jfroebe - Slashdot User

Submission + - IT Should Learn To Loosen Up (infoworld.com)

Submitted by

snydeq

on Wednesday October 19, 2011 @02:03PM

snydeq writes: "InfoWorld's Bob Lewis raises an all-too-common problem for today's businesses: IT processes that fit like straitjackets. 'Everyone hates process. The evidence is all around you. From the help desk to the corner office, employees do their best to subvert even the best-intentioned processes whenever they seem inconvenient,' Lewis writes. 'The solution isn't a process-free IT organization — that way lies chaos. It's knowing how to bypass your processes when they don't fit the situation, yet not lose control.'"

Comment What did you expect? (Score 1) 197

by jfroebe on Saturday July 16, 2011 @07:31AM (#36784546) Attached to: Judge Says You Can't Know If Google Spies For NSA

Seriously, if the NSA said that they were NOT working with Google, would you believe them? It is probably safe to assume that the NSA, CIA and a myriad of other agencies are working with other governments and companies. If they weren't, they wouldn't be doing their jobs.

Submission + - End the Ethanol Insanity

Submitted by theodp on Sunday December 26, 2010 @12:54PM

theodp writes: It's now conceivable, says BusinessWeek's Ed Wallace, that the myth of ethanol as the salvation for America's energy problem is coming to an end. Curiously, the alternative fuel may be done in by an unlikely collection of foes. Fervidly pro-ethanol in the last decade of his political career, former VP Al Gore reversed course in late November and apologized for supporting ethanol, which apparently was more about ingratiating himself to farmers. A week later, Energy Secretary Steven Chu piled on, saying: 'The future of transportation fuels shouldn't involve ethanol.' And in December, a group of small-engine manufacturers, automakers, and boat manufacturers filed suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals to vacate the EPA's October ruling that using a 15% blend of ethanol in fuel supplies would not harm 2007 and newer vehicles. Despite all of this, the newly-elected Congress has extended the 45 cent-per-gallon ethanol blending tax credit that was due to expire, a move that is expected to reduce revenue by $6.25 billion in 2011. 'The ethanol insanity,' longtime-critic Wallace laments, 'will continue until so many cars and motors are damaged by this fuel additive that the public outcry can no longer be ignored. Adding an expensive, harmful, useless filler to gasoline just to win farmers' gratitude is not remotely the same as having a legitimate national energy policy.'

Submission + - Mojolicious Perl Modern Web Framework 1.0 released (kraih.com) 2

Submitted by Kvorg on Sunday December 26, 2010 @12:34PM

Kvorg writes: Sebastian Riedel, author of the trend-setting Maypole MVC web framework for Perl and later creator of the Catalyst web framework, released version 1.0 of his new Perl web framework: Mojolicoius, Web in a Box.
Mojolicious has been designed to be small, concise, complete and extensible. With no dependencies beyond core Perl 5.8.7, it offers a light API for simple applications, a complete API for MVC designs, a command-line API for scripting, a powerful built-in templating system, asynchronous web client, DOM parser with CSS3 selector support, HTLM5 compliance with websocket support and many, many other features.
Mojolicoius works well with existing modules, is well documented and has a number of plugins and applications developed for it on CPAN and GitHub. Your application can be deployed with a built-in stand-alone perl server or with any other method of your choice. Mojolicious has been proven in many production environments and is the recommended way for Perl hackers to hack into HTML5. http://mojolicio.us/

National Opt-Out Day Against Virtual Strip Searches 647

Posted by kdawson on Sunday November 14, 2010 @09:18AM from the hobson's-choice dept.

An anonymous reader writes in about a protest called for the busiest airline travel day of the year. "An activist opposed to the new invasive body scanners in use at airports around the country just designated Wednesday, Nov. 24 as a National Opt-Out Day. He's encouraging airline passengers to decline the TSA's technological strip searches en masse on that day as a protest against the scanners, as well as the new 'enhanced pat-downs' inflicted on refuseniks. 'The goal of National Opt-Out Day is to send a message to our lawmakers that we demand change,' reads the call to action at OptOutDay.com, set up by Brian Sodegren. 'No naked body scanners, no government-approved groping. We have a right to privacy, and buying a plane ticket should not mean that we're guilty until proven innocent.' The US Airline Pilots Association and other pilot groups have urged their members to avoid the scanners and have also condemned the new pat-down policy as humiliating to pilots. They've advised pilots who don't feel comfortable undergoing pat-downs in front of passengers to request they be conducted in a private room. Any pilots who don't feel comfortable after undergoing a pat-down have been encouraged to 'call in sick and remove themselves from the trip.'"

Submission + - Family to Receive $1.5M+ in Vaccine-Autism Award (cbsnews.com) 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 10, 2010 @08:28PM

An anonymous reader writes: "The first court award in a vaccine-autism claim is a big one. CBS News has learned the family of Hannah Poling will receive more than $1.5 million dollars for her life care; lost earnings; and pain and suffering for the first year alone.

In addition to the first year, the family will receive more than $500,000 per year to pay for Hannah's care. Those familiar with the case believe the compensation could easily amount to $20 million over the child's lifetime." In acknowledging Hannah's injuries, the government said vaccines aggravated an unknown mitochondrial disorder Hannah had which didn't "cause" her autism, but "resulted" in it. It's unknown how many other children have similar undiagnosed mitochondrial disorder. All other autism "test cases" have been defeated at trial. Approximately 4,800 are awaiting disposition in federal vaccine court."

What the hell? How did this happen when all the scientific data points otherwise? Thoughts?

Submission + - Patent Office Admits Truth: Things Are a Disaster (bnet.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 10, 2010 @07:15PM

An anonymous reader writes: For years the US Patent and Trademark Office has published data to show how well it and the patent system were running. Under new leadership, the USPTO has begun to publish a dashboard of information, including a new look at questions like how long does it really take to get a final answer on whether you will receive a patent or not? The pat answer was, on the average, about 3 years. But with the new figures, it's obvious that the real number, when you don't play games with how you define a patent application, is six years. The backlog of patents is almost 730K. And the Commerce Department under the Obama Administration wants the average down at 20 months. How does this happen? Only if everyone closes their eyes and pretends. It's time to take drastic action, like ending software patents. As it is, by the time companies get a software patent, there's little value to them because, after six years, the industry has already moved on.

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