W00t!

So, hey, check it out: there's this awesome new gaming system that we just can't stop playing. Too bad it's so hard to find in stores - we guess they just didn't make enough of them. It's called the Nintendo Wii, and holy mother of Zelda, is it ever a blast. If the Wii is cool with polygamy, we might ask it to marry us.

The controller - so easy! No more intricate push-this-twice, pull-that-three-times trickery, just easy waves of the hand. The console - so cute! It actually makes our gaming room look better, unlike the bulky, ugly consoles we could mention. How does Nintendo keep the price so low on that thing, anyway? And the games, good Lord, the games! Not to mention those adorable avatars. We've already created virtual versions of the entire staff, so we can beat each other virtually-bloody instead of actually-bloody, like we usually do. The only problem is that none of the nose options are as big as Jason's actual nose. But that's a minor quibble.

In fact, we love the Wii so much, we want to give a Wii to everybody on our payroll. To fund this Wii-for-the-People program, we're selling this Sony PlayStation 3. The SIXAXIS wireless controller is basically the same complicated gazillion-button-style controller you know from past PS models, but at least you won't be fighting Grandma for gaming time. Along with the usual roster of ho-hum games, the PS3 can play CDs, DVDs, and Blu-Ray discs, and the 20GB hard drive can store music, videos, and music videos. It's certainly, er, rather full-figured, for those of you who want a lot of heft for your money. And its HDMI capabilities give you polygons and frames-per-second out the wazoo, if you prefer that stuff to having fun.

Best of all, for every PS3 you buy, we can buy Wiis for two of our employees. So when you get frustrated by those intricate combo-button moves, or bored by the underwhelming game offerings for the PS3, keep the spirit of the season in mind. Remember all those happy Woot staffers whose lives have been changed by their super-fun Nintendo Wiis, paid for by you. Heartwarming, isn't it?

Picked it up earlier today, online or in-store both work.

Linky

From The evil predators (SFW).

It really is something akin to family, a place where management actually cares. You may not make a ton of money, but the little positive things do add up to mean a lot.

I ask for books and get (most of) them, I go to Vegas for a week for a conference. During the holidays we get a Christmas bonus, a fancy Christmas dinner, and a Heavenly Ham to take home. Monetarily it's not a large amount of money spent for the company, but that they put in the effort goes a long way.

My manager is in the upper 50's and his eyes are starting to tire when spending time at the computer, so last week he upgraded to larger monitors and asked me if I wanted more space as well.

Today I unpacked my New Awesomeness to much oohing and aahing. It'll go next to my old 17" monitor and allow me to actually keep property windows open in Visual Studio.

I'm still adjusting to this whole having benefits and working for people who care, but dammit, I think I could get used to it.

Our military has been in Iraq longer than in World War II, World War I, longer than the Vietnam War.

The US didn't invade Iraq in any of those wars.

We just got DirectTv last week and I opted to not get their DVR as it required a 2 year commitment and $5 a month. Being a cheap bastard I'm looking for another DVR solution and am curious what everyone is using?

I'm still running Windows 2000 at home and need to upgrade soon as most games seem to require it. So I'm eyeing Windows Media Center that could work as DVR solution as well.

Any thoughts from the population of Slashdot on MCE? What are other DVR solutions?

(My impression of MythTV is that it requires too much Linux knowledge/setup time, none of which I have enough of. But I'd appreciate thoughts from those experienced with it)

Per Short Circuit

And yes, if you go to the Firehose you'll see this Journal there.

I can't even begin to fathom the thought process behind this "behavior change".

Obviously journals have always been public, but now you cannot prevent an editor from taking your journal, and reposting it as an Ask Slashdot, or YRO, or whatever else they feel like. You may find yourself with a much wider audience than your intended.

Food from Ye Olde Country:

Chokladbollar
Estimated time: ~15 minutes.

Popular with kids ages 2 and up, and simple enough that they can help make them. Taste the mix frequently and adjust to taste (More less sugar/butter). It is normal to end up with only 1/3 the number of Chokladbollar that the recipe estimated because of tasting. Sometimes you end up with none at all. This is also OK, but requires hiding the evidence to avoid being judged.

You really can't screw this up worse than adding more of something else will fix it.

