laburu - Slashdot User

Comment If you can't get respect without being a BOFH... (Score 1) 902

by laburu on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @08:52AM (#28278161) Attached to: How Do IT Guys Get Respect and Not Become BOFHs?

In some environments, acting like BOFH is the best way to get users and coworkers to respect you, and there is little you can do about it. Some workplaces expect employees to compete "tooth-and-nail" with each other, and BOFH-type maneuvers are considered not only legitimate but also a sign of intelligence. Since changing the culture of a given workplace is extremely difficult, if you find yourself in this position and cannot (or will not) play that game, you should consider leaving at the earliest opportunity; otherwise, you will either become a BOFH... or get abused by users and coworkers until you break down and/or get fired.

Submission + - Judge in Pirate bay trial not biased says court (ww.com) 1

Submitted by

jacquesm

on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @08:01AM

jacquesm writes: "The Swedish court denies the judge in the Pirate bay trial was biased, according to this screendaily article. Instead his memberships of pro copyright and IP organizations is simply explained as a way of staying current in the field."

How Do IT Guys Get Respect and Not Become BOFHs? 902

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @12:12AM from the keep-a-curled-upper-lip dept.

An anonymous reader writes "I work for a small software company (around 60 people) as the sole IT guy. It's my first time in a position like this and after about 1.5 years I'm starting to get a bit burned out. I try to be friendly, helpful, and responsive and I get no respect whatsoever. Users tend to be flat-out rude when they have a problem, violate our pretty liberal policies constantly, and expect complex projects to be finished immediately upon requesting them. My knee-jerk reaction is to be a bastard, although I've avoided it up to this point. It's getting harder. For those of you who have been doing this a lot longer, how do you get a reasonable level of respect from your users while not being a jerk?"

Frank Herbert's Moisture Traps May Be a Reality 226

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @07:08PM from the it's-a-dry-heat dept.

Omomyid writes "In the seminal science fiction book 'Dune,' Frank Herbert envisioned the Fremen collecting water from the air via moisture traps and dew collectors. Science Daily reprints a press release from the Fraunhofer Institute in Stuttgart, where scientists working with colleagues from Logos Innovationen have developed a closed-loop and self-sustaining method, no external power required, for teasing the humidity out of desert air and into potable water."

26 Desktop Processors Compared 192

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @03:52PM from the two-bakers-dozens dept.

theraindog writes "The number of different CPU models available from AMD and Intel is daunting to say the least. The Tech Report's latest CPU review makes some sense of the landscape, exploring the performance and power consumption characteristics of more than two dozen desktop processors between the $999 Core i7-975 and more affordable sub-$100 chips. The article also highlights the value proposition offered by each CPU on its own and as a part of the total cost of a system. The resulting scatter plots nicely illustrate which CPUs deliver the best performance per dollar."

Submission + - Desktop CPU round-up spans 26 processors

Submitted by theraindog on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @01:27PM

theraindog writes: The number of different CPU models available from AMD and Intel is daunting to say the least. The Tech Report's latest CPU review makes some sense of the mess, exploring the performance and power consumption characteristics of more than two dozen desktop processors between the $999 Core i7-975 and more affordable sub-$100 chips. TR also highlights the value proposition offered by each CPU on its own and as a part of the total cost of a system. The resulting scatter plots nicely illustrate which CPUs deliver the best performance per dollar.

Submission + - Wikipedia bans Church of Scientology (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by

El Reg

on Thursday May 28, 2009 @08:26PM

El Reg writes: "Showing a new-found resolve to crack down on self-serving edits, Wikipedia has banned contributions from all IPs addresses owned or operated by the Church of Scientology. According to Wikipedia administrators, this marks the first time such a high-profile organization has been banished for allegedly pushing its own agenda on the 'free encyclopedia anyone can edit.' The Register has the full story."

Homeland Security To Scan Citizens Exiting US 676

Posted by timothy on Thursday May 28, 2009 @07:27PM from the subtle-messages dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The US Department of Homeland Security is set to kickstart a controversial new pilot to scan the fingerprints of travellers departing the United States. From June, US Customs and Border Patrol will take a fingerprint scan of travellers exiting the United States from Detroit, while the US Transport Security Administration will take fingerprint scans of international travellers exiting the United States from Atlanta. The controversial plan to scan outgoing passengers — including US citizens — was allegedly hatched under the Bush Administration. An official has said it will be used in part to crack down on the US population of illegal immigrants."

