Comment First! (Score 1, Insightful) 271
Want.
Comment What about a drunk back ho operator? (Score 1) 290
There's a big double edged sword when it comes to moving to cloud based stuff (We have a fair amount of SAAS). It's when some back ho operator gets a bit to dig happy and attenuates your line. Getting two different ISPs that can both handle the load and have two different ingress/egress routes can be awfully expensive. We lost services for 18 hours when a construction crew got a large capacity fibre line that took out both our main route and apparently, our backup line was moved by our ISP and went over the black fibre of the same group.
Also.. good luck trying to get tickets responded to in a timely manner. When you have a large problem, for instance permission issues across all 280 Office 365 accounts, and your ticket has already been open for over a week, it sucks.
Cloud has it's advantages, and it's got some giant sticking points. I wouldn't be so rushed to the cloud unless you are trying to reduce CapX or have such rapid expansion that you need to provide services faster then your internal staff can keep up.
Comment Ad Agency Here (Score 1) 403
This sucks. Our workflow was developed outside of the Adobe infrastructure (xinet) and have been upgrading fairly religiously (except 6 due to integration problems/growth) and we have little to need for some of the collaboration tools included with the suite. We have seen our costs increase a minimum of 230% (Depends if we go Team or Individual CC licenses). I'm not happy about that at all, but what really bugs me is the fact that this handcuffs my budget.
I can no longer, delay, skip or schedule my investments to when it makes sense for the company. My CapX budget gets reduced as all my money gets tied up into OpX. If my company has a soft year budget wise, I can't make budgetary decisions that will put us into the best situation possible. We simply have to pay this massive OpX increase or stop making widgets.
We could run on a creative suite platform for a number of years before we simply have to upgrade. While we try not to do that we all know the reality of the budget some times makes us do it.
Comment Re:trade up netflix for apple TV (Score 1) 481
The problem is that Netflix/Qwikster is the worst of both worlds.
Netflix was originally worth it because of their low prices compared to Blockbuster on a per rental basis as long as you turned your rentals over quick. Netflix's DVD back catalog is great but now due to their recently negotiated contracts they're getting a lot of new releases 30 days later than retail, Blockbuster, and cable video on demand. Maybe they can buy a retail new release but they can't stick it in an envelope and send it to me for a month.
The streaming quality isn't all that great right now and the selection is poor. Streaming was the thing that kept me subscribed to Netflix when I wasn't able to get new release DVDs on time. It was a good value add. Neither service is worth full price to me now. If they're able to get new releases back or greatly expand their streaming catalog I'll consider coming back.
Submission + - "The Amateur Monster Movie" (youtube.com)
Wescotte writes: As a Slashdot reader for years I wanted to share with you guys the trailer for a film I've been working on for the past year. I know it isn't your typical Slashdot news article but it's my turn to shamelessly promote something damnit! Anyway, I feel like I'm doing you a favor because there is no article to read.
It's a zero budget comedy called "The Amateur Monster Movie" and was filmed in/around Milwaukee, Wisconsin. What do you guys think?
Brief Synopsis:
"After a group of boy scouts are mysteriously killed by a wolf-like creature on Cadaverous Island, Walter Romero, whose best friend was among the killed, sets out to find exactly what happened. In order to reach the island, Walter teams up with Johnny Mason, neighborhood stoner, to smoke up Ashley Valinski, neighborhood hottie, and get her to take them out on her father's boat. But soon after arriving on Cadaverous Island, a horde of zombies steals their boat, leaving them stranded, and the three are forced to team up with two cops, the mayor, and a team of botanists to either kill the monsters... or be killed themselves..... DUN-DUN-DUN!!!"
It's a zero budget comedy called "The Amateur Monster Movie" and was filmed in/around Milwaukee, Wisconsin. What do you guys think?
Brief Synopsis:
"After a group of boy scouts are mysteriously killed by a wolf-like creature on Cadaverous Island, Walter Romero, whose best friend was among the killed, sets out to find exactly what happened. In order to reach the island, Walter teams up with Johnny Mason, neighborhood stoner, to smoke up Ashley Valinski, neighborhood hottie, and get her to take them out on her father's boat. But soon after arriving on Cadaverous Island, a horde of zombies steals their boat, leaving them stranded, and the three are forced to team up with two cops, the mayor, and a team of botanists to either kill the monsters... or be killed themselves..... DUN-DUN-DUN!!!"
Comment Response Time (Score 1) 321
We have a help desk ticketing system that automated issues get logged in. The on call personel will get pages. Also... other individuals in the company can make requests and log issues into the system to assign them to groups or individuals. The only metric really recorded is response time to respond to the client or automated event. The first concern is communicating early that the concern has been noticed and is/will be scheduled for work.
