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Comment: I will make my one point and get out... (Score 1, Insightful) 566

by reaper (#37589850) Attached to: Theater Professor's <em>Firefly</em> Poster Declared Threatening

The issue here wasn't that a security person took down the poster, it was rather than call someone higher up and ask "why the hell is a rent a cop touching my personal property?" he decided to go to name calling. That is not how things are done in business if you want to keep your job. You call your boss, he makes a call, a couple hours later either the matter is dropped and you put your poster back up or your boss calls you a douche for putting up a dumb poster. Either way, quick resolution.

But no, let's put up a new poster implying the security people were fascists. Because that will help. Now everyone gets called to the (metaphorical) principle's office because your couldn't handle it like an adult.

Oh and BTW, they took down a poster in your work environment, not beat you for stating political ideals. There's a difference.

Comment: Re:Very cool (Score 4, Interesting) 314

by reaper (#34649098) Attached to: Navy Uses Railgun To Launch Fighter Jet

When I was working on the arrestor portion in 2001, we had a system controlling two linear induction motors attached to the arrestor cable. Turns out that yes, you can use this type of system to stop planes, it is effective in many situations where planes come in at odd angles (the system pulls the plane towards the center of the deck), and you can recover power from it.

However, if you wire the position encoders backwards, the motor cores eject quite violently as soon as the control system is turned on. Thankfully, interns are surprisingly good at dodging.

Comment: Re:Seems like an opportunity (Score 1) 470

by reaper (#34062810) Attached to: IE6 Addiction Inhibits Windows 7 Migrations

Actually, Windows 7 has Windows XP available as an option. It runs XP apps in a VM and displays the window as a native window on the 7 desktop. You would need to tweak the default install to get IE 6 on there (it ships with 8), but it's still cheaper over the long haul than not upgrading to windows 7.

Science

Fossil of Ant-Eating Dinosaur Discovered In China 64

Posted by samzenpus
from the ancient-picnic-defender dept.
thomst writes "Charles Q. Choi of LiveScience reports that a farmer in southern Henan Province in China has dug up the first known ant-eating dinosaur, a half-meter-long theropod (the dinosaur family to which T. Rex belongs), whose fossilized remains were described as 'fairly intact'. The 83- to 89-million-year-old pygmy dinosaur has been named named Xixianykus zhangi by Xig Xu, De-you Wang, Corwin Sullivan, David Hone, Feng-lu Han, Rong-hao Yan, and Fu-ming Du, whose paper on the critter, A basal parvicursorine (Theropoda: Alvarezsauridae) from the Upper Cretaceous of China, was published in the March 29 issue of Zootaxa (the abstract is available in PDF format for free, the full article is paywall-protected.)"

Comment: Depends on why you're doing it (Score 1) 837

by reaper (#30587584) Attached to: Uniforms For the Help Desk?

If you're doing it to get department unity, or to get better visibility for your people so you can get the recognition for a good job, it's not a terrible idea. The trick is that you don't want the IT guys to dislike it, or so that users don't start pulling guys away from higher priority tasks due to the new visibility.

I know, I prefer wearing the uniform when I go out on calls (saves me from having to think about my outfit), but our shirts are actually comfortable and appropriate for the weather and clients we're servicing. That and as a small company, we really need to have a professional, unified image.

Having an internal team wear them just to be easier to stick out, or for reasons that don't help your team directly, will brew internal tension.

Comment: I sent him a message (Score 1) 471

by reaper (#22706616) Attached to: State Lawmaker Wants To Ban Anonymous Posting Online
I (anonymously) sent him this:

Representative Couch:

I believe that your proposed bill which would require your identity revealed on the Internet for select communications is completely unenforceable. I also have great concerns as to the ramifications of free speach should it become law. I urge you to reconsider your stance on such a bill.

Thank you for your time.

-- Anonymous.

Robot, n.: University administrator.

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