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User: sehryan

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  1. Re:The Only Surprising portion of the revelation.. on Declassified LBJ Tapes Accuse Richard Nixon of Treason · · Score: 5, Interesting

    How is not exposing a presidential candidate's treason putting country ahead of personal and party gain? Just because he would gain politically does not automatically mean that he shouldn't do it "for the good of the country." Those things are not exclusive.

  2. US Government on Drupal's Creator Aims For World Domination · · Score: 2

    Drupal has made huge inroads in running US government websites in the last few years. The White House, Departments of Commerce and Energy, and a bulk of the House of Representatives (most on one install, I believe) are all running Drupal, to name a few. As a former government contractor, we ended up selecting Drupal to run one of our sites for a couple of reasons.

    First, Drupal can run using SQL Server on the back end. I know that sounds horrible, but for us, spinning up MySQL/Postgres was not really an option, and the .Net management systems were either too expensive or a joke in terms of features. So we got the community of Drupal on the hardware we already ran.

    Second, its taxonomy features are really unparalleled, at least from what I have seen. Coupled with Views, you can create a page out of just about any combination of vocabularies. We used it to show a category of content, and then let users filter based on keywords. Think categories and tags from WordPress, but on steroids.

    Now, all that being said, I hated developing in Drupal. I was able to achieve the goals for the site, including letting non-developers handle content updates with minimal support. But getting there was the most excruciating three months of my career. People aren't kidding when they say the learning curve is enormous.

    Overall, I am happy to see Drupal making progress, and think it is fantastic in handling certain types of websites. But at the end of the day, I hope I never have to build another Drupal website again.

  3. Re:Management panic in action... on Mayer Terminates Yahoo's Remote Employee Policy · · Score: 1

    I would imagine there is more overhead for remote workers than there is for in-office. For instance, our remote workers come in once every six weeks or so. That is airfare, hotel, and per diem that we are paying that we don't have to pay for in-office folks.

    There is also the question of health insurance. I don't know much about this, but it seems like - if these employees live out of state from the main office - that they would need to be using a different health insurance provider than everyone else. I am assuming that would again be at a higher cost than the in-office folks.

    I understand the gains of such a set up, but there are costs too, and those costs are usually come in the form of actually dollars spent. For a company whose bottom line is hurting, the juice might not be worth the squeeze.

  4. Re:What?! on The US Redrawn As 50 Equally Populated States · · Score: 1

    The Supreme Court and cabinet members are popularly elected...by those we the people choose to represent us in Congress. You might not have a vote on those people, but you do have a vote on those who do.

  5. Online Schools on Ask Slashdot: CS Degree While Working Full Time? · · Score: 1

    As long as the online school is accredited from its regional accreditation board, then you should have no fear in attending. This goes for the online, for-profit schools.

    I dropped out of college in the middle of my senior year of getting a BA in Music Education to pursue a tech opportunity. Once I settled in to that job, I went back to one of these for-profit colleges to complete a BFA in Visual Communications degree. They let me transfer over most of my credits, so all I had was a year or so of major classes to complete. Before I enrolled, I make sure it was accredited by the regional board.

    So while American InterContinental University may not look sexy (and in fact, I find it slightly embarrassing), it is accredited, and I did graduate Summa Cum Laude with a BFA in Visual Communications. It cost me a ton of money (much more than the not for profit schools), but I can put it on my resume with confidence that I am not going to be screened out of a job because of a lack of a degree.

    And I know this for a fact because I just got a new job at a local software company. And made it to the final stretch with another software company at the same time. Neither company even asked if AIU was legit, probably because the HR manager doesn't really care. "Education listed? Check. Degree obtained? Check. Moving on..."

  6. Re:AMD on Is Intel Planning To Kill Enthusiast PCs? · · Score: 1

    Learn to solder.

  7. Love It on Ask Slashdot: What's Your Take On Stand-Up Desks? · · Score: 2

    I just moved to a stand up desk last week. Absolutely love it. I design and code websites, so I have a pretty stationary type of job. Standing up, I move a lot more. I also have an adjustable stool, so if I need to rest my legs for a bit, I can without having to adjust my desk.

    I have also noticed that the afternoon wall has completely disappeared. You know, the one where you are struggling to focus - or maybe even stay awake. Never happens.

    There are plenty of articles out there about standing vs. sitting, as I did a bunch of research before making the switch. To summarize: Standing is better than sitting, but mixing it up is the best. This doesn't mean fully sitting down - the stool I use is a great example. But you do need to be able to change position for a bit, because being in one position for 8-9 hours a day is bad.

  8. Re:If Obama's BIRTH can be an issue on Let the Campaign Edit Wars Begin · · Score: 1

    You forgot another point - If one of your parents is a US citizen, then you are also a US citizen, regardless of where you are born.

