A quick story about a clever/funny TSA screener. I saw him once at ORD and never saw him again (I travel every week).
I walk through the electronic screener, and the TSA guy on the other side says to me:
"What's the capital of Alaska?"
"Anchorage?"
"Nope, Juneau"
"Really?"
"Yeah, everyone says Anchorage, but in fact it's Junaeu."
"Awesome, thanks screener-dude."
And that's when his cohorts realized he was not one of them, pointed, let out an alien-like screech, and he was promptly spirited away to work at the Cinnabuns where they require a High School education to retain employment.
Until it can turn my pee into water, I don't see the usefulness.
Worth buying the 360 Over?
on
BioShock Review
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· Score: 2, Interesting
I'm not a big gamer, but have been completely swept up by the hype of this game. Is it worth buying a 360 over?
This decision has been rambling around in my head for weeks. Some people seem to give an enthusiastic "yes" but I dunno. Reviews like this makes me think otherwise.
So, while there is a sheer amount of computing power from one standpoint, that power isn't really useful for anything meaningful - it's just useful for sending spam. Or for running DDoS attacks. Like the ones that happened in Estonia.
That's a lot of reading. Can someone sum it up in 5 words or less for us lazy people? Thanks in advance. Comprehensive. Disjointed. Overwhelming. Broken code.
Living in Cleveland, I see violent crime isn't limited to just people! Now it's the internet too? Think of the children! Won't someone PLEASE think of the children!?
This is just a gang member with a poor shot. Victims of said misfiring are often power lines, telephone wire, discarded AOL discs and squirrels. It was just a matter of time before fiber got was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Just another day in an your average American city. Nothing to see here.
To make a 40cm ball instead of a 30cm ball, you need a bigger cast. You'll probably need more laborers, too. You'll need more materials to make the ball because it's significantly larger, and you'll probably need stronger tools to bring in the material. In fact, you may need to start using a new material altogether, because the old material might not be capable of holding a spherical shape when the diameter is increased 33%.
I just made the same argument for different sized metal bearings as you made for different nanometer threading. It wasn't even hard to do, either, because all I had to do was think about the scale. The GP said it best: "It's just the same technology, the same process, on a different scale." Sure, making 45nm chips is complicated, but complicated does not equal innovative.
Innovation would require taking a route that is completely unlike anything we're seeing today. I can't give an example, because if I could, I'd have a million dollar idea and I sure as hell wouldn't be posting it on Slashdot. The point is, though, that just because moving to 45nm is hard, it doesn't make it innovative.
While we're doing the whole semantics thing around "innovative", let's see what Princeton has to say about this:
advanced: ahead of the times; "the advanced teaching methods"; "had advanced views on the subject"; "a forward-looking corporation"; "is British industry innovative enough?"
being or producing something like nothing done or experienced or created before; "stylistically innovative works"; "innovative members of the artistic community"; "a mind so innovational, so original"
So you're both correct. The product is innovative in that itself it is "something like nothing done or experienced or created before". But the concept or process of how the computation is not new, as it is something that has been done or created before.
he masses *love* ads. People pay to wear ads on their clothes. People pay to advertise their car's brands on their cars. People pay a large sum of money to their cable/satellite company every month to watch ads. People willingly sit through ads before a movie that they paid for. There are so many idiots out there who PAY to consume advertising, that I guarantee people are NOT fed up with advertising.
But they do because "it's cool", not for advertising's sake.
Funny Jobs hates buttons. Because you know what I hate? Alternate Keypads.
From the Best Site in the Universe:
On an iPhone, you have to press an additional button that opens up an alternate keypad that will allow you to type numbers and punctuation. So typing something as simple as elipses (...) requires you to tap your finger 9 times. Enjoy your phone, losers! People like me who have shit to do will stick to a keyboard that doesn't have its lips wrapped firmly to the user-interface equivalent of a throbbing dong
I've never understood why people don't buy used desktops. The likelihood of hardware failure is relatively low considering the price, perhaps moreso because the machine has been thoroughly user tested.
But if you live in an area where it is difficult to shop for a used PC, or you don't have time/resources, or the knowledge to do so, this would be a very attractive alternative.
I have to say, I'm well impressed with what WalMart is offering here. They asked themselves "Should we put Vista on instead of Ubuntu? Yes, lower barrier of entry. Should we put MS Office on and bump the price another $100? F*** it, let's give them OO.org which is functionally very close." As well, who doesn't have an old monitor sitting around collecting dust?
