Comment Yet more proof of Catfish Hunter's greatness. (Score 1) 115
Damn,he was fun to watch.
Comment Re:Still Wrong (Score 2) 926
what you bought actually only has a 2 year shelf life, I don't care what their marketing department tells you.
The supplier's website says that with mild, dry storage conditions, the food is good for up to 25 years. My guess is their estimate is closer to the truth than yours.
Comment If I had mod points, you would get one. (Score 1) 220
Thoughtful analysis untainted by political correctness is getting scarce these days. Which by definition means it's getting more valuable.
Comment Commercial Solution: Death Switch (Score 1) 257
Didn't notice if this was mentioned or not, but there are some commercial solutions like deathswitch.com
They fire off emails to you on a schedule. If you fail to respond, then they suspect maybe you are pushing up daisies... other fail-safes kick in (they check with a designated friend, etc.). If you are, indeed gone, then they spew whatever you want to whomever you designate. You can even program in a follow up or two for later. A year after you are dead, a nice parting practical joke, eh?
Comment A revolution is what would happen. (Score 3, Interesting) 298
Followed quickly by a headless king.
This does not require an elaborate analysis, only a cursory reading of history.
Comment Re:Reinvent the wheel (Score 1) 188
What??? Game Programmers are NOT secretive at all. We share virtually everything! I'm sitting right now at the tail end of GDC where we spent a week of doing nothing but sharing. Where did you get that notion?
Comment There's no need for a book (Score 1) 188
Seriously.... a book?
Just Google what you want to know.
If you've done C#, then look at XNA. It lets you do game stuff in C#. You know how to program, now just pick up things you don't know to build on that toolbox. On sites like http://create.msdn.com/ you can find all the information you need, and better yet, full functioning examples projects to pick apart and learn from.
Why back in my day there was no Google machine. Much less any book son the subject. Now there is so much information out there, for free, you have no excuse to not just trip over it even if you take 10 seconds to look for it.
Comment You apparently haven't read Vernor Vinge (Score 2) 67
Of course, you realize that NO ONE predicted the impact that the internet would have a scant 30 years ago.
True Names was published in 1981, which is a scant 31 years ago. Read it first of all to see that someone DID envision the impact of the global internet, and its resultant creation of cyberspace. But more importantly, read it because it is a brilliant example of what science fiction can be.
Comment More likely due to runoff from scoured land. (Score 4, Informative) 97
My money is on the exfoliation of a huge strip of coastal land followed by massive runoff as the culprit. There's still 20 million tons of debris floating. Imagine how much more either dissolved or sank.
Comment Re:Vacation? What vacation? (Score 1) 948
ROWE was initiated at Best Buy internally and has grown way past that. It may be the one great thing Best Buy ever came up with.
You can be snarky about it. Or... educate yourself.
Actually, I don't care either way. For those of us who live it, there is absolutely no going back. Ever.
Comment Re:Vacation? What vacation? (Score 3, Interesting) 948
Yes, I was being hyperbolic to make a point and get attention....
We did away with formal vacation time, sick time, etc.
You have unlimited amounts of it.
ROWE is a system where an employeer treats their employees like competent adults who know how to manage their time.
Does everyone know how to do that? No. And those people fail to get good results under ROWE and get fired.
Is measuring results hard? It's as easy or as hard as you want to make it. You can do 360 Reviews and all that BS if you want. Or you can keep it more informal, like we do.
ROWE increases productivity and employee's become amazingly loyal.
The biggest difficulty with it is for the boss(es) who feel like they are somehow losing control. Who fear that the day after they start ROWE no one will come into the office anymore. Know what really happens? People come into the office, they get work done, and they feel far, far less stress.
It is amazing. Its simple. It works. And of all the BS systems that have come and gone, this is the one that just flat out does what it says.
We'd never consider going back. Ever.
Comment Vacation? What vacation? (Score 3, Insightful) 948
At my company, we did away with vacations. You get no vacation time. At. All.
But that was just for starters, we also did away with sick time. None.
Personal days? Don't make me laugh.
I am proud to say that was my initiative.
One might think this could have some impact on moral. But when asked during on camera interviews, how much would people have to pay you to leave? Some said at least double, and most said they couldn't even think of a number.
If you want to know how that's possible, then Google ROWE. Results Only Work Environment. And you'll understand why.
I give talks about our transition to ROWE, and it's been nothing but phenomenal.
David
Comment In other words, Ray Bradbury got it right. (Score 3, Interesting) 168
About a lot of things, actually.
Submission + - Army of 'socialbots' steal gigabytes of Facebook u (theregister.co.uk)
An anonymous reader writes: A small array of scripts programmed to pass themselves off as real people stole 250 gigabytes worth of personal information from Facebook users in just eight weeks, researchers said in an academic report to be presented next month. The 102 “socialbots” included a name and picture of a fictitious Facebook user and used programming interfaces from ihearthquotes.com to automatically embed pseudo-random quotes into status updates. They also used Facebook interfaces to send connection requests to about 5,000 randomly selected profiles. They then sent connection requests to the friends of those who accepted the initial invitation, and with each acceptance, they scraped whatever information was available.
Submission + - Motorcycle that runs on compressed air (gizmag.com)
cylonlover writes: A vehicle that runs on air. It sounds like a fantastic idea, but energy is still needed to compress the air and the losses that go hand-in-hand with converting energy still have to be taken into account, just as in fossil fuel-based propulsion systems. Pros and cons aside, we still haven't seen air powered transport make an impact in the race to find economic, environmentally-friendly ways to get from A to B. Industrial Design student Dean Benstead thinks that compressed air does have a role to play in the future transport mix, and he's designed a working air-powered motorcycle prototype with a view to exploring the viability of the platform.
