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Comment Re:I don't get it.. (Score 2, Insightful) 285

by Muckluck (#29259433) Attached to: The Orange Goo That Could Save Your Laptop
Actually, I must take your disclaimer with a pinch of salt. You are an undergraduate, which implies that you are still studying. Since you are studying, this implies that you are using your brain trying to figure things out. This means that you have NOT yet reached the point where you "know it all" because you have been "doing this for years and this is how everything works". Work as hard as you can not to fall into this type of "Engineer Brain" trap. The older I get, the harder it is to fight... Thanks for a well thought out post and follow up. Makes sense to me...

Comment The best way to kill a wiki... (Score 1) 3

by Muckluck (#29071409) Attached to: Uncle Sam Wants You - to Wikify Army Field Manual
is to write a bunch of strict regulations about changes. And worse when rank outweighs experience. It may have to be somewhat more structured than a tech wiki, but not a bad idea if they actually do it right. They way want to look at adding weight to certain solders posts, if a specialist edits a page that the specialist is an expert in, it should carry more weight than the average buck private. I imagine that other sections would need to be locked and moderated. Like most things, if done properly, it could be helpful, if done wrong, a disaster. Glad to see they are looking at it, though...
The Military

Submission + - Uncle Sam Wants You - to Wikify Army Field Manual 3

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "The NY Times reports that the Army began encouraging its personnel — from the privates to the generals — to go online and collaboratively rewrite seven of the field manuals that give instructions on all aspects of Army life using the same software behind the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. The goal, say the officers behind the effort, is to tap more experience and advice from battle-tested soldiers rather than relying on the specialists within the Army's array of colleges and research centers who have traditionally written the manuals. "For a couple hundred years, the Army has been writing doctrine in a particular way, and for a couple months, we have been doing it online in this wiki," said Col. Charles J. Burnett, the director of the Army's Battle Command Knowledge System. "The only ones who could write doctrine were the select few. Now, imagine the challenge in accepting that anybody can go on the wiki and make a change — that is a big challenge, culturally." Under the three-month pilot program, the current version of each guide can be edited by anyone around the world who has been issued an ID card that allows access to the Army Internet system. Reaction so far from the rank and file has been tepid but the brass is optimistic because, even in an open-source world, soldiers still know how to take an order. "One of the great advantages we have is that we are a disciplined force," says retired Coronel Christopher R. Paparone. "We are hierarchical. When the boss says 'do this,' it tends to get done. Even those who don't like to write will add something.""
Social Networks

Facebook Users Get Lower Grades In College 284

Posted by timothy from the but-doodlers-do-fine dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "According to a survey of college students Facebook users have lower overall grades than non-users. The study by Aryn Karpinski, an education researcher at Ohio State University, found that Facebook user GPAs are in the 3.0 to 3.5 range on average, compared to 3.5 to 4.0 for non-users and that Facebook users also studied anywhere from one to five hours per week, compared to non-users who studied 11 to 15 or more hours per week. Karpinski emphasized that correlation does not equal causation and that the grades association could be caused by something else. 'I'm just saying that there's some kind of relationship there, and there's many third variables that need to be studied.' One hypothesis is that students who spend more time enjoying themselves rather than studying might tend to latch onto the nearest distraction, such as Facebook or that students who use the social networking site might also spend more time on other non-studying activities such as sports or music. 'It may be that if it wasn't for Facebook, some students would still find other ways to avoid studying, and would still get lower grades. But perhaps the lower GPAs could actually be because students are spending too much time socializing online.' As for herself, Karpinski said she doesn't have a Facebook account, although the co-author of the study does. 'For me, I think Facebook is a huge distraction.'"

Comment Re:It's *money* which is the Ponzi scheme (Score 1) 346

by Muckluck (#27568575) Attached to: Ponzi Schemes Multiply On YouTube
Actually, I believe you are referring to the "Money Multiplier". This is a function of FED policy which the US banking system is partially based upon. When I put $100 into the bank as savings, the bank has to honor one of the tools of the FED called the "Reserve Requirement Ratio". The RRR is a requirement that the bank keep in reserves a percentage of my deposit in available cash and allows them to loan out the rest. So if, for instance, the RRR is 10%, the bank will keep $10 in cash reserves and loan out $90. This keeps happening (up to a point) "creating money" that did not exist before. BTW - the pea in the shell game is here. The "Money Multiplier" ends up being the inverse of the RRR, or in our example, 10. That means that for the initial $100 deposit that I make, $1000 can be loaned out as the money travels on the balance sheets from bank to bank. Two things are required for this FED tool to work. One - you MUST have a nation which SAVES money. The United States is banking on the savings of the Baby Boomers. We need some new thrifty savers. And two, we ASSUME that the banks will loan out any excess reserves. If they are scared to make loans, new money is not "created". So, do the world a favor - get out of credit card debt, save for a while, then borrow some money to spend...
Space

