Comment Re:Failed QA (Score 3) 399
They had QA, the product met all the design criteria and operated as designed.
The design just sucked.
Toxic Algae Threatens Florida's Gulf Coast 99
As reported by Discovery News, After Toledo had to temporarily ban residents from using tap water last weekend because of a toxic algae bloom on Lake Erie, you probably figured that we’d filled the quota of bad algae-related news for the summer. No such luck, unfortunately. Off the Gulf Coast of Florida, the biggest red tide bloom seen in Florida in nearly a decade already has killed thousands of fish. The bloom, which contains the microorganism Karenia brevis,
may pose a public health threat to Floridians if it washes ashore, which is expected to happen in the next two weeks, according to Reuters.
NBC News says this is the largest such bloom seen since 2006 — approximately 50 x 80 miles.
Comment Freelance work (Score 1) 309
If you want to build up those two years of experience, and don't mind working on short deadlines and for maybe less money than you want, start bidding on small projects on sites like oDesk.com and Guru.com.
Then with a list of clients and references built up over time you will either have a much easier time getting internships once you are a junior/senior OR you might just want to keep doing your own thing.
Comment Customers are buying it. (Score 4, Informative) 182
IBM has several large customers already using it, they even pitched it to the company I work for. The things they have it doing around predictive analytics are really impressive.
Comment Focus on a Help Desk / Junior Admin (Score 2) 383
My first recommendation is to calculate your cost of downtime due to a failed hardware or software component you control. In some manufacturing environments even an extra hour (if your out of the office and need to drive in) could pay a $25k salary for a year.
Next is to focus on getting a dedicated resource for intake of calls/emails and to handle most of the running around. The first 2 years someone is out of school they are most willing to work for really cheap. Introduce yourself to some teachers at the local community college or trade schools and even see about getting some students during their on the job training to show the improved response time to incoming requests without actually costing the company money.
Once management gets better service, losing it might just make them more willing to pay to get it back.
Comment Re:NO NO NO (Score 1) 687
Would you be from la belle province?
Amazon Caves On Kindle 2 Text-To-Speech 370
On Wednesday we discussed news that the Authors Guild had objected to the text-to-speech function on Amazon's Kindle 2, claiming that it infringed on audio book copyright. Today, Amazon said that while the feature is legally sound, they would be willing to disable text-to-speech on a title-by-title basis at the rightsholder's request. "We have already begun to work on the technical changes required to give authors and publishers that choice. With this new level of control, publishers and authors will be able to decide for themselves whether it is in their commercial interests to leave text-to-speech enabled. We believe many will decide that it is."
Comment Open Office (Score 1) 848
If they don't want to spend money on Microsoft Office, offer them a free alternative that will do pretty much everything they want anyway.
