Forgot your password?

typodupeerror

Comment: Credibility, Lost (Score 1) 312

by ffejie (#43538435) Attached to: The Dark Side of Amazon's New Pilots

You lost your credibility in the second line:

Perhaps the decade long dearth of any good television is nearing its end!

In chronological order, an abbreviated list:

  • Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000)
  • The Shield (2002)
  • The Wire (2002)
  • Arrested Development (2003)
  • Deadwood (2004)
  • Battlestar Galactica (2004)
  • It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005)
  • Lost (2006)
  • 30 Rock (2006)
  • Friday Night Lights (2006)
  • Dexter (2006)
  • Big Love (2006)
  • Mad Men (2007)
  • Breaking Bad (2008)
  • Parks and Recreation (2009)
  • Party Down (2009)
  • Community (2009)
  • Louie (2010)
  • Downton Abbey (2010)
  • Homeland (2011)

Yeah, it's been a pretty crappy decade. (Any show listed before 2003 had a significant number of episodes in 2003 and beyond.) There are a lot of people out there that feel that this is the new golden age of television.

Comment: Re:He Didn't Try Hard Enough (Score 1) 1110

by ffejie (#42356657) Attached to: 30 Days Is Too Long: Animated Rant About Windows 8
Nevermind. Spoiler: at the end he says he spent THIRTY MINUTES with the OS. Give me a break. He brags about learning Linux when Slackware was the most user friendly OS. You think he learned that in 30 minutes? You really need to be able to sit down for a few hours to give an OS a fair shake, potentially much longer. Is this ideal for Mom and Pop, who get their new machine? Absolutely not, and some tweaks are necessary to make this OS a bit easier for those making the transition. But there is no way this guy should be taken seriously until he spends a couple of days with the OS and learns the ins and outs.

Comment: He Didn't Try Hard Enough (Score 1) 1110

by ffejie (#42356625) Attached to: 30 Days Is Too Long: Animated Rant About Windows 8
He brings up a lot of good points. To be fair, there are a lot of UI changes in the new OS, and many are not "Conveyed" well (to use his language). However, I feel like he really didn't give the OS a chance. He openly admits he didn't figure out how to do certain things. He says he doesn't know how to close apps in the Metro UI. He says he couldn't figure out how to easily open up Control Panel. Um, hit start, start typing "control panel" and it pops right up.

Come on. It's different, but it's not impossible to use, not by a long stretch.

Comment: Re:Hrm (Score 1) 547

by ffejie (#41487053) Attached to: The Text Message Typo That Landed a Man In Jail
I am guessing he was using BBM, and set a broadcast message or a status message. Alternatively, he might have had a Swim Team group, which could have been next to his adult friend's name, and he could have hit the wrong group. The summary obscures this "all of his contacts" might have better read "all of his BBM contacts" but I don't expect the mainstream press to get into technical details like this.

Comment: Re:Better learn to dress well because..... (Score 3, Insightful) 432

by ffejie (#40846897) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Is There a Professional Geek Dress Code?
My advice for you is to look at how your bosses dress and emulate it. Yes, he might be a male, but it'll give you an idea of what he/she expects. Is she in a suit every day? Is it because she's always visiting clients? Does she expect you to visit clients? What about days when she's not visiting clients? If your boss is male, just do the female equivalent. If he's in a suit and tie, you should probably wear blouses and pants (not jeans) or a skirt/conservative dress. If he's in jeans and a polo, you can be in jeans. If he's in a t-shirt and cargo shorts, you can wear whatever the hell you want.

Sure, you might be overdressed some days, but more likely than not, you'll always feel appropriate.

Comment: Re:Expect networks to run to Congress (Score 1) 373

by ffejie (#40844335) Attached to: US Viewers Using Proxies To Watch BBC Olympic Coverage
Overseas subscription isn't an option because the BBC does not have the legal right to broadcast outside of the UK. In fact, NBC/Comcast would probably petition the US Federal Government (via the FCC), internet service providers, and the IOC to shut down the BBC's online broadcast if they didn't put the IP restrictions in place, or worse, offered it for sale to US residents.

Comment: Re:People are VPN'ing into the office (Score 1) 118

by ffejie (#39860865) Attached to: Global Broadband Speeds Dropped At the End of 2011
Jersey City has a large number of banks and investment houses that got displaced by 9/11. It is about 1 mile from WTC Ground Zero.

Secaucus has a large number of data centers, although not necessarily more than New York City.

