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Comment Speech is more distracting (Score 1) 1019

I find that if people are talking, or if a phone rings, etc., I easily lose my train of thought. The worst thing is when people in the office are having a very loud teleconference. Music helps to drown it all out. Especially music I am familiar with. Personally I listen to Lemon Jelly, Death Cab for Cutie or anything tagged "Liquid Funk" on last.fm.

I think there should be a new /. poll: "What genre of music do you listen to when coding?"

Comment Re:Simply put (Score 1) 528

On one hand, I agree: The average desktop user doesn't want to spend there time organising how they are going to achieve the task at hand. They just want to get on with it.

On the other hand, users such as many of those in the open source desktop world are likely to spend a little more time thinking about how they can improve their productivity through streamlining their interactions with the desktop manager and will at least give it a go.

Personally I think it will be an effective way to context switch ones interface between tasks.
Open Source

Linux Kernel 2.6.32 Released 195

diegocg writes "Linus Torvalds has officially released the version 2.6.32 of the Linux kernel. New features include virtualization memory de-duplication, a rewrite of the writeback code faster and more scalable, many important Btrfs improvements and speedups, ATI R600/R700 3D and KMS support and other graphic improvements, a CFQ low latency mode, tracing improvements including a 'perf timechart' tool that tries to be a better bootchart, soft limits in the memory controller, support for the S+Core architecture, support for Intel Moorestown and its new firmware interface, run-time power management support, and many other improvements and new drivers. See the full changelog for more details."
Science

Programmable Quantum Computer Created 132

An anonymous reader writes "A team at NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology) used berylium ions, lasers and electrodes to develop a quantum system that performed 160 randomly chosen routines. Other quantum systems to date have only been able to perform single, prescribed tasks. Other researchers say the system could be scaled up. 'The researchers ran each program 900 times. On average, the quantum computer operated accurately 79 percent of the time, the team reported in their paper.'"

Submission + - What is your job title? 1

chetbox writes: I imagine a lot of the Slashdot crowd are software engineers, programmers or something along those lines, but what do you write on your CV/résumé and your email signature? Do you use the word "engineer", "programmer", "developer", "architect" or something else? What job title do you use? How do you make sure it describes your work and, more importantly, your worth without sounding pretentious?

I have my own projects which I plan, design and implement; I work on existing projects, mostly programming new features and tidying up; I also do some research and testing of new ideas, which may later turn into products. (None have yet: I haven't been working here long.) What could my job title be?
Earth

Submission + - Alabama Wages War Against the Perfect Weed

pickens writes: "Hugh Pickens writes:

Dan Berry writes in the NY Times that the State of Alabama is spending millions of dollars in federal stimulus money to combat Cogongrass aka the killer weed, the weed from another continent, and the perfect weed, a weed that "evokes those old science-fiction movies in which clueless citizens ignore reports of an alien invasion." Cogongrass (Imperata cylindrica) is considered one of the 10 worst weeds in the world. "It can take over fields and forests, ruining crops, destroying native plants, upsetting the ecosystem," writes Berry. "It is very difficult to kill. It burns extremely hot. And its serrated leaves and grainy composition mean that animals with even the most indiscriminate palates — goats, for example — say no thanks." Alabama's overall strategy is to draw a line across the state at Highway 80 and eradicate everything north of it then, in phases, to try to control it south but the weed is so resilient that you can't kill it with one application of herbicide but have to return several months later and do it again. "People think this is just a grass," says forester Stephen Pecot. "They don't understand that cogongrass can replace an entire ecosystem." Left unchecked, Pecot says "it could spread all the way to Michigan.""
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft is supposedly stealing Apple retail staf

Eugen writes: Ars brings us this story: Microsoft is reportedly trying to hire away Apple's retail employees by bribing them with⦠wait for it, better wages. 'People that have spoken to The Loop on condition of anonymity confirm that Microsoft has contacted a number of Apple's retail store managers to work in their stores. In addition to 'significant raises,' the managers have also been offered moving expenses in some cases.' It doesn't end there: once the ex-Apple managers have jumped ship, they are asked to contact their top sales employees at their old workplaces and offer them similar positions at Microsoft's retail stores, also with higher pay.

Comment Re:Who needs to be a billionaire? (Score 1) 318

I received the following chain email recently. Normally I hate passing on these things but I think this one is rather apt:

A boat docked in a tiny Goan village. A tourist from Mumbai (Mumbaite) complimented the Goan fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.

"Not very long," answered the fisherman.

"But then, why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?" asked the Mumbaite.

The Goan fisherman explained that his small catch was Sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family.
The Mumbaite asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

"I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, play guitar, sing a few songs... I have a full life."

The Mumbaite interrupted, "I have an MBA from IIM-A, and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat."

"And after that?" asked the Goan.

"With the extra money The larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to Panjim, or even Mumbai. From there you can direct your huge new enterprise."

"How long would that take?" asked the Goan.

"Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years," replied the Mumbaite.

"And after that?"

"Afterwards? Well my Friend, That's when it gets really interesting," chuckled the Mumbaite, "When your business gets really big, you can start selling stocks and make millions!"

"Millions? Really? And after that?" asked the Goan.

"After that you'll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, Sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings doing what you like with your buddies."

"With all due respect sir, but that's exactly what I am doing now. So what's the point wasting 25 Years?" asked the Goan. And the moral of the story is? Know where you're going in life. You may already be there.

Life in the present world is indeed a rat race. Many who have good qualifications too do not know where they are going in life.

Comment Re:8 years is a long time (Score 1) 411

This is a good point. To the end user Haiku doesn't appear to be all that different to BeOS back in the day, and it was difficult enough to actually do anything then anyway. In those 8 years modern operating systems, and more importantly the applications that run on those operating systems, have matured massively. IMHO It's unlikely Haiku can gain the momentum that BeOS craved so long ago, especially when there's not a lot that makes it stand out as a better alternative to Linux, for example.

Comment Re:OK, I give up...what is it? (Score 1) 342

From Wikipedia:

an Apple technology used to optimize application support for multicore processors

It essentially gives programmers a way to split their code into "blocks" which can be run on different processors. libdispatch then decides which processor to run each "block" on, so that the load is spread efficiently. It's similar in concept to threading except that events can trigger a new work-block to be created rather than a thread waiting for an event.

Comment Detailed recored not available? (Score 1, Interesting) 359

It seems as though many have missed the fact that there will be an extra layer of protection in this scheme and have jumped to the conclusion that unauthorised people may gain access to one's criminal (and other?) records. The article states that people's ISA Statuses will be accessible to employers and voluntary organisations, and that

people who work with children and vulnerable people have to register with the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA),

There is no mention of what the "ISA Status" that is visible to the employers actually includes and how detailed it is. It may be some arbitrary measurement of how much trouble you've been in or it could be details of your entire life history. Who knows.
Frankly, I find this quotation (ISA) quite concerning because it seems like this government body decides how much of your personal information is available to others:

Applicants will be assessed using data gathered by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB), including relevant criminal convictions, cautions, police intelligence and other appropriate sources.

However, it seems to suggest that based on all of this data the ISA will only give a "thumbs-up"or a "thumbs-down".
(Let's also remember that this is just a "feasibility study" and seemingly not certain.)

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