Comment Re:Just don't ask him about Star Trek (Score 1) 183
This is a little off topic but since you mentioned it...how many wives do you have?
Submission + - 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics (sciencemag.org)
brindafella writes: "Thirteen years ago, two teams of astronomers and physicists independently made the same stark discovery: Not only is the universe expanding like a vast inflating balloon, but its expansion is speeding up. And, the two teams are recognised with the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Half of the prize will go to Saul Perlmutter of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley, who led the Supernova Cosmology Project. The other half will be shared by Brian Schmidt of the Australian National University's Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, who led the High-z Supernova Search Team, and Adam Riess of Johns Hopkins University and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, who worked on High-z.
In essence, they proved that Einstein's "biggest mistake" (the cosmological constant, to create a 'stable universe') was actually a clever theoretical prediction that there was something else happening — dark energy."
Half of the prize will go to Saul Perlmutter of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley, who led the Supernova Cosmology Project. The other half will be shared by Brian Schmidt of the Australian National University's Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, who led the High-z Supernova Search Team, and Adam Riess of Johns Hopkins University and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, who worked on High-z.
In essence, they proved that Einstein's "biggest mistake" (the cosmological constant, to create a 'stable universe') was actually a clever theoretical prediction that there was something else happening — dark energy."
Submission + - David Caminer, creator of the first business compu (reghardware.com)
linatux writes: Chris Bidmead at reghardware.com has written a fascinating article on "LEO" — the first business computer.
"A programming language, even at assembly level, would have been a help. LEO came with no such luxury. But it took Caminer's team only two years to tame the beast, and in November 1951 it was proudly running "The Bakery Valuations Job" to track and cost the labour and material of cakes, biscuits and bread moving through Lyons various profit centres."
"A programming language, even at assembly level, would have been a help. LEO came with no such luxury. But it took Caminer's team only two years to tame the beast, and in November 1951 it was proudly running "The Bakery Valuations Job" to track and cost the labour and material of cakes, biscuits and bread moving through Lyons various profit centres."
Submission + - US Congressman takes aim at China over IP theft (techworld.com.au)
angry tapir writes: "U.S. government officials need to put more pressure on their Chinese counterparts to stop a "pervasive" cyber-espionage campaign targeting U.S. companies, says Representative Mike Rogers, chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Espionage sponsored by the Chinese government has resulted in "brazen and wide-scale theft of intellectual property of foreign commercial competitors.""
Submission + - 80% of Arctic Ozone Lost (bbc.co.uk)
iONiUM writes: "From the article, 'About 20km (13 miles) above the ground, 80% of the ozone was lost, they say. The cause was an unusually long spell of cold weather at altitude. In cold conditions, the chlorine chemicals that destroy ozone are at their most active.'
This is the first time in history that the Arctic ozone has been depleted to such extensive levels. This will mean high UV problems for Russia, Greenland and Norway."
This is the first time in history that the Arctic ozone has been depleted to such extensive levels. This will mean high UV problems for Russia, Greenland and Norway."
Submission + - Two Out Of Three Tech Firms Offshore Jobs (computerworld.com)
Lucas123 writes: About 65% of U.S. tech companies now send jobs offshore, according to a survey of CIOs and senior IT leaders at 275 companies by the Society of Information Management. The survey also showed the employee turnover rate has remained constant since last year at 5.5%. From 2006 to 2011, employee turnover averaged 5.92%. Also, the average tenure of a CIO hovers at 4.36 years. "Nobody is confident that the economy is turned around," said Jerry Luftman, a management professor at Stevens Institute of Technology.
Comment Re:More costs involved. (Score 1) 382
Exactly. I was going to post essentially what you did.
An article linked from the POGO site quoted a trade rep: "The fact is that POGO's report draws false conclusions by comparing fully burdened contractor rates — which include all costs charged to the government, such as salaries, benefits, overhead, supplies, equipment, materials, rent and more — to an estimate of just salaries and benefits paid to a similar government workforce,"
I am a federal contractor and I guarantee no one billing the government on our contract makes the kind of money alleged by POGO. We work in our own facility, we buy our own equipment, provide our own IT support, plus the overhead people (HR, senior management, for example) are paid from what the company bills for my time.
As you stated, a fair comparison would be to factor in what the government pays for its facilities, equipment, executives, employee welfare, insurance. Also, it's impossible to get rid of a government employee. If we don't perform, though, they can terminate the contract.
An article linked from the POGO site quoted a trade rep: "The fact is that POGO's report draws false conclusions by comparing fully burdened contractor rates — which include all costs charged to the government, such as salaries, benefits, overhead, supplies, equipment, materials, rent and more — to an estimate of just salaries and benefits paid to a similar government workforce,"
I am a federal contractor and I guarantee no one billing the government on our contract makes the kind of money alleged by POGO. We work in our own facility, we buy our own equipment, provide our own IT support, plus the overhead people (HR, senior management, for example) are paid from what the company bills for my time.
As you stated, a fair comparison would be to factor in what the government pays for its facilities, equipment, executives, employee welfare, insurance. Also, it's impossible to get rid of a government employee. If we don't perform, though, they can terminate the contract.
Comment Re:I don't work in the public sector. (Score 1) 382
They included benefits but they compared the fully-loaded contract rate vs the government employees pay and benefits. The fully loaded rate includes overhead - that's what pays the salary of the employees who don't bill to a contract (such as HR), infrastructure (office costs), plus a profit. They did not compare salary + benefits to salary + benefits.
Comment Re:Social media AdBlock list (Score 1) 206
Thanks for that...that's exactly what I was looking for too.
Comment What is the GNU Hurd? (Score 1) 463
I can't be the only person that's never hurd, umm, heard of it.
"The Hurd is the GNU project's replacement for UNIX, a popular operating system kernel."
From http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hurd/what_is_the_gnu_hurd.html
"The Hurd is the GNU project's replacement for UNIX, a popular operating system kernel."
From http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hurd/what_is_the_gnu_hurd.html
Comment Re:TFA total mess (Score 1) 140
I clicked through the article looking for the slick USA Today-like info graphic. Ah yes...there's nothing like an all-text article on icons. Maybe the editors should reject submissions where the link starts with "gopher://".
Comment Re:well... (Score 1) 561
So clerks at convenience stores, liquor stores, and adult bookstores shouldn't check IDs because it therefore puts them "in the position of being mommy and daddy"?
Comment Innocent? (Score 4, Insightful) 243
No one is reporting he is innocent. They reached a plea deal. The government dropped the 10 charges because a judge decided the prosecution would have to show classified material to the jury.
Dropping the charges because you don't have enough evidence to make a case (i.e. without using classified material) is not the same as deciding he is innocent.
Comment Re:What about the IT guy that NSA charged? (Score 1) 243
Don't click...it's a tarp. You have been warned.
Comment Re:Unacceptable (Score 2) 283
If, when I and my children lived in the UK, a teacher had tried to do this I would have sued s/his ass off.
What's a "shis"?
Now I would insert the barrel of my SIG 210 up their left nostril and politely ask them NOT to do it again.
Overreact much? Funny, I thought the barrel of the SIG P210 was far larger than any nostril, well, except maybe this guy's: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article112380.ece
What do those people think they are?
Educators of children? Hopefully they're doing a better job than those that educated you, judging from your entertaining comment history. A connoisseur of transsexuals, are you? Italy has "some of the most passable/beautiful TS outside asia". Awesome. Maybe you could publish a field guide to the world's she-males.
