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Comment Good. (Score 0) 128

Using regulation to keep people out of the market just means that businesses will do business elsewhere. India and China are large, emerging markets and space isn't US territory. Good on the team for not taking "no" for an answer. Regulatory hurdles that keep them on the ground are at least as big a threat to their business as a government that won't let them off of the launch pad.
Desktops (Apple)

Ask Slashdot: What's the Fastest Linux Distro for an Old Macbook 7,1? 248

Long-time Slashdot reader gr8gatzby writes: I have an old beautiful mint condition white Macbook 7,1 with a 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo and 5GB RAM. Apple cut off the upgrade path of this model at 10.6.8, while a modern-day version of any browser requires at least 10.9 these days, and as a result my browsing is limited to Chrome version 49.0.2623.112.

So this leaves me with Linux. What is the fastest, most efficient and powerful distro for a Mac of this vintage?

It's been nearly eight years since its release, so leave your best thoughts in the comments. What's the best Linux distro for an old Macbook 7,1?
Science

Octopuses Show Scientists How To Hide Machines in Plain Sight (axios.com) 63

If you want to learn the art of camouflage look no further than octopuses. Just watch this famous video that shows a diver slowly swimming up to a clump of rock and seaweed, only for part of that clump to turn white, open its eye, and jet away, squirting ink behind it. Materials scientists and engineers have fallen under the octopuses' spell. From a report: Scientists have engineered a material that can transform from a 2D sheet to a 3D shape, adjusting its texture to blend in with its surroundings, per a new study published today in Science. They mimicked the abilities of an octopus, which can change both shape and color to camouflage. This is a first step toward developing soft robots that can hide in plain sight, robotics expert Cecilia Laschi writes of the research. Robots that can camouflage may one day be used in natural environments to study animals more closely than ever before or in military operations to avoid detection, she writes.

Comment Premature birth is terrifying. (Score 1) 188

I watched a friend struggle with a premature birth. The baby was born at 26 weeks, just barely past the point of viability. She's very lucky that her child is totally healthy, but it was a long struggle. This kind of technology could save a lot of suffering, and maybe even a lot of effort and expense. Her child needed constant monitoring and interventions to develop somewhat normally. It would have been terrific to be able to put him back into a plastic womb and finish developing that way.

Comment Terrible development practices cost $150m. (Score 1) 113

If your systems are *that* important, you should mirror them across multiple geographic locations. I've seen the same story in multiple forms several times now. The cloud is not a magical place in the ether. There is a computer somewhere with your code on it. That computer can catch fire, lose power, be destroyed in a hurricane, etc. This is what happens when you don't account for that reality.

Comment $45k/year? (Score 1) 660

That's under the H1B salary minimum of $60k/year. You don't pay enough. Even the "body shop" contracting agencies pay more than that for junior devs in 3rd tier cities. I lived and worked in one of the poorest cities in the US and starting contractor wages were $28 an hour as a w2 consultant through an agency. You are very much out of line with the market and that's why you have a problem. Even during the worst of the recession, that wage would be very bad.

Comment Re:I don't even like Uber but (Score 4, Insightful) 726

This desperation is what happened when factories left the Midwest. The good jobs are gone for the unskilled. The remaining jobs need training that the unskilled can't afford. This is the guy's best option right now. If he could just stop being poor, he would. His best option is to sleep in a parking lot where he could freeze to death in a Chicago winter. Think about how bad things must be to have that as your best available option. This man isn't the only one making this choice. There is a bigger problem, and telling people to just stop being poor won't solve the bigger problem.

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