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User: Omega1045

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  1. Only $10 million? You get what you pay for! on Philadelphia Considers Free Citywide Wireless Access · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I can tell you this, it will cost them a lot more than the initially $10 million. Is the city going to budget to maintain this service like they would water or other municipal utilities? I can tell you this, my water department are a bunch of idiots and I certainly would not want my city government running my internet access.

  2. Could Have Larger Screen! on Sharp Mebius Subnotebook Review · · Score: 3, Insightful
    It always bugs me when I see a design like this. There is a good 3 cm to 4 cm all the way around the LCD on this thing. The flip top looks like a big picture frame. This is space that could have been used for a larger screen. With the 10.2" X 6.2" dimensions, you could fit a 11.5" screen onto that little thing with some space to spare. They only fit a 7.2" into the space. I cannot think that this would add a lot of weight, and power consumption would not be much more considering it is an LCD monitor.

    Perhaps they could have spent a little less time trying to make it look just like an iBook and a little more time making the notebook that much more useful.

  3. NewsAskew.com on Kevin Smith set for Clerks sequel · · Score: 1

    NewsAskew usually has really great coverage of such announcements, but I haven't seen anything yet today. I would bookmark their site, as I am sure they will have a lot more info and the inside scoop. The site is owned my View Askew, Kevin's company.

  4. I love my iPod, but really.... on Apple iPod with Video and WiFi Capabilities? · · Score: 2, Insightful
    I just bought an iPod (new 20gb with the click wheel, 12 hour bat) about 3 weeks ago and I love it. It is easily the highest quality electronic device I have ever owned or used.

    That being said, do we really care about an Apple job posting? I think bluetooth or Wifi integration would be very cool in the iPod. But this story just seems down right silly. If Sony posted an ad in their Walkman division for the same skills would it be noticed? What about Rio? We don't even know what this means, and speculation before they have even gotten going on the hiring process just seems like a waste of time.

    This is pre-vaporware, if there is such a thing.

  5. If the IOCCC is like the IOC on IOCCC Winners Announced · · Score: 5, Funny

    If the IOCCC is anything like the IOC, I am sure they will ask some of the winners to give back their prizes because of judging mistakes, and probably screwed over several Russian participants.

  6. Re:False claims of copyright should be criminal! on JibJab Wins - 'This Land' is Public Domain · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't think so. This would limit the rights of those who truly are wronged. Imagine you are a "little guy" who creates some cool new invention. Now GlobalMegaCorpX copies it and starts selling it like crazy even thought you have a patent. GlobalMegaCorpX has hundreds of lawyers, you only have you and the lawyer that you can afford with which to battle them (to sue them). Do you also want the fact that it might be a criminal offense if you loose your suit (this is what I assume you mean)? Or even to threaten them, hoping they will stop rather than you having to spend your kid's college fund suing them?

  7. Re:I may be the only one....but..... on Internet-Enabled Thermostat · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I know of a local business that wired up their HVAC and security with a web interface. One port is open, 443, and you must authenticate with the web server. This works really well because they have public meeting facilities. Sometimes meetings don't get on the schedule, and someone ends up locked out of a room with the air conditioning turned off. Or a last minute meeting is planned, etc. A manager uses his palm pilot phone's web brower to admin the building remotely, from where ever he is (when at home he uses a PC). He turns on the air, and unlocks the correct doors to allow access to only the areas of the building that are needed. And he doesn't have to make the 45 minute trip to work to do this.

  8. Let the tin hats begin on Federal Reserve To Use Internet For Money Transfer · · Score: 3, Informative

    I know that the US Government owns many class A ip ranges, and that some of these they do not route traffic in/out from. Basically, the US Military has a "public" private network. I would image that the same type of measure could me taken here. It would be fairly easy to firewall this at various points if the ip classes are huge.

  9. Re:Crush on Spam's U.S. Roots · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Then we can only hope it is France that tell the US this.

