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Submission + - How your cell phone is fueling war in Africa (infoworld.com)

Submitted by GMGruman
GMGruman writes: It's not often that the technology industry, human rights activists, and both parties in the U.S. Congress are on the same page. But in 2009, the long-running horror story in the eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo — where the mining of coltan, tungsten, and other minerals crucial to the manufacture of cell phones has fueled a series of bloody civil wars — has moved significant players to action. Bill Snyder explains how the metals we don't even know are used in our phones and PCs are fueling bloody conflicts, and what is being considered to stop the tech-fueled warfare.

Comment Grewat way to cut payroll (Score 1) 5

by Murpster (#30586968) Attached to: Uniforms for the Help Desk
If this is a secret cost-cutting plan to make the IT guys run screaming and take jobs with other employers without actually firing people, then it's pure genius. On the other hand, if they think this is actually a good move for workplace improvements... your office is run by retards.
IT

Submission + - Uniforms for the Help Desk 5

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I am an IT worker in a mid sized company with approximately 500 employees. There are 30 people on the IT staff, 6 of which are on the help desk. Our help desk does have significant visibility in the company, and most people know us by face (some by name). Recently the idea has been floated up the management chain to have these help desk workers wear IT department branded shirts. The idea is to promote visibility and unity. Wearing of these shirts would be mandatory Monday through Thursday. The shirts would not be identical (there would be several styles offered). We would be the only department with specific garments outside of the normal business casual dress code.

Is management out of line with the industry in promoting this sort of policy change? Is the singling out of 6 employees as "the IT guys" a step in the right direction, or does it detract from the professionalism that we are trying to display as a department?

Comment derp de derp de derrrr (Score 1) 1

by Murpster (#30582570) Attached to: Computers Slowing Down Over Time
I think your wife might be what technically is known as a dummy. Unless you're running lots of stuff (background or interactive), or install some malware, or open the case up and inflict physical damage, your system won't noticeably slow down because of filling it with photos etc.

Comment We did it (Score 1) 2

by Murpster (#30528232) Attached to: Would you home-build office workstations?
I used to work at a large regional ISP (Erol's, now part of RCN) and for quite a few years, we built our own servers. Worked well, saved tons of money. Only stopped when we began using more Sun hardware and less Linux. I don't know what they do now, though I doubt they're building their own servers again.

Submission + - Would you home-build office workstations? 2

Submitted by NoCowardsHere
NoCowardsHere writes: I'm surprised that I've never heard of a company of any size building their own computers for general office use.

The basic reasons to buy rather than build a computer tend to be things like the warranty and the bundled software with all drivers preinstalled. But any company with more than a handful of systems probably doesn't buy warranties (it's much cheaper to just keep a few spare systems on hand for the rare occasion when one breaks and it's not clear what part to replace) and images their computers before use anyway (which is just as easy on a homebuilt as a store-bought once you've made the disk image).

I figure I can use premium, reliable parts and still save about $100 off a comparable mid-range dell business workstation that my company would otherwise buy. Even taking the cost of my own time into account, assuming I can crank these out in a couple of hours per box (once I've gotten some practice) it sounds like a good deal. More to the point, we get computers with stats that are *exactly* what we want, rather than whatever Dell happens to have in our price bracket.

So... what are your thoughts on homebuilt workstations at small, medium, or large businesses? Have you ever seen it done? What would the advantages and disadvantages be?

Comment Ugh (Score 1) 1

by Murpster (#30446332) Attached to: Jerusalem Prayer Team
Unless you're praying for peace for both sides in the conflict and acting as a mediator rather than a side taker, you speak false peace. Fuck off.

Submission + - Peace Tones Empowers Communites Through the Arts (peacetones.org)

Submitted by peace1
peace1 writes: The PeaceTones Initiative is an InternetBar project created to build peace, and create opportunities for all members of the global community.

The selected project participants are artists from developing economies, remote areas, and conflict zones. After selection, InternetBar works with students and participants to digitalize their art. This can mean photographing paintings, recording music, capturing local nature sounds, folk tales, etc.

Once digitalized, the art is then organized into the form of albums which are then sold online. The proceeds are sent back to the participants in their respective countries in intervals, creating revenues for project participants and their communities.
Moon

Submission + - Chandrayaan-1 finds organic matter in the Moon (dnaindia.com)

Submitted by Titoxd
Titoxd writes: DNA India reports that data collected from the Indian Space Research Organisation's Chandrayaan-1 might have found "signs of life in some form or the other on the Moon". Chandrayaan-1's sensors detected organic matter signatures shortly before its Moon Impact Probe crashed into the lunar surface late last year. Interestingly, the article points out that Apollo 11 found similar traces back in 1969.

Comment Don't be a moron (Score 1) 7

by Murpster (#30394270) Attached to: Best way to clear name online?
Anything you put online, even if it's stuff from BBSes in the early 1980s (some of my stuff from then ended up on sites like textfiles.com too) is never going away. Even if one site takes it down because you run over them with a waaahhhmbulance (and it would be very lame of them to take down a whole zine because of this), there will be numerous other copies you'll never even see. So deal with it - once on the net, probably always on the net. So, think before you put stuff online or say stuff to people who might. Use an alias for things like that, if you want to do get involved in questionable activities. Don't act like a moron and you won't have to worry about stuff biting you in the ass later. If it does bite you in the ass (what are the odds that anyone who matters will read the stuff on texfiles.com and know it's you?) then explain it was a long time ago. I doubt this kind of thing will affect your life, unless you confessed to rape or murder or something, in which case, I hope it affects your life. So relax, don't stress about stuff that's already out on the net, and think before you post.

Submission + - Scientists create the world's smallest 'snowman' (takefreetime.com)

Submitted by slreboy
slreboy writes: Scientists have created the world’s smallest 'snowman', measuring about a fifth of the width of a human hair.

Experts at the National Physical Laboratory in West London made the miniature figure which is just 0.01mm across.

However, far from the thrill of rolling balls of snow around a field to build their masterpiece, it was assembled using tools designed for manipulating nanoparticles.

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