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Comment Re:To the toolboxes... (Score 1) 251

As an actual lazy slacker even I put in a little bit of work before asking my peers for help. That way I can maximize the benefit I get from asking my peers by making sure they don't give me the same answer I could get frmo Google. That just makes good sense. It also helps me determine who else is a lazy slacker :)

Comment Re:The Dangers of averaging (Score 1) 342

Damnit... I want to keep information on my peaks for capacity planning!

AVERAGE isn't the only archiving function you can use with rrdtool. For your purposes, you should create an additional RRA with an archiving function of MAX. http://oss.oetiker.ch/rrdtool/doc/rrdcreate.en.html#IRRA_CF_cf_arguments

Programming

What Do You Call People Who "Do HTML"? 586

gilgongo writes "It's more than 10 years since people started making a living writing web page markup, yet the job title (and role) has yet to settle down. Not only that, but there are different types of people who write markup: those that approach the craft as essentially an integration task, and those that see it as part of UI design overall. The situation is further complicated by the existence of other roles in the workplace such as graphic designer and information architect. This is making recruitment for this role a real headache. So, how do you describe people who 'do HTML' (and CSS and maybe a bit of JavaScript and graphics manipulation)? Some job titles I've seen include: Design Technologist, Web Developer, Front-end Developer, HTML/CSS Developer, Client-side Developer and UI Engineer. Do you have any favourite job titles for this role?"
Data Storage

Building a Searchable Literature Archive With Keywords? 211

Sooner Boomer writes "I'm trying to help drag a professor I work with into the 20th century. Although he is involved in cutting-edge research (nanotechnology), his method of literature search is to begin with digging through the hundreds of 3-ring binders that contain articles (usually from PDFs) that he has printed out. Even though the binders are labeled, the articles can only go under one 'heading' and there's no way to do a keyword search on subject, methods, materials, etc. Yeah, google is pretty good for finding stuff, as are other on-line literature services, but they only work for articles that are already on-line. His literature also includes articles copied from books, professional correspondence, and other sources. Is there a FOSS database or archive method (preferably with a web interface) where he could archive the PDFs and scanned documents and be able to search by keywords? It would also be nice to categorize them under multiple subject headings if possible. I know this has been covered ad nauseum with things like photos and the like, but I'm not looking at storage as such: instead I'm trying to find what's stored."
Software

Internal Instant Messaging Client / Server Combo? 360

strongmantim writes "I manage an internal help desk (25-30 people) for a medium-large company in the healthcare industry. We're looking for an internal, secure, FOSS (if possible) instant messaging / presence awareness client and server combo. Transmission of Protected Health Information is a sensitive issue, so the server has to be able to log any conversations that occur. It is preferred that the client not support outside protocols such as AIM, MSN, Yahoo, etc.; if it does, I will have to promulgate and enforce yet one more policy that my techs not connect to them. All of the computers that will connect run Windows XP. The system should be scalable up to ~100 people (in case we decide to include our entire office in the roll-out). Hardware and OS for the server are not an issue. Oh, and one more thing: It has to be free. Suggestions?"
Internet Explorer

IE8 May Be End of the Line For Internet Explorer 380

snydeq writes "InfoWorld's Randall Kennedy reports on rumors that IE8 may be Internet Explorer's swan song: 'IE8 is the last version of the Internet Explorer Web browser,' Kennedy writes. 'It seems that Microsoft is preparing to throw in the towel on its Internet Explorer engine once and for all.' And what will replace it? Some are still claiming that Microsoft will go with WebKit, which is used by Safari and Chrome. The WebKit story, Kennedy contends, could be a feint and that Microsoft will instead adopt Gazelle, Microsoft Research's brand-new engine that thinks like an OS. 'This new engine will supposedly be more secure than Firefox or even Chrome, making copious use of sandboxing to keep its myriad plug-ins isolated and the overall browser process model protected.'" The sticking point will be what Microsoft does about compatibility for ActiveX apps.

Comment Coincidentally (Score 5, Informative) 187

I happen to have a printout of an article on "The Liskov Substitution Principle" and was wondering just yesterday how it is that as programmers we use these principles in everyday life yet don't know their names or the stories of how they came about. As the first US woman to earn a PhD in CS, I'm sure there are some interesting stories to tell about it.

For those who might not have her original text handy, the Liskov Substitution Principle states (rather obviously):

If for each object o1 of type S there is an object o2 of type T such that for all programs P defined in terms of T, the behavior of P is unchanged when o1 is substituted for o2 then S is a subtype of T

which, when stated in the words of Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin as something we probably all intuitively understand from our daily work, is:

Functions that use pointers or references to base classes must be able to use objects of derived classes without knowing it

Comment The most interesting thing on the Get Amnesty site (Score 1) 132

"Further, violators are tagged with a complete history of their downloading activities, which is easily translated to create customer profiles for online marketing purposes" This looks like they'll be using file sharing statistics to provide the content owners a benefit too. Seems only fair that the file sharers who, by their very actions, actually give them the information about what is popular and what is not should get compensated for that. Instead they will be fined. Way to go Nexicon/RIAA!
Software

Submission + - Eye Candy 3D OpenGL Transitions for OpenOffice.org (oooninja.com)

ahziem writes: "PowerPoint's push-down transition has done its 15 years of service, and it's time for something new. Do the sleepy faces in your meetings agree? OpenOffice.org Impress 2.4 upstages PowerPoint with ten 3D transitions rendered in OpenGL. Apple's Keynote has already had a similar feature, but Apple was always shiny like that."

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