I'm excited to see if more people purchase this machine in undergrad/highschool get so used to OO.org they ask for it when they reach the professional world. Here's to hoping!
This is actually quite hard to do. CZ's are nearly identical to diamonds.
So close, in fact, that the company that developed them made more money on the detection device than they ever did on CZ's. The greatest differentiating factor between real diamonds and CZ's that can be detected is thermal conduction.
The dollar/fun ratio becomes horrible when you factor in the cost of buying some friends to play with... Wanna know who plays old N64/SNES games? Hot chicks.
No joke. Three real-life examples:
1. My current girlfriend - loves MarioCart and most 64 games. Often explains that she could "whip my ass" as Yoshi
2. My neighbor "GeeGee" (runway model) - plays games with the old SNES scope in her off time.
3. My ex-girlfriend - played River City Ransom over and over and over again.
In conclusion, the poster may have trouble finding dude friends to play his old N64 and SNES games with, but no shortage of hot, geek-loving, runway model ass.
the common perception that IT people are 'geeks/nerds' who are willing to take compensation in the form of casual wear and beanbag chairs instead of in salary.
I don't think that perception is entirely true. I think IT professionals are a bit more demanding than your average business folk. We want our beanbag chairs and our big salary, "because without us, you are nothing".
The one thing I've heard from business folk time and time again is that IT professionals "Don't know the business". That is, we deep-dive so much that we don't come up to see the "big picture" and are then seen as low-level in the eyes of the business. In that way, they often don't know how to justify our high wages in comparison to their own - "Why am I, a business manager, only making as much as an IT geek??"
I mean, for our favorite stereotype, Joe Sixpack, if he's even aware of this machine with Ubuntu pre-loaded, why would he want to buy it? It's not any cheaper. We know Joe Sixpack isn't concerned with, or is at least ignorant of, software freedom (free speech). All his friends and family probably use Windows. I haven't bothered to check, but I'm sure Dell isn't heavily marketing the Linux advantages. I guess that leaves word of mouth. Hopefully, Joe Sixpack has a nephew or friend who is a Linux user (but not zealot) and can give him some simple, practical ideas why he wants Ubuntu over Windows.
Joe Sixpack will never purchase a Linux machine. Joe Sixpack will buy a windows box for playing games/surfing the net or a more expensive Mac to do the same plus edit photos, make home movies, etc.
Now the educated consumer, Joe Merlot, will be interested. Joe Merlot is an upper-middle class office worker with undergrad-grad degree. Joe might not know care about Linux until he is too frustrated with Windows (Vista or otherwise) to want to have to put up with purchasing another box with it.
The geeky guys at work talk about how great Linux is all of the time. Joe wants to see it for himself but the potential learning curve of having to install Linux scares him away.
Ah ha! But now Joe can purchase Linux pre-installed! It's only slightly more expensive than Windows but not nearly as much as a Apple (out of his price range). The barriers have been broken down, now Joe can experience Linux without the hassle of install and he has the reassurance that he has Dell support behind him if something goes wrong.
Yes, this is a highly specific example. But these people do exist; I work with them every day (and I'm sure you too). Vista's advent left a weird gap in the PC consumer world -- few want to buy Vista, but don't want to pay for a Mac. This is where Ubuntu Linux can actually compete in the desktop market.
Now, let's say Ubuntu starts selling. Vendors like AOL and the like will want their desktop icons on the Ubuntu desktop pre-installed and will pay premium to do so.
Price comes down => linux becomes more attractive => Joe Sixpack purchases it => rinse, repeat.
c) Always keep in mind that the old company can't tell them much (if anything) about why you left the company.
Exactly. The old company can say very little about "why" you were let go. In fact, most companies will only provide the following regarding your employment (for legal reasons): length of time at position, position title, and salary. That's it.
Why did you leave your previous position? "The direction the firm did not align with my career objectives."
If they ask you to elaborate, speak more about what you wanted in your career versus what they wanted. Play the politician.
Never mention you were "let go" unless they specifically ask. Then it was they whom switched the conversation to a 'negative' position. At that point you can mention that there was a disagreement.
Never say the words "fired" or "let go". Keeping the conversation as positive as possible is key here.
I installed Edgy on a Dell D800 laptop with okay results - networking was spotty and wireless didn't work at all (i tried every trick in the book). Feisty fixed all of my problems - every piece of hardware was identified correctly. Wireless and wired networking works perfectly. Feisty is weird.
I'll be installing the new Ubuntu Studio for my video/audio/image editing needs in lieu of a Mac.
