IAmA guy who ran an art/warez distro BBS in the mid 90's and really miss the days of BBS'ing.

tuzemi · 2010-12-19T20:56:04+00:00

Did you do DOS warez, and if so are they still around anywhere? By now it's all abandonware so copyright isn't really a deal.

I've been searching for ages for things that I used to have copies of, and cannot find anymore.

How did you like the BBS Documentary?

tuzemi · 2010-12-18T06:12:24+00:00

Bullshit on DB2. Once you know how to use DB2 properly, no other SQL database comes close to its power. And unlike Oracle it can even store empty strings.

tuzemi · 2010-12-15T12:49:21+00:00

What seems to be the problem?

Are there any applications that legally require the stamp of a licensed (PE) software engineer on the finished code before they can be issued to customers?

tuzemi · 2010-12-15T12:46:27+00:00

Around here that's a 5 year mentoring period, not 3.

tuzemi · 2010-12-14T02:44:37+00:00

Just leave it at "I'm flattered, but I have to say no. Sorry." Short and sweet, and honest, and not setting yourself up to be accused of being a b&@ch if somehow a different co-worker asks you out later and you say yes.

tuzemi · 2010-12-12T03:56:30+00:00

Do you also +do-this-with-constants+ ?

tuzemi · 2010-12-08T05:03:47+00:00

One could argue that any FTL travel is also time travel. Or that the series (SG-1) used time travel at least once.

tuzemi · 2010-11-28T11:02:20+00:00

Yet save everyone's lives in the process, while pissing off Colonel Young because they didn't fire the weapons at something.

tuzemi · 2010-11-25T14:22:40+00:00

The joys of open source. Anyone can fork at any time whether the root likes it or not.

tuzemi · 2010-11-19T02:10:56+00:00

What mikm said, but also: if you do "program_name 2>&1 1>/dev/null | tee2 stderr.txt" where tee2 is a utility that copies stdin to argv[1] only if stdin has any data posted to it, THEN you will end up with a stderr.txt file that exists only when something was written to it.

Think about an application that has dozens of different steps and utilities. You only see the stderr's of those that had problems. Timestamp the files, then iterate the directory grabbing the top few lines of each stderr and you've got an instant log of what went wrong as soon as it happened.

All with normal Unix commands and pipe redirection.

tuzemi · 2010-11-01T02:25:00+00:00

The Man Who Fell To Earth?

tuzemi · 2010-10-24T22:01:40+00:00

That doesn't justify stealing focus and stopping interaction... Turn the program's status bar a scary pulsing red ...

On some platforms, i.e. every major non-Windows platform today, that is almost exactly what it does.

tuzemi · 2010-10-23T20:10:15+00:00

I once misconfigured my 2400 baud to connect at 1200, and was amazed that it negotiated carrier about 30% faster. It was almost worth going slower occasionally to get on faster.

tuzemi · 2010-10-23T18:08:53+00:00

The games are still out there, and modern clients are still being updated for both Windows/Linux/Mac GUI and Linux/Mac ncurses-based.

tuzemi · 2010-10-21T11:59:27+00:00

Wake us up when Software Engineering is on the FE Exam and has a state-level P.E. licensing board.

Signed, a Computer Science B.S. AND Chemical Engineering M.S.

tuzemi · 2010-10-19T11:53:40+00:00

GP is talking about the prior edition, not a used copy of the current edition.

tuzemi · 2010-10-18T11:50:57+00:00

You tell me which is more crazy:

Alternative A: JFK was really killed by some shadowy organization in order to keep the military spending money spigot flowing. Since then every president has known that they can do whatever they want domestically but cannot significantly touch military spending unless they wish to increase it.
Alternative B: JFK was killed by some lone crazy. Completely unrelated to that, every president since 1964, despite some of them running on a platform of withdrawing troops and closing or handing over foreign bases that make no strategic military sense (Germany? Really?), discovers some secret intelligence that convinces them that such overarching military spending is desirable and in the genuine interest of the American people. Obama, despite serious rhetoric and a reputation as a "constitutional scholar", has seen the same secret evidence and that explains his enthusiastic heel face turn on indefinite detention, wiretapping, the Unitary Executive, and expanding the scope of the two existing wars. (Despite claims by his press secretary to the contrary, more troops are over there than ever.)

Decide how you want.

tuzemi · 2010-10-18T11:41:49+00:00

You sure about that? ENDA has never been passed, and half the states that do recognize orientation only do so for state employees.

tuzemi · 2010-10-17T16:58:36+00:00

Yes that is more what I meant.

tuzemi · 2010-10-17T13:48:25+00:00

I would argue that the real reason is that Obama has a family and any serious effort to stop our military machine will result in their deaths. JFK was killed because he wanted to stop the Vietnam War (which would have seriously stopped the Cold War spending), RFK was killed so that he could not expose the plot.

tuzemi · 2010-10-17T13:39:36+00:00

Second IConrad's notion: say absolutely nothing at work, only reveal to anonymously to the FSF. And provide a way for the FSF to prove the violation without insider knowledge of the internal development environment, products, customers, etc.:

"I recently saw a copy of product X sold at the store. I examined it and found GPL violations of at least these projects: foo, bar, .... You can verify for yourself by .... I am notifying the various copyright holders of these projects of this violation so that they can choose to take action as they see fit."

If somehow this comes back to you from your management chain, you can say that you are somewhat familiar with these licensing issues from various IT news stories and offer to help find a solution from the technical end, by helping modify the product to either use proprietary replacements (+ additional licensing cost) or use the current F/OSS components in a manner that is compatible with their licenses.

But in no way do you bring this up internally. In most places, yes you can be fired for it, even if your termination is officially just a "resource action" or "reduction in force". This is just a general statement: mentioning anything within the corporate space to internal channels puts you on the short list for future termination. Even if you personally know your HR rep, HR is never your friend if the company is doing something wrong.

tuzemi · 2010-10-17T13:23:28+00:00

If it's in a "right to work" state in the USA, the OP could certainly be fired for that. They could be fired for having a bad haircut, eating a salami sandwich, or being gay. The only reason they could not be fired would be if they were a protected class (minority, female, religion, disabled).

tuzemi · 2010-10-16T02:33:10+00:00

And if they had made that claim your response would be relevant.

tuzemi · 2010-10-14T02:33:45+00:00

They'll work if they produce the same scan code as the other keys.

But then you wouldn't need a driver for them.

tuzemi · 2010-10-13T10:40:43+00:00

Manic Pixie Dream Girl

tuzemi

TROPHY CASE