Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment So Colorado is safe? (Score 1) 536

Why are Leukemia, prostrate and ovary cancer happening at a significantly (measurable) higher rate in Colorado? It's not a fair question just as the original post's strawman is invalid. The level in Colorado isn't safe because it's natural. Given the slightly better lifestyles measurable in lower obesity rates, one would 'expect' Colorado to be slightly better than average except for melanoma because of the thinner atmosphere/UV radiation.

http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/pp/cccr/1997-2007/CIC9707%20First%20Half%20(web).pdf

Would media covering bad places to live ever of that nature be tolerated excluding political motivation or a disaster event? There is a consistency in how information is filtered. There is a natural tendency for the media to keep a wet finger in the air to know which way the wind is blowing. The blowback from standing against the wind and being wrong is far riskier than standing with the wind and the wind being wrong.

Comment Re:Impact energy not the same for small objects (Score 1) 186

You can drop a mouse down a thousand-yard mine shaft; and, on arriving at the bottom, it gets a slight shock and walks away, provided that the ground is fairly soft. A rat is killed, a man is broken, a horse splashes

On Being the Right Size J. B. S. Haldane in 1928

Sextus Empiricus could have told us that 1750 years sooner if he had a mouse, a rat, a spare horse and a thousand-yard mine shaft.

Comment Re:Wrong (Score 1) 446

That's why you have the manager sign off on the requirements and functional specification. He can change his mind (and often does as a company better understands the market) but the cost is then his responsibility which he can balance with the potential reward in his decision and communicate a justification to stake holders. If you just make the box, the responsibility is then fairly yours. How was the manager to know the cost of his decision?

Comment Understand the problem. (Score 1) 446

Tight algorithms are nice to have for most of the people actually using software. Engineering is an applied science. Engineers solve real problems which means clearly identifying the potential for their investment.

Identify who is going to use the software. Who is this person? Put together a profile on a couple sheets of paper. Have a face for this person. There may be a few personas that will use the software.

Given these personas. How do they accomplish the task you intend to improve today? What is painful in their current workflow? A possible answer is they can't do it.

Given these pain points. Create a list of pain points you can address. When you can say how these will be addressed, they become a functional specification. Part of the functional specification may include performance related concerns if it is driven by the persona.

Given a functional specification, you will need some architectural design to make the implementation possible, document that.

Now you have enough to say how you will test it; some will be unit tests and some will be operational. As you document the testing, you may find your functional specification needs to be more precise.

From there, use what you already know. Improve upon how you implement as time permits but keep the larger picture in mind.

Ideally you will have others review your documentation and code before letting it out the door.

When you are done, everything goes back to the original persona with pain points you are improving. If the tests are passing and the end user is not satisfied, you missed a requirement in your functional specification.

Desktops (Apple)

Could Apple Kill Off Mac OS X? 577

Barence writes "When Steve Jobs announced last night that he was 'going to demote the PC and the Mac to just be a device,' it was the clearest indication yet that Apple is phasing out Mac OS X, argues PC Pro's Barry Collins. 'Over the past couple of months, there have been continual rumours that Apple is testing the iPad's A5 processor in its MacBook range, suggesting Apple believes iOS could stretch further than smartphones and tablets,' Collins argues. Plus, Apple would take a 30% cut on all Mac software if it mandated downloads via the App Store only. 'The only part of Apple's portfolio where iOS doesn't make sense is in the high-end. Yet, Apple's already discontinued its Xserve range of servers and... it's almost exclusively fixated on the consumer market,' he argues."
Windows

Lessons In Hardware / OS Troubleshooting 236

Esther Schindler writes "We like to imagine that every Microsoft OS installation will work just as well as the company promises. When things don't work out, identifying and remedying the case of failure can be time-consuming and frustrating. This lesson in how to determine why Windows 7 didn't install may help you troubleshoot a problem of your own, and save you from a Lost Weekend. Maybe you'll find this account useful all on its own. But the real key here is that the author is Ed Tittel — who's written over 100 books. If this hardware geek spends days solving a CPU-meets-Windows 7 problem, what chance do mere mortals have?"

Comment KDevelop (Score 1) 193

KDevelop has a VIM mode for its text editor, I believe. Under Settings|Editor|Text Editor. Or at least it used to, a long time ago. You might need to install it as a separate package, or your distro might not package it (silly thing).
Education

What Filters Are Right For Kids? 678

WaywardGeek writes "My daughter is using phrases like 'hot guys,' and soon will have a chat about the birds and the bees. I believe in letting kids discover the world as it is, and have no Internet controls on any of our systems, which are mostly Linux based. However, it's not fair for aggressive porn advertisers to splash sex in her face without her permission. My question is: What Linux-based Internet filtering solution do Slashdot dads favor, and do they hinder a child's efforts to learn about the world?"

Comment from the article (Score 1) 348

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=some_text.odt
Exec=rm -rf $HOME
Icon=/usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/apps/ooo-writer.png

Oops... you had backups of all your data, didn't you?

The article has an example of an entry that downloads code off a server and executes it instead.
Biotech

Umbilical Cord Blood Banking? 409

Maestro writes "There must be many parents (and soon-to-be parents) here at Slashdot. What are your thoughts on umbilical cord blood banking? This seems like a major question for our newborn; the question is almost as stressful for us as naming the baby. Given Obama's stance on stem cells, the topic is timely. My understanding is that while the current uses for cord blood are limited, the sky's the limit for the future of stem cell therapies. But with the initial cost over $1000, and ongoing yearly fees, is it worth it?"
GUI

Shuttleworth Proposes Overhaul of Desktop Notifications 306

Thelasko writes "Mark Shuttleworth is considering a controversial overhaul to the way Ubuntu manages notifications." I'm not thrilled with all of the changes proposed, which would mostly value simplicity over confusion at the expense of flexibility and permanence. But anything that would make more people read over and specifically approve the wording of error messages and other notifications is a good thing.

Slashdot Top Deals

"May your future be limited only by your dreams." -- Christa McAuliffe

Working...