I know I sound like a fanboy, but Ubuntu is the linux distro i've been waiting for. Not unlike Clueless Newbie, this is the one distro that has worked for me almost flawlessly.
As a consultant who often deals with these types of projects, i would tend to agree. Most of the data we pull to do these assessments comes from Gartner, Forrester, Etc. Often times the best place to do the benchmarking is from the people who actually do the IT every day.
That being said, consultants are a solid, objective means to benchmark an IT department. They have done this before, they've seen how other departments work, and they can tailor those Gartner "best practices" to your plan without compromising the current work.
Slashdot Mirror
A quick story about a clever/funny TSA screener. I saw him once at ORD and never saw him again (I travel every week).
I walk through the electronic screener, and the TSA guy on the other side says to me:
"What's the capital of Alaska?"
"Anchorage?"
"Nope, Juneau"
"Really?"
"Yeah, everyone says Anchorage, but in fact it's Junaeu."
"Awesome, thanks screener-dude."
And that's when his cohorts realized he was not one of them, pointed, let out an alien-like screech, and he was promptly spirited away to work at the Cinnabuns where they require a High School education to retain employment.
Until it can turn my pee into water, I don't see the usefulness.
I'm not a big gamer, but have been completely swept up by the hype of this game. Is it worth buying a 360 over?
This decision has been rambling around in my head for weeks. Some people seem to give an enthusiastic "yes" but I dunno. Reviews like this makes me think otherwise.
This is just a gang member with a poor shot. Victims of said misfiring are often power lines, telephone wire, discarded AOL discs and squirrels. It was just a matter of time before fiber got was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Just another day in an your average American city. Nothing to see here.
While we're doing the whole semantics thing around "innovative", let's see what Princeton has to say about this:
- advanced: ahead of the times; "the advanced teaching methods"; "had advanced views on the subject"; "a forward-looking corporation"; "is British industry innovative enough?"
- being or producing something like nothing done or experienced or created before; "stylistically innovative works"; "innovative members of the artistic community"; "a mind so innovational, so original"
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwnSo you're both correct. The product is innovative in that itself it is "something like nothing done or experienced or created before". But the concept or process of how the computation is not new, as it is something that has been done or created before.
But they do because "it's cool", not for advertising's sake.
It was a beer bottle.
I never did get that picture back...
From the Best Site in the Universe:
On an iPhone, you have to press an additional button that opens up an alternate keypad that will allow you to type numbers and punctuation. So typing something as simple as elipses (...) requires you to tap your finger 9 times. Enjoy your phone, losers! People like me who have shit to do will stick to a keyboard that doesn't have its lips wrapped firmly to the user-interface equivalent of a throbbing dong
I've never understood why people don't buy used desktops. The likelihood of hardware failure is relatively low considering the price, perhaps moreso because the machine has been thoroughly user tested.
But if you live in an area where it is difficult to shop for a used PC, or you don't have time/resources, or the knowledge to do so, this would be a very attractive alternative.
I have to say, I'm well impressed with what WalMart is offering here. They asked themselves "Should we put Vista on instead of Ubuntu? Yes, lower barrier of entry. Should we put MS Office on and bump the price another $100? F*** it, let's give them OO.org which is functionally very close." As well, who doesn't have an old monitor sitting around collecting dust?
I'm excited to see if more people purchase this machine in undergrad/highschool get so used to OO.org they ask for it when they reach the professional world. Here's to hoping!
Remember in the movie Toys, where kids playing violent war games were, in actuality, controlling real unmanned military vehicles?..
And what about Cult of the Dead Cow and Phrack? They've been publishing since the 80's on BBS' and the like!!!
This is actually quite hard to do. CZ's are nearly identical to diamonds.
So close, in fact, that the company that developed them made more money on the detection device than they ever did on CZ's. The greatest differentiating factor between real diamonds and CZ's that can be detected is thermal conduction.
The dollar/fun ratio becomes horrible when you factor in the cost of buying some friends to play with... Wanna know who plays old N64/SNES games? Hot chicks.
No joke. Three real-life examples:
1. My current girlfriend - loves MarioCart and most 64 games. Often explains that she could "whip my ass" as Yoshi
2. My neighbor "GeeGee" (runway model) - plays games with the old SNES scope in her off time.
3. My ex-girlfriend - played River City Ransom over and over and over again.
In conclusion, the poster may have trouble finding dude friends to play his old N64 and SNES games with, but no shortage of hot, geek-loving, runway model ass.
This is the argument of many fully-grown autistic adults.
