Slashdot Mirror


User: DrewBeavis

DrewBeavis's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
32
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 32

  1. Last Minute Reveal of Sucralose on 20,000 Customers Have Pre-Ordered Over $2,000,000 of Soylent · · Score: 2

    They may have obtained $2 million in pre-orders, but just last week they revealed that the shipping version will contain Sucralose, an artificial sweetener. If they can't figure out a way to manage the PR issues besides just saying "You people are ignorant, sucralose is fine," then Soylent may not last long. Regardless of the pros or cons of artificial sweeteners, you have to give the customer what they want and not what they don't.

  2. I interviewed my previous boss... on Ask Slashdot: Interviewing Your Boss? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In my previous position, I wasn't on the committee, per se, but gave an operational tour to each candidate and tried to explain what we did and our job functions. One candidate didn't seem to pay much attention and was eliminated because he wanted too much money. Another candidate thought he knew more than I did about our operations since he had glanced at our website and walked around the building before the interview. The third candidate was able to understand what I was saying to him and asked good questions about what we did. This casual back and forth was helpful in assessing his demeanor and grasp of technology. He was a manager, so he wasn't actively managing servers and such, but knew what I was talking about and not just buzzwords. I was able to recommend him to the committee and I left his department seven years later with a good reference. Things that stand out to me about people, especially managers: proper dress, profanity during the conversation, excessive sarcasm, and any hints of poor anger management. I may be old school, but I want a manager that doesn't yell or swear at me during our interactions and isn't sarcastic.

  3. Beware University Wifi on Best Phone For a Wi-Fi-Only Location? · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I work at a university and we've tried to set up the same things on our wifi network. The problem is that in order to use our wifi, you have to log in via a web browser first. Additionally, whenever the device sleeps, it releases the dhcp ip, so when it awakes, you have to redo this process unless you can get on a whitelist. Our departmental devices can, but I doubt they'd allow a student this convenience. You may wish to wait until you get to college and see how the network functions before buying something.

  4. The mention of Open Source... on Ford's New Radar Technology Based On Open Source · · Score: 1

    is probably a way to avoid liability if it ends up causing an accident. "Your honor, it wasn't our technology, it was the linux geeks who wrote the software that caused the crash."

  5. Re:I noticed this during the inauguration of Obama on CNN Uses P2P Video & Adds Terrible EULA · · Score: 1

    I could throttle my outbound traffic, but I only want to throttle the outbound traffic of the video, not everything else. But its possible. Another thing is that the ip's that I saw flashing by on Little Snitch's activity monitor weren't local. I was getting connections from other .edu domains but 10 states away. Lots of people here were watching the inauguration, but I didn't see one connection to anyone here. All the connections were outside our lan.

  6. I noticed this during the inauguration of Obama on CNN Uses P2P Video & Adds Terrible EULA · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I have Little Snitch on my mac and noticed all the OUTGOING bandwidth being used while watching their video stream. After I figured out what was going on, I went to MSNBC instead. The quality is great at CNN and the idea is decent, but unless I read the EULA (which I didn't beforehand), I wouldn't know my contribution to the cloud. My employer monitors outgoing bandwidth usage and I could have been in trouble for high flows if I would have watched the whole thing. Being at a university, we have a large pipe, but I think I needed to be asked first a little more explicitly if they could use it.

  7. The bigger picture on Blizzard Made Me Change My Name · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I think that the real meat of the issue got overshadowed by your commentary on your personal experience. What happens to our virtual identities? What happens when you can't have the name you've built? The same thing happens on AIM and other sites. When you are forced by circumstances to develop a new name, something changes. I'm hoping the discussion here will start to address issues like prospects for a global name registry or a solution to this issue.

  8. Re:FAT BOY, not little boy. on U.S. Offers Glimpse at Manhattan Project Facility · · Score: 1

    from Google: Fat Man and Little Boy

  9. Don't forget electricity on A Fair Telecommuting Budget? · · Score: 1

    My ex-wife had an office in the front of our house for two years. Our electric bills jumped more than I thought they would from increased electricity. In Florida, most people turn the air conditioning to a warmer temp during the day to save money. With her home all day, the a/c was on, as well as the tv and stereo. Make sure you factor in increased utilities to the equation. Plus, if I recall correctly, the IRS won't give you a deduction for home office unless its 100% used for work. If that's the case, you are losing part of your home for storage and your use. If there are a lot of files and things to store at home, make sure you don't end up using your garage for work items.

  10. Solar? on The Wireless Backpack Repeater · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I wonder if here in Florida we could rig up a solar panel that makes enough power for this rig. That would make it lighter... but it might not work in places with less sun. Maybe a smaller battery and the solar panel?

  11. By the time they know it, its already too late on Japanese Digital TV Viewers Complain About DRM Restrictions · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The article didn't say that people were returning the tv's... too bad. People can complain all they want but they are still buying. Those of us who know better and aren't buying are either too few to matter or will end up HAVING to buy when analog tv goes away. Its just a matter of time for us in America...

