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Ask Slashdot: How To Give IT Presentations That Aren't Boring? 291

Dmitri Baughman writes "I'm the IT guy at a small software development company of about 100 employees. Everyone is technically inclined, with disciplines in development, QA, and PM areas. As part of a monthly knowledge-sharing meeting, I've been asked to give a 30-minute presentation about our computing and networking infrastructure. I manage a pretty typical environment, so I'm not sure how to present the information in a fun and engaging way. I think network diagrams and bandwidth usage charts would make anyone's eyes glaze over! Any ideas for holding everyone's interest?"

Comment my breakdown (Score 1) 125

last time I had a personal website up, 60% of it was buffer overflow bots, 20% were old IIS exploit bots and 10% were slashdot scans whenever I made a post.

Really though, firewalls in the US should come with the entire Chinese, Russian, and Indian IP range blocked for incoming connections by default.

Comment Re:Cycles (Score 1) 630

I really hope your trolling because win7 search is worthless. Won't search the contents of any non-MS file extension that isn't named ".txt"

Then it lies to you and tells you no such file exists. In fact, it even takes a while to search files it has no idea how to search, like ASCII FORMATTED files!

Then it has keywords you have to memorize and automatic wildcards you can't disable.

And MS DESIGNED IT THIS WAY. THIS IS WORKING AS THEY WANT IT.

And they won't change it! This is the first step for any company that is doomed to fail, is that they ignore their customers and don't fix problems. This issue was brought up years ago.

Windows 7 search has cost me hours of productivity, most of it wasted trying to figure out why its content search wasn't working only to eventually find it out was by design.

Comment Re:Great but... (Score 1) 467

We haven't had to rely on static build-test-debug-fix-repeat cycles for day-to-day programming in at least 5-6 years!

Who's "we" and why would you be past that? Usually by the time I realize what broke and how it broke, I'm too far in the code to recover anything. Example: I got an exception on line 11 due to a bug on line 8.

Now what would be kind of cool is to save the program state prior to entering a function and then restarting from that function entry point. Of course that wouldn't work if your function modified an external file or something... Maybe Visual Studio already does this in a version newer than I use? Actually I'd appreciate if someone could fill me on this, I'm always looking for ways to be more efficient.

Comment Re:No, they patented a system of NFC spending rule (Score 1) 176

see, why weren't you stooping over the patent examiner's shoulder when he was reading it?

They should require that patents be written in minimal english rather than obfuscated english.

In apple's defense though, they probably had to re-develop their software over and over again when they found design holes. In contrast, a copy-cat only needs to design it once.

I suppose the alternative to this is that your phone must provide unbridled access to you wallet app if you manage to unlock it. Or an perhaps having user acccounts for your phone to restrict which apps are accessible (one for your kids).

Personally, I'd like to have an "at-ease" app which restricts the interface on phones such that a toddler can touch anything and you don't have to worry about them leaving the app then calling someone.

Comment Re:For free? (Score 1) 54

I doubt it hasn't already been solved. I think they go "hey this would be a nice project for schools". I think they humor us. Really, this is basic physics and vectors. Their's no hardware to read, you get a state which is your current position, direction, and vector and your basically turning it into a homing missile. I think what the reality is that their hardware isn't going to perform like their simulation models it which is that catch to all this.

Comment Re:It better play the games I already own (Score 2) 233

You could have graphics cards on a 2 year lifecycle and have the game automatically pick the quality based on the one detected. Virtually every game no-adays can run on graphics cards older than 4 years, just it doesn't look as good as it could.

I think the main purpose for this is to simplify hardware requirements for a PC. "I have a steamBox 1" is simple, you make games and you say "compatible with steambox 1 or higher". Likewise, it ensures that nobody does stuff something stupid like skimp on dirt cheap RAM then wonder why the game plays like crap.

Add a controller and mouse and keyboard support and you got something spiffy. Still waiting on someone to make a wireless mouse/keyboard capable of the high resolution you get from a wired device. Right now I have USB extension cords strung across my living room and a mouse and keyboard on my ottoman with a high end computer hooked up to a 65" 3d TV.

Comment Re:Why is this a trojan horse and not a virus? (Score 1) 160

close, a trojan doesn't have a replication method classification, a trojan is just a piece of malware that provides a backdoor to your computer. A trojan could be a worm or a virus or just malware.

Come to think of it, viruses in their "true" form are pretty rare now-a-days. Pretty much everything is just straight-up malware/adware or worms. I wonder if it has to do with the fact all programs are at least 32-bit now and don't run machine code directly.

Comment Hmmm (Score 1) 292

I'd file this under "no shit sherlock" but its a grad student getting their conclusion without clearly be trained by a knowledgeable industry insider. Then again, maybe they were just doing research that proved what they already knew. A lot of people know this already and actively implement features to work around these problems. I'd disclose more but um lets just say I can't... :)

That said I'm not aware of any SSDs using more than 2 bits per cell. My understanding is that it's not practical... yet. I see OCZ claims they're going to do it, but its a lot easier to say you're going to do it than to actually do it and provide a reliable drive that isn't going to get RMA'ed in droves. You have to consider the development cost is going to be higher as you pull your hair out trying to prevent customer data loss. Beating the hell out of NAND takes a lot of time.

Comment Have 3d (Score 1) 404

3D is better fit for first person games at the moment. If you have direct control of the camera and the depth properly calibrated you can play for hours. On the other hand if you don't (such as a 3rd person game where the camera tails or moves on its own, or a 3d movie or tv show), your brain probably isn't used to letting someone else move it around and you start to get nauseous. I also have a 3d camcorder and have found I really need to make sure its steady otherwise it'll sicken you pretty quick.

I got addicted to 3d gaming after smashing crates in half-life 2 in 3d. Just glorious. Yeah, I've had 3d for that long.

Comment Re:*Cricket cricket* (Score 1) 318

1) 5 + 4 = 9 kids. Thats quite beyond unsustainable growth

2) FEDERAL TAXES. Social Security taxes aren't counted in that amount and that 80% number is dead wrong unless you count children and the unemployed. After social security I'm paying close to 30% before one-time deductions (maybe more... I haven't done my tax return yet). Social security taxes are capped at $106k and are 4%. Anyways I never said it was his fault, I don't expect him to pony up a donation to the government.

3) Citation needed

4) no comment

5) Ehhh I'm not going to get in a religious argument because my issue transcends their ability to earn income. Really, its the large family sizes that bother me so damn much. We should be shrinking our population to account the for the decrease in demand for labor that technology has brought us, but everytime I see a large family, regardless of religion, I see selfish parents, no matter how their kids are raised. We can't all be like that. Period.

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