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User: smoyer

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Comments · 57

  1. Re:So, who will bother to learn how to play ... on Broadway Musicians Replaced With Synthesizers · · Score: 1

    The best performers I've ever heard play for themselves. Sometimes they happen to have an audience.

  2. Keep it real! on Broadway Musicians Replaced With Synthesizers · · Score: 1

    I just saw West Side Story on the 29th and the one comment I made to those I talked to about the performance was how great the orchestrated music sounded. Not the actor/actresses or how well they did, not the set design (which was in hindsight pretty cool), not the lighting or our seats (nosebleed). From our seats, we watched the timpani player (with some other percussive pieces) and were amazed that he could sit there for 5 minutes, play a few rolls and sit back until the next fusilade.

  3. Re:Death by Snoo-Snoo on Scientists Use Sex-Crazed Bugs As Pesticide · · Score: 2, Funny

    Nothing much ... what's snoo with you?

  4. Another option? on Health Insurance When Leaving the Corporate World? · · Score: 1

    I find that living next door to my doctor works pretty well;)

  5. On purpose? on USA Has More Open Wi-Fi Hotspots Than EU · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I take security very seriously but have purposely left my wi-fi accessible to whoever would want to use it. Instead of password protecting the wireless link, I made sure that the access point was secure and isolated from the rest of my network. Want some free wi-fi? Come and use mine for free!

  6. Re:HP didn't make the list? on The Twelve Most Tarnished Brands In Tech · · Score: 1

    HEY!

    I loved my Vega - though I replaced it's wimpy straight-4 with a Monza V-6 and made extensive modifications to the rest of the car. Actually, it seemed like it was never quite done but perhaps we all just have a soft spot for our first car ... never mind;)

    P.S. At least it wouldn't explode if hit from behind!

  7. OpenERP on Customer Resource Management For Non-Profits? · · Score: 2, Informative

    OpenERP (http://openerp.com/) has an integrated CRM. I've had great success with this project and the database is completely accessible via XML-RPC if you need custom functions. I've also used SugarCRM, but am not nearly so enamored with that project.

  8. Not surprising on IBM Wants To Patent Restaurant Waits · · Score: 1

    Given what I've heard recently about the quality of business analysts in IBM's consulting group ... I'm not surprised that it took three of them to come up with this idea. And a quick prior art search would show that Domino's Pizza had a system for automatically providing freebies in the late 70s (If the pizza guy arrived more than 30 minutes after you placed your order, he automatically gave you the pizza without taking your money:)

  9. There are 10 kinds on Open source Digital Bacteria · · Score: 3, Funny

    of bacteria in this world ...

  10. Check out PowerPlay ... on Creating a High-Tech Meeting/Conference Room? · · Score: 1

    and IPContact from http://www.bnisolutions.com/

  11. Bill Gates as Austin Powers ... on Download Your Brain · · Score: 1

    and Steve Ballmer as Dr. Evil. There was a hilarious video shown at the Networld/Interop in 1999. I'll have to find a copy.

  12. A must read ... on Download Your Brain · · Score: 1

    Cory Doctorow's "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" for a real look at benefits, problems and misuses inherent in a system like this.

    Available on-line at: http://craphound.com/down

  13. More companies should follow suit ... on IBM Backs Firefox In-House · · Score: 1, Interesting

    my company has far too many "IE Only" applications. :(

  14. Re:What the Bells et al don't tell you is... on Broadband War & an Interactive Municipal Map · · Score: 1
    I used to contract my own garbage service, but as the price grew, the area I live in decided to have a single contract with one garbage service that would be used for all residential pick-up. Now I don't have a choice but to use the contracted collector, and the price has increased to what I used to pay.

    Can the government really provide cheaper service (probably not ... don't forget to look for the service's cost in increased taxes)? ISPs and overbuilders competing is a much better scenario!

    One caveat! In extreme rural areas, it was necessary for the government to assist/promote electrification, because there was no financial incentive to develop that business ... there may be area of the country where the same is true for Internet access.

  15. Re:A question for RMS on RMS Weighs in on BitKeeper Debacle · · Score: 1

    Sense of humor ... I don't have one (and don't forget, it's GNU/BitKeeper, which some of you can even run on your GNU/Windows systems).

  16. This war can't be won ... on When Malware Authors Combine Efforts · · Score: 3, Insightful
    The problem with detecting and deleting viruses, trojans, etc. is that you will never get ahead. At such time as a zero-day exploit is known to a hacker, they can create their malware of choice to exploit it. A skilled hacker may have an exploit ready in 6-12 hours.

    Once done, they have a certain population size (vulnerable hosts) that can be almost instantly assaulted.

    On the white-hat side, once the malware is noticed, it may take months to patch the initial security hole and even longer to patch the entire population of vulnerable hosts.

    This is why vulnerability announcements are so important, the software that survives in the future will be the one with the shortest vulnerability to patch cycle. The others will die off ... only the strong survive!

  17. The best chance ... on Laptops May Be Hazardous to Your Fertility · · Score: 0, Redundant

    for some slash-dotters to evolve to something their gene-pool to a higher form of life!

  18. I hope not ... on Is The Lone Coder Dead? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That would be the end of innovation in the U.S. and would cause an even greater shift of technology jobs to oversea markets!

  19. Just forward these e-mails to your legislators ... on Spam Opt-out Link Triggers Malicious Code Attack · · Score: 2, Insightful

    asking that they revisit the CAN-SPAM act. When they click the scrollbar in the forwarded message, they'll finally understand why we didn't think the original bill was tough enough.

  20. Re:Go minimalist on Home Defense, Geek Style? · · Score: 1
    I'm not going to insinuate that your wife is inflatable ... I should have used a more precise word! I was certainly referring to property (don't tell me ... you live in the middle east and your wife is property.)

    I was commenting on the over-valuing of the things we purchase and how in many cases they end up owning us.

  21. Go minimalist on Home Defense, Geek Style? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you don't have anything of value, then you don't have to worry about someone ripping off your valuables. The things in life that are worthwhile are rarely tangible. If you're living in the crossfire of someone else's greed ... Move!

  22. Re:Dell 600m Centrino - 8 Hours on Laptops with the Longest Battery Life? · · Score: 1

    I have a Dell C640 (1.8GHz I believe) and also get about 8 hours with both battery packs. I actually WORK on airplanes, so I leave the DVD drive at home when I put the second battery in the media bay.

  23. Dedicated test staff on Automated Software QA/Testing? · · Score: 1

    We too use dedicated test engineers who write the test plans and at least oversee the testing (they do most of it themselves). We are working on several different automated test ideas at the present. Automatic regression testing (our code is in Java and each class and package has JUnit test code) will be accomplished during each build cycle.

    As you noted, it is more difficult to test the entire system end-to-end. Our problem is complicated by the fact that we don't have the infrastructure to completely load test the system. Load testing of the web interface is another class of problem that can be solved fairly easily ... and if the tests are selected properly, you can exercise your middle-ware and back-end DB server at the same time.

  24. Re:I'd love to see X11 support on How Microsoft Could Embrace Linux · · Score: 2, Informative

    Just one word ... cygwin. It leaves my boss with the appearance that I'm using M$.

  25. Not enough guts on How Microsoft Could Embrace Linux · · Score: 1

    I don't think that any of the Microsoft executives actually have the nerve to push this idea through the company, board of directors and take the short-term stock price problems. In fact, I don't think they have the nerve to SUGGEST it.