HangingChad - Slashdot User

Submission + - Is Intel Killing 12 in Displays On Netbooks?

Submitted by

HangingChad

on Sunday August 09, 2009 @12:29AM

HangingChad writes: "Dell has retired their 12-inch Intel Atom-powered netbooks, they said today. The official reason — "It really boils down to this: for a lot of customers, 10-inch displays are the sweet spot for netbooksLarger notebooks require a little more horsepower to be really useful." Or is the real reason that 12 in displays on netbooks cut into Intels more profitable dual core market and Dell's profit margins on higher end machines?"

Submission + - FBI and US Marshalls Hit By Virus (msn.com)

Submitted by

HangingChad

on Friday May 22, 2009 @08:37AM

HangingChad writes: "Law enforcement computers were struck by a mystery computer virus Thursday, forcing the FBI and the U.S. Marshals to shut down part of their networks as a precaution.

Apparently the case files are kept on an isolated system and critical data was not impacted. Though it did force them to shut down their email and internet connections for a short time."

Submission + - Recession Catches Up To Tech Jobs (cnn.com)

Submitted by

HangingChad

on Wednesday April 08, 2009 @01:08PM

HangingChad writes: "Once thought to be somewhat recession-proof, tech jobs have been getting slashed as companies look to trim budgets. From the CNNMoney article: "After three years of at least 2.5% employment growth in the United States, tech jobs are forecast to decline by 1.2% this year, according to Forrester Research. They have already fallen by nearly 1% since their November peak, according to the Labor Department. Year to date, 8,000 tech jobs have been slashed, including 4,100 just last month."

We're not anticipating any layoffs and I'm not seeing a lot of top flight programming talent on the bench. Not even certain how noticeable a 1.2% decline would be in our industry. Anyone else feeling the pinch?"

Submission + - IBM Takeover of Sun In Final Stages (msn.com)

Submitted by

HangingChad

on Thursday April 02, 2009 @07:39PM

HangingChad writes: "It appears IBM and Sun are mere days away from announcing a deal. As the details emerge it would appear to be more of an outright take over than a merger. It would mean Websphere, JAVA, StarOffice, and MySQL under one big blue roof. Dell sees it as an opportunity in the server market and Sun servers running with the IBM label on Dell hardware certainly would be an attractive combination. But it's difficult not to notice that the product stack this would give IBM could be leveraged for corporate desktops running Linux. That's provided the deal gets past anti-trust review. Previous Slashdot coverage here."

Submission + - Dealing with strong personalities and opinions

Submitted by HangingChad on Monday December 15, 2008 @12:00PM

HangingChad writes: Hang around Slashdot for five minutes and you'll discover that many in the tech field have strong opinions, frequently coupled with equally strong personalities and seasoned with a dash of ego. As a tech manager you frequently have to balance application changes management wants with difficult programmer and designer personalities who sometimes react like you're attacking their baby. What makes it tricky is sometimes both sides have a point. At times the changes management is asking for really are a poor choice. My attitude is they're paying the bills and I'll make the best counter-argument I can, but if they remain determined then give it to them, even if I personally disagree. Then I wind up getting it from the programmers and designers. These aren't necessarily issues related to ethics or security, sometimes the most vitriol arises from things as simple as a difference of opinion about a page layout.

I've consulted with a few companies in the recent past that have actually outsourced development because they had difficulty finding and retaining quality programmers and then found them difficult to work with.

One of the challenges of being a tech manager is refereeing between opposing viewpoints bumping into large egos. Replacing quality programmers is not always easy, even if they're being annoying. Productivity suffers. My questions for the other managers here, what tricks do you have for managing difficult personalities and where do you draw the line? For programmers, when you feel management doesn't appreciate your masterpiece of development, how could your managers frame communication so the topic is less threatening? There has to be some means of compromise that doesn't let developers dictate to management which is the tail wagging the dog, or being brutish and insensitive, sending valuable but bitter employees home to polish their collection of assault rifles. And is the vitriol and clash of egos we take for granted here at Slashdot discouraging some companies from in-house development?

Submission + - DHS Laptop Policy Gets Even More Invasive (msn.com)

Submitted by

HangingChad

on Friday August 01, 2008 @07:16AM

HangingChad writes: "As if the laptop search at the border wasn't invasive enough, DHS published a new policy that's positively jaw-dropping. According to the article officials may "...may take a traveler's laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies...". It gets better. "...officials may share copies of the laptop's contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16..." DHS claiming the right to clone off your laptop contents to decrypt and analyze at their convenience. A policy so invasive even our do-nothing Congress has taken note. "The policies . . . are truly alarming," said Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), who is probing the government's border search practices." Really? Ya think?"

