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Comment Re:Also (Score 1) 865

We have the same problem in our town of 60K; the "big" theater here usually only carries 3D versions of new-releases. Sometimes farther down the release chain the 2D version may show up for very popular movies, or they will be in 2D when they move to the second run theater across town. I *LIKE* going to the movies, but as has been mentioned so many times above, its much more convenient and affordable to stay home and watch moves on our TV. I don't mind paying $8.50 or $9.50 to see a first run movie on opening weekend, but paying $13.50 for 3D is silly. I'm kind of mixed on 3D, I've seen a few movies in 3D that benefited from the extra dimension, but I've seen quite a few more that the 3D was distracting (Alice in Wonderland 2010, I'm thinking of you). I would prefer to see 2D most of the time, and with 16 screens available don't see why they couldn't run both or interleave them at different times in the same auditorium. As for cell phones in the theater, they are a bother but I can tone them out--years of practice toning my wife and daughter's texting addictions helps with that. Don't even get me started on the $15 popcorn and soda combo though!

Comment Re:Daily (Score 1) 266

I agree, Time Machine is a beautiful thing, but it has its quirks. On my iMac with 10.6.7, TM/Spotlight spins my external drive up every 15 minutes which is rather annoying in the middle of the night. Workaround is to disable Spotlight and make TM backup manually--works but its annoying and thus my system only gets backed up once a week. I suppose I could buy a time-capsule and put it in another room but the iMac was $$ enough!

Comment Re:Longevity (Score 1) 507

Her MB has a 2.1GHz Core2Duo but when installed, Lion only loaded a 32bit kernel, unlike my MBP with a 2.4GHz Core2Duo that loaded a 64bit kernel. Both had been running 32bit Snow Leopard prior to Lion. Not sure if its a limitation of the hardware, or if Lion decided based on the RAM installed (2Gb in the MB and 4Gb in my MBP).

Comment Re:Power supply (Score 1) 366

I think this is an excellent use for empty front slots--and also a good idea for a simple DC power source. One could wire a couple direct plug DC charger ports at 12v (even a ciggy lighter to power small car accessories). This could be taken a step farther by building voltage regulators on breadboard mounted in one of the bays to power things at 3.3v, etc. Even a single bay would be able to hold a plethora of connectors.

Comment Re:The computer in our guest room runs Ubuntu.. (Score 1) 718

I did something nearly identical at work. I support research scientists and their staff and you'd be amazed how many virii come up on the machines due to too much social networking (as if there was a lot of time in science for that!). After the 3rd time reloading a PC in our front office because the office manager's kid had infected it with a few trojans, I installed Ubuntu. I put the Firefox icon on the desktop along with Office 2007 running on the LameDuck Free version of Crossover 7.x from a couple years back. I set the office's Laserjet up as the default printer and gave the office manager and staff nearly the exact same instructions, "This is Ubuntu, its like Windows, but not quite--see, there's Firefox, and there's Word/Excel/Etc. It prints with CTRL+P, just like Windows, enjoy."

Been running for over a year now, no issues and it gets MySpaced and Facebooked nearly every day.
Science

Antarctic's First Plane, Found In Ice 110

Arvisp writes "In 1912 Australian explorer Douglas Mawson planned to fly over the southern pole. His lost plane has now been found. The plane – the first off the Vickers production line in Britain – was built in 1911, only eight years after the Wright brothers executed the first powered flight. For the past three years, a team of Australian explorers has been engaged in a fruitless search for the aircraft, last seen in 1975. Then on Friday, a carpenter with the team, Mark Farrell, struck gold: wandering along the icy shore near the team's camp, he noticed large fragments of metal sitting among the rocks, just a few inches beneath the water."

Comment University of Idaho does... (Score 1) 835

...and if you're in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, I'll be your personal Linux tech-support guy. Seriously though, while we do have a few professors who use Linux for web-servers and analytical processing, very few use it as their primary desktop. All of our University's apps are Linux enabled aside from Microsoft Office--this includes UI email VPN, and wireless.

Comment My Opinion on WiMax (Score 1) 177

I happen to live in a part of the country (South Eastern Idaho) that has a WiMax provider (Digital Bridge Communications). They use an Alerion Modem which is extremely painless to set up and as long as it's near a window it gets great reception. The downside is that the throughput is MUCH less than the 2mb's they actually advertise. I got more like 200k on downloads which made Youtube and the like unusable. For surfing/email/chat it works great, but don't try and download anything large and forget using it for your video game console or streaming movie box.

Comment I'd say it depends... (Score 1) 348

...on what YOU want to accomplish. I started working as a tech-support rep at a call center and then worked through the ranks in a network admin type position and before I left that company after 10 years I was managing teams of tech's all across the country. During my tenure at that company I earned an A.A. degree in Business through night courses at the local accredited 4 year university, and can say with confidence that it meant nearly NOTHING to my old employer aside from showing my ability to "earn a degree."

However, I left that job last year to take a new position AT a university (also local) and can say in the research and education field, degrees are the deciding factor to how far you can go. My A.A. degree isn't looked on with disdain, rather it's looked at as a starting point and my employer has encouraged (and provided a cheap way to earn) more degrees in any subject I choose. While I still do computer work, the research and education field is literally the polar opposite of the corporate business world. The take home pay is substantially less, but the fringe benefits are better in the long run and the opportunity to earn multiple degrees in subjects I'm actually interested in (and not those I have no choice but to learn in order to get advancement) is WONDERFUL.

My advice would be to try and look at what you'd like to be doing in 10 years. If you're really spectacular at coding and just want a degree to back it up for your job search--a BS/MS from any accredited university who has specialized programs for CS should do the trick. On the other hand if you want to go in to research, a degree from a university like MIT which does ONLY those kind of technical programs might give you the upper hand. Regardless of where your degrees come from (or lack thereof) it will be your performance which will ultimately get you the big $$$. The degrees will get you the interviews, but your mettle will get you the job and your determination will get you the paychecks.

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