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Comment Word of mouth, or networking. (Score 1) 263

by 7grain (#57702392) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How Can You Find a Good IT Consultant?

There a lot of knee-jerk responses here about what the problem is, but not a lot about how to find a good consultant

Having worked for myself providing IT services for small businesses in my area, I found that the best way to connect with new customers is word of mouth. I found the majority of my best customers that way.

You come in contact with local businesses that need IT support all the time. Just ask a manager of every not-franchise that you're in who they use for IT support, and if they like them. Get a name and number.

Consider attending local networking events for small businesses. You'll probably quickly meet a new IT provider face-to-face who is hungry for business. Also, other small business owners in your area who hire their own IT consultants. And hey, if you happen to live in the Boise, Idaho area, hit me up here. :-D

Regarding the fix: Updates can be scheduled easily using group policy. Spool up a WSUS server. Manage your updates with policy. This may or may not be more expensive than your wife's company wants (depending particularly if they have a domain and server in place), but it's less intrusive than asking the customer to change OS, and will definitely give her the results she wants.

Regarding warranties - Warranty for work already completed should be honored, if it's a true warranty. Examine the terms. But that doesn't keep you from changing consultants. At the very least, get a second opinion.

Good luck.
Yahoo!

Microsoft and Yahoo Reach Deal 301

Posted by kdawson from the rhymes-with-sting dept.
e9th writes "We know that Microsoft failed last February in its attempt to buy Yahoo. Now, Advertising Age reports that they've reached a deal. Instead of a buyout, the two will enter into a revenue sharing agreement, and Bing will become Yahoo's default search engine. The meat of the AdAge article can be found in Yahoo News. This deal may give Google something to worry about."

Comment Tyson and Krulwich FTW (Score 1) 799

by 7grain (#28685703) Attached to: Tomorrow's Science Heroes?
This is a no-brainer!

1. Check out Neil deGrasse Tyson, who hosts the excellent show Nova ScienceNOW, currently in it's third season. It runs just after NOVA for several weeks in a row.

2. Try Robert Krulwich, who co-hosts the great NPR show & podcast RadioLab, with the equally wonderful Jad Abumrad. They are great for driving and listening.

Both are brilliant at making complicated sciencey topics seem fun and interesting. My 13 year old daughter enjoys both shows immensely with me. RadioLab, especially, is fun and funny, and you can gather up all podcasts on iTunes (there are about 25 full shows presently, plus lots of smaller in-between podcasts).

Both of these guys appear frequently on public radio shows too, like Ira Flatow's Science Friday, which is also good but a little more current eventsy.

Hope you enjoy these!
Classic Games (Games)

LucasArts To Re-Release Old Games Through Steam 147

Posted by Soulskill from the i-fired-up-x-wing-on-dosbox-just-two-days-ago dept.
LucasArts today announced that they will soon be releasing games from their back catalog through Steam. The releases begin this Wednesday with a group of eight games, including Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, The Dig, LOOM, and Star Wars: Battlefront II. This is apparently just "the first round of releases," so we can doubtless expect to see more of their old games before long. Joystiq spoke with LucasArts CEO Darrell Rodriguez, who said the company is considering updated versions of the old games, depending on how well next week's launch of Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition goes. He also hinted at the possibility that some games could be ported to mobile gaming devices, such as the PSP Go and the iPhone.
Science

First Acoustic Black Hole Created 165

Posted by Soulskill from the for-music-that-really-sucks dept.
KentuckyFC writes "One of the many curious properties of Bose Einstein Condensates (BECs) is that the flow of sound through them is governed by the same equations that describe how light is bent by a gravitational field. Now, a group of Israeli physicists have exploited this idea to create an acoustic black hole in a BEC. The team created a supersonic flow of atoms within the BEC, a flow that prevents any phonon caught in it from making headway. The region where the flow changes from subsonic to supersonic is an event horizon, because any phonon unlucky enough to stray into the supersonic region can never escape. The real prize is not the acoustic black hole itself but what it makes possible: the first observation of Hawking radiation. Quantum mechanics predicts that pairs of phonons with opposite momentum ought to be constantly springing in and out of existence in a BEC. Were one of the pair to stray across the event horizon into the supersonic region, it could never escape. However, the other would be free to go on its way. This stream of phononic radiation away from an acoustic black hole would be the first observation of Hawking radiation. The team hasn't gotten that far yet, but it can't be long now before either they or their numerous competitors make this leap."
Space