  10. Re:KDE? on Test KDE 3.3's Public Release Candidate · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I would worry more about "aroung", since it was a Simpsons referring joke...

  11. KDE? on Test KDE 3.3's Public Release Candidate · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    KDE, is that thing still aroung?

  12. Re:Moving programs from OSS to ALSA on Introduction to Linux Sound Systems and APIs · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I had a lot of problems installing a new card based on EMU10k. In the end I had to go into the Kernel and turn off ALSA and turn on OSS, and it had the "driver" right there. Compile, reboot, sound works! However, this proves yet again that while Linux is a great desktop (I use it for my home machine), it is not "ready for the desktop". This is not to throw blame at anyone. But sound should be seemless, or at least very easy to configure with a GUI tool.

    I would not be against taking some developer resources away from progress on the kernel, etc, and have them work on drivers and configuration applications for sound, video, modem, network, vpn, etc.

    Perhaps IBM and the other big players could fund a team that ONLY develops drivers for these standard services, and a plug-and-play type of detection module that really does work. Take every know video card, sound card, network card out there and get them to work?

  13. Re:Other paths to "computer science" careers on Fewer Computer Science Majors · · Score: 1
    Well, I will agree that because I live in the US, I probably have a higher salary. I am not going to defend that because it doesn't need defending.

    Street sweeper is a really good example for your point, as I found a local listing here for $25k - $35k, DOE. So I make around 3 times as much. However, I drove 250 ton coal trucks for a summer while in college for about the same money. After a week of federal mine training, and about 2 weeks of driving training, I was on my way doing the job. It was not difficult. It was kinda a nice job because when I was done I just went home. No work coming home with me!

    As a developer I find myself thinking about a particular software problem all the time. I also do a lot of reading on the side to keep my skills up. Many developers have a BS degree, I went to college for 3 years and have 7 years of experience learning and learning and learning. So I will defend the fact that I make 3 times as much as a street sweeper.

    But, if I worked in an auto manufactuing plant in the US with 10 (3xp + 3 college) years under my belt, I would easily be making more that $100k. That includes the workers who built my Honda here in the US.

    I honestly do think that I was very fortunate to get in on the end of the .com boom, and was over paid at that point in time. But since then I have always averaged about the same as the rest of the industry here. You may say we are overvalued. But salaries have not been as great after the .com crash, and I think that they are pretty steady for now and I am expecting to make the same basic salary for the next few years.

  14. Re:Other paths to "computer science" careers on Fewer Computer Science Majors · · Score: 1
    Well, thank god we live in a free market society where you don't decide what I am worth, but the market does;-) And its not just Salary.com. I found a number of salary surveys just by doing a little Googling. In fact, I didn't have to look any further than Slashdot to find these links:

    http://www.infoworld.com/pdf/special_report/2004 /24SRcompsurvey.pdf

    http://www.sage.org/salsurv/

    If you feel I am getting paid way to much, well, that is your opinion. But the market has paid me this amount for some time now (and much more when I was a consultant). And I think you will find with a little research that it isn't just me and "my friends", but developer community in general.

    I am really not trying to get into a flame war or anything here, but what lvl of xp (years) are you at in your career? Do you work in the private sector, government, or non-profit? What is your general salary range? Are you a business software developer, software engineer, EE, etc? From what perspective are you coming from where you believe these salaries are so incredibly high?

  15. Re:Other paths to "computer science" careers on Fewer Computer Science Majors · · Score: 2, Informative
    Where are you at in the world? What is your experience level? I have 7 solid years of development experience. The market has always offered that salary range. The developers I work with now all make around the same amount (actually more), with the exception of some of the new guys right out of college. Developer I have worked with in past jobs have made around the same. For a while I was making a little less than that at my job, but suplimented it with outside web dev work.

