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Comment Re: Elbow bumps? (Score 1) 213

Being a long term fan of science fiction, including Star Trek, Star Wars, and lots of "fictions" of the written word, I'm was quite attracted to using the Vulcan Salute from almost two months ago. A great mash up reply is "may your health be with you" in the solemn tone of a Jedi Master. A nifty image can be found at https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2FGilbertsHub...

Comment Save money and hire the cheapest developers (Score 1) 335

For decades I have been aware that companies keep hiring new developers fresh out of college that work hard, are productive in the lines of code they write, maybe meet deadlines, and keep making mistakes experienced workers gave up on decades ago. This year's budget doesn't care about expenses several years from now.

Comment Re:Bouncy-Bouncy—debouncy (Score 1) 529

Excessive contact bounce or circuit ring is the first thing I thought of. Software, and likely hardware, likely copes with "normal" amounts of it.

If I hadn't seen some prior driver code testing "not ready" twice in a row I may have never solved the problem for a driver I was working on.

if ( ! device_ready(device) && ! device_ready(device) ) throw xxx:not_ready("device not ready");

Comment Re:Why I thought... (Score 1) 359

The difference between Roddenberry trying for serious science fiction with a better future and Lucas writing space opera. When Start Trek first came out I was to young to understand and grew deeper into it later. When Star Wars first came out my opinion was low-grade science fiction but fantastic, well crafted and executed, cinema. Looked at them differently while enjoying them both.

Use the force, Spock. Live long and prosper, Luke.

Comment Searching for unused domain names securly (Score 1) 295

Before you can register you need to find an unused name. The best way I know of for searching for unused domain names is to use the V3hois "Domain List" service at http://www.v3whois.com/domain-list.

The beauty here is you see all similar registered names which allows you to spot unused names. Also the names you are search for are never on the Internet so domain-name squatters never get a hint of what you are searching for no matter how they monitor DNS look-ups.

Comment Science is waiting for suborbital flights (Score 1) 594

While "rich kids toy'" gets the publicity and PR, NASA does suborbital flights and has looking for private launch firms to help there as well as orbital flights. To this end a few month's ago Forbes reported NASA awarded Virgin Galactic a suborbital contract.

A quick web search turned up the Suborbital Research Association, which is composed of people interested in the science side of suborbital flights.

No, Virgin Galactic flights are not just for rich playboys and playgirls. There is science waiting for the flights as well... science that may well private suborbital flights financially viable.

Comment Climate Change Clock (Score 1) 440

The Union of Concerned Scientists had their Doomsday Clock that advanced and backed off of midnight depending on the level of political sanity being shown. Has something like that been done for climate change? How bad the floods will be in some future date? A measurement of a major seaport being underwater?

Comment timezones are here to stay (Score 1) 990

Time is a complex subject and nothing can make it simple. Sure, if you deal with local time things can be simple, but step into international times or high-precision measurements and you get complex. While the proposal to end time zones keeps popping up across the decades I've been tracking time keeping, I suspect that those who really work with time can have nightmares over it.

Ignoring the inertia of an international timekeeping rule that has been in effect for over a century that was based on conventions going back millennium, any proposal involves revolts of both the masses and many techies who do the actual work. But ignoring all of that,

  1. If you force everyone to have a work cycle consistent around the world you will get revolts as most people like to get up near dawn and got to bed at night.
  2. If you let people get up at dawn after shifting the local dawn time numbers to a new standard you will still get revolts. Worse, you must now remember what the working hours are for each zone you contact as they are no longer 9-17 (yes, I support the 24-hour clock). Rather than simplifying your zone calculations you just added more work to the effort.

Moon colonization and space habitats can be different due to the local day being non-existent or way different from earths.

Comment Re:What was in your employment contract? (Score 1) 545

Yes... some companies claim everything you think of on a 24x7 for the duration. Others just claim what you worked on with company equipment or company time.

If you signed the later you need to be able to document that you wrote it on your own computers, on your own time, etc.

I keep work and personal computing strictly separated by the bright line of not working on personal stuff on company equipment, time, nor any service the company pays for. Nor do I work for long for the 24x7 companies unless an agreement is reached.

If and when I import personal stuff into company land pulling it from a public open source archive seems best to me. Better, make an agreement like alostpacket mentioned and have your boss pull it from the public archive. No questions on how it got into the company then.

Without a bright-line and documentation I fear you may be lost.

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