sjvn - Slashdot User

+ - 13 Geeky Items To (Secretly) Wear To The Office-> 0

Submitted by Esther Schindler on Tuesday May 14, 2013 @06:46PM

Esther Schindler writes "Not everyone works in an office where superhero t-shirts are acceptable. Sometimes you have to play Clark Kent... but with superhero underwear.

In that vein: Carol Pinchefsky found a few fun things for you to wear to your next business meeting that happen to be subtle and not easily recognizable as geeky. "This way you can maintain your superhero- (or space hero-)inspired confidence while keeping your geeky proclivities on the down-low," she explains. "Plus, if you meet someone who does recognize these items, you may have made a new breakroom buddy."

(Yes, this is a slide show: I admit it. But these things are inherently visual, so it's justified. Plus, it might make you giggle, or rush over to /r/shutupandtakemymoney. I don't foist such things on you usually, do I? Trust me. Or at least buy me the Wonder-Woman underwear and the Starfleet Academy class ring.)"
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Comment: Fire (Score 1) 507

by sjvn on Sunday May 12, 2013 @02:22PM (#43703075) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How Do You Deal With Programmers Who Have Not Stayed Current?

Fire them all and let unemployment sort them out.

More seriously, if he can't produce the code you need, or maintain older code, whatever, he really does need to be moved out.

Steven

Comment: Read the Fine Article (Score 0) 505

by sjvn on Sunday March 17, 2013 @07:15PM (#43199427) Attached to: Microsoft To Abandon Windows Phone?

It's called upgrading the OS. Nothing to see here people except a really, really bad, mis-leading headline.

Steven

+ - UEFI Secure Boot and Linux: Where Things Stand-> 2

Submitted by

itwbennett

on Thursday August 02, 2012 @12:02PM

itwbennett writes "Assuming that Microsoft doesn't choose to implement Secure Boot in the ways that the Linux Foundation says would work with Linux, there 'will be no easy way to run Linux on Windows 8 PCs,' writes Steven Vaughan-Nichols. Instead, we're faced with three different, highly imperfect approaches: Approach #1: Create UEFI Secure Boot keys for your particular distribution, like Canonical is doing with Ubuntu. Approach #2: work with Microsoft's key signing service to create a Windows 8 system compatible UEFI secure boot key, like Red Hat is doing with Fedora. Approach #3: Use open hardware with open source software, an approach favored by ZaReason CEO Cathy Malmrose."
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+ - Before the Internet: The golden age of online services-> 0

Submitted by

Esther Schindler

on Thursday April 05, 2012 @12:37PM

Esther Schindler writes "Think nostalgia isn't what it ought to be? Well, you're in luck. Steven Vaughan-Nichols has written a walloping overview of the pre-Internet online services he used to review for Computer Shopper (which, as it happens, is where he and I first met... perhaps you knew me at 72241,1417 in the early 90s?). Because, you young whippersnappers, before there was the World Wide Web, back when 2,400bps modems were "high-speed," millions of people used online services like AOL, CompuServe, and GEnie to work with each other, gossip, and share Star War jokes. (To my dismay, though, he leaves out Plato Homelink. sniff!) If you have a strange fondness for the sound of a modem connecting and (like me) are still proud of being able to whistle at 300bps, you'll nod along with his trip into the time machine."
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+ - Online Services: The Internet Before The Internet-> 0

Submitted by

jfruh

on Thursday April 05, 2012 @11:38AM

jfruh writes "The Slashdot readership is probably split pretty evenly into two groups. There are those for whom full-on Internet access has been available for their entire computer-using lives, and then there are those who wanted to use the Net from home before 1991, and who therefore had to use a BBS or an online service. Steven J. Vaughn-Nichols (yes, this guy) takes you on a tour of some of these services, including Prodigy, Compuserve, and of course AOL. This should be a nostalgic trip for the oldsters among us, and a history lesson for Gen Y readers."
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+ - There Oughta Be a Standard: Laptop Power Supplies-> 0