PG&E Makes Deal For Solar Power From Space 392

Posted by Soulskill from the just-watch-out-for-the-shadow-square-wire dept.
N!NJA writes "California's biggest energy utility announced a deal Monday to purchase 200 megawatts of electricity from a startup company that plans to beam the power down to Earth from outer space, beginning in 2016. Solaren would generate the power using solar panels in Earth orbit and convert it to radio-frequency transmissions that would be beamed down to a receiving station in Fresno, PG&E said. From there, the energy would be converted into electricity and fed into PG&E's power grid."
Government

Utah Senate, House Pass Jack Thompson's Game Sales Bill 200

Posted by Soulskill from the keeps-going-and-going-and-going dept.
Ars Technica reports that the Utah State Senate and House have both passed Jack Thompson's proposed legislation that would stiffen penalties for the sale of M-rated games to minors. Oddly, on its trip through the state legislature, amendments rendered it largely ineffective; retailers are in the clear if the employee who sold the game goes through a training program, or if the minor misrepresents his age. It's also possible that the bill could cause some retailers to simply take down their ESRB-related advertising. Thompson's statements about the bill put the focus on advertising, but discussion on the Utah Senate floor had a familiar ring, touching on the story of a Grand Theft Auto player who killed two policemen in 2003. The ESRB wrote an open letter in opposition of the bill, saying it could undo the efforts they've made to popularize their rating system. The bill's sponsors fired back, questioning the industry's overall commitment to ratings, and now it awaits only the governor's signature before becoming law.

Comment This works for both sides... (Score 1) 1316

by Muckluck (#27203197) Attached to: Narcissistic College Graduates In the Workplace?
I am fortunate to have the opportunity to beat them down before they graduate. The Fortune 500 company I work for will only hire co-op students if the applicant is "fresh out of school" so they already have an idea of how our corporate culture works and what the expectations are for each job level. This serves to be the weed out point for students coming into the company and they have a good idea if they want to continue working in the established culture. It works well for both sides of the equation.
Education

Narcissistic College Graduates In the Workplace? 1316

Posted by kdawson from the entitled-to-it dept.
SpuriousLogic writes "I work as a senior software engineer, and a fair amount of my time is spent interviewing new developers. I have seen a growing trend of what I would call 'TV reality' college graduates — kids who graduated school in the last few years and seem to have a view of the workplace that is very much fashioned by TV programs, where 22-year-olds lead billion-dollar corporate mergers in Paris and jet around the world. Several years ago I worked at a company that did customization for the software they sold. It was not full-on consultant work, but some aspects of it were 'consulting light,' and did involve travel, some overseas. Almost every college graduate I interviewed fully expected to be sent overseas on their first assignment. They were very disappointed when told they were most likely to end up in places like Decater, IL and Cedar Rapids, IA, as only the most senior people fly overseas, because of the cost. Additionally, I see people in this age bracket expecting almost constant rewards. One new hire told me that he thought he had a good chance at an award because he had taught himself Enterprise Java Beans. When told that learning new tech is an expected part of being a developer, he argued that he had learned it by himself, and that made it different. So today I see an article about the growing narcissism of students, and I want to ask this community: are you seeing the sorts of 'crashing down to Earth' expectations of college grads described here? Is working with this age bracket more challenging than others? Do they produce work that is above or below your expectations of a recent college grad?" We discussed a similar question from the point of view of the young employees a few months back.
Government

Obama Stimulus Pours Millions Into Cyber Security 156

Posted by CmdrTaco from the because-they-need-it dept.
nandemoari writes "As his administration continues to work on a stimulus plan that can save America's economy, Obama's latest course of action will see millions of dollars being allocated to heighten cyber security. The move will assist government officials in preventing future attacks on the United States. The President recently addressed his 2010 budget, outlining funding plans that will grant the Department of Homeland Security $355 million to secure the nation's most essential computer systems. The money will be spent on both government and private groups, with much of the funding going to the National Cyber Security Division and the Comprehensive National Cyber Security Initiative programs."

Comment In all fairness... (Score 1) 372

by Muckluck (#26410073) Attached to: How Will Recent Financial Downturns Affect IT Jobs?
I work at a company that uses IT jobs as the "slush fund" for layoffs. Not always the right thing to do, but that's how they do it. Nice thing is, they tend to offer early retirement packages first to the people closest to retirement age so "voluntary attrition" usually takes care of solving most of the problem. Then we hire younger, less experienced people because they are cheaper and train them to do what we need to get done. The people who retire have already trained the next wave and they in turn train the next and so on. Long story, short... Things aren't bad everywhere you just need to be sure your resume stands out for the right reason.

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