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Comment Re:He may be a lawyer, but he doesn't understand (Score 1) 328

'These are ultimately consumer businesses and if you piss off enough of them, you will not have any more.'

This is ultimately an Advertiser business.

What exactly do you think Google is? They are an extravagantly successful advertising company that just happens to provide search and email as a means to attract an audience. It would seem that Eric Schmidt knows what he's talking about.

Comment Re:Is there a gas leak in here? (Score 1) 1147

Why can't people just prefer apple, and not be fanatical about it? Oh, right, because then that wouldn't justify the increased expense.

My wife's Windows laptop forgets that our wireless access point is WPA once a week. It degrades in speed over time and requires yearly reinstalls. It likes to forget how to talk to our laser printer, so I have to reinstall the drivers about every three months. It takes forever to become usable after sleep mode.

I have been abused by Windows machines long enough. I prefer my Mac because I do not need to spend time fussing with it.

Comment Re:google does (Score 3, Funny) 581

Google makes you take a looooooong and in depth personality test just to apply for an IT position. It's really insulting.

Erroneous. Google does not make you take a personality test.

P.S. Fuck you, Google. Didn't want to work for you anyway. Put that in your personality test.

I'm sure that's why you opted to apply and interview with them.

Comment EE and CE recommendations (Score 1) 517

Although I confess that I may have spent too much time in school, I can say that I had an opportunity to read and study a lot of books in both electrical engineering and computer engineering. My personal favorites are:

  • Microelectronic Circuits by Sedra and Smith: There are lots of books about analog amplifier design. However, I have found this one to provide a comprehensive survey of component level analog design with op-amps, BJTs, and FETs. It provides lots of examples and doesn't usually "leave the exercise to the reader."
  • Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach by Hennessy and Patterson: The bible of computer architecture, written by two of the biggest names in the field. I'm not familiar with the latest version, but the previous edition took the most interesting and useful concepts from over 3000 papers and narrowed it down to a reasonable text. Contains everything you ever wanted to know about performance analysis, pipelines, out-of-order issue, and caches, backed by benchmarking from real machines and theoretical maximums from simulated machines.
  • Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest, and Stein: Hardly an introductory book, this book contains 99.9% of the algorithms or data structures you are going to need. Personally, I don't like the exercises, but the sheer reference value makes this text necessary.
Security

Submission + - Securing the C Language through the Standard

n0-0p writes: One of the members of the C standard committee has a proposal for updating the C language to prevent integer overflows and related vulnerabilities. Most developers (and even security professionals) either misunderstand or are simply unaware of these types of vulnerabilities. They're extremely hard to find through manual and automated code reviews, and they've quickly become one of the top 3 flaws found in OS software. For some background, the site has links to PDF sample chapters from two different books covering the subject.
Microsoft

Submission + - Torvalds on Vista

bl8n8r writes: "Linuxworld is running an article on Linus Torvalds' take on MS Vista. "I don't actually think that something like Vista will change how people work that much," Torvalds told Computerworld. "I think it, to some degree, has been over-hyped as being something completely new and I don't actually think it is." Torvalds also cites (hardware requirements being one) a few reasons why Vista may cause a wider adoption of Linux. Perhaps the only reason behind Vista is to sell all those SuSE licenses Microsoft bought?"
Data Storage

Submission + - How To Destroy Old Backup Tapes?

DotNM writes: "I've been tasked with destroying two medium-sized boxes full of tapes. I'm looking to find the most creative method of doing this en masse without me or my employer spending any money for anything to do it. I've thought about running over them with my car, but it's too cold outside (winter) to do that."
It's funny.  Laugh.

What Breakfast Gets You Going? 365

Crash McBang asks: "Apparently many are foregoing the morning coffee for something sweeter, according to a recent article in RedOrbit. 'There is nothing better than the feel of Coke on the back of your throat in the morning,' said McKinsey, a morning pop drinker since the 1970s, savoring the cold, stinging sensation that coffee drinkers just don't get. What gets you going after waking up?"
Programming

Submission + - 53 CSS-Techniques You Couldn't Live Without

Sushi writes: CSS is important. And it is being used more and more often. Cascading Style Sheets offer a strict separation between layout, or design of the page, and the information, presented on the page. Thus the design of pages can be easily changed, just replacing a css-file with another one. Over the last few years web-developers have developed many useful techniques, which can save you a lot of time — of course, if you are able to find them in time. The article 53 CSS-Techniques You Couldn't Live Without lists essential techniques, which make the life of web-developers easier. Thanks to all developers who contributed to accessible and usable css-based design over the last few years. We really appreciate it.
NASA

Pluto Probe Snaps Jupiter Pictures 133

sighted writes "The New Horizons probe, on its way to Pluto and beyond, is now speeding toward Jupiter. Today the team released some of the early data and pictures, which are the first close-range shots of the giant planet since the robotic Cassini spacecraft passed that way in 2001."
Software

Submission + - Your Own PC to forecast future Weather

Anonymous Coward writes: "A computer model of climate run on home PCs in conjunction with the BBC has yielded its first results. About 250,000 people downloaded software from climateprediction.net onto their home computers, each running a single simulation of the future. The results suggest the UK could be about 3C warmer than now in 75 years' time, agreeing with other models. Each downloaded a software pack from climateprediction.net which ran when their computer was otherwise idle, with results being fed back to the central server. Each simulation required about three months of computing time on an average PC!"
Graphics

Submission + - Do (legally and/or morally) NDA expire?

An anonymous reader writes: I just found in eBay a prototype of a VGA card that never made it to the market (a Pyramid 3-D, the father of the Glaze 3-D which also didn't make it). Assuming there was originally a NDA, and assuming it doesn't have a specific expiration date, is there a moral date? Is it legal to sell prototypes of things, even after it's clear that they will never be commercially viable?
Programming

Ruby On Rails 1.2 Released 97

Scooter[AMMO] writes "David Heinemeier Hansson sent a post to the Rails 1.2. This new version adds a slew of buff and polish to the rest of the system, as well several new features like RESTful interfaces, response formats, improved multi-byte support, and more. If you haven't checked out the web application framework that aims to renew joy within its users, give it a look. You may be amazed at how easy it makes things without sacrificing power or functionality."
Media

Where Do You Go for Worthwhile Product Reviews? 88

An anonymous reader asks: "What's the deal with reviews and product comparisons? My boss wants independent comparative reviews of proxy and web servers to use to make/justify his decision. We all know that what the vendors write about their own (and competitive) products, so I tried searching for 3rd party reviews. I can find heaps of articles on the web telling us how great IIS is or how good Microsoft's Proxy server is, but nothing showing a back-to-back comparison of Squid vs. Sun Java Proxy vs. Microsoft Proxy, and the same for Apache and IIS. What's happening here? Where can I find an honest back-to-back product comparison?"

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