Random laptop offshoot... Whenever I put my laptop down, I always put it on it's side... fan unblocked, bottom not insulated, V shape fairly stable, easier to pick back up. Always just seemed the most logical way to place it. Not saying this is terribly unique... but always surprised by how many (mostly non-tech) people seemed disturbed by it... oh well. -j

So, Gore in 2000, apathy 2004 to crackpot 2008 ... the voting record does show a clear progression seems the current state is Troll 2012. Good luck with that.

Can you explain the change in your views that moved you from each individual vote ? What did Kerry lack that Gore gave you ? From that middle ground of maybe just not voting cause your state wasn't contested... why then Ron Paul ? I don't dislike him... agree with some of his viewpoints even, but he is both out of sync with how things work today (the gold standard will never return... not saying we should have left, but the idea to go back is not feasible) and with the platform of the party of which he's a member.

So... please explain your political preferences in detail... I'm sure your 'friends' are not so much embarrassed by their politics... but your response is so predictable they just are taking the high road and not shouting things out with you.

Best of luck with the Troll 2016 Conf... might be time for Rand to ascend by that point.

I too agree with the height adjustable option. They're a little more expensive, but the ability to go from sit to stand or anywhere in between gives you a good deal of flexibility. More so than just a sit/stand option... but a "I'd like this just a tiny bit lower" distraction eliminator. I'd had a fixed desk that was just about 6" too tall for 10yrs or so... when it was finally time to buy a nice desk, that experience (and the general feeling that I would at some point be annoyed by the height of any fixed desk) made the adjustable feature a must have. I ended up going with geekdesk & would gladly buy from them again (quality + cheapest adjustable option I could find). I don't do sit/stand work & don't even adjust it all that often... but always pleased to have it as an option when I want to change things up.

I'll agree to stop hating them for 2-4yrs if they produce a consumer version (less than $200) of their laser mosquito killer... every year they don't though my offer decreases in span of hate absolution by six months finally settling at a max of 2yrs. -j

That sounds like the best option to me too. Servers first, workstations as space allows (if you have more time than space you can pull the drives on the workstations to optimize storage). Screw the networking gear & the ip phones... but backup any config that may be associated with the devices. Also... take plenty of pictures of all the stuff, especially that being left behind. As for how to pack... if you don't have much supplies I'd try and store the machines/drives vertically to better deal with the truck ride (no data to back this up, just seems like they'd be less likely to have the drive heads tapping the disk platters that way).

-j

ding ding. more or less what I came here to say and what other comments seem to reflect. headphones might not stand up against non-distracting sounds or silence... and if they're piping in pop music for tests i'm sure they might reduce your random number recall. but on a whole it's a study that doesn't reflect something a number of us have experienced to be true... if you want to deeply concentrate on something (writing code, or something else that often benefits from extreme focus)... tuning out one sense of the world around you with headphones - even if it's by blaring NIN - is better than the random whispers of conversations around you breaking your attention span. it's a moving target... no stimuli in an isolation tank, hallucinations; too much stimuli... seizure or ptsd (depending)... just right minus sound - some code that might require slightly less tweaking down the line (but probably some ptsd too).

-j

it's 26^7 which is billions, not 10^7 (which 10mil, not the 1 mil written).

at least they didn't make it so that it could be read outside. imagine the economic destruction then.

I do home tech support for someone who works at what I assume is the same northeast hospital & was asked about this.

Requiring full disk encryption or anything that's on or connecting directly to the network seems reasonable for all the reasons stated above; it's their network, they have compliance obligations to meet & systems to protect, etc.

The part that gets me is the request to encrypt or install stuff on any machine connecting to webmail - seems to be a reaching a bit. If said hospital wants to provide webmail it's their choice, fair to assume they do it for their own goals of getting more out of their employees. If they're willing to lose the productivity... turn it off. Attempting to impose security requirements on end user machines for a web application is a fool's errand, you'll never get 100% absolute perfect security & you're gonna piss a lot of people off trying. Secure the web app as much as you want, but that's where your control ends.

-j

c'mon... no trailing slash ? kids today.

No doubt the same thing is going to happen with Starcraft 2. Then we'll get to see it - South Korea will declare war on Blizzard! Talk about breaking boundaries.

As for ubisoft... think they'll decide to keep the new drm or not based on the outcome of the class action lawsuit that should be filed in 3...2...

Baby procurement and liquidation is a costly and problematic endeavor to say the least.

You should stick with renewable resources you have at hand, maybe just use baby batter ?

How about just having the mouse over the password field causing plain text to be shown (maybe with a delay) ... mouse outside = dots.

It's only annoying when X login failures results in your account being locked & you're stuck wondering if you had a typo in your dots. Would';t mind a countdown on that too ( you have # more chances before you;re locked out for 24hrs ).

-J