Comment Newspeak makes it easier for computers to write... (Score 3, Funny) 101

by mrroot on Saturday May 12, 2012 @10:44AM (#39978731) Attached to: Could a Computer Write This Story?

Automated story writing will be easier once the next updated version of the newspeak dictionary is released. Unfortunately I am a doubleplusungood newspeaker, but at least computer written stories will help me avoid crimethink.

Comment Try this: Vitamin D (Score 1) 347

by mrroot on Thursday November 25, 2010 @09:18PM (#34346722) Attached to: Anxiety and IT?

Get checked for a Vitamin D deficiency. Your doctor can do that with a blood test. If your doctor doesn't think it is worth doing this test, find another doctor.

Most people who work in an office all day have low Vitamin D and will benefit from taking a supplement. You don't need a prescription for it (at least not in the US) so you can just walk in and pick it up in the vitamin aisle at the grocery or wherever. Get the ones that are liquid gels as I have heard they are better. I take a Vitamin D supplement twice a day and have noticed vast improvements in feeling more healthy (in general) and being less prone to anxiety and depression (I used to be).

I don't know for sure if all of this is due to taking Vitamin D, but I believe it to be. It is such an easy thing to try and low risk (ask your doctor about it), so why not try it?

And if all of that doesn't work then find another job. Seriously, your time is too important to spend it being miserable.

Good luck.

"Bridge To Microsoft" Gets Federal Stimulus Funds 343

Posted by kdawson on Sunday March 15, 2009 @03:44PM from the them-as-has dept.

theodp writes "Among the first to benefit from the investment in roads and bridges from Obama's stimulus plan is Microsoft, which has $20B in the bank. Local planners have allotted $11M to help pay for a highway overpass to connect one part of Microsoft's wooded campus with another. Microsoft will contribute almost half of the $36.5M cost; other federal and local money will pay the rest. 'Steve Ballmer or Bill Gates could finance this out of pocket change,' griped Steve Ellis of the Taxpayers for Common Sense. 'Subsidizing an overpass to one of the richest companies in the country certainly isn't going to be the best use of our precious dollars.' Ellis called the project 'a bridge to Microsoft,' alluding to Alaska's infamous 'Bridge to Nowhere.'" A White House spokesman said this bridge project is still under review.

Comment 2009 is the Year of Linux on the Desktop (Score 2, Funny) 904

by mrroot on Monday March 09, 2009 @09:29PM (#27129375) Attached to: Locking Down Linux Desktops In an Enterprise?

I'm glad this question came up. I read somewhere that 2009 was going to be the year of Linux on the desktop.

24x DVD Burners Hit the Market 140

Posted by timothy on Sunday March 08, 2009 @07:31PM from the break-the-news-gently-to-your-cd-r-drive dept.

KingofGnG writes "There is some uncertainty on which will be the one, between Sony Optiarc and Lite-On, to market the first drive of such kind, but the fact is that DVD burners will once again exceed the maximum write speed limit going from 22x to 24x. Both companies will release the new optical drives between March and May, and though in practice the speed difference isn't amazing at all, the new breakthrough shows that firms continue to invest in a technology with a surprisingly long life."

Comment They didn't know who they were competing with (Score 4, Insightful) 600

by mrroot on Sunday March 08, 2009 @05:06PM (#27114519) Attached to: The Last Will and Testament of Circuit City

I really think their biggest problem is the whole time they thought they were competing with Best Buy, but they were really competing with Target, Walmart, and online retailers like Newegg, Buy.com, and TigerDirect. Best Buy should try to learn from their demise.

The Last Will and Testament of Circuit City 600

Posted by timothy on Sunday March 08, 2009 @04:40PM from the oh-the-huge-manatee dept.

Harry writes "Sunday is the final day of business for Circuit City, the once-dominant national consumer electronics chain done in by the rise of Best Buy, the crummy economy, and multiple failings of its own. I paid a final visit of respect to my local store, and found that they'd gotten rid of just about all the unopened electronics products, and were therefore selling off stuff like broken computers and the toilet-paper dispenser from the restroom. Whether or not you were ever a fan, it was a sad scene." NPR has a segment on the end of the Circuit City era as well.

Comment The IT Solution - More Redundancy (Score 1) 242

by mrroot on Wednesday February 11, 2009 @05:54PM (#26819595) Attached to: The Tech Behind Preventing Airplane Bird Strikes

You just need more redundancy. Two engines is not enough redundancy to protect against a double bird strike, but four would have been, right?

I suppose cost could be a factor. Depending on what the airlines consider the value of a human life to be would determine whether this is feasible for them. It comes down to how many 9s the airlines are willing to accept and what they will pay for that "uptime" of their engines.

Comment Answer: use virtual machines (Score 1) 136

by mrroot on Friday November 21, 2008 @05:09PM (#25850911) Attached to: Setting Up a Home Dev/Testing Environment?

Don't use your old PCs because they are worthless. Just donate, recycle, or sell them because it will be a major headache to install the OS, software, and keep them updated. Use VMWare player or Virtual PC (I use both of them) and you can download pre-built images. And one more benefit... using virtual machines will keep your electric bill lower than a bunch of old PCs.

Comment Re:The girls are smarter (Score 1) 1563

by mrroot on Tuesday November 18, 2008 @01:19PM (#25803785) Attached to: Why the Widening Gender Gap In Computer Science?

In terms of money, that seems to be true.

I've recently read a Groklaw article that mentioned a salary dispute between two lawyers. Both claimed to usually charge $400 per hour. AFAIK even highly sought after IT consultants rarely get away with that kind of fees.

Maybe you haven't used a lawyer before. My lawyer bills at $200 per hour, but bills his time down to the minute, so its not like in IT where you might bill out for 8+hour days over a long period of time. Also, with lawyers a lot of the mundane work gets farmed out to paralegals who bill lower. So it's not like the lawyer makes $400 an hour, 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year.