South Carolina Wants To Jam Cell Phone Signals 601
Corey Brook writes "The South Carolina state prison system wants the FCC to grant them and local officers permission to block cell phone signals. News has been out about the growing problem of them perps smuggling cell phones into prisons for a while now. Inmates use cell phones as commerce, to implement fraud, smuggle drugs and weapons, and to order hits. Of course, some may use it to just talk to a loved one any time they can." Hopefully movie theaters and restaurants do it next.
Comment What ever happened to shareware? (Score 1) 1085
If something looks interesting... I'd like to give it a try without forking out $50 for it.
I think any gamer has shelled out good money for a buggy, short, or downright bad game. We never got our money back. Why should I commit my hard earned money to try something I may not like?
Paying $9 for a bad movie is one thing... but paying $40+ to try a game is just too much of a risk.
I think any gamer has shelled out good money for a buggy, short, or downright bad game. We never got our money back. Why should I commit my hard earned money to try something I may not like?
Paying $9 for a bad movie is one thing... but paying $40+ to try a game is just too much of a risk.
KDE 4.0 Beta 1 Released 249
dbhost writes "Along with this morning's cup of coffee and log reviews, I discovered that the KDE team is moving forward with a long awaited beta release of KDE 4.0 beta release of KDE 4.0. The most interesting item I found in the notes is that the file manager in KDE is being separated from Konqueror into a component called Dolphin. Also, according to the announcement, konsole has been treated to a number of improvements such as split view, and history highlighting."
Sony Looks to 'Refine' PS3 Price 182
Via GameDaily a Financial Times interview with with Sir Howard Stringer, Sony's CEO, gives fans the first hope that price cuts may be coming soon. Lauding the Wii's performance in last month's NPD numbers, Stringer says that Sony is looking to 'refine' the PS3's pricepoint. "'Nintendo Wii has been a successful enterprise, and a very good business model, compared with ours . . . because it's cheaper,' Mr Stringer said in a video interview. 'That [price cuts] is what we are studying at the moment. That's what we are trying to refine.' Sir Howard said he expected 'energy [in PS3 sales] by Christmas, and then you will begin to see break-out games'. Sony is launching a virtual-world game called Home this year, and up to 30 other games."
Student Attempting To Improve School Security Suspended 282
TA_TA_BOX writes "The University of Portland has handed a one-year suspension to an engineering major after he designed a program to bypass the Cisco Clean Access (CCA). According to the University of Portland's Vice President of Information Systems, the purpose of the CCA is to evaluate whether the computers are compliant with current security policies (i.e., anti-virus software, Windows Updates and Patches, etc.). Essentially the student wrote a program that could fool the CCA to think that the computers operating system and anti-virus were fully patched and up to date. 'In the design of his computer program, Maass looked at the functions CCA provides and identified vulnerabilities where it could be bypassed. He wrote a program that emulated the same functions as CCA and eliminated some security issues. He says that the method he chose is "one of six that I came up with." Maass says his intent was not malicious. Rather, the sophomore says he was examining vulnerabilities so that they could be fixed. "I was planning on going to Cisco with the vulnerability this summer," Maass says. '"
Japan to Launch Maglev Trains by 2025 103
SpeedyTrain writes with a link to a story on the Mainichi Daily News site about the future of mass transit in Japan. Despite problems with Maglev technology in test-bed scenarios around the world, Japan has committed to building a line between Tokyo and Nagoya by 2025. The experimental system will allow trains to run at up to 310 miles an hour. "The new magnetically levitated, or "maglev," trains would slash the 100-minute travel time down the country's busiest transportation corridor and are envisioned as a successor for Japan's iconic bullet trains, or shinkansen, first introduced to the world in 1964 ... [a] spokeswoman declined to give an estimate for the cost of linking the capital with the Nagoya area about 269 kilometers (168 miles) to the west. But Kyodo News agency said the whole project would cost about 9 trillion yen (US$76.3 billion) and be divided between the company and the central and local governments."
Submission + - Stitches Made of Biopolymer Absorbed by Body
Anonymous Coward writes: "A biopolymer suture cleared last month by the FDA is made of materials that the human body produces naturally, so they can be safely absorbed once the wound is healed."
Submission + - Genetic Studies Endow Mice with New Color Vision
Anonymous Coward writes: "Colored lights were used to show that the brains of genetically altered mice could efficiently process sensory information from new photoreceptors in their eyes. Here, a mouse deciding that the third colored panel looks different from the other two receives a drop of soy milk as a reward. For this set of three lights, only the soy milk dispenser over the third panel releases a drop of soy milk."
Comment Re:Jeans? (Score 1) 682
I wear Jeans and a polo 90% of the time. I'm supposed to wear slacks when I can, but after ruining several pairs of slacks from working on PCs and devices on the plant floor quickly changes your tune. Your jeans hold up allot better from all the crap lurking on a plant floor then slacks.