  12. How much of this is just OGG fans voting? on Vorbis And Musepack Win 128kbps Multiformat Test · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I read some of the results, and I'm not a Vorbis hater or anything, but how much of this is open source fans voting for their favorite codec? I looked at the test just now, but can't tell if it was blind or not.

  13. Is this named after the same Dirac? on Dirac: BBC Open Source Video Codec · · Score: 2, Interesting
    http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathemati cians/Dirac.html

    We have a library named after him here at Florida State University. Is this the same guy?

  14. Hopefully the cordless phones will stay out on FCC Opens Wireless 3.6GHZ Band · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'd hate to see a repeat of the 2.4GHz problems I see with other unlicensed operations interfering with data services.

  15. Re:Leakes on Projectionists Using Night Vision Goggles in Theaters · · Score: 1

    Yeah, they arrested a guy who was borrowing screeners from a producer and bootlegging them for the internet. I guess they needed this case to overshadow the arrest of one of their own...

  16. Re:They're not playing fair... on PlayFair Pulled Due to DMCA Request · · Score: 2, Insightful
    By this same logic I could get upset that the Xbox games I paid for and legally own I can't play on my PC. When you download iTunes AACs, you know up front that they play on the iTunes app and iPods only. I don't think that it is fair to bash Apple in this. If you don't like it, don't buy them. Isn't everyone always saying that the free market decides these matters? If that is the case, the people complaining are in the minority since Apple is the market leader.

    Will Apple STAY the leader? Maybe not if enough people buy other products that allow wider use. Until then...

  17. Re:The biggest issue I have.. on CMU First To Qualify For DARPA Grand Challenge · · Score: 1

    This is the current trend with all industry, not just the government. Most companies have scaled back R&D because of budget cuts, and outsource this to universities. The engineering school I work for has several military and private sector R&D projects. Hopefully the bright students who work on this stuff get jobs when they graduate. The companies don't have to spend as much money, but they still get products and new technology.

  18. M$ should donate the tech, Windoze PC's cause spam on Gates on Spam · · Score: 2, Interesting
    *IF* we used this crappy system, M$ shouldn't make a penny off it. Hijacked windoze pc's are a major source of spam, along with buggy versions of Outlook relaying email trojans. It is the LEAST M$ could do to help fix their problem.

    I'd rather get paid by the sender to read email. I'd sign up for all sorts of spam if I got a penny every time I read one. Emails I sent to my friends would be paid for by the money I made from spammers, and the excess could buy me a new Dual G5.

  19. Re:Anybody seen a hardcore unix book for Mac admin on Learning Unix for Mac OS X Panther · · Score: 1
    Um.. its not that easy. Not everything is in httpd.conf. Specifically, I went to turn on .htaccess. On other OS's it may be in httpd.conf, but in Panther you have to edit another config file that is named differently on every system in /etc/httpd/sites, which is different behavior from even 10.2 Jaguar or 10.3 client. These are the little things that can't be explained away with "its just another unix, the files are all there just in different locations." While Apple has done a pretty good job adding comments to important files, there are still some holes that I hope someone writes a good book or how-to to fill.

    I'm not a unix expert. I don't pretend to be. But that is why I want a good book that goes deeper than how to use ls-l, and is current for this version of the OS. There are probably a lot of things I shouldn't be messing with, but that is why I set up a test server at home to play with and use to learn.

  20. Anybody seen a hardcore unix book for Mac admins? on Learning Unix for Mac OS X Panther · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I've seen a few of these introductory unix books for Mac admins, but what if you need something more? If you have trouble configuring Apache, the Apache website doesn't help much because OS X has files in different locations. I know how to use ls... does this or any other book get into a deeper level?

  21. Maybe a mac with a xbox2 agp card on Leaked X-Box 2 Specs Include PPC CPU · · Score: 1

    That'd be a nice add-on for the current macs in a couple years when this thing finally ships. Maybe M$ could make an agp card with the xbox2 chips on it. Or, maybe an iMac wtih an xbox2 built in from the factory. That'd be a great space saver in the dorms, and with that 17" flat panel it'd look HD.

  22. My $14 USB Compactflash drive works w/o drivers... on Review of Dell's Digital Jukebox · · Score: 1

    Too bad the Dell doesn't work work as a data device without their drivers. My cheapo usb drive works with PC's and Macs with the OS built-in drivers. Maybe Longhorn? Hahhaha don't hold your breath...

  23. But did they license... on H2G2 Cast Finalized, Starts Shooting in April · · Score: 1

    Bable Fish from Altavista? Or are they gonna sue?

  24. Re:Internet conneciton on What's Inside the Mars Rovers · · Score: 1
    Mars Rover used as Spam Relay!!

    Just some satire that fit...

  25. Too bad they didn't use this to their advantage on Electronic Burglary in the Senate · · Score: 1
    They shouldn't have reported it. They should have started a campaign of mis-information. Let them think one thing from what they've been reading in the files, then do something different. This could have been very useful later this year Too bad it leaked.

    "They are gonna get Ross Perot for VP! I read it on the secret files!"