Submitted by

Esther Schindler

on Thursday June 23, 2011 @01:18PM

Esther Schindler writes "Every mobile device you own has its own power supply and its own proprietary plug. There oughta be a better way, says Alfred Poor. Fortunately, he reports, the IEEE is coming to the rescue. "Their Universal Power Adapter for Mobile Devices (UPAMD) Working Group is developing a new standard that will not just address the needs of laptops and tablets, but will be intended to work with just about any electronics device that required between 10 and 240 watts of power," Poor writes. It's about darned time."
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+ - Biggest Changes in C++11 and Why You Should Care)-> 1

Submitted by

Esther Schindler

on Monday June 20, 2011 @02:33PM

Esther Schindler writes "It’s been 13 years since the first iteration of the C++ language. Danny Kalev, a former member of the C++ standards committee, explains how the programming language has been improved and how it can help you write better code."
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+ - On the Internet, Nobody Knows You're Not a Lesbian-> 1

Submitted by

rsmiller510

on Tuesday June 14, 2011 @04:20PM

rsmiller510 writes "The revelation that the 'Gay Girl in Damascus' blog was actually a hoax could have damaging repercussions to other activists trying to get the word out on repressive regimes throughout the world."
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+ - iPad Competitors Can't Play Games-> 0

Submitted by

rsmiller510

on Monday June 13, 2011 @07:54AM

rsmiller510 writes "If iPad competitors want to succeed, they need to stop promoting Angry Birds and concentrate on being the best business device possible."
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+ - Do Supercomputers Still Matter?-> 0

Submitted by

Esther Schindler

on Thursday June 09, 2011 @02:15PM

Esther Schindler writes "The innovations that are redefining the way businesses compute today were made feasible by supercomputers, the first platforms to enable parallel processing on a scale anywhere close to that of the cloud. Supercomputing would have been a lost art had it not been for the capability of everyday PC processors to be stacked together by the thousands — a technology for the high end made possible at the low end. But now, writes Scott Fulton in an exhaustive technical essay, a looming engineering bottleneck may have already rendered it technically and financially impossible for supercomputers to continue evolving at the current rate. Can the cloud go forward if the “grid” on which it’s based grinds to a halt?"
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+ - Big Internet Vendors Back AT&T-T-Mobile Merger-> 0

Submitted by

rsmiller510

on Wednesday June 08, 2011 @07:35AM

rsmiller510 writes "Even as the pressure mounts on US regulators to approve the merger, I have a better idea: 4G network sharing while keeping the competition in place."
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Comment: What game changer? (Score 1) 199

by sjvn on Thursday June 02, 2011 @01:57PM (#36322680) Attached to: Google WebRTC: Can It Replace Skype?

Skype is P2P VoIP too. This is old technology rehashed one more time. It works OK--I mean there's a reason why Skype's so popular--but if you really want useful open-source VoIP look to SIP implementations.

Steven

+ - The Internet Stands at the Crossroads-> 0

Submitted by

rsmiller510

on Tuesday May 31, 2011 @01:38PM

rsmiller510 writes "Governments and the special interests they tend to represent threaten the very foundation of the Internet as we have known it as they fight to take more and more control either in the name of politics or business."
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+ - Will the Next Web Platform Please Hold Still?-> 0

Submitted by

Esther Schindler

on Tuesday May 31, 2011 @01:07PM

Esther Schindler writes "Feeling a little overwhelmed by changing web standards and new browser choices? You aren't the only one. Mozilla is launching development tracks for the next two editions of its Firefox Web browser — versions 5 and 6 — immediately, with hopes to push both into general release before the end of the year. This while Microsoft previews Internet Explorer 10 on the heels of its IE9 release, and Google projects Chrome 13 just one year after Chrome 7. Meanwhile, HTML5, the next version of the Web’s primary language, appears to have entered a permanent gestation phase. Writes Scott Fulton: All the confusion has prompted Web developers to ask this question: What do we develop our sites against now?

Fulton doesn't just write a general rant: He gets input from several of the people who are creating browsers and standards. And they don't just spout a company line. My favorite quote is from Bruce Lawson, a Web evangelist for Opera Software as well as a long-time contributor to the Accessibility Task Force of the Web Standards Project: “You wouldn’t believe how many e-mails I get saying, ‘Bruce, would you give me some feedback on my HTML5 page,’ and I look at it, and it’s no more HTML5 than my vacuum cleaner. Because it looks snazzy and it’s got a rounded corner and a drop-shadow, people are calling it HTML5.”"
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