Contents

1. 42% of Web Users Sneak Onto Other Online Accounts
2. Six Questions To Ask Before Telecommuting
3. Ragnar Tornquist On Video Game Storytelling
4. A Mozilla Plugin to Help Overcome IE Rendering Flaw
5. How Do I Prevent Lan Party Theft?
6. Nvidia Rumored To Be Readying X86 Chip Release
7. James Powderly of Graffiti Research Labs Detained In China
8. Research Suggests Polygamous Men Live Longer
9. Microsoft To Buy $100M More SUSE Support Vouchers
10. My Job Went To India
11. NASA Installing Shocks On Ares
12. Apple’s IPhone 3G Firmware Update Bombs

I cry “BS!” - by Simonetta (Score: 5, Insightful) Thread

I can’t believe this. They say that 42% of the people that they asked had used another person’s password or account. And the people asked are all internet users.

    It is a logical fault to assume from these two statements that 42% of all internet users have used another person’s password or account for unethical purposes.

    What was the sample audience? Were they all students simply using each other’s common passwords to peek into each other’s love notes? The article gives that impression and then posts a headline that implies that 42% of ALL INTERNET USERS are dangerous highly-advanced techno-crackers who can and would empty your bank account at any time that they would choose.

    Another example of deliberate media exaggeration and fear-mongering over an activity that, when examined, turns out to be a whole lot of nothing. Is Fox News behind this? Or just some schmuck desperate for a story to file?

    Crying wolf destroys the perception of journalistic integrity for everyone.

Ok, fess up. - by PPH (Score: 5, Funny) Thread
Which one of you got hold of CmdrTaco’s password and posted all these lame stories?

Did it to nuke a MySpace account - by AaronW (Score: 5, Funny) Thread
I once had to do this. Some idiot on MySpace set their account to use one of my email addresses. Repeated requests to Myspace went unanswered, so I just used the password recovery tool to change it and promptly deleted his account. Problem solved.

What were the survey questions? - by Dan B. (Score: 5, Interesting) Thread

Like all surveys that want to portray a ‘shocking’ result, it all comes down to the wording of the questions. It is very easy to get a respondent to tick yes on a question that asks “do you log in to other people’s accounts” by first baiting them with a whole bunch of rubbish like “do you help others with their IT issues” and so on.

Without the actual survey, the results are, in my opinion, just as good as made up.

Bugmenot - by gringer (Score: 5, Interesting) Thread

does bugmenot count?

Telecommuting FTW - by billcopc (Score: 5, Interesting) Thread

I’m very pro-telecommuting, but I can understand why it fails for so many people.

Reasons it works for me:

- I’m a developer, and almost all the jobs we see are one-man gigs - it’s not a team development kind of company. 
- I communicate via email and phone, and rarely attend meetings. I just take the specs and produce the app. Client interaction is very limited, mostly handled by our dedicated sales and support guy (our human shield!) 
- I’m self-motivated. If I’m working 9-5, then I’ll work 9-5 from home too, and the wife can pretty much pretend I don’t exist during those hours. 
- I live with the wife, but we have no kids 
- I have a ridiculously overpowered workstation, and I know how to use it 
- I can focus better with some background music, and the headphone thing just doesn’t cut it, compared to my nice speakers 
- I actually find the office distracting, since we’re all quite rowdy and jocular (think Animal House) 
- If a box barfs or panics, I can always hop in a cab and fix it - IF it happens! If it’s mission-critical, the appropriate KVM-IP and/or remote-reboot gadgets be acquired.

Turn all of those things around, and you’ll get all the reasons why some people can’t telecommute. The noise, the distractions, the plentiful opportunities for laziness - some households just aren’t suitable for work.

Me, I work all the time. I have private contracts, I build web sites, I produce music - my home is my office. Another little bit that helps is my job is a 10 minute bike or bus ride away, so I don’t care about travel time. I telecommute because I like it, and I wish I could do it more because I think I could accomplish more work per week. I’m comfortable at home, no need to buy lunches (not a pack-lunch kinda guy), and since I’m so used to working here, my brain subliminally shifts into high gear - at the office I’m always kinda half-dazed, the environment just doesn’t suit me.