    As such, John McCain is a US citizen, and so is Barak Obama.

  9. Eink on How Will Amazon, Barnes & Noble Survive the iPad Mini? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Put the focus back where it belongs for their particular devices - Eink.

    There are a ton of people who don't want to look at yet another computer screen when they are reading, which is why those people (me included) go for the Eink devices instead of the 7" tablets.

    That is the space that made them popular, and that is the space they need to put the focus back on as a differentiating - and positive selling - factor.

  10. Not scientific, but not unreasonable on Mathematician Predicts Wave of Violence In 2020 · · Score: 3, Informative

    While I agree that the sample size is small, there is certainly reason to think that if the political discourse continues as it is now, in eight years we could be in for that talk to start manifesting itself physically.

  11. Reality: on StatCounter Blasts Microsoft's Claim About IE Still Being the Number 1 Browser · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The reality is that those numbers don't really matter if you already have a website.

    You can easily run stats on YOUR OWN WEBSITE and get the browser breakdown that you should be worried about.

    For one of my primary sites, all version of IE beat out Firefox or Chrome. When split apart, Firefox and Chrome are 1 and 2, with IE8 coming in third.

    And now that I think about it, knowing who is first or second is pretty much irrelevant. What matters is the percentage of users who are still using browser version that suck to support. So really, what I care about is where my IE7 and IE6 usage is, and at what point is it okay for me to walk away from those users.

  12. Re:Irony alert! on DirecTV CEO Scoffs At Competition From Apple TV · · Score: 1

    Even at DirecTV's cheapest currently advertised package ($29.99 for 12 months, free HD DVR), you could purchase eight shows at full price on iTunes (~$45 for a full season in HD). And that is not taking in to consideration the monthly taxes and fees on the DTV service, which could easily cover a Netflix or Hulu Plus subscription. After three months, you are going to start paying for the premiums, which run around the cost of two movie rentals on iTunes per month PER PREMIUM CHANNEL.

    And that is just for the first year. Year two, the monthly price goes up, which means you could afford EVEN MORE television and movies if you amortize it out over two years.

    Basically, you would be hard pressed to spend more money on AppleTV than DirecTV. I know this, because I made the switch myself. We have eight shows, a Netflix account, and get the locals using a $50 HD Over The Air antenna. Haven't been happier, and are saving a ton.

  13. Do better on NASA Tool Shows Where Forest Is Being Cut Down · · Score: 2

    I don't mean to sound like a dick, but as someone who makes web-based geospatial apps for a living, this is one of the worst things I have ever seen.

    Half the zooms don't make sense (US zooms all the way out, UK zooms to all of Europe), they have data listed in the drop downs that doesn't actually exist (July 2012), the popups tell you nothing (Country: Whatever, colored in blue, but not clickable), and to top it all of, the "larger" version has no way to access any of the data (no data selection, no zoom levels).

  14. Re:They can on Hybrid Car Owners Not Likely To Buy Another Hybrid · · Score: 1

    For me, it is less the mpg and more the range of one tank of gas, and how big the tank is. I know it is technically just a different way to look at the same problem, but I feel it shows the impact more quickly.

    For instance, my boss was telling me yesterday that his Prius goes 500+ miles on one tank, and the tank is about 10 gallons.

    My Accord goes about 400 miles on an 18 gallon tank.

    So not only can he go farther on one tank than I can, but I am going to pay almost double what he is paying at the pump.

    That made such a huge impact on me yesterday that I have started shopping for a Prius, just to see how everything would work out from a payment standpoint.

  15. Hurricanes on Wind Map of US Will Blow You Away · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Personally, I am looking forward to checking out this map during hurricane season. This map is the number one thing I am going back to when a hurricane strikes land here in the US.

  16. Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC on XBMC V11 Eden Has Been Released · · Score: 1

    I know this will sound snide, but you obviously do not have a wife, or if you do, she is a geek like you.

    While your setup doesn't present any problem for you or probably me, for any non-technical folks in the household that want to use the system, remembering to use this at these points but not for this other thing, then you have to do X+Y+Z...it is impossible for them to remember all the details.

    XBMC - and all the other 10ft interfaces - theoretically solve this problem. One interface to bind them all, if you pardon the paraphrase.

    Of course, my experience is that none of them can do 100% of the things I and my wife would like them to do, so we are still using a fractured system, much to her dislike (and she lets me know about it every time she has trouble). I am hoping that Eden solves this.

  17. Re:Tolkien's prose on JRR Tolkien Denied Nobel Due To Low Quality Prose · · Score: 1

    I am inclined to view you as turning a blind eye to something that is pretty obvious.