Remember silentmiaow on youtube? She argued that autism isn't necessarily a disability less a different way of interpreting the world.
I don't think that perception is entirely true. I think IT professionals are a bit more demanding than your average business folk. We want our beanbag chairs and our big salary, "because without us, you are nothing".
The one thing I've heard from business folk time and time again is that IT professionals "Don't know the business". That is, we deep-dive so much that we don't come up to see the "big picture" and are then seen as low-level in the eyes of the business. In that way, they often don't know how to justify our high wages in comparison to their own - "Why am I, a business manager, only making as much as an IT geek??"
Well, they do have Google Desktop...
Wow, this must be some kind of record for the hottest CS female ever. CS women often (unfortunately) fall on the "troll" side of the hotness scale.
... that being said, the most presentable male example we have from the CS community is Grandmaster Ratte'
I mean, for our favorite stereotype, Joe Sixpack, if he's even aware of this machine with Ubuntu pre-loaded, why would he want to buy it? It's not any cheaper. We know Joe Sixpack isn't concerned with, or is at least ignorant of, software freedom (free speech). All his friends and family probably use Windows. I haven't bothered to check, but I'm sure Dell isn't heavily marketing the Linux advantages. I guess that leaves word of mouth. Hopefully, Joe Sixpack has a nephew or friend who is a Linux user (but not zealot) and can give him some simple, practical ideas why he wants Ubuntu over Windows.
Joe Sixpack will never purchase a Linux machine. Joe Sixpack will buy a windows box for playing games/surfing the net or a more expensive Mac to do the same plus edit photos, make home movies, etc.
Now the educated consumer, Joe Merlot, will be interested. Joe Merlot is an upper-middle class office worker with undergrad-grad degree. Joe might not know care about Linux until he is too frustrated with Windows (Vista or otherwise) to want to have to put up with purchasing another box with it.
The geeky guys at work talk about how great Linux is all of the time. Joe wants to see it for himself but the potential learning curve of having to install Linux scares him away.
Ah ha! But now Joe can purchase Linux pre-installed! It's only slightly more expensive than Windows but not nearly as much as a Apple (out of his price range). The barriers have been broken down, now Joe can experience Linux without the hassle of install and he has the reassurance that he has Dell support behind him if something goes wrong.
Yes, this is a highly specific example. But these people do exist; I work with them every day (and I'm sure you too). Vista's advent left a weird gap in the PC consumer world -- few want to buy Vista, but don't want to pay for a Mac. This is where Ubuntu Linux can actually compete in the desktop market.
Now, let's say Ubuntu starts selling. Vendors like AOL and the like will want their desktop icons on the Ubuntu desktop pre-installed and will pay premium to do so.
Price comes down => linux becomes more attractive => Joe Sixpack purchases it => rinse, repeat.
c) Always keep in mind that the old company can't tell them much (if anything) about why you left the company.
Exactly. The old company can say very little about "why" you were let go. In fact, most companies will only provide the following regarding your employment (for legal reasons): length of time at position, position title, and salary. That's it.
Why did you leave your previous position? "The direction the firm did not align with my career objectives."
If they ask you to elaborate, speak more about what you wanted in your career versus what they wanted. Play the politician.
Never mention you were "let go" unless they specifically ask. Then it was they whom switched the conversation to a 'negative' position. At that point you can mention that there was a disagreement.
Never say the words "fired" or "let go". Keeping the conversation as positive as possible is key here.
I experienced the exact opposite.
I installed Edgy on a Dell D800 laptop with okay results - networking was spotty and wireless didn't work at all (i tried every trick in the book). Feisty fixed all of my problems - every piece of hardware was identified correctly. Wireless and wired networking works perfectly. Feisty is weird.
I'll be installing the new Ubuntu Studio for my video/audio/image editing needs in lieu of a Mac.
I know I sound like a fanboy, but Ubuntu is the linux distro i've been waiting for. Not unlike Clueless Newbie, this is the one distro that has worked for me almost flawlessly.
This accurately describes everything that's wrong, and should be fixed, on my current project.
As a consultant who often deals with these types of projects, i would tend to agree. Most of the data we pull to do these assessments comes from Gartner, Forrester, Etc. Often times the best place to do the benchmarking is from the people who actually do the IT every day. That being said, consultants are a solid, objective means to benchmark an IT department. They have done this before, they've seen how other departments work, and they can tailor those Gartner "best practices" to your plan without compromising the current work.
Sorry for the obligatory Simpsons quote.
No problem, try this one on for size:
"I, for one, welcome our new arachnid overlords."