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Submission + - The real reasons companies won't hire telecommuters

Esther Schindler writes: Those of us who telecommute cannot quite fathom the reasons companies give for refusing to let people work from home. But even if you don't agree with their decision, they do have reasons — and not all of them are, "Because we like to be idiots." In 5 reasons why the company you want to work for won’t hire telecommuters, hiring managers share their sincere reasons to insist you work in the office—and a few tips for how you might convince them otherwise.

Submission + - Carriers Won't Win the War on Netflix

Nemo the Magnificent writes: A few days ago we talked over a post by David Raphael accusing Verizon of slowing down Netflix, by way of throttling Amazon AWS. Now Jonathan Feldman gives us reason to believe that the carriers won't win the war on Netflix, because tools for monitoring the performance of carriers will emerge nd we'll catch them if they try. I just now exercised one such tool, NetNeutralityTest.com from Speedchedker Ltd. My carrier is Verizon (FiOS), and the test showed my download speed at the moment to be 12 Mbps. It was the same to Linode in NJ but only 3 Mbps to AWS East. Hmm.

Submission + - Blowing up a pointless job interview

Nemo the Magnificent writes: Ever been asked a question in a job interview that's just so abysmally stupid, you're tempted to give in to the snark and blow the whole thing up? Here are suggested interview-ending answers to 16 of the stupidest questions candidates actually got asked in interviews at tech companies in 2013, according to employment site Glassdoor. Oil to pour on the burning bridges.

Comment But the entertainment value is so high... (Score 1) 388

I have the exact same problem. I kept receiving divorce papers from a clueless attorney who just started using email. He was so proud of himself, sending to the wrong address! I sent him THREE emails telling him he had the WRONG address, and the private legal docs just kept coming. Apparently email is just for sending, not for reading. Finally I emailed the cc'd folks, telling them how sorry I was that they were getting divorced, that it's the children who suffer most, and would they please tell their attorney to stop sending me their legal docs? They were really angry at me of course, because they thought I somehow did this on purpose. A couple more rounds of this (lawyer forwarding incorrectly, me cc'ing everyone and commenting with my own opinion) and I presume the lawyer either fixed his problem or they got another attorney, because the messages finally stopped. A couple of months ago I received a lovely form from the ATF (IIRC) about an internship I'd apparently been approved for on the opposite side the country. They needed the forms for the higher level background check. I'm sure my initial namesake would have been upset if I'd filled out the forms with "fun facts". Instead I did the right thing and let the ATF know they had the wrong email address. I guess I'm not haxor material.

Comment Just change the self-identifier. It's really simp (Score 1) 488

Instead of self-identifying as "hacker", just declare yourself one of these: 1. snacker 2. slacker 3. horcher 4. smacker 5. quacker 6. cracker - oh wait, not this one - it's both criminal AND racist! Then again, it might work... 7. fracker 8. Haquer (did you see what I did there?) 9. whacker 10. wanker 11. International Jewel Thief Spastic Mutant

Comment In the HR department nobody can tell your work is (Score 2) 480

The main retort is to challenge the assertion and offer to answer low-level detailed questions about the design and the code. His main defense will be to claim the software is "confidential" so he doesn't have to talk about it in-depth. It is up to the interviewer to decide who s/he is more comfortable hiring. I once had the pure luxury of reading a resume from a contractor whom I had worked with briefly at a previous company. His resume took credit for MY WORK. Because the code is at the old place there was no way to check the source. I showed that resume to my coworkers, many of whom worked with me previously on that same project, and they all agreed emphatically that this guy totally lied. The result was his resume got a giant DO NOT HIRE mark, he was never interviewed, and of course he never worked with us again. But I'm sure subsequent places very likely hired him on the basis of MY WORK. Getting back to my point, there is absolutely no way he could have described my work in the same detail that I could, so though I can't prevent him from using my work to get contract gigs, if it ever comes up I can certainly go into extremely low level gory detail on every aspect, enough I think to convince anybody that this guy is a poser and I'm not. The reality is in the contracting world though that this guy will live and die by his reputation. I guarantee if I ever see him again I will remember his deceit, and will make every effort to block him from being hired. And will be happy to tell anyone calling for an outside reference what to look for on the resume, and if it's there, refute its accuracy. At that point the hiring manager can decide if anything else is true, and decide accordingly. After all, maybe what their team really needs is a good liar, who knows.

