MetaFilter posts tagged with it

It doesn't matter who's wrong or right. Just beat it.

Blazecock Pileon — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:23:44 -0800

Loosening up locked-down corporate IT

porn in the woods — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 09:40:10 -0800

Over on Slate, Farhad Manjoo writes that corporate IT ought to allow users more freedom in web browser selection and installation rights on their work computers. John C. Welch responds.

Drew Caricature

Christ, what an asshole — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 10:56:11 -0800

Can't get enough Whose Line is it Anyway? 71 Scenes From a Hat, 16 Party Quirks, 52 Props, 5 Film Dubs, 84 Hoedowns, 37 Sound Effects, 45 Questions Only, 11 Hats/Dating Service Videos, 52 World's Worst, 13 News Flashes, 35 Let's Make a Date, 9 Press Conferences, 60 Superheroes, 6 Foreign Film Dubs, 29 Irish Drinking Songs, 4 Animals, 9 If You Know What I Mean, 2 Backwards Scene, 54 Greatest Hits, 58 Song Styles, 2 All in One Voice, 21 Scenes to Rap, 3 90-Second Alphabets, 11 Questionable Impressions, 4 Two-Line Vocabulary, 3 Number of Words, 17 Weird Newscasters and (probably the most telling of how much they had to hold back due to censorship standards) 6 Blooper Reels. Prefer the UK version? Every episode of Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

Harry Kalas, 1936-2009

SansPoint — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 12:20:09 -0800

Hall of Fame member, Phillies broadcaster, and NFL Films announcer Harry Kalas passed away today. At least he got to make his World Series victory call.

Wanted: Go-getter with inquisitive nature and a high tolerance for gore, sleaze, and the baser instincts of humanity.

Afroblanco — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 11:03:53 -0800

Last year, Infoworld published their list of the 7 dirtiest jobs in IT. This year, they're back with 7 even dirtier jobs. via/.

Leave It to Beaver

Oriole Adams — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:59:51 -0800

It's Friday, what better time to relish in the carefree world that was Leave It to Beaver. Even though it was "just" a TV show, how many of us, back in our youth, could relate to anxiety of being given the dreaded note from a teacher? Of course, as with any syndicated sitcom, there are stories behind the various actors. And other stories as well... ...mean ol' Judy Hensler (played by Jeri Weil) was written out of the series once puberty struck and she refused to bind her breasts. Stanley Fafara, who played Whitey Whitney, succumbed to drugs. And Rusty Stevens, who played Beav's best friend Larry Mondello, disappeared into such obscurity that it took a private detective to find him for the Beaver reunion movie.

Two Google searches use as much energy as boiling the kettle for a cup of tea

nthdegx — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 15:39:25 -0800

Revealed: the environmental impact of Google searches - "Physicist Alex Wissner-Gross says that performing two Google searches uses up as much energy as boiling the kettle for a cup of tea."

What, you know him too?

nakedcodemonkey — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 02:23:37 -0800

Where Is Bob? We have a manager — Bob. Bob is incompetent, overweight, unattractive, uncouth, socially awkward, and generally, not a very nice person at all. For a while, we were convinced that Bob had no redeeming qualities whatsoever. But then, something happened — Bob stopped showing up for work on a regular basis. Sometimes he wouldn’t even bother explaining his absence, acting as if spontaneous five-day weekends were simply the norm. And that is how everyone came to wonder — where is Bob?

Have You Got It Yet?

DecemberBoy — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 12:31:49 -0800

Syd Barrett, the iconic, ephemeral, sadly recently-deceased founder and original frontman of Pink Floyd, recorded several singles and an LP (plus at least one song on their second LP) with the band before his genius was amputated by mental illness and they became an arena rock dinosaur. He also recorded two solo albums, the making of which was almost as interesting as the gentle, crystalline, almost fractal-like music contained on them. However, as Barrett aficionados have long known, the solo sessions produced many more recordings than were eventually released. Now, though, all known Barrett material that wasn't commercially released has been assembled in a fan-made collection: Have You Got It Yet?, version 2.0 of which has just been released to the world. More download links inside. The collection was compiled by the Laughing Madcaps Yahoo group. If you join, you can alternatively ask a member to send you the collection via mail rather than downloading it. Basically, volumes 1, 2 and 3 cover his time with the Floyd (including their ultra-rare first recording, King Bee b/w Lucy Leave, and several versions of his equally rare last recordings with them, Vegetable Man and Scream Your Last Scream), volume 4 is never-before-heard outtakes from his solo recording sessions (none of which were released on Opel, bonus tracks for the rerelease of Madcap, etc.), and the rest of the volumes contain various interviews and other odds and ends. Version 2.0 consists of better quality versions of the tracks on volumes 1&2 of version 1. The whole collection is a large download, and if you're not interested in all of it I would recommend grabbing version 2.0, then using a BitTorrent client such as Azureus which allows you to select individual files and grabbing just volumes 3 and 4 from version 1. Complete track listing and download link for volumes 1-10 of version 1 And, just as a bonus: Legendary interview with Rolling Stone, 1971 Trouser Press article, 1978 - probably the best article ever written about Syd

