Comment Re:I don't understand (Score 1) 1605
Well stated. Thanks!
Comment Re:Execute them all (Score 1) 77
Should I win the lottery . . . how much does a team of, umm, educators cost? Say, ex-special forces, perhaps. To find these folks, and "discuss" why they should consider a better, less dangerous career. Yeah, discuss, that's the ticket!
Anyone know what the PowerBall and MegaMillions are up to now? One ticket counts as "entertainment."
Comment Impossible... (Score 1) 169
WOW...I can't believe it. This could not have happened!
Tthe king would not allow the IRS to perpetrate fraud!
Nor would he permit the IRS to target anyone whose political leanings where presumed to be "offensive" to his beliefs.
This story is a non-starter... Did anyone check Snopes to see if it was true?
Comment Re:Dreamers (Score 1) 618
Yeah...but it took, what, 8 years to convict the guy?
As much as I hate the way the Chinese government works against its people, they seem to have done a few things right: In China, if your caught intentionally contaminating the food supply...you are executed in front of a firing squad.
Sounds like the right thing to do!
Comment How naive... (Score 2) 569
"ethics violations challenge our trust of the engineering"
Ethics violations are now and have been occuring for longer than I can remember. Make no mistake about it
Anyone who has been paying attention to the last 20-30 years should know by now that "trust" in Engineering, Medicine, etc. (pick anything) has been corrupted by the all mighty dollar.
Comment It's a classic... (Score 1) 304
They were a great keyboard! At work I'm still using an IBM compatible 5250 style keyboard that has great tactile feedback. I even bought one for my home PC -- it's 6-7 years old and still going strong
Submission + - Elon Musk: We Must Put a Million Humans On Mars To Safeguard Humanity (aeon.co)
An anonymous reader writes: Elon Musk's ambitions for SpaceX keep getting bigger. First he wanted to make the trip to Mars affordable, then he wanted to establish a city-sized colony, and now he's got his eye on the future of humanity. Musk says we need a million people on Mars to form a "sustainable, genetically diverse civilization" that can survive as humanity's insurance policy. He continued, "Even at a million, you’re really assuming an incredible amount of productivity per person, because you would need to recreate the entire industrial base on Mars. You would need to mine and refine all of these different materials, in a much more difficult environment than Earth. There would be no trees growing. There would be no oxygen or nitrogen that are just there. No oil." How fast could we do it? Within a century, once the spacecraft reusability problem is solved. "Excluding organic growth, if you could take 100 people at a time, you would need 10,000 trips to get to a million people. But you would also need a lot of cargo to support those people. In fact, your cargo to person ratio is going to be quite high. It would probably be 10 cargo trips for every human trip, so more like 100,000 trips. And we’re talking 100,000 trips of a giant spaceship."
Comment Re:Link (Score 1) 353
ATT...they're cheap!
Try Frontier...lucky to get 3MB for a measly $45.00 per month + taxes. A local monolpoly at work...
Submission + - Does "Scientific Consensus" deserve a bad reputation? (arstechnica.com)
nerdyalien writes: From the article: Fiction author Michael Crichton probably started the backlash against the idea of consensus in science. Crichton was rather notable for doubting the conclusions of climate scientists—he wrote an entire book in which they were the villains—so it's fair to say he wasn't thrilled when the field reached a consensus. Still, it's worth looking at what he said, if only because it's so painfully misguided:
Let's be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results.
As a STEM major, I am somewhat bias towards "strong" evidence side of the argument. However, the more I read literature from other somewhat related fields i.e. psychology, economics and climate science; the more I felt that they have little opportunity in repeating experiments, similar to counterparts in traditional hard science fields. Their accepted theories are based on limited historical occurrences and consensus among the scholars. Given the situation, should we consider "consensus" as accepted scientific facts ?
Submission + - Robotic Kits and Electronic Kits for Wounded Veterans.
An anonymous reader writes: I figured I would ask the great people of slashdot this question. I am currently a combat veteran in the care of the VA Hospital. A lof of veterans here suffer from PTSD and other injuries related to combat and trama. As part of the healing process the VA finds it good that we take up hobbies such as art or music which they supply us kits and stuff to put together and paint. This is great but a lot of us younger veterans have an interest in Robotics and Electronics. Does slashdot know of some good and basic robotic and electronic kits that can be ordered or donated to Veterans out there. Any information would be appreciated.
Submission + - GAO finds inadequate planning and oversight caused HealthCare.gov cost blowout (gao.gov)
stoborrobots writes: The Government Accountability Office has investigated the cost blowouts associated with how the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) handled the Healthcare.gov project. It has released a 60-page report entitled Healthcare.gov: Ineffective Planning and Oversight Practices Underscore the Need for Improved Contract Management, with a 5 page summary. The key takeaway messages are:
- CMS undertook the development of Healthcare.gov and its related systems without effective planning or oversight practices...
- [The task] was a complex effort with compressed time frames. To be expedient, CMS issued task orders
- CMS identified major performance issues
- CMS awarded a new contract to another firm [and the new contract's cost has doubled] due to changes such as new requirements and other enhancements...
Comment Re:Title is Not Properly Descriptive... (Score 1) 386
Exactly. As for myself, I will continue to file by paper/snail mail. Lets face it, even if everyone filed electronically is there anyone naive enough to believe that the tax rates would be reduced because of the savings?
Comment So you're OK with Hobby Lobby firing anyone who su (Score 1) 1746
So, it's OK to drive a guy out for supporting a belief shared by 40+ percent of Americans? Is it then OK for folks who believe as he does to fire all those on the other side?
Where does that end? Let's BURN THE WITCH!
Comment Maybe as an elective... (Score 1) 313
in high school, but I would rather see kids learn the basics of reading, writing and mathematics. When you see a large number of seniors graduating high school and they have difficulty making change for a dollar...there's something seriously wrong with the education system.
Comment Re:Well, of course COBOL is still around (Score 1) 318
You hit the nail on the head. Another thing that most of the younger folks in IT do not understand is that its very likely their bank and insurance companies are running COBOL on the back end systems producing statements, calculating rate adjustments, etc.
For these two industries COBOL does all of the heavy lifting and its not likely to be replaced anytime soon...
Even today I'm still coding in COBOL on a medium sized manufacturing system and to replace it with C or Java would be a fools errand...
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As of next Tuesday, C will be flushed in favor of COBOL. Please update your programs.
