Doofus - Slashdot User

Submission + - Sinofsky Leaves Microsoft With Immediate Effect (microsoft.com)

Submitted by toomanyairmiles on Tuesday November 13, 2012 @04:51AM

toomanyairmiles writes: The BBC reports that Microsoft's head of Windows division Steven Sinofsky has left the company with immediate effect. He will be replaced by Julie Larson-Green "Microsoft Corp. today announced that Windows and Windows Live President Steven Sinofsky will be leaving the company and that Julie Larson-Green will be promoted to lead all Windows software and hardware engineering. Tami Reller retains her roles as chief financial officer and chief marketing officer and will assume responsibility for the business of Windows. Both executives will report directly to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. "

Submission + - CloudFlare masters global pxe-driven content delievery (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Doofus on Friday October 19, 2012 @12:48PM

Doofus writes: Quoting from the Ars article:
On August 22, CloudFlare, a content delivery network, turned on a brand new data center in Seoul, Korea—the last of ten new facilities started across four continents in a span of thirty days. The Seoul data center brought CloudFlare's number of data centers up to 23, nearly doubling the company's global reach—a significant feat in itself for a company of just 32 employees.

But there was something else relatively significant about the Seoul data center and the other 9 facilities set up this summer: despite the fact that the company owned every router and every server in their racks, and each had been configured with great care to handle the demands of CloudFlare's CDN and security services, no one from CloudFlare had ever set foot in them. All that came from CloudFlare directly was a six-page manual instructing facility managers and local suppliers on how to rack and plug in the boxes shipped to them.

Comment No water, no air, no bonds broken? (Score 5, Insightful) 315

by Doofus on Wednesday October 10, 2012 @02:05PM (#41610151) Attached to: Half-Life of DNA is 521 Years, <em>Jurassic Park</em> Impossible After All

So in amber, or some other similar impermeable substance, the chemical reactions requiring water or air might well be prevented or dramatically slowed, thus the degradation of DNA might be substantially slower than the 521 years described in the summary.

Not necessarily the end of the Jurassic Park idea.

Comment Re:easy answer. (Score 1) 394

by Doofus on Friday July 13, 2012 @12:51AM (#40635811) Attached to: A Million-Year Hard Disk

This assumes that the interpretation of binary in the far future is the same as what you intend here, which is ASCII.

And while ASCII is portable, is it guaranteed to be a known, useful encoding a hundred years from now? A thousand years?

Submission + - Journey to the Mantle of the Earth? (newscientist.com) 1

Submitted by Doofus on Thursday July 05, 2012 @01:56PM

Doofus writes: New Scientist has an interesting story about a Japanese effort to reach the Earth's mantle. While some mantle material has been recovered from volcanoes, no pure mantle material has been obtained. (We have moon rocks, but nothing from a few km beneath our feet!) Accompanying the article is a gallery of previous attempts at drilling farther and farther into the Earth's crust.

Comment Re:This article from 1996 never gets old (Score 1) 188

by Doofus on Sunday April 15, 2012 @11:34AM (#39693385) Attached to: Documentation As a Bug-Finding Tool

great reference

thank you for sharing this

Comment We used ViaCord (Score 3, Informative) 321

by Doofus on Thursday March 29, 2012 @02:00PM (#39512875) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Store Umbilical Cord Blood — and If So, Where?

We used ViaCord for our first, and will be using them for our second. Similar to other services, you pay a collection fee (blood approx $1500, blood+tissue approx $2700) and then a small annual fee for storage.

It remains unclear to me that cord-tissue preservation will be worth the gamble; the option wasn't available several years ago for our first, but is now. We are debating about whether the extra cost is worthwhile, considering no studies have demonstrated effective therapies using cryo-preserved cord tissue.

Your mileage may vary.

Enjoy the adventure with the new one.

Comment Re:What am I missing? (Score 1) 279

by Doofus on Friday March 16, 2012 @02:23PM (#39380639) Attached to: NSA Building US's Biggest Spy Center

It's filled with random bits. All the way down.

Submission + - Tablet computer designed 15 years before iPad; prior art, anyone? (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by Doofus on Saturday March 10, 2012 @08:47AM

Doofus writes: The Washington Post has a profile of Roger Fidler, who "invented" the tablet computer in the 1990s, while working as a visionary for newspaper firm Knight-Ridder. He is now embroiled in the Apple/Samsung legal war, as an expert witness. Fidler admits that other prior art influenced him, such as the tablets being used as computing devices in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Prior prior art.

