hmallett - Slashdot User

Submission + - Are laptops OK on bicycles? (science.ca)

Submitted by bshell on Sunday July 15, 2007 @03:49PM

bshell writes: I commute to work by bicycle and I've been strapping my PowerBook to the bike rack carrier on the back of my bike. It's enclosed in a typical computer carry bag, and strapped down by bungie cords, but it gets all the road vibrations on there. After years, there seems to be no adverse effects. Do other Slashdot readers concur? Does anyone think that subjecting a laptop computer to the daily bumps and bangs of a bicycle commute is harmful to the machine, or are laptop computers fundamentally constructed to handle this sort of treatment? Your experiences might be instructive to other readers.

Submission + - A better alternative to Synergy2 the software KVM

Submitted by TechnoTheMage on Thursday June 14, 2007 @09:47PM

TechnoTheMage writes: Years ago, in 2003 I believe, I asked slashdot for a solution to a piece of fantastic software that no longer worked under WindowsXP. It was called teleffect and it would allow you to control multiple machines over a TCP/IP connection. So if you had say 2 laptops and a desktop next to each other you could use any of the machines to control all of them with one keyboard and mouse.

Why would you do this? ok short version.. say you have one machine surfing the web and capturing video, the second machine researching outlook email and doing large file copies and a third you are configuring because its a new install and you have to keep rebooting it..

Second scenario: Say you play warcraft and you have two accounts and you want to control both characters at the same time because you are power leveling one of them.. Maybe you have three accounts.. Nuff said for WoW players...

With this software the possibilities for using your nice high end input devices with all your machines becomes wide open. I found Synergy was just not as good as teleffect. There were always slowdowns and gittery control when the cpu was under a large load or even a slight load. This never happened with teleffect and there has got to be something better.

OK so back to 2003.. After trying all the possible options I eventually gave up and have just lived without the software. It has been sorely missed and recently I am in the need of the software again. I have included the link from the original post which outlines all the suggestions and opinions which I am sure will be reproduced again.

Does anyohne know of software like Synergy2 but works better? You should feel like you were sitting in front of any machine you control with no slowdown or stickiness. Yes I have used the latest version of Synergy, I am not just talking about the older version.

Here is the original link on slashdot:

http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/07/29/17 44251&tid=185&tid=130&tid=201&tid=4

Techno The Mage out......

Submission + - US Interrogation technology

Submitted by

cwatch

on Thursday June 14, 2007 @07:17PM

cwatch writes: "US Interrogation technologies In the late 90s, someone was developing an intra-cochlear transceiver device for use in remote hostile interrogation, monitoring, tracking and surveillance. The device was designed to sense and transmit sub vocalization (probably like an electromyograph). The device was deployed soon after Bush was elected, along with a bunch of Internet decoy material ("audio spotlight," "acoustic heterodyne,"), to decoy and sidetrack the technologically-challenged subjects. Much of the material appeared to direct subjects to mailing lists mc@topica.com and mc-tech@yahoo.com, where attempts where made to keep them off-track. Does anyone have any additional information on this program?"

Submission + - Web or Desktop Application?

Submitted by Austin Milbarge on Thursday June 14, 2007 @04:56PM

Austin Milbarge writes: I'm redesigning a database application I've written in Windows and I would like the application to work from the web with minimal installation headaches. I've narrowed my decision down to either developing the software in Java Swing and then using WebStart as a means to deploy it, or write the whole thing in JSP as a dynamic web application. I like the web application idea because it will work with any browser and requires zero installation for the user. However, developing a desktop Java application gives the developer more control over dialogs, widgets, etc and besides I'm not all that convinced yet with dynamic web pages replacing full featured MDI applications. Web application development seems like a real pain in the ***. Perhaps I'm wrong. Finally, if I were to write a web application I'd like to shy away from using Microsoft servers so I guess that would disqualify ASP.NET. Any suggestions?

Submission + - Putting your keyboard in the dishwasher?

Submitted by The Fun Guy on Thursday June 14, 2007 @12:39PM

The Fun Guy writes: A piece on NPR discussed the merits of putting your keyboard into the dishwasher. Any real-world experience with this? Is this only for the old-style, robust Mac II clicky-clicky keyboards, or will modern soft-touch ones work too? What about wireless keyboards?

Submission + - Working at Big 4 consulting firm R&D, pros/con

Submitted by

pagalvin

on Wednesday June 13, 2007 @07:21PM

pagalvin writes: "I'm being recruited for an "R&D Architect" position at a Big 4 consulting firm in the U.S, East Coast (but not NYC). Does the community care to share its experience working as "overhead" in a large organization most famous for its consultants working 60 hour weeks and billing 'till the fat lady sings? In such places, do non-billable R&D types get any respect? Is there a a long-term career path that sticks with the technology track?"

Submission + - Scoring Systems for credibility of cited sources?

Submitted by

adinb

on Wednesday June 13, 2007 @06:28PM

adinb writes: "Does anyone know of any widely used scoring systems for evaluation of credibility of cited sources? While I've seen guides (like this one from cornell) or this wikipedia article, I haven't seen any standardized scoring systems that apply a numerical score to source credibility. I'm thinking of something as simple as +5 for a current, double-blind study published in a peer reviewed journal, funded by non-partisan sources to -5 for an out of date, non peer reviewed article from a partisan source. If there aren't any "simple" systems out there, is this something we should create to help with evaluation of content on the net and in our society?"

