Comment Re:It's quite clear what the reason is (Score 1) 774
Well, you know what they say "4004 is the new 3929"
Comment Re:maybe (Score 1) 579
3rd option is that perhaps they were traveling through the galaxy, looking for some takeout. Their buddies, getting tired of the normal fair, decide to see how tasty humans are.
I've known folks to travel an hour or so to get to a good restaurant. So a short trip to another galaxy for a quick meal probably wouldn't be a problem for them.
Journal Journal: visible progress in the kitchen project
Hooooooo-kay. we're having some fun now!
cabinets are all sanded down, stained, and varnished. countertops with oak reveal bevel on the edges are built and installed. got the sink cut in and the water and sewer redone. dishwasher drain leak is fixed and it goes in tonight. the drawer fronts, all 21 of them, are cut from red oak and fitted, the staining and varnishing is done, and the interiors are to be painted this week. augmented wiring is fully done, and the tile backsplash is
Submission + - Adventuresome or "hands on" tech careers?
omission9 writes: For about 10 years I have worked mostly behind a desk in a cubicle and am starting
to feel that this environment is making me miserable. The cheap fluorescent lights,
the stuffy air, and the restless feeling I get from just sitting so long are starting to
really annoy me.
My background is mainly as a programmer but I started my career as a network engineer/network
administrator. I am also a member of the US Naval Reserve and am cleared as high as Top Secret.
Are there any jobs out there that match this sort of skill set(more or less programmer but generally excellent
tech skills) that don't require being stuck behind a desk? Paying relatively well would be a major plus
as would something that provides a solid career(20+ years of work).
Anyone out there in /. land that is reading this from anywhere other than a cube farm
that may have some advice?
Feed Comic: Les Mots Dangereux (penny-arcade.com)
Les Mots Dangereux
Submission + - Benefits of Windows User Access Control
Abtin Forouzandeh writes: "Having used Vista for a few months, something keeps nagging me about windows user account control. For UAC to be useful, the user needs to have a fair amount of knowledge about a) what UAC is, b) what application its blocking, c) the consequences of blocking the action, and d) an alternate approach if the blocked action did something useful. Anyone who has ever worked with end-users can tell you that they are generally disinterested in learning anything about computer usage beyond how to use word and make a spreadsheet. Frankly, even as a highly technical user, I nearly always approve the UAC dialog even if I don't know the consequences. Since users lack knowledge, and Vista keeps asking esoteric/ambiguous questions, then users will always approve UAC dialogs.
So my question is, since UAC so clearly fails in its goal of making computing more secure, and substantially increases complexity, why is it common wisdom that turning off UAC is "not recommended"? For 99% of users, is there any true downside? Or has the community come up with ways to make UAC useful?"
So my question is, since UAC so clearly fails in its goal of making computing more secure, and substantially increases complexity, why is it common wisdom that turning off UAC is "not recommended"? For 99% of users, is there any true downside? Or has the community come up with ways to make UAC useful?"
Bookmark Americans Hate Their Jobs More Than Ever (livescience.com)
Apple May Be Re-Entering the Sub-Notebook Market 281
An anonymous reader writes "AppleInsider is reporting that Apple has plans to reenter the sub-notebook market this year. The project, the article states, should be unveiled around the time of WWDC (summer). Drawing parallels to the legendary PowerBook 2400, the sub-notebook will offer some of the best elements of old and new. With a small footprint, light weight, and manageable screen it will fill a niche not currently occupied by any Apple hardware. At the same time, it will offer some new technologies that the current crop of computers do not: 'The new MacBook model is expected to introduce some features not yet available with Apple's existing notebook offerings, such as onboard NAND flash. Plans reportedly call for the notebook to be the first of the company's MacBook offerings to utilize the solid-state memory in order to improve power efficiency and facilitate near instantaneous boot times. This feature, however, had not been frozen upon last check.' Apple hopes this micro-notebook will capture interest both here in the states and in Japan, where the appeal of small consumer electronics may offset the current weak computer market."
