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User: almitchell

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Comments · 45

  1. Re:I want a Good Astronomer on Comet Nearly Hit Earth? Not So Fast · · Score: 1

    His blog is Bad Astronomy. He doesn't call himself the Bad Astronomer. Hate to be a humorless correctofreak but I'm sick of sloppy postings.

  2. Re:Buckshot: on Comet May Have Missed Earth By a Few hundred Kilometers · · Score: 1

    Only if you're Lars von Triers.

  3. Re:Totally Overated Pseudo Research on 16-Year-Old Discovers Potential Treatment For Cystic Fibrosis · · Score: 1

    Dude, your volcano came in second, didn't it?

  4. Do you even have to ask? on 10% of IT Pros Can Access Previous Jobs' Accounts · · Score: 1

    I still have a full administrative access to an IBM passport account at a company I left 3 years ago. After the third time I mentioned they should remove me, I gave up and figured, if I ever decide there's anything I need, they can pay for it.

  5. Re:Well on Judge Declares Mistrial Because of Wikipedia · · Score: 1

    That has to be the dumbest thing I've read on here all morning. Seriously. Well, after the judge getting pissed that a juror wanted to be better informed and *gasp* used the interwebs to do so.

  6. YHGTBFKM on UK Police To Get Facebook Lessons · · Score: 1

    Someone please help me here, are people really so dumb? They're having to be taught how to use Facebook? Hell, an *un*trained monkey could use it! Oh, wait...these are probably people who proudly trumpet "I'm so not technical!" when faced with a modem that needs to be reset or "the internet is broken". How do these people drive cars or work ATM machines? How have they not died in household accidents? And these are *POLICE*!?

  7. Re:This is why we vote Pirate on EU Surveillance Studies Disclosed By Pirate Party · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I am displeased with my need to respond to you, but here goes: Are you high? Really? Afraid to move back to the US? What kind of habits, lifestyle, and hobbies do you have that would put you in the path of police to get arrested and have all these horrible terrible things happen to you? What kind of social group do you move in to put yourself into the path of police to have your rights so horribly terribly violated? Good god, man, move to Russia if you really want to be afraid of sh*t. Or Belarus. Or Somalia. Or Greece. Or Columbia.

  8. Re:sad news on No Samples On Japan's Hayabusa Asteroid Probe · · Score: 1

    Especially since we're deliberately tanking our space program. We have to hope the rest of the world doesn't.

  9. Re:Colour on Why Are Indian Kids So Good At Spelling? · · Score: 1

    I dare you, I double dog dare you!

  10. Re:All comes down to budget on IT Infrastructure As a House of Cards · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That is very true. Unless you are working for a highly visible technology company or high-profile corporation, most companies simply want you to keep the mess you've got going, no matter if it meas bandaids and soldering irons. Over the course of my 20 years career at four different companies, and from talking with colleagues, it is much the same story - the steering committee says, we initially invested hundreds of thousands of dollars, but we sure as hell aren't overhauling and starting over. The best boss I ever had did what I now refer to as guerrilla network administration. We had an aging infrastructure supporting hundreds of banks that we wanted to migrate off Wintel based systems, because they were end of lifing and we were sick of holding it together with bandaids and baling wire. It kept breaking, we sysadmins were sick of sitting through post-mortem meetings, and we were sick of upper management's refusal to acknowledge that it wasn't that the sysadmins sucked, it was that we didn't have a magic wand to keep the old nag on its feet to pull the plow. We repeatedly added a new plan into the budget to change out the system, and just as repeatedly got turned down because of cost. One day we had what was a near catastrophic hardware failure on one of those systems and we had to wait three days to get the parts on it because no one supported it any more. My boss told us to let it sit, and we did, chewing Tums the whole time because it's not like he was the one who would get fired over it. When upper management asked why we were still down after 24 hours, he took a PO in to them and said that when they signed off on new and functional systems, the problem would be fixed. When they balked, he asked them was the cost of a new system really so exorbitant compared to the manhours and effort it took to nurse a sick system well beyond its years. They signed, we had it changed out in two months, and we went another four years without so much as a hiccup. If he hadn't moved out of state I would have followed that man anywhere.

  11. Forgive my lack of eloquence and elegance on US Manned Space Flight Taking a Budget Hit · · Score: 1

    but this is just bullshit.

  12. Re:Has it ever occurred to any of you... on Obama Sides With Bush In Spy Case · · Score: 1

    Very well reasoned and thought out, but here is an excellent example of when idealism collides with realism. You are very right - but how often in this world does the way we want it to be actually dovetail with how it is?

  13. Has it ever occurred to any of you... on Obama Sides With Bush In Spy Case · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...that maybe, just maybe, Obama did this because when he finally got to the throne he learned the reasons this made it out there in the first place? That maybe, just maybe, there might be something, or some reason, that the mighty Slashdotters don't know? That when he sat down with everyone, he sat back and said "Oh, gee whiz, I hadn't realized that was why Bush & Co. did that. now I get it. Hmm. Maybe I shouldn't screw with it."

  14. Not right now unless you're lucky. on IT Job Without a Degree? · · Score: 1

    I didn't finish my degree and I have a high level, well paying IT job, but I've also been in the industry for 15 years. "Back in the day", when computers were more for geeks and hobbyists, it was much easier to learn and work and you were hired because you had the knowledge and the experience. Keeping up certifications and not letting my skills get rusty have kept me secure. Starting out fresh, though? Right now, most of us IT folk are a dime a dozen, and even if you have a degree in underwater basket weaving, it's going to win out over no degree.

  15. I knew someone would post this on Mysteries Swirl Around Cyclones At Saturn's Poles · · Score: 1

    It never fails to amuse me when someone inevitably pops up and says that instead of furthering our knowledge of space, the universe, physics and astronomy, we should put that money into "earth" and not worry about what's sitting out there in the ether since it doesn't help them afford a gallon of gas right now. Think beyond your little sphere of "me, me, me". Exploration and research into the universe *always* comes back to benefit us here on Earth, in one form or another. The more we learn about what's around us, the more we know to apply it here.

  16. Re:Overactive superego on 7th-Grader Designs Three Dimensional Solar Cell · · Score: 1

    Yeah, somebody's got to serve burgers and be rude to you at the airlines.

  17. Re:Sorry on "Clear" Laptop Found, In the Same Locked Office · · Score: 1

    Yes, because then that means it's down to a fistfight between you and the Bad Guy.

  18. Re:Bad precedent... on MySpace Suicide Charges Threaten Free Speech · · Score: 1

    "Why can't people learn to look at their own issues before pointing fingers and pushing blame to everyone else so quickly?" You mean you really expect people to exhibit personal accountability? Especially when there isn't a multi-million dollar payout attached? Please!

  19. Re:Turned it down on Workplace BlackBerry Use May Spur Lawsuits · · Score: 1

    My God, I think love you.

  20. Re:Why no solid competitors? on eBay Battles Power Sellers · · Score: 1

    Etsy *isn't* an auction site, and most of the current Etsy seller base, myself included, is horrified at the recent influx of Ebay sellers who don't bother to find that out and just dump their dollar store crap onto the site.