Inflatable Tower Could Climb To the Edge of Space 296

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the out-of-breath dept.
MonkeyClicker writes with mention of a proposal that could see an inflatable tower helping to carry people to the edge of space without the need for rocket propulsion. This would function in place of previous space elevator designs which featured a large cable and could be completed much faster, if proponents of the project are to be believed. "To stay upright and withstand winds, full-scale structures would require gyroscopes and active stabilization systems in each module. The team modeled a 15-kilometer tower made up of 100 modules, each one 150 meters tall and 230 meters in diameter, built from inflatable tubes 2 meters across. Quine estimates it would weigh about 800,000 tonnes when pressurized — around twice the weight of the world's largest supertanker."
Games

The Best Achievements 107

Posted by Soulskill from the collecting-nerd-points dept.
Like them or not, achievements have become a staple of modern gaming, giving players goals to strive for and a measuring stick with which they can compare themselves to random strangers on the internet. Eurogamer discusses why they've become so popular, and takes a look at some of the most entertaining examples. Quoting: "... we mock Achievement points because they spell out in large numbers what is so pathetic about video games. But we also celebrate them, because, when used in funny, creative or interesting ways, they also spell out what is so compelling and wonderful about video games. Because for every Achievement in which you have to do nothing more than play through a tutorial there's another that subverts convention, rewarding you for skipping it instead. For every fetch quest that has you collecting dogtags for the millionth time, there's another that makes you fight the baddy with your arms tied behind your back. And for every Achievement you earn in jest for pressing the start button, there's another that only rewards the single best player in the world."
Earth

Global Warming Stopped By Adding Lime To Sea 899

Posted by CmdrTaco from the but-then-nobody-can-have-a-good-gin-and-tonic dept.
Antiglobalism writes "Scientists say they have found a workable way of reducing CO2 levels in the atmosphere by adding lime to seawater. And they think it has the potential to dramatically reverse CO2 accumulation in the atmosphere, reports Cath O'Driscoll in SCI's Chemistry & Industry magazine published today."
NASA

Send the ISS To the Moon 387

Posted by kdawson from the one-of-these-days-alice dept.
jmichaelg writes "Michael Benson is proposing that NASA send the ISS to the moon instead of leaving it in low earth orbit. (While we're at it, we should re-brand it as the 'International Space Ship.') He points out that it's already designed to be moved periodically to higher orbits so instead of just boosting it a few miles, strap on some ion engines and put it in orbit around the moon instead of the earth. That would provide an initial base for the astronauts going to the moon and give the ISS a purpose other than performing yet more studies on the effect of micro gravity on humans. Benson concludes: 'Let's begin the process of turning the ISS from an Earth-orbiting caterpillar into an interplanetary butterfly.'"
Media

MPAA Scores First P2P Jury Conviction 335

Posted by Soulskill from the connection-reset-by-jury-of-peers dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The MPAA must be celebrating. According to the BitTorrent news site Slyck.com, the Department of Justice is proclaiming their first P2P criminal copyright conviction, against an Elite Torrents administrator. The press release notes, 'The jury was presented with evidence that Dove was an administrator of a small group of Elite Torrents members known as "Uploaders," who were responsible for supplying pirated content to the group. At sentencing, which is scheduled for Sept. 9, 2008, Dove faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.'"
Government

Japan Imposes "Fine On Fat" 1271

Posted by timothy from the fat-man-vs.-the-state dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A recently-introduced law in Japan requires all businesses to have mandatory obesity checks (video link) for all their employees and employees' family members over the age of 40, CNN reports. If the employee or family member is deemed obese, and does not lose the extra fat soon, their employer faces large fines. The legislated upper limit for the waistline is 33.5" for men, and 35.5" for women. Should America adopt universal health insurance, could we live to see the same kind of individual health regulations imposed on us by the government? By comparison, the average waistline in America in 2005 was 39 inches for men, 37 inches for women."
Microsoft

Customer Loses Xbox 360 Artwork During Repair 330

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the customer-disservice dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The Consumerist is reporting that one unlucky individual had to send his Xbox 360 in for repairs. The catch is he had spent a great deal of time getting signatures and artwork on the outside of the console from notable members of the gaming industry. He specifically asked and even sent a letter along with his console requesting that the outside of the case be returned intact. When he got it back it was once again, plain white. Assuming that this is a genuine claim, regardless of the circumstances surrounding the missing/cleaned case Microsoft should at least apologize to the guy."
Technology

Should Addictive Tech Come With a Health Warning? 329

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the nanny-state dept.
holy_calamity writes "Academics researching how technology addiction affects businesses and employees say 'habit-forming' gadgets like Blackberries should be dispensed along with warnings about the effect they can have on your life. 'We don't want to be in a situation in a few years similar to that with fast food or tobacco today. We need to pay attention to how people react to potentially habit-forming technologies.'"

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As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality. -- Albert Einstein

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