Submission + - Silicon Valley, follow the money
mrspin writes: "This week the The New York Times sparked a lively debate, after it published an article which argued that when it comes to creating innovative technology, geography still matters — and that Silicon Valley is the place to be. And it's certainly true that Silicon Valley, compared with other innovation hot-spots, has the much needed Venture Capital and the connections that enable money to flow from one new company to another. Want proof? ZDNet takes a look at LinkSViewer, a new web-based visual networking tool for exploring capital relationships in Silicon Valley."
Submission + - Apple TV to be a centrally controlled P2P network?
Rolgar writes: This week, Bob Cringely states that since the Apple TV will be an always on device (unless you unplug it) with a 40GB hard drive, Apple will distribute content to Apple TVs for every ISP, and then use centrally controlled P2P sharing on those Apple TVs to distribute the content to the rest of the owners of the Apple TV, cutting their own bandwidth costs and providing video faster to the consumers. The ISPs will incur higher (essentially free) bandwidth locally, possibly lose some subscribers to cable TV, but have fewer costs through the Tier II Internet backbone providers, which I suspect would possibly undercut the Apple and Google's need to worry about net neutrality for video. Bob also expects that Google will be involved with their fiber network and advertising expertise, and I suspect that they'll bundle in YouTube content as well and maybe Google has worked out a way to distribute YouTube video to PCs through this network. Bob suspects that they won't get around to announcing the full details of this plan until they hit a half million units or more, and that this Apple and Google pairing will become the equivalent of a cable TV provider with almost none of the infrastructure costs, and that eventually the real HD revolution will come from Apple and Google.
Journal Journal: After x years here, that's still a first for me! 1
Whoa, I just got the first logged-in post on a poll! (Just missed true FP, too!) I don't think I've ever remotely gotten close before -- although since the poll that produced a 900+ post flamewar about onions, including apparently sincere accusations of Vidalia astroturfing, I've mostly ignored them entirely.
Journal SPAM: 183.5 RPG, MMORPG and FPS 3
I'm playing Neverwinter Nights at home, in the odd hours that I don't have prior commitments to spouse, kids, chores, projects, other hobbies etc.
The discussion about RPGs and the standard model (start weak, kill minor beasties, level up) is interesting. I played Diablo through a couple of times, once as a fighter, once as a wizard. Different challenge, different strategies.
Submission + - Bionic eye could restore vision
MattSparkes writes: "A new bionic eye could restore vision to the profoundly blind. A prototype was tested on six patients and "within a few weeks all could detect light, identify objects and even perceive motion again. For one patient, this was the first time he had seen anything in half a century." The user wears a pair of glasses that contain a miniature camera and that wirelessly transmits video to a cellphone-sized computer in the wearer's pocket. This computer processes the image information and wirelessly transmits it to a tiny electronic receiver implanted in the wearer's head."
Drive-By Pharming Attack Could Hit Home Networks 185
Rob wrote in with a link to a CBR Online article discussing drive-by pharming, a new exploitation technique developed by Indiana University and Symantec Corporation. While it's not known if the technique is in use 'in the wild', the exploit could easily co-opt the web-browsing habits of a user that had not properly configured their router. "The attack works because most of the popular home routers ship with default passwords, default internal IP address ranges, and web-based configuration interfaces. The exploit is a single line of JavaScript loaded with a default router IP address, a default password, and an HTTP query designed to reconfigure the router to use the attacker's DNS servers." The article goes on to discuss several related and more advanced techniques related to this one, which security companies will have to keep in mind to guard against future attacks.
Over 27% of Firefox Patches Come from Volunteers 107
dolphinling writes "Everyone is aware that the Mozilla Corporation makes some money, and employs some people now. Google has full-time employees working on Firefox too, as do a number of other places. Yet despite that, in the six months up to Firefox 2 some 27% of the patches to Firefox were submitted by key volunteers, and those patches represent 24% of changes made to the source code. What's more, those numbers only counted contributers with 50 patches or more, so the actual numbers are probably quite a bit higher. It's good to see that even as Mozilla does so well in the business world, it can still keep its ties to the community so strong." They were running these number to find out who they need to start offering support to. So: contribute to Firefox, and you know you'll get a hand up. Nice work, folks.
