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Comment Re:I don't think your hangup is loyalty... (Score 5, Insightful) 735

...it's the fear of the unknown. What if it's not as good as it looks? If you're making more money and gaining an hour and a half every day it's a no brainer.

As my mother always said: "Never love anything that can't love you back." A company is a perfect example of this. And you're absolutely correct that fear of the unknown is a factor. That isn't necessarilly a bad thing -- because the new job might have unknown deficiencies (as well as benefits). Its a cost-benefit analysis without full information, rather than a no brainer:

current job:
negative aspects (less pay; long commute)
positive aspects (friends, including among management)

new job:
negative aspects (no friends, others??)
positive aspects (more pay, short commute, others??)

The question is, do the known positives make up for the risk of the unknown negatives?

Comment Re:Why Drupal? (Score 1) 88

Configuration management of a Drupal system is an absolute mess. I've yet to see a solid set of procedures for moving code and configuration forward (dev ---> test ---> staging ---> production) when the production database (with its convoluted schema) is continually altered due to content contributions. The features module (http://drupal.org/project/features) may be the best avenue in the future, but it is nowhere near a full solution.

On an unrelated note, apparently the developers of the new FCC site don't understand how to rid their site of persistent cookies. They may want to look at adding "ini_set('session.cookie_lifetime', 0);" to their settings.php file.

Comment Ubuntu is the Bad Linux (Score 1) 778

> But now Ubuntu is the Bad Linux

Really? Says who? Link please!!

There are many people (myself included) who favor other distributions (for various reasons -- including simply not wanting to go with the leading distro). But I've never heard anyone refer to Ubuntu in any such negative fashion. This post seems agenda driven.

Comment Re:As a voter who normally leans Democrat... (Score 1) 1128

> No way he is a dummy

President Obama hides his academic record, so we can only guess, but the evidence does not suggest he's any kind of genius. Consider:
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=74877

Yes -- an anti-Obama editorial -- but I would ask you the same thing you asked: "Please provide evidence" that what it says isn't valid.

Comment Re:As a voter who normally leans Democrat... (Score 1, Insightful) 1128

> there will be a significant drooling moron effect

Much like the effect that got your post modded up instead of tagged as troll/flamebait? Consider:
"whatever brain trust send these whackos their talking points"
"right-wing swamp"
"what happens in the barn stays in the barn"
"the Alaskan Christine O'Donnell"
"teabaggers"
"sit quietly on the back of the bus"

Insults and condescension through the entire message. You're like that ass in my namesake movie Forrest Gump who beats his girlfriend while complaining about Vietnam and Nixon.
Software

Word Processors — One Writer's Further Retreat 391

ch-dickinson writes "In 2003, I posted an essay ('Word Processors: One Writer's Retreat') here about my writing experience — professional and personal — that led to a novel draft in vi(m), and I outlined reasons I chose a simple non-WYSIWYG text editor rather than a more full-featured word processor. A few novels later, in 2010 now, I decided to try a text editor that predates even vi: ed. I'd run across ed about 20 years ago, working at a software company and vaguely recalled navigation of a text file meant mentally mapping such commands as +3 and -2: ed didn't click with me then. But writing a novel draft is mule work, one sentence after another, straight ahead — no navigating the text file. The writer must get the story down and my goal is 1,000 words a day, every day, until I'm done. I have an hour to 90 minutes for this. So when I returned after two decades, I was impressed with how efficiently ed generates plain text files." Read on for the author's brief account of why he looked a few decades back in the software universe to find the right tool for the job.

Comment Re:Does anyone.... (Score 2) 156

My favorite distro. YaST is the big difference, IMHO -- other distros have nothing like it. I've got OpenSuse 11.2 installed on my daughter's laptop (and Ubuntu on my wife's, but I much prefer the former); if my daughter can have all she needs to on it and not complain too much, they're definitely doing something right.
Operating Systems

OpenSUSE 11.3 Is Here 156

lukehashj writes "The openSUSE Project is pleased to announce the release of the latest incarnation of openSUSE, with support for 32-bit and 64-bit systems. OpenSUSE 11.3 is packed with new features and updates including SpiderOak to sync your files across the Internet for free, Rosegarden for free editing of your audio files, improved indexing with Tracker, and updates to Mozilla Firefox, and Thunderbird."

Comment Re:Almost Always User Error (Score 1) 930

Something similar having happened to me, my personal story can perhaps provide one data point. This goes back about 20 years, but I believe I was driving a Pontiac station wagon (ironically, I also had a Toyota Corolla at the time....). I was driving along a somewhat curvy road at about 45mph, when the car started accelerating greatly. Although I repeatedly lifted my foot and tried to hit the brakes, the brakes did not seem willing to depress and the car kept accelerating.. It seemed within moments I was over 60mph, and my heart was about to burst through my chest. Then, for no apparent reason, the auto-acceleration seemed to disappear and the car was back in my control....

It has always been my hypothesis that the floor mat had became entangled with the accelerator AND possibly the brake as well. This could explain why the hitting the brake did not seem to function as expected. As it is, I could never tell that this was the case, because the car's jump in speed happened so quickly that I had no time/capability of looking down during the incident. Afterward, the mat was in a forward position, but I can't say for sure that it was the cause.

My one regret (shame?) is that I didn't think fast enough to try putting the car into neutral or pulling the key. We should really train new drivers to think about what they would do in these and related situations (e.g., if the brakes fail -- try emergency brake, low gear, etc.)
Image

Police Called Over 11-Year-Old's Science Project 687

garg0yle writes "Police in San Diego were called to investigate an 11-year-old's science project, consisting of 'a motion detector made out of an empty Gatorade bottle and some electronics,' after the vice-principal came to the conclusion that it was a bomb. Charges aren't being laid against the youth, but it's being recommended that he and his family 'get counseling.' Apparently, the student violated school policies — I'm assuming these are policies against having any kind of independent thought?"

Comment First evidence of tool use in invertebrates (Score 1) 205

> the researchers believe is the first evidence of tool use in an invertebrate animal.

Well, granted the article notes that there are different definitions of tool use, but consider ants: e.g., Tool use by the forest ant Aphaenogaster rudis: Ecology and task allocation (http://www.springerlink.com/content/u0176rl71k572870/).

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