NASDAQ has it's high frequency trading facility in Carteret NJ.

I don't think any of these actually add to the broadband rates in NJ, as the study is measuring mostly consumer rates. That said, there is a large amount of IT investment in New Jersey.

Comment: Re:Why is it strange that NJ dominates the USA cit (Score 1) 118

by ffejie (#39859267) Attached to: Global Broadband Speeds Dropped At the End of 2011
So you looked at the most dense parts of California and compared them to the entire state of NJ (less National Parks)? That's not really a good comparison. Consider:

Hudson County (next to New York City): 13,495 people per square mile
Essex County (Newark): 6,211 people per square mile
Union County (Elizabeth): 5,216 people per square mile
Bergen County (NYC Suburbs): 3,884 people per square mile
Passaic (NYC Suburbs): 2,715 people per square mile
Middlesex County (Edison): 2,612 people per square mile
Camden County (next to Philly): 2,309 people per square mile


This list encompassed 4.6M people in NJ, or just over half of the state. Your list includes less than half of Californians. It's hard to figure out how anyone could make the claim that California is more dense than New Jersey, if they were slicing the data in anything resembling a fair comparison. I guess the one claim you could make would be: "San Francisco is more dense than Hudson County."

Other comparisons:

10% of Californians live in a population density of 4,556, (combine SF and Orange Counties). For NJ, 16% live in 8,226 (Hudson and Essex)
To get down to that density for NJ, you'll cover 38% of the state. At 38% of California, you're at 2,785 density.
To get down to that density for NJ, you'll cover 68% of the state (the top 10 counties). At 68% of California, you're at 1,402 density.
1,402 density covers 95% of NJ, which is all but the 4 least dense counties.

By the way, those 4 least dense counties have a population density greater than all but 17 of California's counties. Basically, the least dense part of NJ is still denser than a big chunk (22%) of California.

If I look at it by land size, combining SF and Orange Counties, I get 837 sq miles at a density of 4,556. This compares about equally to NJ which has a density of 4,851 for its top 692 sq miles. (It's tough to compare directly to the 837 - adding one more county goes to 1000+ sq miles.) In summary, if you took Hudson, Essex, Union, Bergen, and Passaic counties and put them on top of San Francisco and LA, you'd have roughly the same population density and roughly the same land covered.

Comment: Re:City, State, whatever (Score 4, Informative) 118

by ffejie (#39858513) Attached to: Global Broadband Speeds Dropped At the End of 2011
A couple things to consider, as someone who works in the industry, and lives in New Jersey.

NJ has the highest population density (1189/sq mile). It is surrounded by two major cities (New York and Philadelphia).

AT&T is not based here, but they used to be, before SBC bought and renamed themselves. That company is now based in Dallas. There are still a lot of AT&Ters around the state in large facilities. This doesn't really matter though, considering AT&T probably provides local access to less than 1% of the NJ population.

Verizon is based here. Their actual headquarters is located in New York City, but all of the executives sit in Basking Ridge, NJ. This is important, because almost all of the Verizon employees at a director level and above are now in New Jersey. Different from AT&T, they are the local telco in almost every town.

Comcast is based in Philly. Lots of Comcast employees live in New Jersey. Comcast is a major cable franchise in NJ (as it is in most places).

The state of NJ, a few years ago, granted Verizon a state wide video franchise. This is a big deal. It means that Verizon can offer FiOS everywhere in the state without negotiating with the 566 different municipalities in the state. (566 municipalities for 8.8 Million people - NJ is a a good example of local government gone awry. Compare to 351 for 6.6M in MA, or 482 for 37M in California)

As the result of the above, FiOS is available in most towns, offering 20-50Mbps internet. Comcast Xfinity offers their highest tier service wherever there is FiOS, so nearly everyone in the state can get fast internet if they're willing to pay $30-$60/month. Notice to governments: reducing the amount of regulation (state wide franchise) can create more competition which can yield better results for citizens.

Comment: Re:Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Score 1) 283

by ffejie (#37813398) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How To Enter Private Space Industry As an Engineer?
I didn't catch that. WPI is indeed a great alternative to RPI. In fact, I applied to both and would have been happy at either. I still think RPI has a higher profile than WPI, especially nationally. If you're going to NJ, maybe Stevens deserves a look? Not sure how their aerospace program stacks up.

If the ends don't justify the means, then what does? -- Robert Moses

Working...