User: dmensch

Re:It's COOL to suck at math

On: Math Skills Survey Shows U.S. Lags Behind

Well, I'm a computer programmer and my ninth grader is up to second year calculus at the local university. Maybe they just need some encouragment at home?

Re:This Could Only HELP the Economy

On: So Did the Hordes Really Skip out for Episode 2?

Um, maybe you mean "grammar"...?

Re:This Could Only HELP the Economy

On: So Did the Hordes Really Skip out for Episode 2?

Luckily, the economy is in the tank, so I can't
find a Java contract, so I was able to go to the
movie and NOT miss work :-)

Tough HP workstation

On: When Shipping the Big Iron...?

The last REAL job I worked for (before consulting) was support
programming for a printed circuit board signal integrity simulator.
HP was interested in the software and shipped us a RISC workstation
for the port. This was in 1992.

Turned out it was kind of a behind the scenes effort- they shipped us
an early prototype box, and the engineer who packed it had grabbed
some random styrofoam blocks and a sturdy looking box. When it
arrived, the box was upside down, the CPU pizzabox had slipped out of
the styrofoam and was bouncing around the bottom of the shipping box.
It was dinged hard enough that the power button was immobilized and
the hard drive was banging around loose inside.

In horror, I called the HP engineer. His response: "Huh. Did you try
turning it on?" We did, and it booted immediately.

Technology vs content

On: To HDTV or Not to HDTV?

I suspect George Carlin is still correct, and the Brightness knob STILL doesn't work, even on HD :-p