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User: OffaMyLawn

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Comments · 117

  1. Re:Timing error... on Apple, Samsung Settle After Fighting Seven Years in Court (bloomberg.com) · · Score: 1

    I used to carry around a Blackjack 2 running an NES emulator so I could tune out boring meetings. Everyone at the time just thought I was working on an email.

  2. Re:Chance... on The Toughest (And Weakest) Phones Currently On the Market (tomsguide.com) · · Score: 1

    I actually carry my phone without a case. I do, however, have the Motorola Z2 Force, and have the Motorola TurboPower mod stuck on it all the time (in efficiency mode, the battery life is insane).

    I've dropped it, and had the mod and phone fly in separate directions. Outside of a couple minor scratches on the metal frame, there is no evidence this thing hasn't been used gently everywhere I've had it.

  3. Re:can I jump in on this NERDRAGE bitchfest?!! on The Hitchhikers Guide To the Galaxy Returns With the Original Cast (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 1

    I did notice they didn't mention continuing Twilight after anyone, seems more like a "Twilight shouldn't have been made."

  4. Thank you! I thought that conclusion was pretty obvious to see, even if I hadn't known who Anakin was destined to become.

  5. Exactly. My pickup currently has a cap on it, so it's not like it's difficult to hide a box. Pull up next to UPS, put box in bed of truck, drive off.

    Not that I would, or did, just saying it's not hard to come up with a simple scenario of taking boxes from an unsupervised truck.

    Please don't break down my door...

  6. Re:Is it really the year of the bugs? on 'The Year That Software Bugs Ate the World' (fastcompany.com) · · Score: 1

    The BSOD on W10 seems to be a big frowning emoji attempt. Which took me a minute to realize what I was looking at the first time I saw it.

  7. And here I was willing to ignore this guy completely, but now that you put it this way I kind of want to watch.

  8. Re:There was a solution to this many years ago on iOS 11 'Is Still Just Buggy as Hell' (gizmodo.com) · · Score: 1

    I don't want to have to dig something else out of my pocket.

    The convenience of watching a video or reading a web page, get a text, slide out the keyboard and fire off a reply, slide it back, back to whatever you were doing was great. I just don't like touch screen typing much, generally why my conversations with my kids have devolved into me sending them random memes I have saved on my phone when they ask me something. This also provides the general confusion factor as majority of the time the response has absolutely nothing to do with anything, let alone what they asked me about.

    Was also the only phone I generally ever responded to emails. I almost ended up with a Blackberry PRIV for this exact reason.

  9. Re:There was a solution to this many years ago on iOS 11 'Is Still Just Buggy as Hell' (gizmodo.com) · · Score: 1

    Same here. That was one of the major points of the original Motorola Droid for myself and my wife. We almost exclusively used the slide out keyboard.

  10. Re: Unnecessarily complex name on Ubuntu 17.10 Artful Aardvark Released · · Score: 1

    With the right application of force, there's the sky pig. But they have a very short lifespan.

  11. Re:Gee, isn't this what MONOPOLIES do? on Comcast Pressures Local Cable Firms to Curb Low-Cost TV Packages (bloomberg.com) · · Score: 2

    The problem is in areas such as where I live, there is no alternative. Nothing viable, anyway.

    And any anti-monopoly cases brought against them are not likely to change anything for quite some time, so I'm stuck.

  12. Re:College Campus on Domino's Market Tests A Self-Driving Pizza Delivery Car (cnn.com) · · Score: 1

    There are a multitude of reasons I tip well for all my delivery food. This is one.

    Another is because I've had several delivery persons tell us that when they head out with multiple orders, if our house is on the list, we go to the top immediately. People you treat well tend to return the favor, who would have guessed?

  13. Re:How is this "News"?? on A 2:15 Alarm, 2 Trains and a Bus Get Her To Work by 7 AM (nytimes.com) · · Score: 1

    There is mention she drives 7 minutes to the train station. I'm guessing it's more economical to pay for the train fare than it is to drive (gas, wear on vehicle, etc.)

    I'm not in a completely dissimilar situation, having to commute to downtown Pittsburgh every morning. There is no public transit between where I live and here before a certain point, however. I'm fortunate enough to have a company vehicle though, otherwise I probably wouldn't do it.

  14. Re:Seriously? on New Data On H-1B Visas Prove That IT Outsourcers Hire a Lot But Pay Very Little (qz.com) · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It also allows you to essentially fix costs for a position if you're using H1B as temporary labor. New employees every 3 years means never needing to raise what that position costs you.

    And as another poster pointed out above, these are rarely used to hire in workers of skill greater than they could find locally. I'm aware of a company that has staffed their QA department almost entirely through H1B, and their QA is not required to actually understand the product at all, just run specified test cases and report results. My dad is not a technical person and he could do their QA.

  15. Re: Smart guns & communism on Hacker Cracks Smart Gun Security To Shoot It Without Approval (cnn.com) · · Score: 1

    Generally the idea is to not leave it on the coffee table.

  16. Re:Enjoy the big break on A New Kind of Tech Job Emphasizes Skills, Not a College Degree (nytimes.com) · · Score: 1

    It depends on the company, honestly.

    I do not have a degree, but thankfully my break came from an industry where that is essentially a check to get through the door. Once you're through the door, they don't really look for it much anymore.

    I had to take a crap help desk job, while working side projects that I could pitch to my management. Thankfully I had management that was willing to sit down and listen to me, and understand the value that what I could do would add to different positions. From there it's been a matter of gathering more skills and certifications to continue advancement, and I work for who is potentially the greatest manager I've ever had the pleasure to even interact with.