Comment Web rewriting tools (Score 1) 79

by laburu on Thursday May 28, 2009 @06:36PM (#28131397) Attached to: SourceForge To Acquire Development Portal Ohloh.net

Even AdBlock and NoScript may not be enough. I've read about a recent trend where adverts are hosted directly on the content server. So if your website "requires" JavaScript and/or people have whitelisted it, ads will get through because the scripts and images are hosted directly on your website. Bastards.

In case you are willing to do something about it:

the last of which is hosted by... SourceForge.

Allegedly Rigged Product Demo In SAP Suit Goes Missing 210

Posted by timothy on Thursday May 28, 2009 @05:50PM from the dig-deep-fellas dept.

narramissic writes "Waste Management sued SAP in March 2008 over a failed ERP project. Now, well into the pre-trial discovery process, a presale product demonstration software package that Waste Management says was a key element of the 'false representations' SAP made to 'induce Waste Management into entering a software licensing and implementation agreement' has gone missing. Naturally, both sides say the other has it. And SAP, for its part, says it has 'searched extensively' for the system and wants it 'as much or more' as Waste Management, since it 'will help SAP disprove WM's fraud claim.'"

Submission + - Doctors Scan Photo ID for Treatment (philosecurity.org)

Submitted by

Sherri Davidoff

on Thursday May 28, 2009 @05:47PM

Sherri Davidoff writes: "Spurred by the FTC's "Red Flags Rule," more health care clinics are requiring photo identification and storing high-resolution copies in their computer systems. Ironically, this probably puts patients at greater risk of identity theft, not less. From the article: "Walking into the doctor's office, I was surprised to see a new sign which read: 'Red Flag Identity Theft Rule: We are now required by law to ask for a Photo ID at the time of each visit. Please have your Photo ID ready for the receptionist to scan.' As an avid bicyclist, I wasn't carrying a driver's license. 'I'm sorry, we'll have to reschedule you,' said the receptionist.

"Everyone should have access to medical care- not just people who have registered with the government and obtained a photo ID. Furthermore, patients should have the right to health care without being forced to give up control of our personal information. As a patient, I don't really want a copy of my Photo ID stored on a crappy unpatched Windows box at my doctor's office. Today's patients do not even have the right to know how well doctor's offices and hospitals are secured, even in the face of constant reports of medical data breaches. That's sick.""

SourceForge To Acquire Development Portal Ohloh.net 79

Posted by timothy on Thursday May 28, 2009 @04:54PM from the get-your-conspiracy-on dept.

SourceForge, Inc. (parent company of Slashdot, and the corporate overlord of SourceForge.net and ThinkGeek) announced today plans to purchase Ohloh, a three-year-old Seattle company that runs Ohloh.net, a software-development portal that specializes in the community aspects of distributed open source projects. The purchase will probably be final as of next month. (I hope no one requires that I show up to an office, just because one will be nearby.)

Submission + - Homeland Security to scan citizens exiting US (itnews.com.au)

Submitted by on Thursday May 28, 2009 @04:15PM

An anonymous reader writes: The US Department of Homeland Security is set to kickstart a controversial new pilot to scan the fingerprints of travellers departing the United States. From June, US Customs and Border Patrol will take a fingerprint scan of travellers exiting the United States from Detroit, while the US Transport Security Administration will take fingerprint scans of international travellers exiting the United States from Atlanta. The controversial plan to scan outgoing passengers — including US citizens — was allegedly hatched under the Bush Administration. An official has said it will be used in part to crack down on the US population of illegal immigrants.

Submission + - Charge Vendors for Software Deployed in Schools

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28, 2009 @02:23AM

An anonymous reader writes: ZDNet blogger posed the following suggestion "Rather than our public-sector education organisations paying for software, they should in fact not only get the software for free, they should actually be billing the software vendors for the right to place their wares and branding in front of millions of school students. Much like television and radio stations offer up a bidding system to advertisers who want to capture the eyes and ears of the 'audience', schools could operate a bidding process where vendors bid for accessing student's attention for their software."

Submission + - Spanish SGAE goes where no RIAA has gone before (elmundo.es)

Submitted by Planetalia on Thursday May 28, 2009 @12:58AM

Planetalia writes: Just when you thought RIAA — sueing deceased people, sick pepole, children and elders — had reached its limit, the spanish version of it — SGAE — has gone where no other RIAA has gone before. On May 26th, four people knocked on the door of Jose Manuel Carrasco — the owner of two spanish torrent sites, told him they had a search warrant and proceeded to rummage for over two hours throughout his house, testing computers and browsing through personal information like contacts and emails. During that time, Jose Manuel managed to reach his lawyer and it turned out that these people did not actually have a search warrant, and had simply lied to get entry to the house. They had to leave the hard drives behind, and on leaving one of them told Jose Manuel "We shouldn't have allowed you to speak to your lawyer".

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