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Comment OrgMode for emacs (Score 1) 133

I've used outlook, onenote, evernote, played around with google keep and a bunch of other programs over the years for GTD capture/process systems. OrgMode works much better in my opinion than any of these. There is a mobile client for Android and IOS, but I simply use ssh and a 256 color terminal and a small bluetooth keyboard.

Submission + - How to Convert text to speech in Excel 2007 (technologybrunch.com)

vipinkp89 writes: You have to read a large excel file and your eyes gets tired constantly looking on computer screen. You wish that someone read it loud for you. You don’t need any other person to read your file. Your Excel will read it loud, close your eyes and hear it. Just you have to convert text to speech in excel.

Submission + - Are some of north korea's long-range missiles fakes? (npr.org)

gbrumfiel writes: North Korea has not been shy in announcing plans to destroy the United States, but questions remain over whether it has the nukes or the missiles to do so. Now NPR reports on open-source intelligence showing that one of the North's most "advanced" weapons might actually be a decoy. Six KN-08 missiles were paraded last year, but each showed differences in the way they were assembled. Is it all a bluff? Or are the missiles part of a real program?

Comment Re:It is not a great time (Score 1) 441

I agree with the comment on the general state of the job market and the internship recommendation is a good suggestion. Working in SW Test/QA (at any level) is another suggestion as these positions have less competition. Even better, try and get an internship testing any SW product. If you can get your foot in the door and demonstrate you know what you are doing, and are flexible in the work you will do you should not have a problem getting a permanent position. If you work as an intern in test and you have the ability find and to point out source level errors in other peoples code quickly it will probably get noticed.

Comment Use Historical Data (Score 1) 483

If you just keep track of how long features take and who's working on them (like a bug/feature tracking system), a seat of the pants estimate based on complexity (i.e. this feature is 1/2 as complex, twice as complex) times the previous baseline data is surprisingly accurate and in general much better than if people actually try and figure out based on first principles. Basically people just ignore the base rate historical data for how long sw development tasks take, or don't know it. The other thing to avoid is telling someone a deadline because you will immediately induce an error based on the anchoring effect. Once you have a historical performance based estimate, then use that baseline (or anchor) to figure out what is practical for the project in question. Note: You have to keep track of things for 2-3 years to start before this works, which is why I suspect most people don't do it.
Security

Hackers Claim $10K Prize For StrongWebmail Breakin 193

alphadogg writes "Telesign, a provider of voice-based authentication software, challenged hackers to break into its StrongWebmail.com Web site late last week. The prize: $10,000. On Thursday, a group of security researchers claimed to have won the contest, which challenged hackers to break into the Web mail account of StrongWebmail CEO Darren Berkovitz and report back details from his June 26 calendar entry. The hackers, led by Secure Science Chief Scientist Lance James and security researchers Aviv Raff and Mike Bailey, provided details from Berkovitz's calendar to IDG News Service. In an interview, Berkovitz confirmed those details were from his account. However, Berkovitz could not confirm that the hackers had actually won the prize. He said he would need to check to confirm that the hackers had abided by the contest rules, adding, 'if someone did it, we'll kind of put our heads down.'"

Comment Re:Damned if you do... (Score 1) 259

No duh. It's free instead of $400 or whatever MS wants for office these days and it works for the vast majority of what people want to do (write a document, create a basic spreadsheet).

How many people are going to continue to shell out $400 for a word processor and spreadsheet program for there new $1000 laptop they bought there kids? Not many when the realize a reliable free alternative is available and it lets them open the word files people send them in e-mail.

I would say the only advantage MS has is there are so many spreadsheets people have made that make extensive use of macros and VB, which open office doesn't support.

Supercomputing

Submission + - Student and professor build budget supercomputer (calvin.edu)

Luke writes: This past winter Calvin College professor Joel Adams and then Calvin senior Tim Brom built Microwulf, a portable supercomputer with 26.25 gigaflops peak performance, cost less than $2,500 to construct, becoming the most cost-efficient supercomputer anywhere that Adams knows of. "It's small enough to check on an airplane or fit next to a desk," said Brom. Instead of a bunch of researchers having to share a single Beowulf cluster supercomputer, now each researcher can have their own. What would you do with a personal supercomputer?

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