Submission + - No speech rights in online public places (yahoo.com)

Submitted by

HangingChad

on Sunday July 06, 2008 @10:00PM

HangingChad writes: "It appears the rest of the world is waking up to what most /. readers have known for a long time. That there is no such thing as free speech online. From the article: Companies in charge of seemingly public spaces online wipe out content that's controversial but otherwise legal. 'Service providers write their own rules for users worldwide and set foreign policy when they cooperate with regimes like China. They serve as prosecutor, judge and jury in handling disputes behind closed doors'. The question it raises is how far down the road we've gone toward reducing the level of speech to the least tolerant person. 'Jonathan Zittrain, a Harvard professor who recently published a book on threats to the Internet's openness, said parties unhappy with sensitive materials online are increasingly aware they can simply pressure service providers and other intermediaries.'"

Submission + - McCain Taps Carly Fiorina To Woo Clinton Backers (yahoo.com) 1

Submitted by

HangingChad

on Sunday June 15, 2008 @12:12AM

HangingChad writes: "Presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain, enlisted the help of former HP CEO Carly Fiorina to woo Clinton supporters. An interesting choice considering according to her Wikipedia entry that "Fiorina presided over a halving of Hewlett Packard's value during her tenure and heavy job losses. She was fired by HP's board due to dissatisfaction with her performance in February 2005." For those of you who remember those days, HP's stock price surged 7% on news of her departure. Is this who you'd want stumping for your presidential campaign?"

Submission + - Customers use tech savvy to combat poor service (msn.com)

Submitted by

HangingChad

on Wednesday February 27, 2008 @11:18AM

HangingChad writes: "As companies squeeze all of us for more revenue and slash budgets for more savings, customers are using technology and social media sites to fight back against poor service. Email bombs, web video and online forums are giving voice and direction to customer discontent. The acrimony between big business and their customers are creating a new breed of tech-savvy consumer vigilantes. A modern reshaping of the old adage that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. The question it begs is whether this level of effort creates a higher level of background noise and raises the bar on all customers for getting any kind of decent service? Do most customers really want to become social media crusaders, or just get their laptop fixed?"

Submission + - Microsoft threatens startups over account info (cnn.com)

Submitted by HangingChad on Friday January 18, 2008 @01:02PM

HangingChad writes: According to Fortune, there are reports that Microsoft is trying to strong arm startups to give preferential treatment to MSN Messenger and are using account information as leverage. "If the company wants to offer other IM services (from Yahoo, Google or AOL, say), Messenger must get top billing. And if the startup wants to offer any other IM service, it must pay Microsoft 25 cents a user per year for a site license." Of course, if the company is willing to use Messenger exclusively "fee will be discounted 100 percent." Getting detailed information is difficult as many of the companies being approached are afraid of reprisals.

Submission + - Comcast Content Blocking Gets Senate Hearing (yahoo.com)

Submitted by

HangingChad

on Saturday October 27, 2007 @09:21AM

HangingChad writes: "Two Senators on Friday called for a congressional hearing to investigate reports that phone and cable companies are unfairly stifling communications over the Internet and on cell phones. Now that the senate is getting into the act Comcast will probably want to come up with some new talking points as their old ones were leaked.

Are you listening AT&T?"

Submission + - SANS reporting ssh brute force attacks (sans.org) 1

Submitted by

HangingChad

on Tuesday October 23, 2007 @03:20PM

HangingChad writes: "Yesterday SANS highlighted 4 separate reports of an increase in ssh bruteforce attacks. From the article: "The isc.sans.org port 22 graph supports this as there has been a large increase in the source hosts seen in ssh scans during this month." There is speculation that this is part of a distributed, coordinated attack. I'm getting hearsay reports from some of my admin buddies that they're seeing ssh dictionary attacks today. Anyone else experiencing unusual ssh traffic the last couple days?"

Submission + - AT&T Gets Relief From Broadband Rebulations (cnn.com)

Submitted by

HangingChad

on Friday October 12, 2007 @02:56PM

HangingChad writes: "Federal regulators freed AT&T from price restrictions for what it can charge to access internet backbone systems. If that wasn't enough of a plum: ...AT&T would also not have to report the terms and conditions for its services.

AT&T's competitors...have vigorously lobbied federal regulators and policy makers to oppose such relief because they said competition would suffer in the broadband market.

So does this mean AT&T gets to start charging at both ends of the pipe?"

Submission + - New anti-terror list impacts business

Submitted by

HangingChad

on Tuesday March 27, 2007 @06:30AM

HangingChad writes: "MSNBC is running a story about yet another government database designed to thwart terrorist and drug dealers that is having impact on people with similar names. Like the no-fly list for business, the The Office of Foreign Asset Control's list of "specially designated nationals" has long been used by banks and other financial institutions to block financial transactions of drug dealers and other criminals. Use of the list was expanded after 9-11 and now includes almost any financial transaction. "Businesses have used it to screen applicants for home and car loans, apartments and even exercise equipment, according to interviews and a report by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay area to be issued today." Bummer for people with similar sounding names. Overreact much?"

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