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User: roc97007

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  1. double quotes on Ask Slashdot: Are There Any Search Engines Left That Don't Try To Think For Me? · · Score: 2, Informative

    Specifically for error messages, put double quotes around the string for more accurate results. Adjust to avoid including local information. Example: (a made up) error message "An application on your machine rudolph process number 28433 for user barbie_doll has caused an inexcusable memory management error." would be searched as:

    "An application on your machine" "process number" "for user" "has caused an inexcusable memory management error".

    As someone else said, if it's a linux machine, make the first word "linux". Or the flavor of linux, or if windows, include that and the version, or if appropriate the name of the application.

    "Windows 2008" IIS "401 unauthorized" "access list"

  2. targeting old people on 86.2 Million Phone Scam Calls Delivered Each Month In the US · · Score: 1

    I used to do tech support as a business. I still do tech support for friends and family and a few legacy customers. I've asked all of them to let me know if they get any cold calls regarding PC support, and to not do anything to their equipment unless they've talked to me first. (This being easier for some people to understand than the concept that *all* cold tech support calls are bogus. No, really, "The Microsoft" does not call you when your computer is "infested with the viruses", and there are no tech support people who are "from The Internet".) From my admittedly small sampling of 20-30 people, I have noticed a tendency for fake support calls to specifically target people over 55. This has been such a positive match that it's made me wonder if maybe AARP had their membership list scooped. (Or maybe Denny's?)

  3. Re:I screen every call. on 86.2 Million Phone Scam Calls Delivered Each Month In the US · · Score: 1

    What do you do for cell phone robocalls?

  4. I think I heard from this guy. I got an email the other day that started "Greetings and blessings to you. I am the right honorable Alfred Depiero, attorney at law for the honorable Mark Shuttleworth. You seem being a person of good moral standing, and such we need your help to move R250m out the country of South Africa. Your fee for performing such service will be $US 5M American dollars payable directly to you." All they wanted was my banking information.

  5. Re:what is this supposed to accomplish? on After Uproar, Disney Cancels Tech Worker Layoffs · · Score: 1

    John Hammond: All major theme parks have delays. When they opened Disneyland in 1956, nothing worked!

    Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but, John, if The Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don't eat the tourists.

    Give it time....

  6. So let me get this straight.... on Uber Drivers Are Employees, Not Contractors, Says California Labor Commission · · Score: 5, Funny

    Does this mean by extension that the "bloggers" who contribute to the Huffington Post are employees?

  7. Re:what is this supposed to accomplish? on After Uproar, Disney Cancels Tech Worker Layoffs · · Score: 1

    > If corporations still treated employees as value-adding assets rather than cost liabilities, crap like H1-B wouldn't exist.

    I would say, if corporations recognized that employees are value-adding assets rather than cost liabilities. Because we are. We're not asking corporations to "spread the wealth", we're asking them to recognize the reality that what we do is important to the company.

    Every outsource disaster points up the fact that management really had no idea what contribution their employees were making. Somehow they got sold (usually by some outsource salescritter) on the idea that, no, it's a dead simple job. An orangutan could do it. Just hire the cheapest labor you can find, have your old crew write out a few procedures before you kick them out, and, $$profit$$!

    And then... later they have to use creative accounting to show that yes, we really did save money. Really. Trust me.

  8. what is this supposed to accomplish? on After Uproar, Disney Cancels Tech Worker Layoffs · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ok, so you thoroughly demotivate your workers. You insult them. You treat them like idiots. Yeah, we think so little of your jobs that we're going to import untrained minimum wage foreigners to replace you, and oh, by the way, before you leave, you have to train them which button to push when the light comes on.

    You even complete the layoffs of one division. (Florida.)

    And then, responding to Bad Press, as part of damage control, you tell the remaining employees that they get to keep their jobs. At least, for now, until the news cycle passes.

    What employee in their right mind would *not* spend every moment looking for a new job at that point? What responsible individual (financially responsible to self and family) would *not* use this opportunity as paid job search?

    So, Disney may have quieted down some small portion of the uproar. But they're still going to lose all of that tribal knowledge, guaranteed. And they're going to have the most disgruntled, (old workers) and nonfunctional (imported workers with no training or support) IT department of any company still in business.

    I foresee a time when the Pirates of the Caribbean ride is populated with live H1-B actors, because nobody can figure out how to make the animatronics work anymore. Might be an improvement, except the guests will have to swim through the moat.

  9. "our three core ambitions" on Elop and Others Leaving Microsoft, Myerson Taking Bigger Role · · Score: 4, Funny

    Apparently, one of which is to become a much smaller company.

