electronic device accessing the material is houses. If a device leaves the cage, it is handled appropriately and never turned on. Problem solved. Such measures have been used well before Gene Hackman's cage in Enemy of the State :-) Of course, a human mistake is much more likely to reveal the information...

Comment Related note - US grad rates drop generationally (Score 1) 716

The BBC article, Downward mobility haunts US education, presents an interesting observation on post-secondary graduation rates and possible causes and consequences. Granted, there are immeasurable depths of innumerable studies and opinions, but the fact is that it may well be that the current generation will be less well educated than past generations. This will have serious consequences.

Since I started university over 30 years ago, the trend that sees more and more graduate degrees going to international students who are increasingly returning home to move their homelands ahead has been going up and up. See, for example, Absurd U.S. Immigration Policies Amount To Economy Sapping Talent Drain .

All I know is that getting a college/university degree shows one thing -- you can take on a challenge and complete it while working with other people in a collaborative environment with mentors and support people. Sounds a lot like something that would be valuable in a career.

Besides, what has Zuckerberg accomplished besides making money? There is nothing fundamentally new about social media. Its a consequence of the ubiquity of wideband communications...

Comment Re:Costs of education? (Score 0, Troll) 551

Good for you.

You're succeeding in an environment that was created by years of post-war investment in infrastructure and education, R&D, and industrialization. Pretty sure that most of that was done by people with post-secondary education.

You might even be able to coast through your career and earn enough to live on once the U.S. OAS is dead.

As a rhetorical question, are you creating anything while you're doing that? Something that will generate wealth? Or are you helping to recycle the diminishing wealth of your nation?

I suggest people read "That Used To Be Us" and then ask yourself if you are a creator or a server. Even with an IT degree, you're a server. Creators will help bring America back.

However, I seriously doubt that North American society has the desire to do what it takes to be great again. Just look at what we throw up for politicians and what we do to them if they try and do something right for our country. We have become narcissistic to a fault .

Comment Re:Obummer (Score 2) 1239

Please define "reckless". Did Obama start a war? Or Two? Did he cut taxes for the rich? Did he gut all government support for small and medium business in the U.S.? Did Obama come up with sub-prime mortgages?

Did he try and help out pathetic auto manufacturers who were duped in the 50s and 60s into floating the stock market with a ponzi scheme inflicted on their own employees? Did he help inject a much more stimulus spending into the U.S. economy, all because others had created a recession that saw people take on absurd debt...? Oh, and was that stimulus spending meant to increase consumer confidence so they could take on more debt?

I'm not sure, but I think the Presidents responsible all had a B in their names, and not always the second letter.

I do love watching political revisionism at work. Down south it's all about finger pointing and blame and the last to get blamed gets to lose the next election. The U.S. is run by a bunch of short-sighted narcissists. Bush and other before him made decisions not based on long-term good, but short-term gain secure that they themselves and their friends would never be poor. 2 terms and so long suckers!

Comment Re:this story is a year old (Score 1) 314

why is a year old story being featured on Slashdot ? really this place is going down hill, I will have to only use my ipad to check those up to date websites.

Ya, I picked up on that when I submitted, but the story was/is being reported on CBC radio with updated interviews and such, AFAICT.

So, I thought it was topical for today, a least for those of us listening... hard to get that across into /. , I know.

Anyway, /. pushed the submission through, comments are building, so there must be some relevancy :-)

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