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Comment Re:We need a new right... (Score 1) 205

True. I cut Cable TV because a) the programming was rank and; b) the ad time has grown to nearly 16 - 18 minutes per hour* of "show". So, yesterday I turned the radio on and went off NPR (US public radio), every station bar none was playing an ad.

I use Firefox with AdBlock Plus, NoScript, BetterPrivacy, et. al.

I don't mind ads I just hate being carpet bombed.

*Official old guy here: Eight minutes of commercials back in the day.

Comment Re:"Pvt. Beetle Bailey here to educate the user!" (Score 1) 370

Lol, the CSRs on the phones were not engineers! They were $10/hr phone-support-with-script monkeys. You would not believe some of the crap we would find stuffed around, behind, under and in the computers. They would pry back the fascia that covered the floppy and CD drive bays (see my original post, we ordered the machines without these drives), and fill them with candy bar wrappers, fast food napkins and whatever else was too difficult for them to place in a wastebasket.

Comment "Pvt. Beetle Bailey here to educate the user!" (Score 2) 370

"Infected via flash drives." "Educate the user."

Oh bullshit! Never, _ever_ trust a user.

Seriously, I worked IT at a call center. The first thing you did with the machines when they came in was log in to the BIOS, disable ports like COM & USB, and set a BIOS password. If the thing was shipped to us with a floppy or cd/dvd drive (they were ordered bare but sometimes Gateway f-d up), we would remove the hardware before putting them in service. They were also imaged for whatever floor they were scheduled to be on (outsourced call center - Comcast, ATT&T, Sprint, Hughes Sat.) and out they went.

Once, a Bell South supervisor memo'd and called upper management and said he had to have USB to save and transfer reports, etc. And BOOM, a virus went through the Bell South floor like shit through a goose. That was the end of "educating the user."

Never, ever trust a luser.

Comment Re:Why not use it as a bargaining chip? (Score 5, Interesting) 735

I was in a similar situation, and that's exactly what I did. A job opened up closer to my home and on-target with my then new-found interest in web development. I told my old boss that I would be leaving in two weeks, and that I was saddened but explained the circumstances: better pay, less commute, more job satisfaction. He responded by asking how much they were offering. He then matched the salary, told me he would pay for my time commuting, and asked me to use some of my time to develop a web site for the company. Win-win boss. Disclaimer: I did eventually leave years later to form my own company. We're still friends and he's a customer, so yeah, he's still in some ways my boss :)

Science

Submission + - New Material Turns Oil From Liquid to Solid (discovery.com) 2

disco_tracy writes: With fingers crossed that the Gulf oil spill is finally quenched, responders still must deal with the remainder of the estimated 5 million barrels of oil released into the Gulf since late April when the spill began. A material in development could help recover spilled oil by solidifying it into a solid gel floating on the ocean's surface.
Slashback

Journal Journal: The Comeback Kid

Sick of Digg, Reddit and 4chan... I know, late to catch on. Better late than whatever. Those sites are fast food. Comingb ack to /., for it is good. And the Times, of course.

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