    Didn't have much of an opportunity to go to college (life events at the time I graduated high school seriously complicated my ability to do much of anything) and I've certainly built up my career the hard way. If you can land a career without the massive amount of debt associated with getting a degree, it's a great thing going into later life (married, 2 kids, own house and cars, etc).

    Interestingly enough, I also live in West Virginia. Not the same area of the state or company involved, just had to smile a bit when I read that bit.

  17. Re:Working from home isn't a panacea on WSJ: There's An 'Inexorable' Trend Towards Working Remotely (foxbusiness.com) · · Score: 1

    You are assuming they would spend the time they currently spend commuting doing additional work for the company.

    For me it's not about spending more time working for the company. It's the commute time not being a consideration in the working calculation, which is a tricky situation.

    My daily commute is roughly an hour and a half each direction, not because of distance but because of congestion. So I have to travel to the office by 8 am to be on morning meetings, work/attend meetings throughout the 9 hour day, then commute home. All together I am gone twelve and a half to thirteen hours a day, when 90% of my job is development work, and all the meetings are through Skype or just plain old teleconference.

    If I was allowed to work from home, I would be on the 9 hours a day, but actually be there with my wife and two kids a hell of a lot more than I am now. Currently it's commute, work, commute, eat, sleep. Almost zero leisure time as weekends are occupied with things that I didn't have time to do during the week (yard work, vehicle maintenance, etc.)

    I used to work from home, and was dragged back into the office. What I do is specialized and I do not rely on others, nor are they reliant on me, so there is zero reason for me to need to come into the office unless I need to run testing against client equipment. I used to have extensive test equipment at home and could be reasonably assured that my code would work without ever leaving my home. All of that equipment had to be returned to the company and is now sitting in a giant pile with the rest of the returned testing equipment no one is using.

    No I'm not irreplaceable (there are plenty of others in my company that perform the same job for other clients) but being in an office gains me nothing, and has actually made me considerably more unhappy and less productive.

    The issue I have with the whole situation is there does not seem to be a middle ground. Management either wants as many people out of the office as possible (regardless of the viability for that in most cases) or wants as many people in the office as possible (regardless of the actual need.) There needs to be more consideration.

  18. Re:Going in seems so pointless on WSJ: There's An 'Inexorable' Trend Towards Working Remotely (foxbusiness.com) · · Score: 1

    Previous company I worked for had the stated idea of putting their offices in a densely packed downtown location. The issue is (I was aware of the financials on this) that there were several areas in the suburbs with more than adequate office space at far cheaper prices.

    The reason the plan fell through? Some of the old timers (people within 5 years of retirement) would have been inconvenienced by having to go an extra 15 minutes to work. It had nothing to do with real estate requirements and everything to do with the vocal minority complaining. Everyone else actually was excited for the prospect of the other location.

  19. They're at the helm, but still reading the release documents on how to steer while trying to avoid agreeing to an overbearing EULA.

  20. Re:The top secret list of affected cameras is on New IoT Malware Targets 100,000 IP Cameras Via Known Flaw (csoonline.com) · · Score: 1

    That is an awesome list. It's also a great way to get a headache if you're not expecting it. Dear lord, that's a lot of text all at once.

  21. Re:Poor old Travis on Justice Department Opens Criminal Probe Into Uber (washingtonpost.com) · · Score: 0

    Wish I had mod points right now.

    I've spoken to people over the years that view pretty much any kind of government regulation as a terrible idea that needs to be destroyed. Noting that there are indeed some regulations that exist simply because someone's bank account received a strange influx from an anonymous donor (even if not personal accounts, campaign contributions from lobbyists for extra consideration applies as well), some regulations do in fact exist because bad things had happened and whatever industry in question failed to correct the problem itself.

    Sometimes the free market really is just driven entirely by greed, they don't care who they're hurting, and the government does periodically need to step in and correct the problem.

  22. ...but the 7 day waiting period will almost certainly be removed eventually meaning that if they really need more guns, they'll be able to go to the grocery store and buy them off the shelves on sale

    Where I live, West Virginia, it's a phone call. That's the extent of the waiting period.

    Actually, being a concealed carry holder myself, I don't even have to wait for that anymore.

    No, I'm not a gun nut (own a total of one pistol), mine is specifically for personal protection since all the meth and heroine traffic started causing assault and robbery cases to pop up everywhere.

    I would move, but it's incredibly cheap to live here, and where my actual house is I get plenty of opportunity to know when someone is coming to visit before they actually get there. It's just when I go into town.

  23. Re:The S is for on Surface Laptop Can Be Switched To Windows 10 Pro For Free Until 2018 (cnet.com) · · Score: 1

    I went with Strongbad, The S is for Sucks.

  24. Re:$200 million blow on Studios, Writers Guild Avert Strike With Last-Minute Deal (hollywoodreporter.com) · · Score: 1

    And now the contractors in the cubes around me think I'm insane, after an extremely loud outburst of laughter.

    Worth it.

  25. Someone will buy it. on Microsoft Unveils Windows 10 S, an Education Edition Limited To Windows Store Apps (venturebeat.com) · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm sure someone with decision making power will buy this and force implementation on some unfortunate soul.

    Why have the opportunity to get applications from multiple sources when you can restrict everyone to only purchasing from Microsoft! Who cares if they have made available the actual programs we would like to use, when there are others with half as much functionality (and the added benefit of Microsoft getting a cut of the sales from) they can force you to use?