BurningSpiral - Slashdot User

Comment What about insulation, heat retention, and servers (Score 1) 139

by BurningSpiral on Monday September 20, 2021 @01:41AM (#61812451) Attached to: World's Whitest Paint Sets Guinness Record, Could Reduce Need For Air Conditioning

This approach will work great on some commercial buildings and some apartment buildings but it might not work for detached homes.

When dealing 1970s (and newer) wood-frame homes
1)There is usually a lot insulation in the attics of wood-frame homes so hot air in the attic doesn't heat the home much and cold air in attic doesn't cool the home.
2)Most Wood-frame homes have vents in the top of the attic and the bottom of the attic allowing hot air to flow out the top and cool air to flow in the lower vents.

For many concrete homes: The reduced heat absorption during the day will increase night-time heating costs.

For data centers: Most of the heat comes from servers running in the data center.

The paint is awesome, it will likely help with climate change but I don't think it will eliminate the need for AC.

Comment Easy fix... (Score 3, Interesting) 45

by BurningSpiral on Wednesday January 06, 2021 @03:20AM (#60902146) Attached to: Telegram Feature Exposes Your Precise Address To Hackers

I wonder why telegram isn't willing to add a location rounding function. They could start with rounding to the nearest mile and randomizing the last few digits of the GPS location. Then reuse the exact same randomized locations everytime any user (with location sharing enabled) is near a previously used random location. Then add 2,3, and 5 mile rounding to protect users who live in rural locations (eg.10,000 acre farms)

Comment Information Security post on twitter (Score 1) 98

by BurningSpiral on Thursday July 02, 2020 @06:24PM (#60255640) Attached to: Are you on Twitter?

There is a huge community of information security professionals, hackers, privacy nerds and defcon attendees on twitter.

If you do quick searches for #infosec and #cybersecurity you will find everything from certification advice, to conference presentations, and leading edge security research.

Comment Update story description Attention Moderators (Score 5, Informative) 208

by BurningSpiral on Saturday April 05, 2014 @05:02AM (#46668209) Attached to: Tesla Model S Has Hidden Ethernet Port, User Runs Firefox On the 17" Screen

The connector is an M12 Industrial Ethernet Connector - as seen at http://www.designworldonline.c... The story description should be updated so that more readers find out that they can connect to their Tesla's on-board computer via a easy to find cable.

Comment I've done it / it was pretty easy. (Score 2) 435

by BurningSpiral on Monday January 02, 2012 @12:24AM (#38560862) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Re-Entering the Job Market As a Software Engineer?

Networking is your best way to reenter software engineering. Remember networking is about helping people and developing relationships. Based on your skill set you would be quite value-able to a web design company. Many web designers contract out programming to local programmers. Go to local networking events (chamber of commerce, bni, ...). Introduce yourself as a software engineer and ask each person you meet if they know a good web designer then offer to do a short contract project at a competitive price. After completing that contract you now have recent experience. When it comes to your programming experience, I recommend getting a company name (this is usually pretty cheap) and listing all your recent experience under your company. The person reading the resume won't know that the company is just you until they interview you. On the resume topic, you might want to leave off your sales experience (and maybe some of your oldest software experience) so that your engineering experience doesn't get diluted and you might want to consider leaving off the dates so that employers don't notice your hiatus and don't guess your age. P.S. I used most of these techniques to get back into software engineering after a 8 year hiatus as a Network Administrator.

Comment Change of strategy (Score 2, Interesting) 613

by BurningSpiral on Tuesday September 30, 2008 @11:49AM (#25202769) Attached to: The Stigma of a Tech Support Background

My best suggestions would be to

Look for a technical support jobs with companies that you would like to do engineering work for. Only accept the job offers on the condition that they will provide you with Engineering work for you to do on your own time. If you do good work they will eventually promote you to an engineering position.
Avoid the words technical support, call center and first level at all costs. If you accidentally mention these words, try to remember the question that you struggled with then try to prepare a different answer for next time (many employers use the same interview questions...)
Familiarize your self with common interview styles (especially BEI) and interview questions. Then prepare as many answers/stories about your job that don't sound like you would end up dealing with them in a call center.
Look for jobs in a different city/state/country. Local employers will likely know that your current employer runs a call center but other employers probably won't.
Do extensive volunteer that is similar to the work you want to do. Make sure you get a title of Engineer, Analyst or whatever job you are looking for. Start listing the volunteer work above your call center work.
Remember: You don't need to tell the employer the job is a volunteer job unless they ask and volunteering for 5 hours a week as a database administrator for the local office of the American Cancer Society (or another well know charity) looks great on your resume.
Start a business. Its way easier than it sounds (I know because I've done it). Print some business cards and walk into every business in town, introduce yourself say either.
- My name is "John Doe", I do computer networking and repairs and I'm wondering if there is anything I can help you with. [When they ask about your experience/training], tell them about your degree and the number of years of experience you have. Then tell them that you won't bill them unless they are happy with the work you do.
- Once a few people get you to do work for them, mention a business/charity you do work for. For example, when I did a cold call to Top Drawer furniture (I said, I was just in doing some computer work for simply concrete and I'm wondering if their is anything I can help them with). When I do a cold call at a Doctor's office, I say "Hello, I'm John Doe, I do computer work for Al Hunter's family practice and I'm wondering if there is anything I can help you with"
- Once you have a few happy clients, start printing quotes from them on the back of your business card. "John Doe is always professional polite and on time", "If you want it done right the first time, call John Doe".
- Join as many clubs (toastmasters, chamber of commerce...) as possible. You will meet people who need small tech jobs done thereby growing your business.
- Look for businesses that need both networking/repair work and programming/engineering work. Almost every business (accounting, mortgage brokering, ...) has some programming work they need done. Even if its just Macros to automate repetitive tasks/CRM database tweeking...
- If you like self employement stick with it. The pay is awesome (I slowly raised my rates from $30/h to $60/h) and you have a lot of flexibility to do the work you like.
- Remember Self employment is easier than most people think (once you master your sales skills). I moved to a new city, two years ago and started with cold calls/networking and built a new business very quickly. My first 7 hour day of cold calls got me 6 new clients (4 of whom had me do work that day, 1 of whom had me do 2 full days for the next two days, 1 of who had me call them back to book an appointment, and 1 who called me 18months after I dropped my business card off. 5 of the 6 clients have called me for EVERY computer job since, most of the clients have referred me to other clients. All and all that first day of cold calls lead to at least $2500 in business.)
- If you choose self employment, make sure to deliver excellent service and practice your sales skills. Toastmasters International(www.toastmasters.org) training and Geoffry Gitomer's books/newsletter (www.gitomer.com) are a god send.
- If you decide you want to work for someone else (I miss having coworkers sometimes...) then building your own business will look way better than working at a call center.
If none of these ideas work, then consider doing an unpaid internship doing the work you want to do. You might want to combine the internship with a masters degree... That worked incredibly well for one of my friends.

Giant Microwave Turns Plastic Back to Oil 555

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday June 27, 2007 @11:58PM from the but-how-is-it-on-popcorn dept.

An anonymous reader writes "From the newscientist article: "Key to GRC's process is a machine that uses 1200 different frequencies within the microwave range, which act on specific hydrocarbon materials. As the material is zapped at the appropriate wavelength, part of the hydrocarbons that make up the plastic and rubber in the material are broken down into diesel oil and combustible gas.""

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