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Comment Re:Vacation time (Score 1) 610

by swfranklin (#34478430) Attached to: Corporations Hiring Hooky Hunters
I had an employer several years ago that gave decent vacation time (1-4 weeks depending on tenure), and they gave 40 hours a year of sick time. The cool part was that your last paycheck of the year, you got paid for whatever sick time you hadn't used. Great incentive not to use it!

The company got bought by a big corp and that bennie was the first to go :-(

Comment Re:Verizon (Score 1) 273

by swfranklin (#34427006) Attached to: Verizon LTE Can Use the Monthly Data Allotment In 32 Minutes

True, they are usually the fastest network. At least the cap isn't only 2 GB like on some other networks -_-

That's far from my experience; I travel with a Verizon and an AT&T USB modem and use whichever is faster. I have found that most of the time Verizon is 3G service, where AT&T is sometimes not - but when I do get 3G from AT&T, it's always WAY faster than Verizon.

And it's not just me...

Comment Re:Who cares? (Score 1) 120

by swfranklin (#34421520) Attached to: Social Media Accounts Part of Deceased Oklahomans' Estates
I worked with a contract programmer several years ago, we kept in touch as he travelled around the country. He emailed me when he moved to Des Moines, and about 6 months later I emailed that I would be travelling through there - message bounced back. I checked his FB profile and found a message from his brother that he'd passed away, with an email address for the brother. Most of my FB "Friends" are people that I don't see or talk to one-on-one for years at a time, but FB lets us keep in touch. I would greatly appreciate family notices on their profiles if they were to die.
PlayStation (Games)

Submission + - US Air Force builds supercomputer out of PS3s (gamepron.com)

Submitted by UgLyPuNk
UgLyPuNk writes: The Condor Cluster is considered to be the fastest interactive computer in the entire Defense Department, so we’re assuming they’re not just playing LittleBigPlanet on the thing. It boasts 168 separate graphical processing units, and is capable of 500 trillion floating point operations per second (500 TFLOPS), thanks to 84 coordinating servers in a parallel array.

Comment Re:Not really (Score 1) 504

by swfranklin (#34371554) Attached to: How Apple Had a Spectacular Year

For instance, if Apple really was acting like a startup and willing to "cannibalize its own products" as it were, we would have seen a CDMA iPhone a while ago. However, if Apple released one of those they may lose their choice revenue sharing with some of the exclusive iPhone carriers. So instead they stuck with GSM which means thats in two of the most important markets on the planet, US and Japan, the iPhone is relegated to the shittiest carrier.

In the US, at least, you got it backwards. AT&T's data service has problems, sure. But it's faster and higher capacity than Verizon's. The troubles are CAUSED by the iPhone and the extra load users have put on the network. AT&T has had issues, Verizon would have been reduced to a steaming pile of slag.

Comment Re:what about us poor iPhone 3G users... (Score 1) 212

by swfranklin (#34308804) Attached to: Apple iOS 4.2 Hands-On
I had a 3G on iOS 4.0.1 before getting my iPhone 4, and the performance of the 3G on iOS4 is abyssmal. Absolutely blown away by the iPhone 4.

The 3G is essentially the same processor platform as the original iPhone and IMHO would have been better off if Apple capped the 3G at iOS3, as they did the original iPhone.

Comment Other minor updates??? (Score 2, Informative) 212

by swfranklin (#34308702) Attached to: Apple iOS 4.2 Hands-On

TFA is all about AirPlay, which to me is a niche feature. Maybe not minor, but I doubt most iPhone/iPad owners will ever use it. There are a lot of nice updates, as shown on Apple's site:

http://www.apple.com/ios/

AirPrint, Find My iPhone/Pad/Pod, on-demand remote wipe, respond to calendar invitations, SMS message tones, on-device TV show rental... Lots of features that I suspect will get more use than AirPlay.
Businesses

World of Goo Dev Wants Big Publishers To Build Indie Teams 74

Posted by Soulskill from the and-a-pony dept.
Ron Carmel, co-founder of game developer 2D Boy, which created the indie hit World of Goo, gave a speech at Montreal International Games Summit in which he encourages large game publishers to put more time and money into smaller, indie-like teams. Quoting GameSetWatch: "'We need a medium-sized design studio. Something that is larger than a typical indie, but has the same propensity for of talent density, focus, and risk-taking,' said Carmel, formerly an employee of major publisher Electronic Arts prior to going independent. Notably, a focus on profit must be eliminated from the equation. 'Creating this within a major developer doesn't present a problem,' said Carmel. With a budget of $1-$2 million dollars, 10 staffers could be hired to work on 'creatively ambitious and forward-thinking projects.' He likened it to the automobile industry, which alongside its mainstream consumer products works on concept cars — few of which enter production as regular models. The concept car is, said Carmel, 'a marketing expense to build your brand, and say, "Look at all the amazing things we're creating."' It also helps with recruitment. Said Carmel, 'there's no reason the larger game companies can't do that.' He also said that developers must move away from the notion that a team comprised primarily of programmers and artists can create a great work. Why do Valve's games have such amazing environments? Because, said Carmel, 'Valve has architects on staff.'"

Comment Re:Maybe a solution? (Score 5, Informative) 642

by swfranklin (#34079260) Attached to: TSA To Make Pat-Downs More Embarrassing To Encourage Scanner Use

Doesn't matter. Even if it's your own plane, and you are the only one going to fly it, you still have to obey the rules.

You never know, you might hijack yourself with that pocket knife!

NOTICE: An actual, real, does-this-for-a-living pilot as told me this. This isn't some assumption on my part.

He told you wrong. If you aren't going through the secured terminal (which 99.9% of private flights don't), then you don't need security screening. I am an actual, real, living pilot and I've flown through over 250 airports large and small in the USA on private flights. O'Hare is the only one I've seen that actually has even a metal detector for private flights... I walk through, it beeps (because of my pocket knife, flashlight, keys, etc. on my person) and they wave me on through.
Crime

Thief Returns Stolen Laptop Contents On USB Stick 352

Posted by samzenpus from the it's-been-a-pleasure-being-your-victim dept.
While it's true that Sweden is responsible for unleashing IKEA and ABBA on humanity, not everything they produce is terrible. Their thieves are some of the most considerate in the world. An unnamed professor at Umeå University received a USB stick with all his data after his laptop was stolen. From the article: "The professor, who teaches at Umeå University in northern Sweden, was devastated when ten years of work stored on his laptop was stolen. But to his surprise, a week after the theft, the entire contents of his laptop were posted to him on a USB stick. 'I am very happy,' the unnamed professor told the local Västerbottens-Kuriren newspaper. 'This story makes me feel hope for humanity.'"

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