Aside from if you had NoScript you wouldn't see the ad (it appears it is JS generated?) how many people run NoScript but don't also run AdBlockPlus?
-nB

ha ha ha ha ha
you win one internet sir. ./thread

I concur.
I was going to buy a gun safe for my sister as a baby shower present, but her husband finally bought one as soon as he found out she was pregnant. Now I am re-thinking that. He bought a large cheapo safe, I was going to buy a new Liberty for myself and give him my old one (I need more space as I have added some non-gun related stuff to the house that I want locked up). I haven't ordered the new safe yet (another of the same I have). So maybe I'll order the larger one afterall and give them the smaller one.
-nB

Let's see...
When I was handed down the 286 with the Wren III 160 meg ESDI drives I was in 7th or 8th grade, so I was still learning some of the math involved... To me I remember hex numbers being magic strings that did things and loosely related to something called binary, also magic strings, that the computer understood. I knew they were number systems, but they were still disjointed from decimal. now after 12 years in the industry preceded by 10 to 15 years of a computer at home, all this and octal are equivalent, but at the time it was magic. Hence the nostalgia.

I agree with you completely, and much like atomic decay, once over the hump it is easy. Getting over the hump can be difficult and while the workplace does not need to be coddling, it does need to be supportive and considerate. This needs to be part of the culture. In my lab, if you leave your computer unlocked and logged in one or both of two things are likely to happen: You will have my little pony wallpaper, or you will send an e-mail to some of the other jokers in the lab that you're a pretty princess (or offer to buy drinks). The rules are simple: To join the prank club, commit a prank. If you do not prank someone we all assume you don't want to be pranked and we'll just lock your screen for you and possibly leave a note. Only once did we have someone who liked to prank, but couldn't accept that meant he had to be pranked too. When he bitched about it we told him clearly that he shouldn't prank people and we will all keep off his stuff. It didn't work so we set up a sting (remote capture of a notebook webcam with its LED disabled). That convinced him we knew it was him and he stopped, as did we.
Now if you'll excuse me I need to get rid of my pony wallpaper and princess screensaver...
-nB

Plug and pray added lots of fun...
I remember having to use debug to step into ROM code on an ESDI controller to setup sector sparing (62|63|64) sectors per track indicating (2|1|0) spare sectors... Trade space now for reliability later? How much space?
Then you had to "format" the drive with it's sector map, only then was it ready for FDISK and a DOS format.
good times...
Still have that machine around somewhere for two old games... Need to port them to DosBox and toss the machine.
-nB

First, I'm not a manager, which is why it worked IMHO, had it been management it would have felt more "in trouble" than "we're a team, let's keep this a team issue and not get HR involved, 'cause none of us want that"; perception is a powerful tool.
Second, My words here and the words I used with here are vastly different. I don't really remember what I said, but I know I went over it with our collective manager, and tried to be respectful to them both, while pointing out that neither had anything to gain by remaining in the state they were in.

I tried to use respect and dignity with both of them, and to be honest I was harder on the guy, partially because I think it is fairly obvious he was in the wrong, while we've never been super strict with the dress code, but she had gone over the line far enough that it needed to be called out.
-nB

Yeah, she still wears sandals in the summer some times and you could nit-pick the dress length, but compared to what she was wearing, it really is a vast improvement.
-nB

I've always believed in accounting for mis-communication and / or human mistakes.
I mean I really do understand your company's position, but I disagree with it. I could cope with a one warning (permanent written??), and out the door after that, but just out the door seems like it may result in terminations that really were not necessary at times.
-nB

The one problem I've seen is that the person who feels like it it was over the line is afraid to say so. This needs to be made clear: That joking around and being a cohesive team means not being a bunch of stodgy twits, but it also means be respectful and that it's ok to say "I didn't like that" and that it will be accepted and the person saying it won't feel isolated for it.
-nB

Really? not even one warning? Seems harsh except in the most egregious cases.

In my old team we had things get wildly out of hand and HRLegal got involved. The entire team suffered because of a manager who didn't just step up and handle it like a problem between adults.

In my current team I am at/near the top of the social pecking order and have a very good reputation for looking out for juniors in the lab (going to bat w/ management for them but not telling who I'm batting for, etc.) and a good reputation with management for telling things as they are and having people trust me. This (amazingly to me) has gotten me some measure of respect from both sides, even when things get heated (we had a reorg a while back that turned very sour).

We had a repeat incident that was very nearly the same as what happened in my old group, but I told my manager what was happening, and asked him to give me a shot at handling it. I pulled the two into a conference room (based on the authority of the managers e-mail to them both) and dressed them both down, her for wearing clothes that are against the dress code and sure to attract attention, and him for utterly failing to be a gentleman that when a girl wears enticing clothes and lets you know it isn't you she wants it's time to back off. I reminded both of them that they are adults and to act it, and that neither was guiltless in the whole mess. Problem solved. Year and a half later, still no issues; she's dressed at least a little closer to the dress code, and he's polite, but non pursuing to her.

I don't think informal warning straight to dismissal is the right policy, there should be two more steps in between: formal warning && second warning + suspension.
Just realized I mis-parsed that part of your post, but there's the two steps I'd put there.

-nB

I think this will not happen from a current studio. Once one of the indy groups grows enough to get big talent and big movies then they will be the first to enter this gap. After they break ground the legacy studios will move in. We already see stuff like this in the audio side of the industry, where on-line sales are concurrent with the CD release, sometimes at a lower price and often in MP3 format.

The big companies don't like change, are afraid of it even. I think this one change you suggest would vastly turn around their fortunes and cut deeply into the piracy market. Most pirates (IMHO) are not being cheapskates, they are being convenientskates. I know this is the case for me. I buy a DVD for the kids, I rip it and put it on the media server. It is simply more convenient, not to mention I don't have to worry about scratched disks, something that still plagues their collection of Wii games (but not my gen 1 Xbox games).
-nB

pretty damn close, yes. Also I wanted to make the point. Finance never questioned the amount, they questioned the paying for a cell phone. Had they questioned the amount I would have let them buy a $50 (which I would have been short a bit on). Fact of the matter is that manager did not respect the boundaries I set on use of personal equipment for work activities. It's not none, there are times when I will use my kit to ensure the job at the office gets done, just I like that to be the rare exception rather than the norm.
Hell I'd be at my bench, next to my office phone, and he'd be calling my cell before even trying the office number. To me that said this guy didn't even listen to the limits. As it turns out he was worthless as a manager (this became obvious when our reviews were copy paste jobs of the previous years reviews, down to spelling errors). Funny, he no longer manages. I used some of that loyalty to an individual manager I mentioned in another post, to successfully pull off an "open door" type meeting (often a death knell and we all know it) two levels above the worthless one, and brought a list of grievances from the entire lab. When I was asked why no one else said anything I replied that they were all too scared of making waves, so I'm going to go out on a limb for the team.
All in all it worked out well, I've since been promoted twice (one informal, one formal, both with money) and the useless one manages some equipment.
-nB

I work at home in the evenings a lot to catch up (after the kids are in bed).
I also collect OT for that work. Something I don't plan on giving up. One of my co-workers found out I get OT and was in awe about it. I replied it will cost him one week of vacation and some other assorted BS to deal with, but he can do it too.
Where I work there are two classes of line staff, one is exempt and the other is non-exempt. The exempts get an extra week of vacation and don't have to track hours worked or sick days, NE's do. It's a trade off.
-nB