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Comment Re:Wha?!?!!! (Score 1) 172

by egranlund (#48557755) Attached to: Just-Announced X.Org Security Flaws Affect Code Dating Back To 1987

OS X is an evolution of NEXTSTEP, which was started in the late 80s. They saw that OS 9 was a dead end and Apple needed something "new" and "modern", so they went with NEXT (and for a good while there was this set of compatibility APIs called carbon, PROBABLY had a lot of mac classic code). You can still see a lot of similarities between Xcode today and what they were using on NEXT in the early 90s.
new code, old code, it makes no difference. It ALL has flaws.

Heck even the images from the "Grab" program in the recent versions of OSX have the original Grab icon from NeXTSTEP
Space

Why Pluto Still Matters 91

Posted by samzenpus from the where-the-mi-go-and-the-terran-federation-play dept.
StartsWithABang writes Nearly a century ago, Pluto was discovered, and for 48 years it remained the only known object whose orbit takes it beyond the gravitational pull of Neptune. In a single generation, we've now discovered more than 1,000 additional objects in the Kuiper Belt, but does that make Pluto any less special? Here's a strong argument for why Pluto might matter now more than ever.

Comment Re:The good news (Score 1) 700

by egranlund (#48208037) Attached to: FTDI Reportedly Bricking Devices Using Competitors' Chips.

destructive responses go back to the days when a CP/M spreadsheet program incorporated code to delete everything it could touch if it detected a pirated copy - and they paid dearly for that at the time. At least the victim back then WAS a pirate (mostly, unless the pirate was an unscrupulous vendor, which was often the case back in the 80s).

Do you have any more information on this? Sounds like an interesting read.

Comment Re:Not necessary complacent... (Score 4, Insightful) 275

by egranlund (#47949779) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How To Avoid Becoming a Complacent Software Developer?

I don't consider myself complacent at all, but at the same time I'd much rather work the 9-5 M-F then put in lots of hours.

Yeah, I don't think working 9-5 is a sign of "losing your passion", it's a sign that you get your work done and go home to do other things your passionate about.

If anything, working a ton of hours is just a sign that you're either: going to burn out in a year once it catches up with you, that you're more worried about looking like you're "dedicated", or that you're just screwing around most of the day and need to work long hours to finish the stuff you're getting paid for.

Comment Re:Spare Phone cost (Score 2) 253

by egranlund (#47818939) Attached to: Why Phone Stores Should Stockpile Replacements

It's as simple as getting a $20 Jenny basic phone from Amazon, and possibly a $5 SIM adapter so your micro/nano sim can fit. I think it's a great insurance policy, and you can take the basic phone with you overseas to use with random sims (of course, with T-Mobile, you can still use your phone data-free,sms-free, and calls without usurious charges overseas too, but having a backup there is useful too).

You don't even have to buy your spare.

I have a BlackBerry I kept from 4 years ago as my backup sitting in my closet.

Doesn't do any whizz bang stuff the new phones do, but it'll at least give me text/data/phone if my regular phone craps out.

I've only had to use it once, and I loaned it out to a family member when their phone was being replaced a year ago.

Comment Re:Duh. (Score 1) 235

by egranlund (#47686707) Attached to: Email Is Not Going Anywhere

I once spent 6 hours on a conference call with two remote team members working to solve a time-critical software issue for a delivery. Using IM would have been cumber/tiresome and would have probably been much less efficient than voice.

Your right, that would have been cumbersome.

We use IM in my company for quick communication on projects we're working on or to give someone information without having to walk over to their desk and make them stop what they're doing.

Kind of like "where was the code for that thing you did last year", "hey, I'm out of data to review, can you send over some more", or "ok, I finished generating that report, can you take a look".

Doesn't work well for every situation, but most of my work is people working on the same task but very different parts. IM just serves as a way to communicate status in a way that would be really annoying in email.

Comment Re:Automate it (Score 1) 228

by egranlund (#47635355) Attached to: What Do You Do When Your Mind-Numbing IT Job Should Be Automated?

You won't get a raise over it, at worst "let go" from the job. Might as well reap the rewards of reduced workload and stress. Besides, employment is just like any other business agreement; it's mutual. So unless it's part of the job description to emphasize automation, you're doing it for YOU, not them.

Bleh, that sounds boring.

I automate all boring crap, so I can do more interesting things.

Comment This just in... (Score 1) 544

This just in, user who wants a niche feature uses hyperbole to attempt to make it appear that companies with large R&D and market research divisions are missing large parts of the market.

Next up - "Why Apple is 'missing the mark' by not creating a phone with an FM radio because I would find it useful, here is a 'survey' of 50 paid respondents to justify this".

There are many reasons why these phones don't exist, here are two big ones:
1) Bulkiness
2) Added cost (where even people who want these phones don't want to pay extra for it)

Comment What? (Score 1) 354

by egranlund (#47508181) Attached to: Netflix Reduces Physical-Disc Processing, Keeps Prices the Same

Summary doesn't make sense to me.

Is the submitter saying that even though they stopped processing disks on Saturday they are still within their defined window of 1-3 days processing?

If so, then what are you complaining about? They promised something and they are still delivering. Maybe they started with Saturday processing just to keep the service level and now the number of disks is not so overwhelming anymore that they are able to cut that day while still meeting their promise.

Comment Re:Good for them (Score 2) 138

by egranlund (#47452209) Attached to: Three-Year Deal Nets Hulu Exclusive Rights To South Park

From http://variety.com/2014/digita...:

Starting Saturday, July 12, the entire “South Park” library — 244 episodes in all — will be available for free on Hulu, and will continue to be free on SouthPark.cc.com (the address that is replacing SouthParkStudios.com) until Sept. 24. At that point, both Hulu and SouthPark.cc.com will have day-after-air access to new episodes from season 18. In addition, each of the sites will offer a revolving selection of 30 free episodes at any given time.

It sounds like they will not require Hulu plus until Sept 24, after that you will only get a "revolving selection of 30 free episodes" if you are not a member of Hulu Plus.

----

It's a shame really. I refuse to pay for Hulu Plus because of the obnoxious ads. I don't have cable for a reason, and that reason is I have a problem paying monthly for something and still being bombarded by advertisements.

For me I'll probably just stop watching South Park. Not that I would really watch it with any regularity, but it was nice to every once and a while pop over to their site and watch it free (but ad supported).

Comment Re:Everyone loves car dealers! (Score 1) 455

by egranlund (#47268585) Attached to: NADA Is Terrified of Tesla

What would I do with all the extra time if I didn't have to spend hours at a dealership while the salesperson artificially inflates the amount of time it takes to pay so they hope I won't notice the $5k extra they tacked on!?

Not to mention what this will do to the vehicle undercarriage coating industry!

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