One day a week will accomplish nothing. It takes a while to get into the telework mindset, it’s a psychosomatic thing - working from home is like trying to change your sleep schedule: the first few days will be chaotic, but over time you get the hang of it and you’re back to sleeping/working like you always did.

I could write a book on the topic, but really most of it is just common sense. Make a list of your reasons why you want to telecommute, then make a list of goals or success indicators. If you hesitate while writing either list, then telecommuting is not for you.

Re:I am a full-time telecommuter - by Psychotria (Score: 5, Insightful) Thread

You know, I’d never thought of that before. My commute is 45 minutes each way and I am thinking of work in both directions. It’s true though, the 45 minutes into work my mind is preparing for work. The 45 minutes home, my mind is tying up loose ends so when I finally get home, I can switch off. I do write notes when I get home if I think of something while in the car driving, but they’re very short notes that I email myself so I can refocus on them the next day. If it were not for the drive, I’m not sure the switching off when I pull into the garage would be as easy.

Re:I am a full-time telecommuter - by phallstrom (Score: 5, Insightful) Thread

The transition time is very very real. I work from home and have for 3 years now. After a day’s work I go for a 10-15 minute walk (or try to). My wife calls it my transition time. And it’s exactly that.

Also, get a home office. With a door. And headphones that kill the noise. Most days are great, but sometimes our two kids decide to yell all day. With the headphones I don’t hear them, zone out, and code. Without them I go nuts.

But it is pretty awesome when your 2 year old comes in just to give you a hug in the middle of the day!

anti-telecommuting propaganda - by onehitwonder (Score: 5, Informative) Thread
Well duh. Anyone with an ounce of common sense will ask the questions outlined in this story. I can’t believe Computerworld felt this article needed to be written. Obviously, companies should have policies about telecommuting. And obviously, not every employee or role inside a company lends itself to working from home. No one is advocating a telecommuting free-for-all.

I’m also disappointed that the article called out two examples of companies that back-tracked on their telecommuting arrangements without discussing any of the success stories—and there are many. I realize this is shameless self-promotion, but last month I wrote an article for CIO.com about a small software company, Chorus, that closed all of its offices in an admittedly rather drastic cost-cutting move, and now everyone at Chorus—everyone—works from home. And you know what, the strategy is working out well for Chorus employees’ productivity. The company made some mistakes in rolling out the telecommuting strategy, but overall they approached it sensibly, and it’s working.

Let’s learn from the success stories and not use the failures to promote an anti-telecommuting agenda.

Milestones - by unity100 (Score: 5, Informative) Thread
when telecommuting, you will find it VERY difficult to explain being late on any milestone. in office, you are there, people see you ‘work’, and therefore your excuses (valid or not) has greater acceptance. however when telecommuting, everyone is on the lookout to prevent slacking, and any excuse will have a greater rate of being taken as slacking.  
 
simple as that. milestones, output. rock solid.

Mixed feelings - by Selanit (Score: 5, Interesting) Thread

I have mixed feelings about Tornquist. He created The Longest Journey which was absolutely amazing, particularly for its story. My favorite game ever. Vivid, detailed characterization, intricate world-building, compelling plot. The tech wasn’t impressive (3D figures superimposed on 2D backdrops), but the story was so great that I didn’t care.

Then came the sequel, Dreamfall. Oh. My. God. The game was a lot prettier, a good deal more tech glitz. But the UI was atrocious (horrible camera control, unplayable on PC without a USB controller), gratuitous fighting scenes built in (complete with lousy combat controls), and the puzzles (such as they were) didn’t make sense. Worse, the plot was incoherent at many crucial points, and the main character (Chloe) completely failed to engage my sympathy or even interest. I got to the end and was sorry she hadn’t died permanently somewhere along the way.

Dreamfall had the most severe case of sequel-itis I’ve ever seen. The original was amazing, astounding, wonderful, and sold a bazillion copies. Then the corporate types took over and threw a ton of cash at the sequel, and it sucked hard. The only comparable thing I can think of? Indiana Jones — Raiders of the Lost Ark was terrific, and Temple of Doom sucked so hard that nobody ever plays it on TV, not even at 4 AM to fill up time. That’s how Dreamfall was.