Comment Comics are great! (Score 3, Interesting) 372

I learned to read with comic books as a 3 year old, so these are perfect. Why not take him down to a comics store and let him choose a few for himself? He's 3. He'll spot what he likes immediately. You can then mix in a few of your old time favorites. Naturally these comics will form the basis of his over-idealized belief system, so be careful to balance it out with regular age appropriate reading material. Otherwise, you may see him jump off the roof one day, or try to pick up a car. If he starts swinging from the rafters, hold on - you've really got something there... My favorites were Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Batman, Black Canary, Hawkman, Superman, Archie (with Betty, Veronica, Jughead, etc.), and all the Justice League stuff. No wonder the world is so confusing to me now.

Comment Re:Both can be equally bad (Score 1) 403

I agree, based on my personal experiences. At previous companies I have had two female managers that totally sucked ass, and one that was just fine, thank you (she called in rich, oh well...). I also have had 2 female directors, both of which were predatory sharks getting ahead by bringing others down; I see few examples of women succeeding in technology without having to be cutthroat. Luckily I got out of their ways and was only marginally impacted by their paths of destruction. But I was not one of their favorites, so I took some damage before heading out the door. I have also had 3 male managers who were excellent, and 2 that were terrible, as well. So I would have to say it's a wash. I do agree that female managers do seem to take issues more personally, though. And those female sucky directors were famous for playing extreme favorites, to the point that one of them screwed over half the group to give her handful of favorites massive bonuses. It was blatant, and most of us non-favorites moved along very quickly. BTW, I'm a female engineer, with 15+ years experience. I work primarily in kernel space, and am currently employed in the field of I/O virtualization. I currently have a male boss - actually, I'm the only female in my group; all of the managers I've had have been male at my company, but this is a good company so I haven't had any major issues. So far.
Science

Submission + - Emergent Gravity Disproved (technologyreview.com)

kdawson writes: "A paper up on the ArXiv claims to disprove the gravity-from-entropy theory of Erik Verlinde, which we discussed soon after he introduced the idea in a symposium late in 2009. Archil Kobakhidze says that experiments measuring the effect of gravity on quantum particles (neutrons in this case) match results expected from classical Newtonian gravity, not Verlindian entropic gravity. Here is Kobakhidze's paper (PDF)."
Government

Submission + - Court overturns Mass law banning recording of cops (universalhub.com) 1

schwit1 writes: In its ruling, which lets Simon Glik continue his lawsuit, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston said the wiretapping statute under which Glik was arrested and the seizure of his phone violated his First and Fourth Amendment rights.

Comment Re:Oink Oink Oink (Score 1) 104

That's a better idea- let the US unemployment rate skyrocket and let the US default on its debt so it can continue to lead the world in exploring the universe. We'll need a good place to hide from our creditors. Take care of the budget problems now. When the money is there, maybe these pork programs can come back. Until then, spending money on pork programs instead of dealing with the debt and unemployment problems is irresponsible.

Comment Oink Oink Oink (Score 1) 104

More guvmint pork. Let those engineers work in the private sector for a change, so we begin to wean ourselves from H1B visas and get those good-paying jobs to US citizens. The money not spent on this pork can go towards reducing the deficit, or even more interestingly, stimulating american manufacturing to reduce dependence on foreign imports. I'd like to see a DVD player made in the US, for instance, as well as clothing, tools, and every other item packing WalMart.

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