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Comment They have a grandfather clause (Score 2, Informative) 302

by Honor (#21221079) Attached to: Netflix May Already Be Killing Blockbuster?
I've had Blockbuster Total Access since right before they started the in-store exchanges. Which I love, by the way - I get to watch the movies I can't get in store, and when I want to rent a movie last-minute, all I have to do is take the envelope into the store and get any rental for free. They even give out a coupon every month for a free in-store rental - or a free game rental, which is what I always use it on. But anyway... When Blockbuster started limiting the number of in-store rentals, it was for new customers only. I got a nice letter from them saying hey, we are upping our prices, and putting a limit on in-store rentals, but since you already had an account with us, your price doesn't go up and you get to keep your unlimited rentals. So anyway, thats why I like Blockbuster over Netflix, and why the parent poster should have kept his/her account, since it wasn't affected by the new policy.
Slashdot.org

Journal Journal: Moderation System Needs Work

Journal by bronzey214
The best chance of being modded is by posting when the article is fresh with less than 15 or so comments. This needs work. What are your opinions?
Space

NASA Can't Pay for Killer Asteroid Hunt 398

Posted by Hemos from the anyone-raid-the-coffee-fund-money dept.
CGISecurity.com writes "NASA officials say the space agency is capable of finding nearly all the asteroids that might pose a devastating hit to Earth, but there isn't enough money to pay for the task so it won't get done. 'We know what to do, we just don't have the money,' said Simon 'Pete' Worden, director of NASA's Ames Research Center." But hey, it's just the potential end of the world, so nothing much to worry about there.
Space

Journal Journal: Rocketeers Find Large Impact Crater In Nevada 29

Journal by SEWilco
While participating in amateur rocket launches in Black Rock Desert (Burning Man site), Ian Kluft KO6YQ noticed rocks with some oddities. Through the Internet he learned the characteristics of impact craters, then found some clues in photographs and Google Maps. Examining the area he got samples of rock with impact patterns in them and other evidence. Previous geological puzzles in the region are well explained as impact structures. Volunteers are finding peculiarities in satellite imagery
The Courts

Microsoft Attacks Google on Copyright 188

Posted by Hemos from the how-is-blistering-is-blistering dept.
The Microsoft Corporation has prepared a blistering attack on rival Google, arguing that the Web search leader takes a cavalier approach to copyright protection. The attack, such as it were, came from Microsoft's Associate General Counsel who was giving a speech to the Association of American Publishers...who have a copyright lawsuit against Google for the last sixteen months. So, an audience ready to hear about how Bad Google is.
Red Hat Software

Fedora Core 6 Hits 2 Million Installs 71

Posted by Hemos from the grats-2-u dept.
spevack writes "Fedora Core 6 reached 2 million installations on Monday, approximately 4.5 months after its release. This number is based on unique IP addresses that connect back to Fedora's servers for updates, with more detailed discussion on their wiki's statistics page."

MyEclipse 5.1.1 GA Supports Eclipse 3.2.2 & Vi 56

Posted by Hemos from the new-support-coming- dept.
RobK writes "The GA release of MyEclipse 5.1.1 is now available for immediate download and is compatible with Eclipse 3.2.2, Windows Vista. The release also includes an enhanced and professionally supported version of Eclipse WTP 1.5.3 with many MyEclipse improvements and bug fixes, as well as Fully I18N enabled. "
Space

Submission + - Black Holes Discovered as Source of Gamma Rays

Submitted by
eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: "A very recent paper has been published that gives a very sound explanation for the source of gamma rays that permeate our galaxy. Objects like the Milky Way's central supermassive object (Sagittarius A*) are now suspected to be the culprit but since these are widely believed to be a black holes, little is known and skepticism is high that even gamma radiation could escape them. All that has been observed is gamma rays seem to coming from black holes. To test this theory, two scientists created a computer model and found that intense gravity near the event horizon caused protons to fling outward at near light speeds where some would randomly make it beyond 10 light years of the black hole after thousands of years. Once they are sufficiently far away, these super high-energy protons would collide with low-energy protons to form pions which decay into gamma radiation emanating in all directions from the collision. If their simulation holds to be accurate and survives the skepticism of the community, the source of some gamma rays that were believed to all be remnants of the big bang could instead be signals from just outside black holes. Not only does a rapidly rotating Wolf-Rayet star collapsing into a black hole cause narrow streams of gamma radiation but apparently they continue to emit them long after their formation."
Linux Business

Submission + - Helping Dell to Help Open Source

Submitted by
Glyn Moody
Glyn Moody writes: "Dell's IdeaStorm is turning into a fiasco — for Dell, and for open source too. Instead of just shouting at the company to sell pre-installed GNU/Linux systems, how about helping them find a way to do it? Here's a suggestion that I've posted on the same site, about setting up an independent business unit for GNU/Linux systems, just like The Innovator's Dilemma tells us to do when faced by a disruptive technology. So, what do people think?"
Programming

Submission + - What's it like for a developer to go into sales?

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: I've worked for a single, very large technology company since graduating from college in '89. My degree is in Computer Science, and I wrote everything from embedded machine code for big iron to applications with Smalltalk. I'm still in development, but since'99 my programming tasks have been replaced by project management, some customer-facing work (technical-ish presentations, demonstrations, training, etc), helping our marketing people position my team's work, and other things that programmers generally don't like to do.

I find that I enjoy the broad, technical perspective that comes from working in the field, and I'm thinking about moving out of development and into technical sales. Moreover, I've interviewed several techies in my company who are now in sales and all tell them they love it. Several have reported that a techie can make more money in sales. But I have several reservations: I am an introvert and a full day of face-time can really sap my energy, many sales people I've worked with are "sharks" (which I simply cannot be), and I don't like the idea of putting part of my salary at-risk.

Are you a former developer who went into sales? If so, what were your experiences like from a professional and personal perspective? What advise would you give to a developer considering a new career in sales?

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