Years ago, a friend of my tried an experiment. First he mailed a letter to me, properly addressed, and had me call when it arrived. Then he sent another letter with just my last name, street (no building or apartment number) and zip code. They both took the same time to get to me, and the same results were had with his other participants. Across town, same state, cross country, it didn't matter.

For all its faults, the USPS does (and has always done) an overall terrific job. And for pennies.

From the article:

Helpfully, Microsoft has pulled that advisory. Going to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/advisory/2847140 gets you a 404 error message now.

Thanks, Microsoft!

Proper procedures for any IT or security dismissal (or really, for anyone with access to sensitive/proprietary information) is escorting them from the building, disabling their access while they are being told that they're terminated. Any external access they have is revoked by the time the get to the front door; any shared accounts they know (like root, su or domain admin) have their external access suspended until the passwords can be changed. Collect their IDs, corporate cell phone, USB devices, etc. before they leave the premises; they can make an appointment to come back and get them after they've been inspected for any proprietary information. Don't let them go back to their desks and get anything - either send someone to get it for them, or tell them they can get it when they return for the other stuff.

This needs to be part of the process for ANY termination, even if the employee has been a model of behavior and is taking their change of status phenomenally well. People in stressful situations can behave erratically and unpredictably, and the organization must protect themselves against an unexpected reprisal. I've seen people throw away extremely generous separation packages in favor of revenge via venting on Facebook or sending abusive/threatening emails to the CEO. And I wondered what the hell was going through their heads, right up until I got downsized myself in the middle of the recession. I chose to accept, regroup and move on, but I now have a much better understanding of the stress something like that brings to bear.

Also true of PC vs Mac. It boggles my mind that people would be willing to pay double or triple the price for comparable hardware, white plastic, a half-eaten-fruit logo and an (admittedly decent) OS.

Apparently, the pond dividing us is somewhere in the Plain states. Or maybe Lake Erie?

Green rock, from outer space, found in northern Africa?

Miss Tessmacher! Cancel the tickets to Addis Ababa! We're going to Morroco!

You were one of the first Hollywood writers with an online presence, hanging out in newsgroups during production of Babylon 5. My memories of that were tidbits and insights from you, along with frequent "no story submissions" reminders and threats of your departure if the story ideas didn't stop. How do you remember that experience? Was it worth the hassle? And do you view the seeming explosion of writers, directors, producers and actors on social media as a positive or negative for the industry overall?

Amazingly, the "twighlight" of data centers coincides with the twilight of spell-checking.

I was about to make the same point, but you stated it better than I could. The only change I'd make is to give your "detector of statements contrary to fact" its proper name.

I want a bullshit detector. That would change politics as we know it.

Popcorn? You're munching popcorn?

Hmph. Everyone knows corn nuts are the best snack for well-reasoned and rational comment watching!

Udacity and Coursera both offer free online college-level courses in programming. Udacity's focus is primarily on Python (at least in the courses I've taken), but it looks like Coursera's offerings include C++. Any of these should give him a good start in object-oriented programming.

I think they meant "laser pointer". If I move it fast enough, the image displayed on the paper gets burned into my retina for as many as 10 seconds. And the best part is, I can reuse the paper endlessly!