I have hopes for the third TLJ installment — after all, The Last Crusade rescued Indiana Jones from one-hit wonder status. It could happen again. But then I think of how the Matrix series went downhill, and fear.

Best MMO name ever. - by jbsooter (Score: 5, Funny) Thread
I misread and got excited because I thought the upcoming MMO was called “The Secret World: Rock, Paper, Shotgun.” I have no idea what a game named that would be like but I’d probably pay money to find out.

Biff McLargehuge? - by Itninja (Score: 5, Funny) Thread
This sounds like one of those made-up names the guys on MST3K would come up with. Ragnar Tornquist? If ring-wraiths were real and were active in the adult film industry, they would have names like this.

Who is Ragnar Tournqist? - by Ethanol-fueled (Score: 5, Funny) Thread
Ragnar Tourqist was born Wilbur McDougal in Peoria, Illinois and developed his fantasy- writing skills as an excape from the beatings he suffered in high school at the hands of the elitist chess club. He enjoys painting figurines and staging epic battles with his Pez dispenser collection. Also, he likes ponies.

Re:Who is Ragnar Tournqist? - by jgarra23 (Score: 5, Funny) Thread

Ragnar Tourqist (20 April 1889 - 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who led the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei NSDAP), more commonly known as the Nazi Party. He was Chancellor of Germany (1933-1945) and Führer of Germany (1934-1945).

Tourqist was a decorated veteran of World War I who achieved leadership of the Nazi Party in Weimar Germany. Following his imprisonment after a failed coup, he gained support by promoting nationalism, antisemitism and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and propaganda. The Nazis executed or assassinated many of their opponents, restructured the state economy, rearmed the armed forces (Wehrmacht) and established a totalitarian and fascist dictatorship. Tourqist pursued a foreign policy with the declared goal of seizing Lebensraum (“living space”). The German invasion of Poland in 1939 caused the British and French Empires to declare war on Germany, leading to the outbreak of World War II in Europe.

The Axis Powers occupied most of continental Europe and parts of Asia and Africa. Eventually the Allies defeated the Wehrmacht and Schutzstaffel (SS). By 1945, Germany was in ruins. Tourqist’s bid for territorial conquest and racial subjugation caused the deaths of tens of millions of people, including the systematic genocide of an estimated six million Jews, not including various additional “undesirable” populations, in what is known as the Holocaust.

During the final days of the war in 1945, as Berlin was being invaded by the Red Army, Tourqist married Eva Braun. Less than 24 hours later, the two committed suicide in the Führerbunker.

Goodwin, eat your heart out!

Exactly backwards - by markdavis (Score: 5, Interesting) Thread
This is exactly backwards to what most of us need. We need a [multiplatform] plugin for Firefox that will allow broken IE-only sites to work under Firefox so we can continue to use the browser of our choice. Not that I want to promote the use of IE-only coding, but the reality is that if the site doesn’t work, the average users always blame Firefox, not the site designer.

Look to the beam in your own eye - by szquirrel (Score: 5, Interesting) Thread

Hey, that’s great. Do they also have plans to fix the flaws in Firefox?

Off the top of my head, could we finally have support for SVG as a native image format? Or even just SVG rendering that isn’t slower than a stone cow?

Don’t want to sound like the grumpy old man, I just want most of my web shit to work in *one* browser before I worry about how it works in every browser.

Internet explorer… - by th3rtythr33 (Score: 5, Funny) Thread
Now with all of the features of Firefox, without the bother of all the security.

Interesting, but difficult - by AKAImBatman (Score: 5, Interesting) Thread

FYI, Screaming Monkey was already discussed in an earlier story.

Unfortunately, scripted manipulation of VML is too slow to be used for highly interactive web applications. Mozilla’s solution is to bake its own native Canvas implementation into an ActiveX plugin that can be integrated directly into Internet Explorer.

The only problem is getting people to install the plugin. My own solution was to use the market penetration of Java Applets to develop a shunt that would render Canvas using Java APIs. (Note that the events system has not been completed in that demo. Make sure you click outside the block falling area so that the browser receives the keyboard commands.)

