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Bug

Ask Slashdot: Moving From Contract Developers To Hiring One In-House? 479

Posted by Soulskill
from the wipe-his-brain-and-download-stack-overflow-into-it dept.
An anonymous reader writes "I run a small software consulting company who outsources most of its work to contractors. I market myself as being able to handle any technical project, but only really take the fun ones, then shop it around to developers who are interested. I write excellent product specs, provide bug tracking & source control and in general am a programming project manager with empathy for developers. I don't ask them to work weekends and I provide detailed, reproducible bug reports and I pay on time. The only 'rule' (if you can call it that) is: I do not pay for bugs. Developers can make more work for themselves by causing bugs, and with the specifications I write there is no excuse for not testing their code. Developers are always fine with it until we get toward the end of a project and the customer is complaining about bugs. Then all of a sudden I am asking my contractors to work for 'free' and they can make more money elsewhere. Ugh. Every project ends up being a battle, so, I think the solution is to finally hire someone full-time and pay for everything (bugs or not) and just keep them busy. But how can I make that transition? The guy I'd need to hire would have to know a lot of languages and be proficient in all of them. Plus, I can't afford to pay someone $100k/year right now. Ideas?"

Comment: I'll be watching you (Score -1, Offtopic) 32

by For a Free Internet (#43789927) Attached to: Special Ops Takes Its Manhunts Into Space

Attention single women of Slashdort. I know this is painful for you, since you all are secretly obsessed with me, but as I have told you many times I only love Laura, so give up and move on. There are plenty of fish in the sea, even though most of the guys on Slashdort are admittedly gross and extremely dull and stupird. Or try lesbianism, it's awesorme.

Google

Aurora Attackers Were Looking For Google's Surveillance Database 80

Posted by Soulskill
from the go-big-or-go-home dept.
An anonymous reader writes "When in early 2010 Google shared with the public that they had been breached in what became known as the Aurora attacks, they said that the attackers got their hands on some source code and were looking to access Gmail accounts of Tibetan activists. What they didn't make public is that the hackers have also accessed a database containing information about court-issued surveillance orders that enabled law enforcement agencies to monitor email accounts belonging to diplomats, suspected spies and terrorists. Whether this was the primary goal of the attacks as well as how much information was exfiltrated is unknown. current and former U.S. government officials interviewed by the Washington Post say that the database in question was possibly accessed in order to discover which Chinese intelligence operatives located in the U.S. were under surveillance."

Comment: I don't have bitcoins (Score -1) 92

But I do have grapes. They are red and might have some seeds.

Where should I send them?

In an unrelated note: Dear Slashdort, you are a web site on the internet and I believe that the internet owes me an opoplogy for its disgursting behavior in front of my life-partner, Laura. I demand five hundred dollars (not bitcons!) by tomorrow, or no GRAPES for you!

Communications

Google Drops XMPP Support 406

Posted by Unknown Lamer
from the do-not-evil-yeah-right dept.
Cbs228 writes "During last week's Google I/O conference, the company announced a replacement for its aging Talk instant messenger: Google Hangouts. Hangouts, which is only available for Android, iOS, and Chrome, offers closer integration with Google+. Unfortunately, the new product drops support for the XMPP instant messaging protocol, which has been an integral part of Talk for over ten years. XMPP delivers instant messages to desktop clients, like Pidgin, and enables communication between users on different instant messaging networks. Hangouts users attempting to communicate with contacts on non-Google servers, such as jabber.org, have found that all communications have been suddenly and inexplicably severed. A Google account is now required to communicate with Hangouts users. Google Hangouts joins the ranks of an already-crowded ecosystem of closed, incompatible chat products like Skype." Interesting, because Google Wave was based on XMPP and Google was integral to the creation of the Jingle extension that enabled video chatting over XMPP. Note that no end date has been set for Talk yet, but the end must surely be nigh given Google's recent history of axing products like Reader and CalDAV support from their calendar app without much notice.
Hardware Hacking

Ask Slashdot: Wiring Home Furniture? 235

Posted by timothy
from the for-a-couch-that-seats-1 dept.
b1tbkt writes "So it seems that furniture manufacturers have not yet acknowledged the realities of modern life. Kitchen tables could benefit greatly from built-in concealable receptacles. Even more obvious is the need for electrical wiring in couches and coffee tables. I realize that there are safety (fire) concerns but as it stands most families that I know already have power cords for laptops, tables and phones draped over, under and through their couches at any given point. If someone wanted to wire their furniture with AC or some type of standardized LV DC system, what are some dangers to watch for and what, if any, specialized hardware exists for the purpose?"

Comment: FBI boogeyman (Score -1) 317

Try and extract meaning from this Slashdort post, I dare you!

Once upon the brans it froloked og pilogonof funky jamjam pills. To you, I salort!

Attention Slashdort: It has come to my atention that recently, I died.

In case any of you believe in that religious hooey, I can categorically confirm that there is no afterlife, so give up already!

Medicine

Larry Page: You Worry Too Much About Medical Privacy 485

Posted by samzenpus
from the what's-wrong-with-you dept.
jfruh writes "Larry Page revealed that he'd been suffering from a vocal cord ailment that impaired his ability to speak for more than a year. The positive feedback he got from opening up about it inspired him to tell attendees at Google I/O that we should all be less uptight about keeping our medical records private. As far as Page is concerned, pretty much the only legitimate reason for worry on this score is fear of being denied health insurance. 'Maybe we should change the rules around insurance so that they have to insure people,' he said."
Technology

A Computer-based Smart Rifle With Incredible Accuracy, Now On Sale 551

Posted by samzenpus
from the buy-now-shoot-later dept.
WheezyJoe writes "A story on NPR reports that the TrackingPoint rifle went on sale today, and can enable a 'novice' to hit a target 500 yards away on the first try. The rifle's scope features a sophisticated color graphics display (video). The shooter locks a laser on the target by pushing a small button by the trigger... But here's where it's different: You pull the trigger but the gun decides when to shoot. It fires only when the weapon has been pointed in exactly the right place, taking into account dozens of variables, including wind, shake and distance to the target. The rifle has a built-in laser range finder, a ballistics computer and a Wi-Fi transmitter to stream live video and audio to a nearby iPad. Every shot is recorded so it can be replayed, or posted to YouTube or Facebook."

Comment: Primes are precious (Score -1) 248

They should not be overused because they are a limited mathematical resource, like badgers or squid. I take care to use mostly non-prime numbers, especially even numbers because they are renewable. It is a little thing we can all do to protect our Nation's planet and its numbers for future generations of Americans and maybe for Filipinos too.

The unfacts, did we have them, are too imprecisely few to warrant our certitude.

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