xradionut

Outer space is very expensive and extremely hard to do right and safely.

I'm not belittling software, since that's my current field of employment. And there's a large number of tough software issues that require years of experience.

The point that the OP in the linked article makes is that is a few guys with a few years of modest experience in programming can go create a company worth 8 to 9 figures on the market with few resources other than time and luck and connections.

He then states that this isn't possible in the semiconductor world due to the amount of experience required in that field. I've worked in the semiconductor industry and I agree 100%. I've also worked in RF and it's the same. There's no successful equivalent in those realms that compares to something like Twitter or most of acquisition bait out there. The amount and complexity of the knowledge is insane. (Not to mention the manpower...)

And from a guy who's worked the whole stack from component level to user applications; Python scripting is a couple of orders of magnitude easier than debugging firmware or dealing with DSP code/math or testing semiconductors/antennas. Doesn't require a doctorate to build websites or develop CRUD applications.

My background is in hardware, especially RF, and it's fun to talk to pure software guys that "understand" RF and radios just because they set up a wireless network at their apartment or made a cantenna. I invite them to hang out with some world class engineers that I've worked for in the past that design microwave networks, test semiconductors, cell systems or technical ilk of that caliber. You really aren't experienced in the field without 30,000 hours of dedicated effort.

We do send what we can. Between government, charities and private donations, there's aid coming from the US.

We could send more, but a majority of the population is in debt or living check to check. (You could appeal to the folks that live in 27,000 sq ft houses and spend $300k annually on their electric bills, but they are busy doing more important things.)

In my humble opinion, this is a shitty idea. There are other quiet places with decent enough bandwidth that don't have the costs or risks of a cruise ship. My favorite one is the study section of the local library. I've also gone out to a cabin in the woods that only had a satellite link. My neighbor has soundproof walk-in closet.

As for the risks of a cruise ship, if something goes wrong, your options are limited. I say this as a navy veteran that's had to deal with multiple things that go wrong on a ocean vessel. (Fire, flooding, engine failure, etc...) As a civilian, I'm very wary of cruises.

Who said I abandoned voting? I said it doesn't work in this case. I research and vote every election. But I know for the more important offices at the state and national level, the system is broken. The two party system and big money means I don't get any say in selecting who runs, the corrupt system does.

I understand the OP's pain. But there's an easy solution that many of us that deal with mailings and US addresses use. Go buy a Address Verification/CASS Processing CD from Melissa Data or a similar company. Or pay a small fee for a limited list in your area.

Us old timers remember them as "Andersen Consulting", the folks that got paid by our C-levels to drive the company into the ground...

How? Voting and protesting haven't worked so far.

Check out what Ben Hack did when he built his custom pinball machines.

http://benheck.com/02-12-2012/run-your-pinball-dmd-with-a-pa...

All TLA are overloaded.

PowerShell is designed for Windows/Exchange administrators and SQL Server DBAs, and not really any one else. It's powerful when used by those roles due to all the time spent by Redmond and others developing the commandlets for these specific process. Outside of this problem realm it sucks as a scripting language or a CLI environment.

"That brings up another interesting aspect of FORTH and this hardware, if you are familiar with the Propeller chip this is like a 144 cog prop, sorta. So that's one interesting way to structure separate blocks of code, run each block on separate hardware..."

But on paper it appears that a cog has more power than each one of these limited cores. Plus historically the Propeller has been cheaper than most of the esoteric crazy Forth chips and implementations.

Probably because it's probably Windows. :)

I use Windows at my day job and get paid well to develop and admin for it. I also have a few personal applications that require a Windows VM at home.

But my personal machines run Linux, which I find is more pleasing for development, exploring, security, tinkering and such. Plus you can tailor your environment to suit your needs (from embedded to supercomputing), not that of a marketing manager.

1) Most people haven't had a need for it. Till now. 2) Encryption is difficult concept for even technical people. 3) Commercial PGP costs too much. Building a quality PKI system for an organization costs more 4) GPG is a pain to use 5) Encryption has been discouraged by the government, companies and users.

How many professional sports players have you actually met? Most don't have or take the time to code/type enough to get carpal tunnel. At worst they may have video gaming related issues, but most contracts have clauses regarding such activities and issues.

Also weight lifting and other physical training helps alleviate carpal tunnel for programmers.

Lincoln Mail would be shot while in the Security Theater.

Yup, it's a dis-stink-tive odor, quite different from human and dog. (Guess who empties the litter boxes in my household.)

Ah, brussel sprouts. Alton Brown had a whole episode of "Good Eats" within he explain the phenomena. I was never able to eat them, turns out most people over-cook them releasing the bitterness that I find horrid.

To solution is to wash them, split them and roast them in the oven with carrots chunks and potato wedges after seasoning with garlic, salt, pepper. When the carrots are done, remove everything and serve in bowls. Great cold day treat.

Wrong, they pay attention when people pay them or threaten their pay.

Your naivety and optimism is cute. Reality is that no brunch of the current government gives a shit. The US isn't a democratic republic anymore.

Here's a challenge:

It would be nice if Microsoft would fix the issues with IE11. Like all the sites that work with IE10, that don't work anymore with IE11. Their solution was to issue an IE11 upgrade blocker with a shitty manual install routine.

Winter isn't that bad in North Texas. At worst we'll have a ice or snow storm once every decade that will shut the area down for a day or two. It's a great time for exercising outdoors and catching up on sleep. My dog loves the weather change, makes for longer walks in a cooler clime.

"Windows installation is breeze, just pop-in the disk and it will install everything for you."

LOL! I recent had to reinstall Windows 7 on a machine that was shipped with it. The manufacturers recovery disk didn't have the drivers for system. It took a couple of hours jumping through hoops to get the system up, then a couple of more hours to wait for Windows Update.

I had Linux Mint installed in less than one third the time the time with some minor issues with the wireless configuration.

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

Why don't you dig around and look at all the pieces of information, abuses, problems not corrected, situations allowed to spiral out of control, the waste of trillions of dollars, the cover ups, the intimidation, the assassinations, the governments overthrown, the hundreds of thousands of dead in other countries..., then come have a discussion about evil and the folks the control our government.

Real courses require more time to study. :)

You could tell which dorm rooms had business majors by the number of beer cans in the trash.

Depends. Many conference I attended are professional, expensive and don't offer any alternative resources or attractions for younger participants. There are exceptions like some of the Python conferences and Maker Fairs but I doubt there would be many minors into a SQL DBA or serious embedded electronics event. Plus there is a liability issue to be considered when you mix immature adults with minors and blend in alcohol.

Occam's razor.

Either Microsoft is incompetent or promoting/retirement of APIs is more profitable.

You need to learn the history of HN and realize that Lisp is the original hacker language.

As for assembly, there's been several lists of "free" computer books post that have included assembly tutorials.

Kay is an expert in Smalltalk and Wirth is an expert in Oberon.

Stroustrup is an expert at nailing legs to a dog and calling it an octopus.