Submission + - When is it appropriate to go Web-Based?

Submitted by

Nightlyfe

on Wednesday June 13, 2007 @02:52PM

Nightlyfe writes: "I work for a fair-sized resort that is currently exploring changing accounting systems. In our preliminary discussions, the controller asked us to look at web-based systems. I explained that this would seriously limit our options, and may have other drawbacks as well. Going to web-based applications has some serious advantages/disadvantages as I see it. Yes, all of your backup and security is someone else's responsibility, but on the other hand...*all of your backup and security is someone else's responsibility.* I've always felt that that's a pretty significant risk to take with corporate/business applications. We have the hardware and infrastructure in-house to handle an application suite for this, so what are the benefits to going web-based? What are the challenges we could expect to face? I'd really like to know if other slashdot readers have experienced similar situations and what they found out."

Submission + - How to deal with an abusive web host?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 13, 2007 @01:45PM

An anonymous reader writes: I recently sent a DMCA takedown notice to a hosting company, regarding a customer who was blatantly posting copyrighted material from my website, along with attacks against me based on sexual orientation. I was told that, because they agreed with the person's attacks, the offending content would not be removed. They also claim that copyright is irrelevant, because they agree with their customer's "comments." I couldn't believe this response, but upon Googling the name of this host, I found dozens of webmasters and ISPs complaining about legal threats and spam attacks originating from this company. What is the correct way to deal with this issue?

Submission + - Where to go for enterprise product information?

Submitted by hal9000(jr) on Wednesday June 13, 2007 @11:47AM

hal9000(jr) writes: CMP Media announced that they are closing Network Computing print down. That leaves one less place to get independent information and product reviews. Where is an IT guy supposed to go to learn about products?

Submission + - Where to place temp sensors in a server rack?

Submitted by on Wednesday June 13, 2007 @11:41AM

An anonymous reader writes: I recently installed a network of 1-wire temperature sensors in my home; I'm using one of the sensors to monitor the 42U server rack in my basement.

Where is the ideal placement for temperature sensor(s) in a rack? The rack has four 1U servers and a MA8000 SAN which produces a fair amount of heat.

If you're monitoring temperatures in a rack in a datacenter; where are you taking your readings at?

Submission + - Copyright or License Your Resume?

Submitted by on Tuesday June 12, 2007 @10:38AM

An anonymous reader writes: Have you ever submitted a resume to a recruiter, and the recruiter significantly modified your resume for submission to a prospective employer? In fact, they munged it to the point that you feel that not only the format was changed, but substantial content was modified? Over the years, I have modified my resume many times, working to make it as readable and informative as I can. I will admit it is long, but I have a lot of experience, and I feel it is well laid out and pretty easy to read. I feel that some of the modifications that recruiters make actually detract from the format, and sometimes make the meaning different from the original intent. I can understand removing my contact information when submitting, as they don't want employers doing an end-run around them to contact prospects. Would it be a good idea to attach some kind of copyright, or require that recruiters submit resumes as I submitted to them?

Submission + - Is Commercial Open Source Taking Over?

Submitted by Reel Big Fish on Tuesday June 12, 2007 @09:42AM

Reel Big Fish writes: Zenoss 2.0 was released yesterday and I am finally dumping Nagios. Zenoss is backed by a VC-backed company and Nagios is backed by one small company. I sort of feel bad for these open source projects with a few guys are losing out to these new companies. Is it still worth it to work on an open source project or are these new commercial open source companies taking over?

Submission + - Who gets the unfinished software?

Submitted by zaunuz on Tuesday June 12, 2007 @02:13AM

zaunuz writes: What happends to unfinished software, mainly consisting of bits and pieces of perl-code, if the company you wrote it for goes bankrupt? This might be the case where i currently work. For the past year i have been in charge of a fairly big project, but due to poor economical planning higher up in the system, it is quite possible that the company will die before me and my team are finished. If this happends, we would like to continue the project on our own, since it is fairly close to completion, and it would suck to just scrap what we've invested so many hours and cups of coffee into. The creditors are most likely to be the new owners of the code, however, do the creditors care about unfinished code? Afterall, first they'd have to understand what it does. After they've done that, they'd have to finish it themselves. Has anyone else experienced a similar situation?

Submission + - Selling a software company

Submitted by TogetherGirl on Tuesday June 12, 2007 @12:24AM

TogetherGirl writes: I'm a partner in a small software company that sells 7 software products worldwide. We have been in business for about 5 years and each year sales have increased nicely.

Because of different philosophies / interests / opinions, we have decided to part ways. We have all agreed that it is best to sell the company or all products to a third party and hence, distribute the proceeds according to share ownership.

Since there is interest in our products by our competitors, we are trying to determine what is the best multiple of gross product sales to be used in calculating the 'selling price' of the company or all of the products.

I know there is no exact science but what is the average multiple (of gross sales) used to determine the asking / selling price of a software company?

Can anyone point out some good examples of companies being bought for around $1 million USD?

Thanks

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