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Comment Re:Accountability (Score 1) 1018

Oh that's an easy one!

1. The programer gets fired
2. The manager will "start a full and thorough investigation"
3a) The manager finds out that it was a programing error:
                        I) The manager tells upper management that "he already dealt with the problem and that person is gone".
3b) It was a design spec issue/other problem
                        I) The manager tells upper management that "it was a design issue" and that "he already dealt with the problem and that person is gone".
4) And if the manager hasn't resigned yet, he is still at the company making big bucks.

TLDR version: The manager rarely loses his job over such things.

Comment Re:They Did Not 'Look At The Options' (Score 1) 105

No no no! They didn't say Windows was the only vendor, but replacing Windows with another OS (Linux in this case) isn't feasible.

The cost to renew a contract with Microsoft is only the cost of the contract, the cost to change to Linux would be way higher, since you have to replace your whole application platform, teach the users how to use Linux and all the new apps, teach the techies the ins and outs of Linux etc. etc. etc.

This isn't so easy as just installing a new operation system and be done with it. That's why Windows is currently the only solution until they get the money to replace the whole platform. But try to explain that to the Bundesrat (the federal council of Switzerland) and the swiss parliament.

And btw, if you are Swiss and it means so much to you, you can always start an initiative, but I want to see how you explain the higher cost to the swiss people and why they sould bother.

In the end the Swiss government is right: At the moment there is no competitor, as bad as it is, and they won't be able to explain to anybody (except geeks of course) why they should spend so much more money. In the end I'm sure you could save money, but try to explain that to people who first plan to build two tunnels through the same mountain and in the middle decide to abandon one because "it's too expensive" (they soon *have* to finish the second one because traffic is so bad, but now it will cost way more).

AMD

Submission + - Why AMD Could Win Coming Visual Computing Battle (pcper.com)

Vigile writes: "The past week has been rampant with discussion on the new war that is brewing between NVIDIA and Intel but there was one big player left out of the story: AMD. It would seem that both sides seem to have written this competitor off but PC Perspective thinks quite the opposite. Yes the company is having financial difficulties but AMD already has the technologies that both NVIDIA and Intel are striving to build or acquire: mainstream CPU, competitive GPU, high quality IGP solutions and technology for hybrid processing. This article postulates that both Intel and NVIDIA are overlooking a still-competitive opponent which could turn out to be a drastic mistake."
Music

Submission + - How do you find new non-RIAA music? 4

burgundysizzle writes: Hey this is /. (almost) everyone hates the RIAA and a lot of people say that they don't buy anything from the companies that are part of that trade group. What alternatives do you use or more importantly what methods do you use to discover alternative sources of music?

I use http://www.sellaband.com/ (some free legal music available) and http://www.amiestreet.com/ (new music is free and most music really cheap) to find new music, but I'm always on the lookout for new and interesting places to discover new music. Tell me about your experiences and any other interesting places you get new music from (that's inexpensive and legal).
Announcements

Submission + - Fran Allen becomes first woman to win Turing award

shoemortgage writes: "The Association for Computing Machinery, has named Frances E. Allen the recipient of the 2006 A.M. Turing Award for contributions that fundamentally improved the performance of computer programs in solving problems, and accelerated the use of high performance computing. This award marks the first time that a woman has received this honour."
Security

Scientists Make Quantum Encryption Breakthrough 156

Madas writes "Scientists working in Cambridge have managed to make quantum encryption completely secure (registration required) by putting decoy pulses in the key transmission stream. According to the story this paves the way for safe, encrypted high-speed data links. Could this allow completely private transmission of data away from snooping eyes and ears? Or will it mean film studios can stop movies from being copied when traveling on the internet?"
It's funny.  Laugh.

SETI Finally Finds Something 416

QuatumCrypto writes "SETI@home is a distributed processing client from UC Berkeley that installs on the volunteers' home computers and harnesses their processing power in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. So far nothing noteworthy has comeout of this massive project... that is until today! One of the volunteers was able to track down his wife's stolen laptop using the IP address that SETI@home client reports back to the server. After getting back the laptop his wife said, 'I always knew that a geek would make a great husband.'"

Oracle to Compete With Red Hat for Linux Support 221

PCM2 writes "It's not Oracle Linux, but Larry Ellison has announced that Oracle will be providing full enterprise support for Linux. This means not just phone calls but also patches, security fixes, and backports, in addition to indemnification from lawsuits like SCO's. This puts Oracle in direct competition with its erstwhile partner, Red Hat, whose entire business is based on providing similar support for its Linux distro and related software."

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