The same sort of shunt could be done with Flash 9 or Silverlight. Which would do a nice end-run around the problem of getting plugins installed.

Spill the beans? - by EvilRyry (Score: 5, Informative) Thread

I’ve been reading about this for months. Its not exactly top secret.

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Tamarin:ScreamingMonkey

From what I’ve witnessed/experienced… - by Landshark17 (Score: 2) Thread
The Computer Club and Anime Society at my college jointly host gargantuan lan parties every semester. We’re talking about taking over the entire gym. Everyone registers their gear beforehand, puts their name on their stuff with label makers and masking tape. All the consoles are setup in clusters so that one official/trustworthy club member can keep an eye on the wired controllers and gear. Wireless controllers have to be checked out and the user must leave his/her college ID (or comprable ID for non-students, since the event draws a good amount of locals as well) to use a controller. I’ve been a part of 6 of these and only once has anyone’s gear gone missing, and even then it was only a few Xbox 360 controllers. 
 
Another thing to note is if you’ve got a large group of people you don’t know, watch out for assholes. We had a few groups put bets down (without our knowledge and far from our approval) on a Halo tournament and when the losing group welched, a fight almost broke out. We suspect that the people who we escorted out may have taken the controllers as souvineers, but we can’t prove anything…

Valhalla - by Samah (Score: 2) Thread
I’m an admin (well, past admin at least) for a large LAN party in South Australia called Valhalla. At peak, we had a little over 600 people attend. Generally we tend lose a few powerboards but the switches are locked down with a padlock and a relatively thick steel cable, after we had one or two swiped. All the core routers and game servers are in the centre of the hall where the admins set up, right next to the help desk. No-one’s gonna steal anything from there without someone seeing. 
My suggestion is to keep your switches and routers locked down and keep the rest of your expensive gear within view of your admin team (I think ours consists of about 20 people all up). No-one is going to take a router or a server without a huge uproar of “hey what happened to the network???”

Defensive Thinking - by Rinisari (Score: 5, Informative) Thread

If this will be your first LAN party, go smaller. Get a feel for the check-in dynamics and such. Then grow.

If you’ve got a few smaller ones under your belt, and you want to go big, read on.

First, indemnify, indemnify, indemnify. Require all attendees to sign a waiver which says they will not hold you accountable for any equipment harm or theft or any personal harm or theft. Ensure that each person knows that they are responsible for their own equipment and actions, and can leave at any time.

Second, if you’re asking for money, clarify the refund procedure. I suggest establishing a no-refund policy, then bending that policy on a case-by-case basis.

Third, hold the LAN in a secure, very public location. I recommend a church or community center for a 60-man LAN, then a firehall once you break 100.

Fourth, establish clearly defined, binding rules which outline attendees’ expected behavior. I recommend taking a look at the rules contained in the Pittco information sheet, published by the Pittsburgh LAN Coalition (disclaimer: I wrote it and am an organizer of its Iron Storm events).

Fifth, tell every attendee that security is their responsibility when they sign up and when they arrive. Advise them to bring as little equipment as they can. They should consider locks (barrels, the more numbers the better) for their case and they should put their name on everything. They should also backup their data before coming to the LAN.

Sixth, if someone comes to you and says they think that something has been stolen, ask them to ask the people around them if they’ve seen it. Some people immediately think that something has been stolen when perhaps it is underneath something or fell onto the floor. If a lot of people have left the party and/or it’s near the end of the party, tell the person to post a lost and found request on your forums (you do have forums, right?) and to remind you so that you can send something in a mass email (you have all of the addresses of your attendees, right?).

Seventh, remember that most people who come to LANs aren’t going to want to steal anything because they’re going to be busy guarding their own equipment. Do not allow spectators. If you must, require that they be escorted, or that they check-in with you every so often. Also, use wristbands to keep track of who checked-in. If someone doesn’t have a wristband or a staff T-shirt (consider that after an event or two), you have every right to tell them to leave. Call the cops if you have to. Just do not use force—you are not certified or licensed to do such things in public places and you will open yourself to legal trouble.

Eighth, post this question at forums for MillionManLAN, EverLAN, Lake Effect LAN, Pittco, Noreaster, and some of the other larger, non-corporate-sponsored LANs. They’ll give you good advice, and you’ll even draw some people to your event!