1 Cup oat meal
1/2 Cup Sugar
2 tbsp Cocoa
1 Stick room temperature butter.
A few drop vanilla extract
A teaspoon or so of coffee

1. Mix dry ingredients.
2. Work the butter in until evenly distributed.
3. Add vanilla extract and coffee and work these in.

4. Roll into meatball sized balls, if too soft to roll, place in fridge to let the butter harden a bit.

5. Roll balls in Nib/Pearl sugar, alternatively coconut flakes.

6. Place in fridge.
7. Steal one on every trip.

Funny, or painful?

Dora Aquapet - Dora the Explorer, Ages 5+

Have you been a good girl? (SFW)

Embarrassing? Uncomfortable?

Interview 1:
An Indian girl who appeared terrified throughout the whole (very short) technical interview. Any prompts for more information were answered in single words, or at most one sentence sticking very closely to what was on her resume. Prompting her to tell me about the process and her role in any recent project lead to a blank deer-in-headlights look.

Ok, she might be very nervous, it's not that long ago since I was totally lost at interviews, so let's help her out a bit: For instance, did you do any requirement gathering first?

Answer: Yes, we got requirements and then built the application.

Mmmmmkay, I see we may have some difficulty with my other open ended questions intended to get you to talk. Why don't we just skip ahead to a few direct questions.

Have you any experience with SQL Server 2005?

Yes.

Ok...do you prefer it over 2000?

Yes.

Ok, what do you like about it?

*Blank stare*

Ooooook, thanks for coming!

Next interview: Thursday with an old buddy of mine. He should ace the interview, but I somewhat fear that we can't lure him away from his current job.

I've mentioned before that we're looking at hiring another person. This will change my duties somewhat. I'll do less front end and more back end/sysadmin/DBA stuff. I'm all for this, but I have a couple of reservations. I don't want to move away from .Net development, it's essential IMHO to keeping my skills up to date. I also don't want to drift into user support, which is a real risk in a small company like this. If you're the sysadmin, you're the guy who configures switches one day, and turns keyboards upside down to shake out the crumbs the next.

I don't mind wearing the DBA hat, it's something that I enjoy. But I don't want to hang up my developer hat just yet either. My preferred role would be as technical lead developer/architect where I can be involved with the development efforts, but I'm not the one dropping controls on a form. I want to be in a position where management decides what needs to be done, while I decide how to do it and make it happen. I want to be in a position where I research questions to come up with solutions, not just implementing a quick workaround.

On feeling the pressure:
Has anyone looked at Firehose? How lame and useless is that.

On intra-marital TMI journal wars:
When you take out a title loan, you have to pay the lender back, even if you invested the borrowed money to turn a profit. While the loan goes unpaid, the lender holds your assets and interest builds up quickly. I'm not circuit city, I don't do interest free 'til 2008 deals.

On Vegas baby:
3 more working days, maybe 2, gonna see if I can take Friday off to get everything together, then it's off to Vegas for a week.

On death:
Posting in Sol's journal yesterday made me stop and think a bit about the dead. I realized that my friends death led to a long period of introspection for me. That introspection took me to a certain chat room in the summer of 1999, I met Tammy there the same fall. Funny that.

The episode where the wifes trade marital favors for furniture?

It's a good system.

Tomorrow we're gonna go look at a double vessel sink on a mahogany vanity for the master bath.

Simple question for the Winders sysadmins out there:

How do you add foo.org to the trusted sites for all clients, while still allowing clients to specify their own trusted sites?

So far I've tested two ways:
[Group policy] > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Internet Explorer > Internet Control Panel > Security page.

Add foo.org to Site to Zone assignment list with a value of 2 (Trusted site).

This works and reflects the setting on the client, but it wipes out all user defined trusted sites and doesn't allow them to add more. I've tried disabling "Do not allow users to add/delete sites" under the Internet explorer node, but it doesn't seem to have any effect.

Second way:
[Group policy] > User Configuration > Windows Settings > Internet Explorer maintenance > Security

Open Security Zones and Content Ratings.
Import the current security zones and privacy settings.

This doesn't appear to be reflected on client in the trusted sites list.

According to the docs I've read, either way should be all there's to it. No magic involved.
So what am I missing?

7:00 am, this morning, and I quote:

"'donal ha-a faym, ei-ei-serial.
wid an oink oink here
an oink oink here
here an oink

hehehehe oink oink, oink oink"

The boy tries, but ei-ei-serial? WTF?