Wubi: Ubuntu the easy way

Foci for Analysis — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 08:09:41 -0800

Ubuntu has quickly become the number one Linux distro for the desktop. Not only is it free, but it has also made Linux easier to use than ever. Now, Wubi enables Windows users to install Ubuntu just like any other application, so you no longer have to mess around with partitions, burning CDs, etc. Be advised that Wubi is just an installer, i.e. it still has to download Ubuntu, ca 700 MB in size, from the web. The software is still beta. Interesting info from the Wubi FAQ:

What are the system requirements? 256 MB RAM and an 1 GHz or faster Intel/AMD processor is recommended for optimal performance, though Xubuntu might work on less. As for disk space, the installation requires a minimum of 4GB. This space is mostly used by the virtual hard disk file. Most computers purchased within the last 3 years should be able to run Ubuntu fine, and Xubuntu is suitable for older computers. What platforms are supported? Wubi will run on on all Windows versions from Windows 98 to Windows Vista, more platforms to come soon. 64-bit builds are possible but not yet available. Linux/*nix/*BSD are supported through Lubi (download location and guide), and Mac OSX will eventually be supported through Mubi (developers still needed). How does Wubi work? Wubi adds an entry to the Windows boot menu which allows you to run Linux. Ubuntu is installed within a file in the windows file system (c:\wubi\disks\system.virtual.disk), this file is seen by Linux as a real hard disk. Is this running Ubuntu within a virtual environment or something similar? No. This is a real installation, the only difference is that Ubuntu is installed within a file as opposed to being installed within its own partition. Thus we spare you the trouble to create a free partition for Ubuntu. And we spare you the trouble to have to burn a CD-Rom. What flavor of Ubuntu will I get? Most flavors, including Ubuntu (default, with GNOME), Kubuntu (with KDE), Xubuntu (with XFCE for older computers), Edubuntu (good for schools and younger users) and UbuntuStudio (for multimedia workstations). Contact us if you would like your own flavor to be available for installation via Wubi. How do I run Ubuntu? You have to reboot and choose "Ubuntu". How do I run Windows? You have to reboot and choose "Windows". How do I uninstall it? You uninstall it as any other applications. In windows go to the control panel and select "Add or Remove Programs", then select Wubi and uninstall it. You can also use the uninstaller that you find in C:\wubi\uninstaller.exe.

ARTISTdirect MediaDefender

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 09:16:35 -0800

Anti-Piracy agents MediaDefender have 700MiB of juicy internal emails leaked on BitTorrent; are in trouble.

For the public good, or just out of a job?

vhsiv — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 08:46:25 -0800

25 y.o. whistle-blower. Last Fall, a 24 y.o. by the name of Justen Deal, blew the whistle on what he perceived to be profligate waste by his employers. As an IT guy at Kaiser-Permanente, he'd seen a $442 million database project scrapped by the new CEO and replaced by a sweetheart deal for one of the CEO's former contractors. Internal estimates placed Kaiser's losses on this new contract at $1.2 billion dollars per quarter [more inside]

0118 999 881 999 119 7253

cmicali — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 14:54:14 -0800

The IT Crowd is a sitcom produced for Channel 4. Although it follows the traditional laugh-track sitcom format, it manages to have some really funny moments. Season one was only six episodes, but season 2 is due to start this January. Chris Morris is particularly good as the CEO, Denholm. Full episodes can be found on YouTube and Google Video.

India's Outsourcing Problems

PreacherTom — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 04:31:54 -0800

India's Outsourcing Problems One of the most controversial aspects of the global economy has been the newfound freedom of companies from physical location and the subsequent spread of outsourcing jobs. No country had embraced tech outsourcing with the passion of India. Of late, problems there are beginning to rise: engineers start a project, get a few months' experience, and then bolt for greener pastures, bringing a level of attrition that replaces entire staffs within the course of a year. Combine that with salaries in Bangalore that are rising at 12% to 14% per year and it is no surprise that companies are leaving India for a slew of emerging hot spots for IT outsourcing such as the old Soviet Bloc, China, and Vietnam. This comes as companies such as Microsoft continue to laud outsourcing and proudly proclaim that it is here to stay, and it looks as if Ho Chi Minh City will be the next Bangalore.