Do like at chuckee cheese - by nurb432 (Score: 3, Funny) Thread

Stamp everyones hands, and compare it to what they take out.

Oh, and armed guards for those that try.. A few dead bodies on a stake out front will be a grand deterrent.

Seating Arrangement is the key - by Domini (Score: 3, Informative) Thread

Arrange seating so that small groups are seated together… this way they can watch each others’ rigs. They can get to know one another and identify strangers.

Have all Computers face inward, with only a single accessible entrance for each group from behind.

Less points of entry, means less points to watch.

Cyrix did it. - by Inominate (Score: 5, Informative) Thread

Cyrix originally didn’t license anything. They reverse engineered 386/486 designs. Intel sued them over it and mostly lost. The settlement allowed Cyrix to continue producing the designs, provided they were made in Intel licensed factories. Later, Cyrix nailed Intel infringing on some of their patents, and it was settled by allowing each to use the others patents.

If Nvidia tries to produce their own CPU, I would guess they’d be sued, but it would probably end in a pro-nvidia settlement. I suspect Nvidia holds some patents they can dangle over Intel’s head.

Anyways, all of the speculation is meaningless, if Nvidia is actually doing this they’ve got the legal parts taken care of.

Old news… - by ruinevil (Score: 5, Informative) Thread
NVidia has an x86 processor. http://www.nvidia.com/page/uli_m6117c.html

Something I forgot to mention in the summary - by jdb2 (Score: 5, Interesting) Thread
The idea of Nvidia producing an x86 CPU might seem dubious but perhaps not in the light of the fact that Nvidia bought Stexar in 2006. Stexar was a little known and quite secretive startup composed of a large portion of ex-Intel engineers and higher-ups from Intel’s Xeon team. Before being swallowed by Nvidia they were intimating that work was being done on some sort of x86 “DSP”.  
 
jdb2

Interesting legal histories - by Rinisari (Score: 5, Informative) Thread

Check out the legal histories of AMD v. Intel and VIA/Cyrix v. Intel. These essentially show that there are agreements and settlements all over the place, but few-to-no actual court decisions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VIA_Technologies#Legal_issues

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrix#Legal_troubles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD#Litigation_with_Intel

It essentially seems that NVIDIA would need to have a patent on something which Intel has produced in order to induce some kind of Mexican standoff, just like the others have.

Must have a Legal Plan before starting… - by khb (Score: 5, Insightful) Thread

Given the cost of developing a full custom microprocessor (several tens of millions of dollars) including the complexity of verification … surely a Legal Plan would have proceeded either development or acquisition.

Tibet rant, this needs to be said… - by Anita Coney (Score: 5, Insightful) Thread

Tibet has been part of China since 1792. Yes, for over two freaking centuries! You might not like it, but tough shit. And guess what, if a bunch of Chinese students came to the US and flung banners around Stanford demanding we give California back to Mexico, we’d probably tell them to get their butts back to China and mind their own business. Heck, we’d probably even detain a couple of them.

Re:Tibet rant, this needs to be said… - by Hatta (Score: 5, Insightful) Thread

If California wanted to go back to Mexico, what right would we have to stop them?

Is this a surprise? - by ucblockhead (Score: 5, Insightful) Thread

Going to foreign countries run by totalitarian governments to protest is a bit on the unwise side regardless of how just the cause.

Re:What is a L.A.S.E.R Stencil?? - by againjj (Score: 5, Informative) Thread

From TFA:

Re:You know… - by Otter (Score: 5, Insightful) Thread

Seriously, this guy been around a while. Your ignorance is not evidence that he’s a mere opportunistic attention-grabber.

Feel free to convince me otherwise. The Wikipedia page linked here certainly makes him sound like an opportunistic attention-grabber. As I said, I have all the respect in the world for serious activists on this front, but this guy sounds like a self-promoting jackass who assumes (correctly, probably) that his white skin and US passport are Get Out Of Jail Free cards.

