HikingStick - Slashdot User

Submission + - Natural carbon crystals found--harder than diamond (msn.com)

Submitted by

HikingStick

on Tuesday February 02, 2010 @04:00PM

HikingStick writes: "The science desk at MSNBC.com just published a report that a new, naturally occurring form of carbon has been found in a meteorite fragment. From the article:

"researchers were polishing a slice of the carbon-rich Havero meteorite that fell to Earth in Finland in 1971. When they then studied the polished surface they discovered carbon-loaded spots that were raised well above the rest of the surface — suggesting that these areas were harder than the diamonds used in the polishing paste...graphite layers were shocked and heated enough to create bonds between the layers — which is exactly how humans manufacture diamonds, Chen explained.

"Ferroir's team took the next step and put the diamond-resistant crystals under the scrutiny of some very rigorous mineralogical analyzing instruments to learn how its atoms are lined up. That allowed them to confirm that they had, indeed, found a new "phase" or polymorph of crystalline carbon as well as a type of diamond that had been predicted to exist decades ago, but had never been found in nature until now.""

Submission + - Getting rid of staff with high access

Submitted by HikingStick on Thursday May 22, 2008 @11:01AM

HikingStick writes: I've been in the tech field for over 15 years. After more than nine years with the same company, I've been asked to step in and establish an IT department for a regional manufacturing firm. I approached my company early, provding four weeks notice (including a week of pre-scheduled [and pre-approved] vacation time). I have a number of projects to complete, and planned to document some of the obscure bits of knowledge I've gleaned over the past nine years for the benefit of my peers, so I figured that would give me plenty of time.

That was a Friday. On the following Monday, word came down from above that all of my privileged access was to be removed — immediately. So, here I sit, stripped of power with weeks ahead of me. From discussions with my peers in other companies, I know that cutting off high-privilege users is common, but usually in conjunction with a severence offer (to keep their hands off the network during those final weeks, especially if there is any ill-will).

With my privileged access removed, I can neither finish my project work nor even document some of the processes which I had intended to update. My team lead came by this morning (he believes management's decision was a bad call, BTW) to ask about documentation for projects I worked earlier in the year, but that documentation was done months ago. Had I not had a great performance review recently, and such good rapport with management, I might have thought they were doing it to get me to leave earlier than scheduled (perhaps so my benefits would expire at the end of May rather than at the end of June?). In this case, I think they wanted to move towards a best-practices approach (stripping high access from departing employees), but that they forgot to consider the immediate impact on my work team: I was on call this week, I have a dozen open work requests, I cannot process any new requests, and all this newly created slack was dumped onto my teammates before the team lead had time to determine the best way to spread out my workload (one of the reasons I gave them four weeks notice). It's been a rather emasculating experience. They obviously didn't consider the impact on my morale, either (so much for finishing my term just as I began it — running full steam ahead).

What say you? Should I argue for restored access, highlight the fact that I am currently a human paperweight, request a severence package, or simply become the most prolific Slashdot poster over the next few weeks? Does your company have a policy/process for dealing with high privilege users who give notice? What is it, and do you make exceptions?

Submission + - Microsoft $3 bundle: end-run around OpenSource?

Submitted by HikingStick on Thursday April 19, 2007 @10:50AM

HikingStick writes: Microsoft, in a press release today, announced a $3 (USD) software bundle that includes basic editions of Windows, Office, and other MS educational titles. It seems their actions acknowledge a general fear of losing potential markets in the developing world to the open source community.

Through the Partners in Learning program, Microsoft today announced the Microsoft Student Innovation Suite, an affordable and reliable software package for governments purchasing and giving Windows®-based PCs to primary and secondary students for their personal use at home and for schoolwork. The education suite includes Windows XP Starter Edition, Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, Microsoft Math 3.0, Learning Essentials 2.0 for Microsoft Office, and Windows Live(TM) Mail desktop.

Microsoft will offer this suite in the second half of 2007 for $3 (U.S.) to qualifying governments that purchase and supply PCs directly to students.

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