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Comment: Re:Microsoft losing to the school what? (Score 5, Interesting) 219

by Urban Nightmare (#48375333) Attached to: Microsoft Losing the School Markets To iPads and Chromebooks

Here here. I'm not a fan of either MS or Apple but I'm even less of a fan computers in the classroom. Computers do have their place for research and writing papers but I just don't think they need to be used every day in the classroom.

Now I may be an old fuddy-duddy, but I still haven't seen conclusive evidence that they make learning any easier or better.

But that's only my 2 cents.

Comment: Re:How big a fuss is it, really? (Score 1) 415

by Urban Nightmare (#48273673) Attached to: How Apple Watch Is Really a Regression In Watchmaking

How about this. I don't care what time it is. My wife wakes me up in the morning and tells me to go to work. When they turn off the lights it's time to go home. I go to bed when I'm tired. Why would any one need a watch or even a clock. Hell I don't watch live TV any more as it's all recorded or of the internet so I watch when I want to.

Comment: RF Noise (Score 1) 278

by Urban Nightmare (#47434917) Attached to: My most recent energy-saving bulbs last ...

I don't have a problem really with CFL or LED light or their longevity. What gets me is the amount of RF noise they can create. Using my hand held 2m radio and a yagi I can pin point problem areas easily. Once you get to HF frequencies it get really bad. If everyone on the block has all of their lights on you can pretty much kiss doing any dx'ing goodbye.

What every happened to the FCC/IC rule enforcement that says you cannot create harmful interference? Granted less and less people are SWL but there are a lot of ham radio people out there.

Comment: Government (Score 1) 141

by Urban Nightmare (#47249655) Attached to: I typically start my workday ...


Comment: Re:Polar "Vortex" AKA Alberta clipper (Score 5, Informative) 684

by Urban Nightmare (#45878113) Attached to: Polar Vortex Sends Life-Threatening Freeze To US

Not where I live in Alberta. Anything North of Calgary doesn't get Chinooks all the often and we are stuck in the deep freeze. We just don't whine about it like the Easterners. Yesterday morning it was -34c with a wind chill of -45c. We decided it would be better to walk to the grocery store instead of driving as the car was just to frozen over. This morning we remembered to plug it in and it's no where near as cold, only -24c not sure of the wind chill. Still walked to work though.

Comment: Re:No many (Score 1) 363

by Urban Nightmare (#43497301) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: What Magazines Do You Still Read?

So many mags have gone paperless now days. All of my current subs are also pushing their paperless offerings for cheaper rates. I think the problem they all have is that most people still don't like reading mags/newspapers on a screen (of any sort). Yes having a tablet with tons of content is nice but they haven't really changed the format to make it readable on them. There is no smart way to have a 10" tablet display a page one way and a 7" another and a 4.5" phone another. They need to make it readable on any device. And before you say it PDF is not the way to go. Usually the text is way to small and zooming/pan/scan is way to annoying unless you have a 10" table.

Comment: No many (Score 1) 363

by Urban Nightmare (#43477675) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: What Magazines Do You Still Read?

I currently subscribe to QST (it comes with membership), TCA (membership), CQ, Pop Comm, Shortwave Listener (do you see a trend here). I used to get PC Mag but since they don't have paper any more... Linux Journal... My wife has a couple also. The only problem I have with all of them is the number of ads but I guess they have to pay the bill some way. So yes we still read many magazines. The tech and radio mags are always good for how-to's and such and for the most part are good to have as reference for many years. Just need a better way of indexing the articles.

Comment: America is screwed (Score 1) 693

by Urban Nightmare (#43098721) Attached to: Rand Paul Launches a Filibuster Against Drone Strikes On US Soil

That's all I can say. The powerful just want more power and they will get it no matter what the common people say or do. It's just that simple.

Sorry America your screwed. But the rest of the world isn't that far behind so don't sweat it to much.

Urban Nightmare
Living the dream...

Comment: Re:RTFM (Score 1) 307

by Urban Nightmare (#42485179) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Keeping Your Media Library Safe From Kids?

While I do tend to agree with you, I think we all need to remember to just be a bit more civil to each other. This whole thing would have been way more productive if the answer was just given and possibly a link to the page in the docs/manual/wiki. I don't mind if this is marked as flame bait or troll but just because we're on the internet and can post anonymously does it make it okay to call people names. Just answer the question and move on. If you don't know the answer read it so you know and move on. If you just don't care then keep your comments to your self. Remember what Mom used to say:

"If you can't say something nice. Don't say anything at all."

I'm ready to be flogged now. BTW I won't come back to read them any way so save your fingers.

Comment: Bad coder (Score 1) 683

It's easy. You do what a professor of mine did.

"Dude... Your code is horrible. Yes it works but nobody know how the fsck it works. Here's a book on writing effective comments and coding conventions (sorry can't remember the name of the book)."

Now I know your not in a school environment but as his boss you need to explain to him that the code has to be readable by others. This is his first verbal warning. Give him a book on writing readable code and comments. Give him a couple of months to clean up his current code. If nothing happens then give him his first written warning. If nothing happens then the second written warning. Finally if he's still hasn't quit and still hasn't cleaned up his act give him his walking papers. Where I am you just need to give 1 verbal and two written warnings and show how you tried to help get the employee on track then you can fire them and not have to pay severance.

Comment: Re:Corporation makes profit (Score 4, Insightful) 353

by Urban Nightmare (#42329899) Attached to: ISP Data Caps Just a 'Cash Cow'

What upsets most people (in the western free mark world) isn't that they make a profit. It's that the companies don't reinvest some of that profit in actually increasing capacity. They (the companies) just complain about to much traffic and crank on the rates again. That and there is a complete lack of competition and almost zero ability for a new entry in the market. This makes it at best an oligopoly and at worst a monopoly in 99% of the towns and cities.

Also why do republican morons always think that the democrats/liberals are against profit?

Oh look its the big scary socialists again. They don't want anybody to own anything! See they want corporations and millionaires to pay TAXES!!!!

AC is a moron

Round Numbers are always false. -- Samuel Johnson