Wives need wives - by theCat (Score: 5, Interesting) Thread

Any reliable wife will tell you that what she needs most on any given day is a wife. We compensate for monogamy by hiring wives for our wives; house cleaners, babysitters, daycare, diaper service, food delivery. Also, by living (well in the US) in a throw-away technical society we have striped away the need to make or repair clothes (sewing), prepare complex meals (eating out), corresponding (email, phone) and many other things that women “had” to do or felt needed to be done in a proper society.

My wife and I, married almost 14 years and with two kids, have discussed “getting” (not sure how to put it) a second wife. She’s not opposed to it, understands it completely, but we haven’t had a chance to try it yet. Since we live sustainably and don’t take advantage of the many means to rent a wife, we don’t really have much choice except to look for help. If you are going to use a woman that way, then you should support her, I feel. Renting is just a way to use something and throw it away, in the end. And paying for services that a woman could do herself is expensive the realm of the rich.

I don’t know how having two wives would make me live longer as such, never gave it any thought, but it would reduce how much I worry about our family economy if I had two wives working as sisters to hold everything together, get back to simpler ways of doing things by hand and without technology. Homeschooling, food preparation and gardening are suddenly easier. My wife works so hard… she needs a wife.

[PS: Some will chorus “then help her do her work you smuck!” To which I reply “Ah, but I’m the one building the house.” You see, when you really adopt the idea of do-it-yerself you bite off this enormous load of work that nobody even thinks about any more.]

I just asked my wife about this - by jandrese (Score: 5, Funny) Thread
She guaranteed me that sleeping with other women would have the opposite effect on my longevity.

Confucius say - by Profane MuthaFucka (Score: 4, Funny) Thread

Confucius say “Man who hosts two women under one roof sleep in doghouse.”

Question - by Mr2cents (Score: 4, Funny) Thread

I have only one question: what is the list of polygamous nations?

Re:Question - by hypergreatthing (Score: 5, Funny) Thread

And the follow up, are they looking for more engineers?

Subtle effects on SUSE - by FritzSolms (Score: 5, Interesting) Thread
There do seem some subtle effects on SUSE, though. If you install version 11.0 on a machine which has Windows pre-installed (because you couldn’t buy the Laptop without the Microsoft tax), it no longer gives yo a pref=configured option to remove the Windows. The only way, it seems, to remove Windows now is to go through a manual partitioning process which may be a bit daunting for the average home user. In versions prior to the Microsoft partnership, there was a convenient option to do a clean install removing all existing partitions including an MS partition. Fritz

Re:Microsoft to sell SUSE Support Vouchers .. - by Penguinisto (Score: 5, Interesting) Thread

Ford giving you a discount on your next Chevy (and service on the thing while you own it, too!)

Dunno what would be more incredulous - selling the scheme with a straight face, or actually buying into it with one.

(hey, you asked…)

/P

Why? - by ShieldW0lf (Score: 5, Funny) Thread
Why would you buy Linux support from MS? You would think you’d get better support buying it from, oh, a lemonade stand perhaps?

Re:Why? - by Giometrix (Score: 5, Funny) Thread

Because Microsoft is know for excellent support?

Re:Why? - by SlipperHat (Score: 5, Funny) Thread

No, because Microsoft is known for its high quality lemons.

Survivors - by slashdapper (Score: 5, Insightful) Thread
Learning new software, programming languages, code-katas or whatever is NOT going to help. 
Indians have access to the internet too, you know.  
They can learn all this new stuff and provide the same service cheaper. 
 
Some random points:  
(1) People who code, administer or test will not survive. If you write/fix any kind of code or scripts or do any kind of testing at least once a day your job is in danger.  
 
(2) People who are unable to create something from nothing will not survive. If you need a well-defined set of requirements and design before you can do your work, your job is in danger. If you need someone else to take some vague problem from the customer/boss and come up with a solution that you can implement, your job is in danger. If, however, you invent solutions, you will be fine.  
 
(3) People with inability to solve problems will not survive. This goes to general smartness/intelligence. If you are the kind who can use a cool-head and solve most of problems (job-related or not) through a combination of steps such as keeping a cool head, knowing what to do, who to approach etc, you will be fine. Many problems are tough but you would be surprised to see many people give up before they even take a stab at the easy ones.  
 
