Another Gulf Oil Rig Explodes 423
A few readers have noted that another gulf oil rig has exploded. This one is off the coast of Lousiana. So far all the workers are accounted for, but they are in immersion suits waiting for rescue.
Why the World Is Running Out of Helium 475
jamie writes "The US National Helium Reserve stores a billion cubic meters of helium, half the world supply, in an old natural gasfield. The array of pipes and mines runs 200 miles from Texas to Kansas. In the name of deficit reduction, we're selling it all off for cheap. Physics professor and Nobel laureate Robert Richardson says: 'In 1996, the US Congress decided to sell off the strategic reserve and the consequence was that the market was swelled with cheap helium because its price was not determined by the market. The motivation was to sell it all by 2015. The basic problem is that helium is too cheap. The Earth is 4.7 billion years old and it has taken that long to accumulate our helium reserves, which we will dissipate in about 100 years. One generation does not have the right to determine availability forever.' Another view is The Impact of Selling the Federal Helium Reserve, the government study from 10 years ago that suggested the government's price would end up being over market value by 25% — but cautioned that this was based on the assumption that demand would grow slowly, and urged periodic reviews of the state of the industry."
Tool Use By Humans Pushed Back By 800,000 Years 189
gpronger writes "The journal Nature reports that newly discovered tool marks on bones indicates that we were using tools at minimum 800,000 years earlier than previously thought. This places the start of tool use at 3.4 million years ago or earlier. The most likely ancestor in this time frame would be Australopithecus afarensis. The researchers, led by palaeoanthropologist Zeresenay Alemseged of the California Academy of Science, San Francisco,and Shannon McPherron, (an archaeologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany) state that cut marks on the bones of an impala-sized creature and another closer in size to a buffalo, indicate butchering of the animals by our distant ancestors. However, they do not believe that they were in fact hunters, more likely scavenging the remains left behind by large predators."
Artist Photoshops Scenes From WWII Into Present Day 150
Russian photographer Sergey Larenkov has taken old World War II photos and photoshopped them over the locations in present day. The scenes from places like Prague, Vienna, and Moscow are incredibly well done and a neat way to appreciate history.
Given Truth, the Misinformed Believe Lies More 961
SharpFang writes "In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that misinformed people, particularly political partisans, rarely changed their minds when exposed to corrected facts in news stories. In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger."
Australian Schools To Teach Intelligent Design 714
An anonymous reader writes "It appears that schools within the Australian state of Queensland are going to be required to teach Intelligent Design as part of their Ancient History studies. While it is gratifying to note that it isn't being taught in science classes (since it most certainly isn't a science), one wonders what role a modern controversy can possibly serve within a subject dedicated to a period of history which occurred hundreds of years before Darwin proposed his groundbreaking theory?"
Possible New Hominid Species Discovered, Thanks To Google Earth 86
mindbrane writes "The BBC is reporting on fossil finds 'uncovered in cave deposits near Malapa in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site near Johannesburg.' The fossils of a mature female and juvenile male have '...small teeth, projecting nose, very advanced pelvis, and long legs ...' suggesting more modern forms. 'And yet its very long arms and small brain case might echo the much older Australopithecine group to which Professor Berger and colleagues have assigned it.' Aside from the debate as to classification, the find is noteworthy in that its discovery came about 'thanks to the "virtual globe" software Google Earth, which allowed the group to map and visualise the most promising fossil grounds in the World Heritage Site.' Further, the find in a cave bears the hallmarks of chance that often plays so large a part in fossilisation. 'Their bones were laid down with the remains of other dead animals, including a sabre-toothed cat, antelope, mice and rabbits. The fact that none of the bodies appear to have been scavenged indicates that all died suddenly and were entombed rapidly.'"
Disputed Island Disappears Into Sea 460
RawJoe writes "India and Bangladesh have argued for almost 30 years over control of a tiny island in the Bay of Bengal. Now rising sea levels have ended the argument for them: the island's gone. From the article: 'New Moore Island, in the Sunderbans, has been completely submerged, said oceanographer Sugata Hazra, a professor at Jadavpur University in Calcutta. Its disappearance has been confirmed by satellite imagery and sea patrols, he said. "What these two countries could not achieve from years of talking, has been resolved by global warming," said Hazra.'"
Scientists Postulate Extinct Hominid With 150 IQ 568
Hugh Pickens writes "Neuroscientists Gary Lynch and Richard Granger have an interesting article in Discover Magazine about the Boskops, an extinct hominid that had big eyes, child-like faces, and forebrains roughly 50% larger than modern man indicating they may have had an average intelligence of around 150, making them geniuses among Homo sapiens. The combination of a large cranium and immature face would look decidedly unusual to modern eyes, but not entirely unfamiliar. Such faces peer out from the covers of countless science fiction books and are often attached to 'alien abductors' in movies. Naturalist Loren Eiseley wrote: 'Back there in the past, ten thousand years ago. The man of the future, with the big brain, the small teeth. He lived in Africa. His brain was bigger than your brain.' The history of evolutionary studies has been dogged by the almost irresistible idea that evolution leads to greater complexity, to animals that are more advanced than their predecessor, yet the existence of the Boskops argues otherwise — that humans with big brains, and perhaps great intelligence, occupied a substantial piece of southern Africa in the not very distant past, and that they eventually gave way to smaller-brained, possibly less advanced Homo sapiens — that is, ourselves. 'With 30 percent larger brains than ours now, we can readily calculate that a population with a mean brain size of 1,750 cc would be expected to have an average IQ of 149,' write Lynch and Granger. But why did they go extinct? 'Maybe all that thoughtfulness was of no particular survival value in 10,000 BC. Lacking the external hard drive of a literate society, the Boskops were unable to exploit the vast potential locked up in their expanded cortex,' write Lynch and Granger. 'They were born just a few millennia too soon.'"