    I read (and reread) Tolkien several times in middle school, slowly reading them less in high school, and then not again since. The last time started them, I realized just how...wordy these books are. I wouldn't assume that it requires some high level of reading comprehension. In fact, I think it takes a high level of reading tenacity. The last few times I found myself skipping over pages of text which didn't really drive the overall narrative.

    I would have to agree with someone above me who said that what Tolkien did best was build worlds. And to do that, you need a lot of words that aren't necessarily directly related to the ongoing plot. For those folks who enjoy rich and deep worlds, then you probably love Tolkien. But for those of us who prefer to focus more on what is happening than where, Tolkien can get pretty old, pretty quick.

  18. Re:Never going to happen. on What Microsoft Should and Shouldn't Do For the Xbox 720 · · Score: 1

    Have you not seen OnLive? Cloud-based gaming with no latency. They even have aa app that lets you play console games in the cloud from your iPad.

  19. Re:Tides on Is the Earth Special? · · Score: 1

    I don't know a lot about the subject, but were the tides really that important in helping salt water fish evolve in to fresh water amphibians? Because if not, then Wonda's point still stands.

  20. Re:Sadly enough, UMC is right on legally on Universal Uses DMCA To Get Bad Lip Reading Parody Taken Down · · Score: 1

    While correct, it is foolish on their part.

    I am a fan of Bad Lip Reading, and I had watched this video and the song he created. Out of curiosity, I checked out the original video and song, and ended up finding that I liked it as much as the parody. I was even thinking about adding it to a playlist to see if it would be worth buying in the future.

    So UMG did nothing other than upload the original video to YouTube, and suddenly they found themselves with a potential new customer because of it. I have noticed the comments on a lot of the original music videos that BLR parodies saying that the only reason that person was here was because they saw the BLR version and were curious.

    This is positive viral marketing, all without having to do anything at all, and they are ruining that goodwill by forcing a take down.

  21. Re:In other words, we should give up. on Ron Paul Suggests Axing 5 U.S. Federal Departments (and Budgets) · · Score: 1

    Are you saying that a corporation(s) could not provide the same service as NOAA? That corporations are not capable of launching a weather sat (or buying NOAA's) and providing the service for a fee? The misperception is that your weather info is now free - it is not as taxes and debt pay for NOAA.

    You are making the assumption that after eliminating these offices, Mr. Paul would then turn around and and lower the tax rate to allow US citizens to keep that money that is no longer needed. But if taxes stay the same, then I would still be paying the same amount, but be getting less service in return. Like Netflix.

    You are also making the assumption that private industry would provide these services at a similar cost as the government does. NOAA costs each taxpayer in the US roughly $33.50 a year. Do you honestly think you will be able to purchase weather forecasts from a private company for that little? Not to mention that weather forecasts are only part of what NOAA does. I can't even name a service that I receive now that I get for $3 a month.

  22. Re:I like his IRS plan! on Ron Paul Suggests Axing 5 U.S. Federal Departments (and Budgets) · · Score: 1

    NOAA runs a number of satellites that monitor weather conditions for the US. Are you stating that you think it makes more sense for each state to build, launch, and maintain their own weather satellite?

  23. Re:It's Called "Blame Pay" on US Gov't Pays IT Contractors Twice As Much As Its Own IT Workers · · Score: 1

    With you except for numbers 3 and 5.

    I might be not understanding #3, but generally, the feds DO pay for a contractors benefits. They pay for everything the contracting company is going to offer the employee, plus a fee on top of that. Now, there is the long term benefit in that the federal government is not responsible for retirement and health care for these workers when they retire. But in the daily (or annual) grind, the feds are paying benefits to contractors.

    As for #5, assuming you are considering the "full time staff" actual feds, then you are way off base. It is nearly impossible to eliminate a fed that isn't performing as well as their contract brethren, especially one that has a lot of years in the system. And Lord help you if you if one of those feds is a vet.

  24. Re:Borders is dead because of tax weasels like Ama on Amazon Folds In California Sales Tax Deal · · Score: 1

    Bullshit. I don't know anyone who is going to buy Amazon books over a brick and mortar over what would be a couple of dimes in sales tax. If that were true, then B&N would be out of business as well. Borders is out of business because their executives made poor business decisions, end of story.

  25. Re:Is this the version with Print Preview? No. on Google Releases Chrome 12 · · Score: 1

    I am designing a website right now, and I need it to look a certain way when it prints. I am using a print stylesheet to optimize the format for printing.

    In Firefox and IE, checking the format is as simple as print preview. I have yet to test it in Chrome, because I am going to have to actually print it to see what it looks like, and then every time I make an adjustment, which could be quite a bit of paper.

    The irony is that I usually test in Chrome first for screen. But because no print preview, I have been using FF as my primary. It doesn't even need to be core - make it an extension.