    Want more than anicdotal evidence? Check out any number of salary surveys that are out there, or go to Salary.com. I just checked my zip code & job title and I should be making:

    Client/Server Programmer IV (6 - 8 Years XP)

    25th%ile Median 75th%ile

    $77,461 $85,763 $95,411

    Dude, it sounds like you might want to look at getting a raise if you think this is over the top.

  16. Re:Other paths to "computer science" careers on Fewer Computer Science Majors · · Score: 1

    Uh, that was the point. Did you read my entire post? The parent post mentioned that they are all making $80k - $100k a year, but they can't move up. In any US market, $80k is pretty damn good.

  17. Re:Stop playing solitaire on my dialysis machine on Fed-Up Hospitals Defy Windows Patching Rules · · Score: 1

    That is funny you mention that, I am building and testing the drug interaction modultes now that I jsut built. While we are supposed to check these for the physician, there are cases where the physician can add new drugs to the database and not link them to interactions. This passed requirements. Apparently docs go to school for many years and are expected to know this stuff ;-)

  18. Re:Other paths to "computer science" careers on Fewer Computer Science Majors · · Score: 1

    I am in a similar situation. I was hired via contract to hire. I guess the consulting firm I was working for while under contract did not mention that I did not have my BS (I got about 2/3 of the way through college). When they liked what they saw and decided to hire me, they discovered I did not have a degree. I had not hidden the fact, but I don't go around bragging that I don't have a degree but still make good money. I was told that since I did not have a degree that I wouldn't quite be getting what was initially promised. I am still make very good money; I haven't made less that $75k in a year since 1999. While it pissed me off at first, it doesn't really bother me that much. I have a good life, will have my house paid off in a few years, and am not (too) wanting for anything. And I am thankful to have a job.

  19. Re:Stop playing solitaire on my dialysis machine on Fed-Up Hospitals Defy Windows Patching Rules · · Score: 1

    Yup. If one of our workstations crash, only some sort of weird "butterfly effect" would cause someone to die.

  20. Re:Non-Competes.... on Seagate Says Ex-Employee Can't Work For Competitor · · Score: 1

    I think this is really a state by state thing here in the US. I had such a contract in South Dakota with a former employer. After a nasty seperation, I was sent a letter from their law firm telling me not to violate my non-compete. I consulted a very good lawyer about my particular contract and he said it would not hold up in court. I went to work for another firm, and told my previous employer the name of my lawyer and that I would fight them on it if they brought it up. I never heard back from them on the issue. Now this is one case. But I was told at the time that a "right to work" state means just that, and these contracts are often not valid.

  21. I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet on Seagate Says Ex-Employee Can't Work For Competitor · · Score: 1

    Boy we have a lot of lawyers on Slashdot today!

  22. Re:Stop playing solitaire on my dialysis machine on Fed-Up Hospitals Defy Windows Patching Rules · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Better lose that customer then. You don't want to be dragged into bankrupcy by the liabilities you'll face when shit will happen...

    Or go bankrupt because we have no customers, because we don't use Windows. Besides, if our software crashes on one particular workstation (or all for that matter), I don't think anyone will die.

  23. Re:Stop playing solitaire on my dialysis machine on Fed-Up Hospitals Defy Windows Patching Rules · · Score: 1

    Cool. It's just that I hear these same sort of arguments all the time and get a little fed up with it. Sorry if I went off ;-)

  24. Re:Stop playing solitaire on my dialysis machine on Fed-Up Hospitals Defy Windows Patching Rules · · Score: 5, Informative
    Part of the problem is that the vendors chose Windows as a development platform.

    Uh, no. Do you work in the health care industry? I do as a software developer for a vendor. Don't throw the blame on us. We actually changed to Windows off of other systems because hospitals started putting PCs with Windows into their various departments. The backend for the software I work on actually runs in Unix, and we have hospitals that are thinking of going to NT only, which means we have to try to port our code to it or loose that customer.

  25. Re:Welcome to February on SciFi Channel To Air A New Galactica Series · · Score: 1

    That should be modded funny and insightful!!!