The Neuroscience of Screwing Up 190
resistant writes "As the evocative title from Wired magazine implies, Kevin Dunbar of the University of Toronto has taken an in-depth and fascinating look at scientific error, the scientists who cope with it, and sometimes transcend it to find new lines of inquiry. From the article: 'Dunbar came away from his in vivo studies with an unsettling insight: Science is a deeply frustrating pursuit. Although the researchers were mostly using established techniques, more than 50 percent of their data was unexpected. (In some labs, the figure exceeded 75 percent.) "The scientists had these elaborate theories about what was supposed to happen," Dunbar says. "But the results kept contradicting their theories. It wasn't uncommon for someone to spend a month on a project and then just discard all their data because the data didn't make sense."'"
Comment How much automation do you have? 1:120 for me. (Score 1) 414
I have been doing this IT (for this discussion I define IT as server and end user support, not programing) thing for quite a while now (15+ years).
My current gig will be seven years in a few months and what a roller coast it has been! After some cost exercising that was completed in Q1, there is only three of us in IT left and I was made the head cheese. We already ran a flat team where admins have to perform user support as well as their server stuff, so that did not change and in fact is the only way we have survived so far.
Stats: Three IT to about 375 users with computers with about 75% being laptop users that DO travel. We are currently sitting on about 150 servers with 90% of those being VMware virtual machines. Other fun stuff includes two phone systems (on 10+ year old PBX and one 3Com "IP" based system), 60 BlackBerries, we also manage all aspects of the three cell phone carriers our company uses(oh, that means about 40+ cell phones we support), tons of printers, one AS/400, and much much more!
How have we survived? Everything is in ActiveDirectory, making just about everything a virtual machine, picking IT tools that actually help (Track-IT, Rove's MobileAdmin, VMware VirtualCenter, TeamViewer), out sourced the after hours call support to a group that calls whoever is on-call and takes the initial notes, but no trouble shooting(fear not this call center is based in the USA!), keeping everyone involved in everything (cross training is GOOD for your team!)
Having social skills! Everyone (including me) on the team is not a StarTrek/StarWars geek and can have a meaningful conversation with the end users. We work very hard to have a open communication channel with upper-managment and decision makers, so that they know when it is time to buy us new shiny toys so they do not have to add anyone to the pay-roll. You would be amazed at how quickly things go your way after you butter up the VP's admin assistant! "Oh I love what you have done to your hair today! Can you get Mr. Man to sign this purchase approval for me?"
We are also very firm with our users, when they catch us in the hall on our way to one issue we say, "I need you to submit a ticket for what you are asking for and I will come back in a bit." Many do not like it, but we always spend the time to explain why it must be done. Only VP's get around the ticket requests, but hey you gotta scratch their back if you want their support when you need it.
Comment Crumpile (Score 1) 414
my personal experience as of late is this: our company, before downsizing, was around 100 employees in 3 locations. 2 exchange servers, multiple AD servers, FTP, etc. roughly 15 servers all windows. with that many desktops and that many servers i could handle it all. once you whip the servers into shape and get some desktop management going it's smooth sailing. a good IT admin with experience can handle quite a bit more than someone with say 3-4 yrs experience. i can handle 200 employees and 15 servers if they are all in the same location
Comment Re:Proper Planning (Score 1) 414
Right, the company that had everything very streamlined was a major chemical company, the need for rapid technology shifts (well, Info Tech anyway..) was not needed.
There is no single solution, it's up to each shop as to what's best. However, my general theme has been proper planning, "proper" being very subjective. I guess being in IT for so long, I *constantly* encounter people/departments that simply don't plan as best as they can and just "manage" things, while constantly complaining. I've made progress at getting some to change and reap the rewards, and others just keep doing what they're used to.
There is no single solution, it's up to each shop as to what's best. However, my general theme has been proper planning, "proper" being very subjective. I guess being in IT for so long, I *constantly* encounter people/departments that simply don't plan as best as they can and just "manage" things, while constantly complaining. I've made progress at getting some to change and reap the rewards, and others just keep doing what they're used to.
Comment more than 100 (Score 1) 297
...but that's because I got married
Comment People were idiots for not thinking of this (Score 1) 839
Some problems are hard to anticipate when implementing a new solution - this wasn't one of them. If you live in a snowy climate and want your traffic lights to work even during snow, you MUST take precautions.
It doesn't sound like a terribly difficult problem either. You could use heating, some kind of automatic wiper, spraying with ethylene glycol, or just wiping them off manually every now and then.
It doesn't sound like a terribly difficult problem either. You could use heating, some kind of automatic wiper, spraying with ethylene glycol, or just wiping them off manually every now and then.
