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Comment Switching to Chrome (Score 1) 224

by geekmansworld (#42074679) Attached to: Mozilla Dropping 64-Bit Windows Nightly Builds For Now

Sysadmin for an SMB here. We develop our own browser-based app in Flash/Flex that we use for a big part of our work. It's also computationally intensive, and I was often being asked how we could improve the performance of the application on the client-platform side. Sure, we have decent hardware, but we were developing for the standard Firefox build, and that meant 32-bit and the restrictions that go with it.

Eventually I convinced the development team that since they had moved the backend to 64-bit code, that the client runtime environment should be there too, and so we optimized the frontend for Chrome (which obviously, is 64-bit, with Flash built in). The speed increase wasn't phenomenal, but it WAS noticeable. Now I'm even more glad we made this change.

Comment Re:What sphere of Uranium? (Score 1) 356

by geekmansworld (#38909615) Attached to: Is the Earth Gaining Or Losing Mass?

Yeah, I must admit to being a bit perturbed by the "definite" language used by that statement. Theories involving geophysical fission at the core of the Earth are intriguing, but they're just theories, and kind of on the fringes of the discipline. Saying "there exists" is scientifically kind of insulting.
China

Submission + - Chinese want to capture an asteroid (dvice.com)

Submitted by
geekmansworld
geekmansworld writes: "Dvice reports that the Chinese want to capture an asteroid into earth's orbit and mine it. From the article: "At first glance, nudging an asteroid closer to Earth seems like one of those "what could possible go wrong" scenarios that we generally try and avoid, and for good reason: large asteroid impacts are bad times. The Chinese, though, seem fairly optimistic that they could tweak the orbit of a near-Earth asteroid by just enough (a change in velocity of only about 1,300 feet-per-second or so) to get it to temporarily enter Earth orbit at about twice the distance as the Moon.""

Comment Rolling Stone (Score 5, Informative) 148

by geekmansworld (#37207200) Attached to: SEC Hit With Data Destruction Complaint

Those interested in the particulars might also want to check out a recent Rolling Stone article by Matt Taibbi. Basically, the SEC feels that until an actual case is opened, it is not required to store files for "matters under investigation". Definitely worth a read.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/is-the-sec-covering-up-wall-street-crimes-20110817

Comment Re:really intel? (Score 1) 246

by geekmansworld (#35244576) Attached to: Intel CEO: Nokia Should Have Gone With Android

Yeah, no doubt. For Intel to lecture about "open" technology is the pot calling the kettle black. They way they aggressively hold the x86 platform to their chest, a lawsuit always waiting to drop on AMD or NVidia if either company does something they don't like.

Open up the x86 platform to a few other chip makers, then we can talk about "open systems".
Image

Sharks Seen Swimming Down Australian Streets 210

Posted by samzenpus from the we're-going-to-need-a-bigger-sidewalk dept.
As if the flood waters weren't bad enough for the people of Queensland, it now appears that there are sharks swimming in the streets. Two bull sharks were spotted swimming past a McDonald’s in the city of Goodna, Butcher Steve Bateman saw another making its way past his shop on Williams street. Ipswich councillor for the Goodna region Paul Tully said: "It would have swam several kilometres in from the river, across Evan Marginson Park and the motorway. It’s definitely a first for Goodna, to have a shark in the main street."
Apple

Submission + - Save the Xserve posts open letter to Apple (savethexserve.com) 1

Submitted by geekmansworld
geekmansworld writes: The Save The Xserve campaign has posted an open letter to Apple and Steve Jobs outlining the importance of the XServe and requesting that the company reconsider their decision to discontinue the device. Since its inception in November, the site has collected over 4,600 signatures from concerned Mac sysadmins around the world. Signatories include sysadmins for universities and public schools, IT consultants, enterprise users, and even the administrator of a XServe-based supercomputing cluster at the NASA JPL.
Science

Thousands of Blackbirds Fall From Sky Dead 577

Posted by samzenpus from the silent-spring dept.
Dan East writes "In a fashion worthy of a King or Hitchcock novel, blackbirds began to fall from the sky dead in Arkansas yesterday. Somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000 birds rained down on the small town of Beeb, Arkansas, with no visible trauma. Officials are making wild guesses as to what happened — lightning strike, high-altitude hail, or perhaps trauma from the sound of New Year's fireworks killed them."

Comment Re:And high school biology students (Score 2) 564

by geekmansworld (#34617960) Attached to: Do High Schools Know What 'Computer Science' Is?

Hey now... I was in high school in the late 90s and our computer science class was centred around Turbo Pascal. I learned a lot writing Pascal programs, and for my final project my lab partner and I wrote a graphical RPG including an on-screen scrolling-text display we wrote from scratch. The year after I left, they switched to C++.

I know Javascript, BASIC, Pascal, a bit of Perl, but not any C. And while I feel that every CS student should come away knowing it, I'm also thankful to these other languages for teaching me the fundamentals of program logic.
Image

Denver Bomb Squad Takes Out Toy Robot 225

Posted by samzenpus from the I-feel-safer-already dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A robot met its end near Coors Field tonight when the Denver Police Department Bomb Squad detonated the 'suspicious object,' bringing to an end the hours-long standoff between police and the approximately eight-inch tall toy. From the article: "'Are you serious?' asked Denver resident Justin Kent, 26, when police stopped him from proceeding down 20th Street. Kent said that he lived just past the closed area, but was told he would have to go around via Park Avenue.'"
Earth

One Giant Cargo Ship Pollutes As Much As 50M Cars 595

Posted by kdawson from the stink-pots dept.
thecarchik writes "One giant container ship pollutes the air as much as 50 million cars. Which means that just 15 of the huge ships emit as much as today's entire global 'car park' of roughly 750 million vehicles. Among the bad stuff: sulfur, soot, and other particulate matter that embeds itself in human lungs to cause a variety of cardiopulmonary illnesses. Since the mid-1970s, developed countries have imposed increasingly stringent regulations on auto emissions. In three decades, precise electronic engine controls, new high-pressure injectors, and sophisticated catalytic converters have cut emissions of nitrous oxides, carbon dioxides, and hydrocarbons by more than 98 percent. New regulations will further reduce these already minute limits. But ships today are where cars were in 1965: utterly uncontrolled, free to emit whatever they like." According to Wikipedia, 57 giant container ships (rated from 9,200 to 15,200 twenty-foot equivalent units) are plying the world's oceans.
Science

Pumpkin Pie increases Male Sex Drive 173

Posted by samzenpus from the we're-going-to-need-more-whipped-cream dept.
Dr. Alan Hirsch, Director of Chicago's Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Center, says the key to a man's heart, and other parts, is pumpkin pie. Out of the 40 odors tested in Hirsch's study, a mixture of lavender and pumpkin pie got the biggest rise out of men ages 18 to 64. That particular fragrance was found to increase penile blood flow by an average of 40%. "Maybe the odors acted to reduce anxiety. By reducing anxiety, it acted to remove inhibitions," said Hirsch.

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