Submission + - Tablet computer designed 15 years before iPad; prior art, anyone? (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by Doofus on Friday March 09, 2012 @04:20PM

Doofus writes: Roger Fidler, who worked for Knight-Ridder, had a "skunk-works" lab next door to Apple in the 1990s.

Fidler invented the "tablet" computer in 1994, long before Apple patented the design (2004). Of course, he admits (in the article) that the tablets in 2001: A Space Odyssey may have influenced him. Prior prior art.

Submission + - The Windows 8 Power Struggle: Metro vs Desktop (hothardware.com)

Submitted by

MojoKid

on Friday March 09, 2012 @01:02PM

MojoKid writes: "Metro, Microsoft's new UI, is bold, a dramatic departure from anything the company has previously done in the desktop/laptop space, and absolutely great. It's tangible proof that Redmond really can design and build its own unique products and experiences. However, the transition to Metro's Start menu, for some desktop users, is jarring and worse yet, Desktop mode and Metro don't mesh well at all. The best strategy Microsoft could take, would be to introduce users to Metro via its included apps and through tablets, while prominently offering the option to maintain the Desktop environment. Power users who choose to use the classic UI for desktops and laptops can still be exposed to Metro via tablets and applications without being forced to wade through it on their way to do something important."

Comment So the PC doesn't seem to be dead yet. (Score 1) 296

by Doofus on Friday March 09, 2012 @10:13AM (#39300249) Attached to: My PC use accounts for __% of my computing time

With all of the news about the "post-PC" world, this survey indicates that for at least one segment of the population, the PC still accounts for the overwhelming majority of computing time.

This, for some reason, is reassuring to me, as I have not yet succumbed to the lure of the thinly-sliced consumption device.

Submission + - School system choose Windows 7 tablet over iPad (networkworld.com)

Submitted by Doofus on Friday February 17, 2012 @11:37AM

Doofus writes: Network World is reporting that the Charlottesville City public school district has selected a Fujitsu tablet running Windows 7 over the Apple iPad. The school's IT team decided that the Fujitsu Windows 7 tablet came out ahead of the iPad on security and durability.
The integrity of iPad's glass was an issue, and Fujitsu's tablet can withstand shock resulting from drops and also can operate in demanding environments, said Dean Jadlowski, director of technology for the Charlottesville City Schools, in a statement. The Q550 can last longer in backpacks and reduce repairs, which could reduce maintenance costs.

Comment HIIT works, but you have to do it (Score 3, Interesting) 437

by Doofus on Thursday February 16, 2012 @12:57AM (#39056159) Attached to: Scientists Study How Little Exercise You Need

and therein lies the problem.

HIIT has actually been around and been discussed in running groups for a number of years. Lest you think I am pulling this from where the sun doesn't shine, I write this from some personal experience; I am an experienced ultramarathoner (six 50 milers). HIIT is extremely difficult for "normal" people to do as an ongoing exercise program.

The great majority of Americans are simply not capable of pushing themselves as hard as is required for a successful HIIT regimen. If you're not capable of pushing yourself to do this type of strenuous exercise, you're not going to do it. It's as simple as that.

HIIT will work extraordinarily well for people that are already moderately fit or even overweight if they are capable of pushing through their pain (not the physical pain, the mental pain). Again, and again, and again; and each iteration is harder than the last.

Most people - especially the great unwashed overweight masses (pun intended) - aren't willing or capable of doing this, and simply aren't going to do it. They would be better served starting out just walking briskly for 30 minutes four or five times a week.

Comment Re:Good for them (Score 1) 1271

by Doofus on Wednesday February 15, 2012 @05:32PM (#39051007) Attached to: Doctors "Fire" Vaccine Refusers

argue with me about whether vaccines are, in fact, the greatest medical development for humanity in the past two centuries

This is demonstrably false, though I am too busy to find citations right now.

I agree that vaccines have been a substantial boon to human health, but it pales beside the most truly important development. The development and maintenance of properly functioning public sanitation systems has clearly been the greatest medical development for humanity in the past two centuries.

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