IT vs User... FIGHT!

smallerdemon — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 15:33:05 -0800

Half of IT managers admit to hating their users... a lot. - But it's ok, because the users hate IT too. No, they really hate IT. Perhaps IT isn't meeting customer demands. And it isn't like either side's attitudes have changed much over time (July 2001).
In the long term, it simply may never work out between IT and the users. After all, IT support is just like any other customer service job. And we all know customers suck enough for people to start web pages about it... again and again.

Etherkiller

cbrody — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 17:30:04 -0800

How to make friends with your IT department

Bastard Operator From Hell, compleat archives

BlackLeotardFront — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 16:51:59 -0800

The latest BOFH, or Bastard Operator From Hell. If you read The Register you're familiar with him... It's the story of an abusive IT guy basically doing whatever he wants to users and getting away with it. It's been going on for about 10 years, all of which is archived, so if that one doesn't tease your fancy, maybe some of those will. If you're not familiar with basic IT stuff some of it may be foreign to you, but once I started reading I couldn't stop. Try a couple years back, 2002 is a good vintage. >clickety<

Long Live Freedom....

NotMyselfRightNow — Mon, 20 Dec 2004 14:10:49 -0800

CEO of eBay's Indian company arrested for an item offered up for sale on his site. Avnish Bajaj, the CEO of baazee.com, an Indian auction site purchased by eBay in June 2004, was arrested on Friday while assisting in the investigation into the attempted sale of pornography by a user on the auction site, and charged with violating the 2000 India IT Act. Bajaj was arrested even though he was not involved in the sale, had it cancelled as soon as it was found, and the people involved had already been arrested.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic

daHIFI — Thu, 02 Dec 2004 12:50:31 -0800

Google's sorcery You use it, I use it some 30-40 times a day, but did you ever wonder exactly how they do it? The numbers are staggering:

# Over four billion Web pages, each an average of 10KB, all fully indexed. # Up to 2,000 PCs in a cluster. # Over 30 clusters. # 104 interface languages including Klingon and Tagalog. # One petabyte of data in a cluster -- so much that hard disk error rates of 10-15 begin to be a real issue. # Sustained transfer rates of 2Gbps in a cluster. # An expectation that two machines will fail every day in each of the larger clusters. # No complete system failure since February 2000.

Is Google God? (via /.)

build your own datacenter

tcp — Fri, 16 Apr 2004 01:44:07 -0800

The Intel IT Manager Game lets you manage an IT department (flash, reg. required, you don't have to enter a valid e-mail address). Here is another attempt (click "Simulation" at the top). For those who rather calculate than point-and-click, try the Ipas TCO simulation. [via Flex-MX Blog]

New ideas through your headphones

turbodog — Tue, 30 Mar 2004 14:57:10 -0800

The IT Conversations motto is "New ideas through your headphones" and offers audio interviews with well-known technology personalities. Ever wonder what Craig Newmark's or Bram Cohen's voices sound like?

Techies Left Behind

Postroad — Fri, 16 Jan 2004 09:18:45 -0800

Techies Left Behind James Pace Jr. used to work as a steamfitter in a General Electric plant in Bridgeport. That was back in the early '70s, when the grapevine was alive with warnings: These jobs are going overseas. Go back to school. There's no future here. Pace left the plant, enrolled in computer school, studied information technology and never looked back. That is, not until 23 years later, on the day he was told his $100,000-a-year job as an IT (information technology) consultant had been sent to India

Personal information being sent abroad

homunculus — Sun, 09 Nov 2003 17:28:52 -0800

We need an "Information Technology Disclosure Act." The Programmer's Guild is pushing for the creation of legislation to require companies which outsource abroad to tell consumers when their sensitive personal information is being sent to companies in other countries. This aspect of outsourcing has gotten little attention, but the SF Chronicle's David Lazarus has reported on it being done by hospitals (like UCSF, which is being threatened over back pay by a transcriber in Pakistan), accountants, banks (BofA), telecom companies (SBC), and perhaps most alarmingly, two of the three major credit-reporting agencies.

Well...now what?

dejah420 — Sat, 20 Sep 2003 21:51:43 -0800

CIO Magazine reports estimates that by the end of 2004 one in 10 IT jobs at U.S. IT companies and one in 20 at non-IT companies will move offshore. And yet, as it turns out...the "savings" that these companies are touting are largely imaginary. (more inside)

Information Technology

SandeepKrishnamurthy — Thu, 29 May 2003 07:11:07 -0800

Does Information Technology(IT) matter? A recent Harvard Business Review paper has been criticized for its controversial stance that IT does not matter. Does it?