As an example: Here is a problem given to you by a customer: “Size the work effort that you personally will require to install DB2 on my AS400 box”  
 
Bad answer: We are a C++ coding shop. We dont do DB2 admin. We dont know how to size this. 
Good answer: 6 months (cuz we have to learn all the shit first)  
 
(4) People who will survive are those who can talk to customers to elicit business requirements, design tecnhnical solutions and coordinate project activities - not people who know how to change a config file to get Linux to play mp3 files.  
 
(5) Good-looking people who can talk with management and customers in a confident non-geeky way in perfect English will survive.  
 
(6) If you can relate well with people and can get them to do favors for you, you will survive. If you are the type of person who ends up leading meetings and discussions, you will survive.  
 
(7) If your job is in IT but deals with some kind of calculation involving dollars at least once a day, you will survive.

Re:Survivors - by syousef (Score: 4, Insightful) Thread

People who code, administer or test will not survive.

Wrong. Pure and simple. People who code badly, administer inflexibly or test poorly won’t survive, but that’s always been the case. People outsource, realise it’s not actually as good, then insource again. I keep hearing about these jobs disappearing but every time I’ve been even remotely in danger of being outsourced I’ve learnt new skills and moved to a coding job that was more secure.

People who are unable to create something from nothing will not survive. If you need a well-defined set of requirements and design before you can do your work, your job is in danger. If you need someone else to take some vague problem from the customer/boss and come up with a solution that you can implement, your job is in danger. If, however, you invent solutions, you will be fine.

You’re not describing “creating something from nothing”. You’re discribing being a good analyst/programmer (with some emphasis on the analysis part). If you code like a monkey you won’t survive, nor should you. However most good designs aren’t innovative. Most businesses do very similar things - capture data, store data, retrieve it and display it, consolidate and report on it. A good understanding of how things work in business in general is more important than the ability to innovate.

People with inability to solve problems will not survive.

This is the same as your last point. No they won’t survive. Nor should they.

Good answer: 6 months (cuz we have to learn all the shit first)

If you’re competing on that basis you won’t survive either. There are people in outsourcing companies that either know the technologies you need to learn, or will claim to know them even if they don’t. However if you can convince the company that learning a new skill set is going to be beneficial in he long term on multiple projects you’re a step closer to being more viable. Better still if you can provide a compelling argument that you should do the job using a skillset you already have, the idea of outsourcing the work becomes less attractive.

People who will survive are those who can talk to customers to elicit business requirements, design tecnhnical solutions and coordinate project activities - not people who know how to change a config file to get Linux to play mp3 files.

Nope. People who survive will know how to do BOTH.

Good-looking people who can talk with management and customers in a confident non-geeky way in perfect English will survive.

Perfect English is not a requirement. English that is easy to understand, and difficult to confuse is. Good-looking is only a requirement if your job is going to require communication outside the company because that’s when it’s important. However most managers will hire a glue eating geek that doesn’t shower if his job has limited scope and exposure. They will however prefer someone with basic hygeine that doesn’t look like crap as they’re more versatile. You don’t need to be on magazine covers or have the elocution of a British royal. Just dress well, take care of the basics and put on some cologne.

Confucius say - by Profane MuthaFucka (Score: 4, Insightful) Thread

Confucius say “Job is like a woman. Smartest programmer in world cannot keep job from leaving if it wants to.”

Inflation in India - by Colin Smith (Score: 5, Insightful) Thread

12%

An indian software engineer can earn about 400,000 rupees ($10k)at the moment. In 10 years that will match the west, but long before then the difference will be too marginal to make it worth offshoring. 
 

four words - by syrinx (Score: 5, Informative) Thread

“Get a security clearance”.

Those jobs aren’t going to India.

Overcomplicated! - by clintp (Score: 4, Insightful) Thread

Ever get the feeling they’re building a kludge all over again? Space Shuttle II — Revenge of Thousands of Glued On Tiles and Strapping It to the Side an Ice-Covered Tank.

There was no way to passively dampen the vibrations? A simpler, cheaper solution? So instead they’ll introduce another ton of lift weight and 17 additional motors and batteries to fail.

