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User: TheEldest

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  1. Re:"we have guns" . . . on Ask Slashdot: Best Incentives For IT Workers? · · Score: 5, Informative

    I think short term rewards help more than long term.

    For my team when you're above your execution rate for a week you are eligible to work from home one day the next week. In general, no one does anything when they work from home but to be eligible, they have to get their work done in the office. It's effectively getting people to work harder 4 days a week for an extra day off.

    Obviously, this may or may not work with your environment.

  2. Re:Short answer on Ask Slashdot: When Does Time Tracking at Work Go Too Far? · · Score: 1

    1. Send out resumes.
    2. Start taking 8-10 minute breaks every couple hours. Force the issue. Let them call you out on having irritable bowels. Sometimes it's good to make everyone uncomfortable.

    Realistically, though: I worked in a call center for a really really big company here in the states and they never tracked bathroom time. I'd say it's borderline illegal because of what you can infer from the data but I don't know that there's legal precedent one way or the other.

    If your company is like mine you have an anonymous phone/e-mail line for inappropriate behavior or concerns. I'd leave a message that the new policies make you feel uncomfortable because you need to use the facilities fairly frequently due to a medical condition. (doesn't matter if it's true).

  3. Re:If my work inbox is any indication... on What Would a Post-Email World Look Like? · · Score: 2

    That's not an e-mail problem, that's a communication problem. I get spam snail-mail that pretends to be important and from my insurance company. I get voicemails that start with, "This is an important message for ..."

    The problems with e-mail are the same problems we have with phones, texts, snail-mail and any other type of communication (photo-bombing, anyone?). Part of the population will always try to take advantage of the rest of the population. Ignore that then look at the rest.

    E-mail is a good form of communication because it lets you communicate non-immediatly. Some users may expect immediate responses but that's a user issue--not an e-mail issue.

    Why do these stories continue to come up? How about this one, "Moore's law will stop this year!". Yeah, never heard that one before...

  4. Re:No ethernet... on Geekbench Confirms Ivy Bridge MacBook Pro and iMac · · Score: 1

    I'm sure they're thinking is Thunderbolt docks. Full speed for all devices including displays. (not that I agree, just saying it's not a huge headache)

  5. IOMeter on Ask Slashdot: How Do You Test Storage Media? · · Score: 1

    To answer the actual question: IOMeter. It's a load generator / benchmark. You can generate loads to test a storage device for your specific requirements and see if performance is up to snuff. You can also generate loads to stress a device until you halt it.

    As someone else mentioned, throw bunches of read/writes at a drive for a couple days then put it into production with a reliable system to gracefully handle failure. You want to find drives that would fail in the first couple weeks and keep them from hitting your production environment.

  6. Re:You're right. on Desktop Linux Is Dead · · Score: 1

    Not if you like mods...

  7. Re:Formula change on Apple To Issue a 'Fix' For iPhone 4 Reception Perception · · Score: 1

    Most sensors don't have a linear response. Signal strength is almost certainly logarithmic.

  8. Re:Yep on Dell Selling Faulty PCs · · Score: 1

    With a company the size of dell, a finite number of e-mails is effectively 'anecdotal'.

  9. Re:Integrated graphics in the CPU? on Next Gen Intel CPUs Move To Yet Another Socket · · Score: 1

    That's why Intel is coming out with 2 sockets. 1155 and 2011. The 2011 is the non-IGP socket, 1155 is for IGP use.

    The situation isn't changing. Intel will make an IGP and a non-IGP solution. Same as now. Same as it's been for quite a while.

    If you don't want integrated, then don't use it.

  10. Re:Linux on Next Gen Intel CPUs Move To Yet Another Socket · · Score: 1

    AMD/ATI has started a new open source driver project for their video cards (http://www.anandtech.com/show/2338). AMD is at least working for good linux support though it may not necessarily be up to snuff today (I haven't looked at benchmarks between win/linux on AMD/ATI's cards).

    At least they're trying?

  11. Re:Ubuntu on Which Linux For Non-Techie Windows Users? · · Score: 1

    Contrary to what most basic users think, they can make the switch to Win7 or Ubuntu pretty easily. Especially for basic internet and e-mail (which realistically is the extent of most people's computer use). I just switched my parents to Windows 7 and asked them what they thought. Their comments: "We didn't really notice anything".

    The problem with switching family to a *nix solution is still going to be software. There are certain programs that your family will want to use that is simply unavailable. First that comes to mind is TurboTax. If you plan on switching family's OS, make sure you're not making more work for yourself down the road.

    And really, with the Win7 family pack (3 upgrades for $149), Win7 is a realistic alternative to Win XP.

  12. Re:Conversion to mass in kg on New Bounds On the Higgs Boson Mass · · Score: 4, Informative

    The higgs is sort of the measureable side effect of the physics that 'give' particles mass.

    Think of it this way. The Electro Magnetic field "gives" particles charge. (or the charge in a particle interacts with other charges through the EM field).

    There are some particles that sorta 'show up' in the equations when you're dealing with the EM fields (photon, W & Z bosons).

    The same sort of things happens with mass. Some physicists came up with an addendum to the current equations that would explain how the mass of particles interacts. These equations have in them (depending on version) 1 or more particles (Higgs bosons).

