Comment Questioning data and the inferences made (Score 1) 405
Gartner. Extrapolation. Twats. That is all.
Comment Re:From rail station to shopping centre...(and bac (Score 1) 111
and what hill ? It's a slight incline in places if it's anything, the use of the word hill is stretching it a bit.
Comment Re:Network diagram anyone? (Score 1) 148
Yep, as 'oh well this probably already happens anyway' as this is, regarding the logging of traffic, does it really all have to be so Pisstakingly obvious.
Comment Re:Morons (Score 3, Insightful) 457
I'm tired of hearing people say, "the terrorists have won" when the government infringes on our freedom, because it's wildly inaccurate. Terrorists win when their tactics cause outcomes that meet their objectives. Terrorists literally could not care less whether Americans are oppressed by their own government.
With these terrorists that may be true, maybe. But, as an example, the RAF in Germany in the 1970s considered the increase in surveilance and oppression that resulted from their actions to be a win. As it revealed to the general public the true nature and wishes of their government (as they believed them to be).
Comment Re:Well... (Score 1) 397
To steer away briefly from some of the ridiculous hyperbole this is generating, this looks like nothing more than a position statement. Its enforcement would be subjective to the point that I can't see it ever being enforced. I get the concerns being raised, definitely I do, but like a lot of EU proposals I'll wait to see if it ever genuinely goes anyway before tripping out.
Submission + - SXSW: Elon Musk Talks Reusable Rockets, Tesla Controversy (slashdot.org)
Nerval's Lobster writes: "Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Motors, took the keynote stage at this year’s SXSW to talk about everything from space exploration to electric cars. Joining him onstage to ask questions was Chris Anderson, the former Wired editor and co-founder of 3DRobotics. Musk used his keynote discussion to show off a video of a rocket test, which he said had taken place earlier that week. In the video, a ten-story rocket takes off from a launching pad and hovers several hundred feet in the air before landing in the same spot, upright. It’s an early test of SpaceX’s reusable-rocket project. “Reusability is extremely important,” Musk told the audience. “If you think it’s important that humanity extends beyond Earth and becomes a multitenant species” then reusable rockets will prove essential. Musk also talked about the recent controversy involving his Tesla Motors, which started when a New York Times reporter claimed in a much-circulated column that his electric-powered Model S sedan had ground to a halt during a test drive up the East Coast. “I have no problem with negative feedback,” he told Anderson, in response to the latter’s question. “There have been hundreds of negative articles, and yet I’ve only spoken out a few times. I don’t have a problem with critical reviews, I have a problem with false reviews.”"
Comment Re:No (Score 1) 522
Is it really completely beyond the wit of a developer to start doing some functional capture themselves, you know, ask around maybe ?
Or do developers want to be battery chickens where you feed a spec in one end and code comes out the other ? Seriously, I expect my devs to be capable of independent thought and action. A dev should not just sits on their arse doing goldfish impressions when there's no discernible direction to take they should, as far as I'm concerned, be trying to find out wtf is required. I don't expect this of fresh junior developers, but any developer with a few years of experience should have achieved a modicum of the skills required to do the above. Not saying they'll get it right, and they may not have the access to capture all the requirements, but some energy expended in that direction is the least I'd expect. If they can't do that, what hope is there of capturing a change that may seriously impact the application development. In software development everyone should feel they can contribute to any part of the application build with their thoughts (from design to delivery). I don't want dev staff completely incapable of thinking outside of a functional spec.
Comment Re:No (Score 4, Insightful) 522
Heh, a Dev team that accomplished nothing without a manager is a dev team I'd never want to manage.
Comment Re:Rewrite it (Score 1) 236
Probably not true. If its truly cobbled together as described, and therefore a lot of it has been created 'key to disk', then most of it is probably unnecessary code. Replacing it with a rewrite would more than likely require code that is a considerable order of magnitude lighter than 200k (say between 50-100K). I've seen this kind of crap before a few times, and have succesfully replaced with rewrites, and in reasonable time frames. The main key to doing a rewrite succesfully however is NOT to look at, or replicate the code as it is (but just a bit tidier). The best approach is to go through a proper design to functional specification process, just as if it was a new application.
Doing it that way you'll probably find far more elegant coding solutions than are currently being used by the 200k mess and these will cut down on coding time. Moreover it will produce better and more maintainable code, more than you ever would through a tidy and document process. If you think about it, documenting what the spaghetti is doing would probably take as much time, if not much longer, than a fresh design/spec process. Basically the time taken to do a good rewrite is very rarely going to be longer than it would be to unpick the mess. Just keep your team very, very small and make sure everyone including your programmers are involved from the first design/spec discussions onwards. Things go much faster, and you get a far better design, if your coders are invested fully in the project.
