bamto - Slashdot User

Balancing Performance and Convention 171

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday January 03, 2009 @11:48AM from the delaying-the-problem dept.

markmcb writes "My development team was recently brainstorming over finding a practical solution to the problem that's haunted anyone who's ever used a framework: convention vs. customization. We specifically use Rails, and like most frameworks, it's great for 95% of our situations, but it's creating big bottlenecks for the other 5%. Our biggest worry isn't necessarily that we don't know how to customize, but rather that we won't have the resources to maintain customized code going forward; it's quite simple to update Rails as it matures versus the alternative. What have your experiences been with this problem? Have you found any best practices to avoid digging custom holes you can't climb out of?"

Should You Break TOS Because Work Asks You? 680

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday October 27, 2008 @09:13AM from the just-don't-crawl-this-domain-please dept.

An anonymous reader writes "My boss recently assigned me a project that was all his idea, with two basic flaws that would require me to break multiple web sites' Terms of Service (TOS). Part requires scraping most of the site, parsing the data and presenting it as our own without human intervention. While we're safe on copyright issues, clearly scraping like this is normally not allowed. At times it might also put a load on those sites. The other is, for lack of better words, a 'load balancing' part that requires using multiple free accounts instead of purchasing space and CPU time for less than $2,000 USD per month. The boss sees it as 'distributed' computing when in reality it's 'parasitic.' My question is: am I wrong about the ethics? If I do need to walk, how best can I handle it without damaging my reputation and future employment opportunities?"

Heat Wave Shuts Down Alabama Reactor 401

Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday August 18, 2007 @11:05AM from the weathering-the-heat dept.

mdsolar writes "In a first for the US, one of three nuclear reactors at the Browns Ferry nuclear plant in Alabama has been shut down because the Tennessee River is too hot to provide adequate cooling for the waste heat produced by the reactor. This is happening as the TVA faces its highest demand for power ever, reports the Houston Chronicle. This effect has been seen in Europe in the past, forcing reduced generation, but the US has until now been immune to the problem. The TVA will buy power elsewhere and impose higher rates, blaming reduced river flow as a result of drought."

Mars Rover Spirit Down a Wheel 272

Posted by Zonk on Saturday March 18, 2006 @11:37PM from the little-rover-that-could dept.

riflemann writes "NASA is reporting that two years into its 90-day mission, Spirit has lost one wheel and is now running on five wheels, dragging the broken wheel. With this reduced mobiity, the rover still needs to make its way to a slope where it can catch enough sun over the Martian winter to keep it operating. 'Even though the rovers are well past their original design life, they still have plenty of capability to conduct outstanding science on Mars.', says project leader Dr. John Callas."

Comment Re:Larry deserves an award however..... (Score 1) 137

by bamto on Wednesday February 06, 2002 @08:17PM (#2964759) Attached to: Perl Foundation Awards Perl Development Grant to Larry Wall

Perhaps a project manager's perspective of his staff (especially staff so gregarious and careful to please his sponsors as Damian) is not the most unbiased either? :) It has been years since I was a grad student - but I never would have gone so far to call Damian disingenuous and certainly not greedy. Rather I would repeat that he is focused on himself. Whether that is to the detriment of Perl 6 not mine to state.

I absolutely agree with the cheerleader aspect - but do not understand why Perl needs cheerleaders. Do we really need someone to show us Perl is still a vibrant and fun language? Please - we know that already! It is fun watching one of Damian's wonderful lectures - no one derives more pleasure from them then he does!! But so far I chose not to contribute a second time to a fund that sponsors him. I just do not believe we need someone doing 'that kind of stuff' for yet another year.

The obvious counter argument is 'things are a changing in Perl - we need a cheerleader to support 6.' I do not accept this - everyone is waiting for Perl 6 with such baited breath we all smell like a tackle shop!!

As far as all the unsung work Damian has done - clearly I cannot comment because it is deliberately unpublicized. It sounds like it is incredibly important to the delivery of 6. Why is it deliberately unpublicized? It does not sound like the Damian I know (and love) to do a bunch of valuable work and keep it to himself. If it really does exist, can it perhaps be publicized? If it were my tune (and probably the tunes of others) would change.

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