    So it's not so much that the Higgs gives particles mass, but by detecting the Higgs, we prove the existence of the Higgs field which allows mass in particles to interact.

  13. Re:Holy shit? on Heart Monitors In Middle School Gym Class? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Learning to exercise and keep yourself in shape is a part of the cirriculum.

    Start looking up child obesity numbers and you'll see that schools need to be doing more, not less.

    I'd imagine the program is to let kids know where their heart rates are, and where they should be to get good exercise. Even if they are recording everything, it's pretty meaningless information. You'd know a person's heart rate from 7th grade.

    The bigger issue here is whether your kids are getting exercise and whether they're overweight. If they're heavy, do everything possible to encourage exercise. Once the habits are set, they're incredibly difficult to change once they're adults.

  14. Re:I don't know, but... on Is Typing Ruining Your Ability To Spell? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The OP didn't say he relies on spellcheck, but that his fingers know how to spell when his head doesn't.

    I've got the same problem. Words like receive are no problem when I'm typing, but if I put pen to paper, I need to stop and think. When many people type, they think the word, not the letter. Their hands put the words from thought to type with no intermediate thought needed.

    I spell by muscle memory, not thought. I'm sure the same works for people who write all the time. The pen just makes the words they need.

    So how about you get off your high horse, read what the OP actually said instead of what you thought he said, and fuck off.

  15. Re:But does it work? on Court Orders Breathalyzer Code Opened, Reveals Mess · · Score: 1

    Blood and Urine tests.

  16. Re:But does it work? on Court Orders Breathalyzer Code Opened, Reveals Mess · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This seems to make sense to me. The breathalizer is supposed to measure the blood alcohol content, and this is done by measuring the alcohol content in air expelled by the *lungs* (with a knowlege of partial pressures).

    But if you equally weight beginning readings with ending readings, then you can be skewed by the first reading, which comes from the air in the mouth, instead of the lungs (giving low scores for people with time since their last drink, and people high scores with a recent last drink).

    I would think that this method would give a more accurate reading by filtering out the readings from 'mouth air' and giving preference to 'lung air'.

    But regardles, tests should have been done using both methods, and comparing to blood test to see which returns more consistantly accurate results. I wonder if those tests need to be made public as well.

  17. Re:I find it amusing... on Bethesda Talks DLC Size and Limitations · · Score: 2, Informative

    Point of Interest:

    The unfinished room was in the Mage *Guild* Tower in the Imperial City. The whole Arcane University was there, it was just one room that was locked. It was added later in the DLC The Orrery.

    There was also a DLC called the Mage Tower. This was a house mod released all at once. I has no relation to the locked room in the Mage Guild Tower. (now that I think of it, I think the Mage Guild Tower is officially called the Archmage Tower)

  18. Re:Profit-making strategy on Bethesda Talks DLC Size and Limitations · · Score: 5, Informative

    The point of the article, though, isn't whether they should make DLC. It's whether they should do additional content in a DLC or as a full expansion. If you remember Morrowind, there were two huge expansion packs (Bloodmoon and Tribunal). Each with an amount of play almost equal to the original game.

    But Knights of the Nine, a DLC for Oblivion, only gave 10 - 15 hours of play (that of a standard primary quest line).

    Easier and quicker to release and sold for less than an expansion.

    Personally, I'd like an expansion over DLC (if this is the given choice). I'm ok waiting.

  19. Orson Scott Card on Cracking the Code of Bacterial Communication · · Score: 1

    Didn't Orson Scott Card come up with this in Xenocide?

  20. Re:Unexplained Achievement "The Maker"? on Slashdot Launches User Achievements · · Score: 1

    I hope that was sarcasm.

  21. Re:I think its infected my car. on Conficker Worm Strike Reports Start Rolling In · · Score: 1

    Ewww.

  22. Re:Of course they are making money on Microsoft Says No Profit In Vista-XP Downgrades · · Score: 1

    It would be the exact same cost to downgrade to Windows XP Home as to go to Windows XP Pro.

    If it'll cost the same, why not give everyone XP Pro so that they don't need to ever worry about lacking features?

  23. Re:Am I missing something? on Obama Staffers Followed Palin's Email Lead On Inauguration Day · · Score: 1

    Haven't seen a post that pointed this out yet.

    Palin used a non government e-mail for government business, because she didn't want the e-mails to be recorded.

    Obama isn't using non government e-mail, his press staff is using it. And what sort of information do you think the press staff would have access too? Maybe information that they'd be sharing with the public?

    Everyone wants to point and say, "Double Standard" when it's not actually the case. RTFA.

  24. Re:This is all true however... on What Programming Language For Linux Development? · · Score: 1

    What?

    Are you a self proclaimed phisher of men?

  25. Re:Best of intentions on BitTorrent Calls UDP Report "Utter Nonsense" · · Score: 1

    How many times while writing that did your parents tell you to keep it down?

    A degree is good for getting someone to look at your application. Many places will start to wonder why you didn't have the motivation to go to College, so will just trash your resume.

    Oh, but you don't need a job? They're for the sheeple....