Comment Re:Helicopters (Score 2) 63
Yep , small helicopters work much better for the reasons you say. Plus a consumer HD camera is up to the job, I think this was shot with a hacked Panasonic GH2 IIRC (higher bitrate and maybe with a shorter GOP, could even be a GOP1 hack). http://www.yonderbluefilms.com/blog/ the showreel is worth a look too.
Submission + - Controlling Bufferbloat with Queue Delay (acm.org)
CowboyRobot writes: "We all can see that the Internet is getting slower. According to researchers, the cause is persistently full buffers, and the problem is only made worse by the increasing availability of cheap memory, which is then immediately filled with buffered data. The metaphor is grocery store checkout lines: a cramped system where one individual tasks can block many other tasks waiting in line. But you can avoid the worst problems by having someone actively managing the checkout queues, and this is the solution for bufferbloat as well: AQM (Active Queue Management). However, AQM (and the metaphor) break down in the modern age when Queues are long and implementation is not quite so straightforward.
Kathleen Nichols at Pollere and Van Jacobson at Parc have a new solution that they call CoDel (Controlled Delay), which has several features that distinguish it from other AQM systems.
"A modern AQM is just one piece of the solution to bufferbloat. Concatenated queues are common in packet communications with the bottleneck queue often invisible to users and many network engineers. A full solution has to include raising awareness so that the relevant vendors are both empowered and given incentive to market devices with buffer management.""
Kathleen Nichols at Pollere and Van Jacobson at Parc have a new solution that they call CoDel (Controlled Delay), which has several features that distinguish it from other AQM systems.
"A modern AQM is just one piece of the solution to bufferbloat. Concatenated queues are common in packet communications with the bottleneck queue often invisible to users and many network engineers. A full solution has to include raising awareness so that the relevant vendors are both empowered and given incentive to market devices with buffer management.""
Submission + - Government Asks When It Can Shut Down Wireless Communications (arstechnica.com)
Fluffeh writes: "Around nine months ago, BART Police asked to have wireless communications disabled between Trans Bay Tube Portal and the Balboa Park Station. That was because they knew a public protest was to take place there — and the service to the underground communication system was disabled. This affected not only cellphone signals, but also the radio systems of Police, Fire and Ambulance crews within the underground. This led to an even larger protest at a BART station and many folks filed complaints along with the American Civil Liberties Union and Electronic Frontier Foundation. The FCC responded by launching a probe into the incident with the results being a mixed bag of "To protect citizens!" and "Only in extreme cases.", not to mention the classic "But Terrorists use wireless communications!", but even if the probe doesn't lead to a full proceeding and formal order, the findings may well be used as a guide for many years to come."
Comment Re:Quality is irrelevant (Score 1) 362
Microsoft as a brand isn't "cool" - probably never will be (Again? was it ever?).
Yes, it was once. Because it wasn't IBM.
Submission + - Parlez-vous Python?
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "The NY Times reports that the market for night classes and online instruction in programming and Web construction is booming as those jumping on board say they are preparing for a future in which the Internet is the foundation for entertainment, education and nearly everything else and knowing how the digital pieces fit together will be crucial to ensuring that they are not left in the dark ages. “Inasmuch as you need to know how to read English, you need to have some understanding of the code that builds the Web,” says Sarah Henry, 39, an investment manager who took several classes, including some in HTML, the basic language of the Web, and WordPress, a blogging service. ““I’m not going to sit here and say that I can crank out a site today, but I can look at basic code and understand it. I understand how these languages function within the Internet." The blooming interest in programming is part of a national trend of more people moving toward technical fields. “To be successful in the modern world, regardless of your occupation, requires a fluency in computers,” says Peter Harsha. “It is more than knowing how to use Word or Excel but how to use a computer to solve problems.” However seasoned programmers say learning how to adjust the layout of a Web page is one thing, but picking up the skills required to develop a sophisticated online service or mobile application is an entirely different challenge that cannot be acquired by casual use for a few hours at night and on the weekends. “I don’t think most people learn anything valuable,” says Julie Meloni, who has written guides to programming adding that she still finds the groundswell of interest in programming, long considered too specialized and uncool, to be an encouraging sign. “I’m thrilled that people are willing to learn code. There is value here. This is just the first step.”"
Comment Re:Switzerland experiments (Score 1) 594
What was wrong with your society that resulted in not enough women being concerned about politics ? I'm genuinely interested to know.
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