  10. Re:Dateline: New York on Restaurateur Loses Copyright Suit To BMI · · Score: 1

    Sadly, a lot of law practice is like that these days -- you pay not because it's just, but because it's cheaper than going to court.

  11. I have a solution on Restaurateur Loses Copyright Suit To BMI · · Score: 1

    All restaurants should switch to that fake "teenage" music from 1970's sitcoms.

  12. Re:This makes me irrationally happy. on Online At Last: Comet Lander Philae Wakes Up · · Score: 1

    Some locations are more unique than others.

  13. Re:The press conference on Online At Last: Comet Lander Philae Wakes Up · · Score: 1

    Apropos of almost nothing, I am reminded of the scene in Jurassic World where the operator was dressed down by his boss for wearing a vintage Jurassic Park t-shirt to work.

  14. Re:Obligatory reading on Philae's Lost Seven Months Were Completely Unnecessary · · Score: 1

    It keeps me warm.

  15. Re:Uh oh on Restaurateur Loses Copyright Suit To BMI · · Score: 1

    You probably owe something to Warner Brothers now. (Or was it EMI?)

  16. the forgotten part of security on Rethinking Security: Securing Activities Instead of Computers · · Score: 1

    If I'm understanding TFA, it seems like a restatement of one aspect of the three laws of security -- of Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability, the last one. That if "security" results in legitimate users not having sufficient access (availability) to achieve assigned goals, it's not really security. Kind-of the opposite, actually.

  17. canceling in 3... 2... 1.... on FCC Nixes PayPal's Forced Robocalls Plan · · Score: 2

    I'm self-employed and generally get paid through Paypal. If that means getting forced robocall ads, that will be the end of our relationship. This is not negotiable.

  18. frankencomputer on Ask Slashdot: What Hardware Is In Your Primary Computer? · · Score: 1

    My primary workstation is an ATX enclosure from the turn of the century populated by a motherboard from about 2005 with an early Intel quad core processor, 8 GB memory (I do a lot of work with photoshop and similar tools) a 2 GB system drive, a 3 GB data drive, a hot swappable slot in which I can temporarily plug a 3 GB drive for backups, USB 3.0 controller card (faster uploading from memory cards) and some video card I inherited from a gamer after one of his continuous upgrades. Plugged into an elderly but color-accurate 24" monitor. This will do me until something breaks that can't be fixed or swapped out. I'm not a fan of upgrading for its own sake. Internet provided by fiber to the house.

    In the last 15 years I've lost 3 power supplies. I've learned to keep one in stock for rapid repair.

    I was a late adopter of Windows 7, will stick with that until further notice. I installed Win8 on a test machine, decided it did not meet my needs. Haven't looked at 10 yet, don't see the need at this time. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank every Win10 early adopter for their valuable QA service.

  19. Just because you're a scientist.... on Nobel Prize-Winning Scientist Criticizes Role of Women In Labs · · Score: 1, Informative

    ...doesn't mean you aren't a dick.

  20. "bloody spectacles" on Colosseum Lift That Carried Wild Animals Into Arena Rebuilt · · Score: 1

    > The question it poses is, how could such an advanced culture have staged such bloody spectacles?

    Obviously the author has never been to a Liam Neeson flick.

  21. Re:It's obvious on Cable Companies Hate Cord-Cutting, but It's Not Going Away (Video) · · Score: 1

    Could be, although I'm not sure I'm comfortable with the label "fringe", (I think cord cutting is more widespread than that) or the association with pr0n, although admittedly germane in context.

  22. hm ok on Apple Music and the Terrible Return of DRM · · Score: 1

    Another closed ecosystem in which I will not be participating.

    Used CDs. Rip them. Populate whatever device you want. If you're not up on the latest tunes, so what? We need to get out of the habit of paying a premium to be the first to see or hear something.

  23. Re:Well, that sounds good... on Linux World Domination Creates Shortage of Linux-Skilled Workers · · Score: 1

    I think the standard answer is that salary deflation since the dot com bust continues, with foreign contractors helping to keep it depressed.

  24. Re:Well, that sounds good... on Linux World Domination Creates Shortage of Linux-Skilled Workers · · Score: 1

    Ah. Right. I was going to claim it was a typo, (B is right next to N after all) but now I think I'll just leave it as is.

  25. Well, that sounds good... on Linux World Domination Creates Shortage of Linux-Skilled Workers · · Score: 2

    ...but I'm not an H1N contractor, so I don't see how a plethora of new Linux jobs helps me.