My prediction: in the first 50 launches this system will fail and the rocket will either shake the astronauts and payload apart (failure to dampen) or spectacularly shake the rocket apart (oscillate lopsidedly or out of synch with the vibrations).

With luck Slashdot will archive this long enough. Given that this is a NASA project, that might not be likely.

Why have they left it this late? - by bugg_tb (Score: 4, Informative) Thread
Whilst I’m not overly surprised by the decision why have they left it this late, as its a well documented problem thats been around since the beginning of space flight.

More untested principles - by damburger (Score: 5, Interesting) Thread

Lets review what we have so far:

1. First attempt at building a man rated launcher with an entirely solid fueled stage 
2. Largest solid rocket booster ever flown 
3. First (I believe) aerodynamically unstable man rated launcher 
4. And now, first use of shock absorbers to dampen an otherwise lethal vibration in a launcher

Considering how reverting to capsules was seen as a safe bet, and as taking advantage of existing technology and production lines, there is an increasing amount of experimental new technology involved.

With the Shuttles headed towards retirement and the only remaining source of access to the ISS in jeopardy due to chilly relations with Russia, now doesn’t seem like the best time to be getting experimental. Functional will do just nicely.

I honestly think that a manned ATV might fly before Orion at this rate.

Re:More untested principles - by Free the Cowards (Score: 5, Informative) Thread

3. Basically all space rockets are aerodynamically unstable. This is absolutely nothing new.

4. Before it was eclipsed by an even worse event, Apollo 13 briefly scared the crap out of everyone involved when the center engine of the second stage nearly ripped the entire rocket to little pieces. It was experiencing pogo oscillation, flexing the massive thrust frame by three inches at 16Hz, experiencing 68 gees. Just before this incredible vibration destroyed the entire craft, a fuel sensor was falsely tripped and shut the engine down, saving the ship.

Saturn V and Apollo were full of problems. Rocket science is hard, remember? I suggest that you get a clue before you mindlessly criticize.

Re:More untested principles - by AnomaliesAndrew (Score: 5, Insightful) Thread

The Apollo missions definitely weren’t entirely safe… but people didn’t really care about it as much as they do today. They were driven to succeed at almost any cost, and to do so before the Russians.

Now we have this culture of protection and safety that’s we’re too afraid to (accidentally) sacrifice a human even at the prospect of settling on the moon. Not saying it’s wrong, but it complicates things more.

The Plural of Anecdote is Not Data - by That's Unpossible! (Score: 5, Insightful) Thread

…however, since everyone is offering anecdotal “evidence”, I’ll point out that we have two 3G iPhones in our home, and neither have had 3G issues. A few applications crash on startup, but most of my apps run just fine, before and after the 2.0.2 update.

My biggest gripe is — Apple has neither stated there is a known 3G connectivity problem, nor did they state the 2.0.2 patch contains a ‘fix’ for any such problems. So ask yourself, how have these people writing articles about it able to claim such a thing? The answer is, the same reason everyone thinks there’s a widespread problem with 3G… hear-say.

It’s all Steve Jobs’ fault for yelling - by Animats (Score: 5, Interesting) Thread

I happen to know the guy who headed the RF software group for the original iPhone. He’s a low-key sort, from the industrial high-reliability real time world. He did not like being yelled at by Steve Jobs. So, shortly after the first iPhones were out and working, he quit.

Apple found someone else to do the 3G version. Probably not someone from the industrial high-reliability real time world.

This really brings me more joy than it should - by not already in use (Score: 5, Funny) Thread

Makes me want to whack some crazy Apple fanboy with a one-button mouse while they’re down.

just like the iProduct - by Gothmolly (Score: 5, Funny) Thread

“I buy Apple products. It just makes me feel special.”

http://cache.gizmodo.com/gadgets/images/iProduct.gif

Then Turn Off Apple Stories. - by illegalcortex (Score: 5, Insightful) Thread

1. Click “Help & Preferences” (top of the screen).
2. Click Sections (under Index).
3. Under All Sections, find Apple.
4. Click the radio button for the “no” sign (an “O” with a slash through it).
5. Click Save.
6. Reload Slashdot main page.
7. Stop complaining.

Signal to Noise ratio over time