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Comment: Traceroute (Score 1) 558

by wallyhall (#43535599) Attached to: Average latency to Slashdot.org?
Well, tracert. Am stuck on a cruddy Windows workstation.

3 7 ms 6 ms 6 ms
4 9 ms 52 ms 75 ms core1-pos0-14-0-11.faraday.ukcore.bt.net []
5 11 ms 10 ms 11 ms
6 7 ms 7 ms 6 ms core1-pos9-1.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net []
7 8 ms 7 ms 7 ms 166-49-211-157.eu.bt.net []
8 7 ms 7 ms 7 ms bcr1-at-3-1-0-950.londonlnx.savvis.net []
9 9 ms 8 ms 8 ms
10 98 ms 97 ms 97 ms cr2-te-0-3-0-3.chd.savvis.net []
11 100 ms 100 ms 100 ms hr2-tengigabitethernet-12-1.elkgrovech3.savvis.net []
12 98 ms 98 ms 98 ms das5-v3031.ch3.savvis.net []
13 101 ms 107 ms 107 ms
14 98 ms 98 ms 98 ms slashdot.org []

Trace complete.

Comment: Re:3 screens ... efficiently. (Score 1) 312

by wallyhall (#43061863) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Monitor Setup For Programmers
I realise I only answered the later of your two questions!

Forgive me.

For your laptop/screen setup, if that's all you can have, I'd raise the laptop (stack of books works well) so the top is in-line with the top of your main screen. Put it to the left (or right, whichever feels best) and have your big screen central.

Your neck will thank you in the long-run. :) (Left/right turns are easier than up/down, I strongly believe.)

As others have said - get a USB keyboard and mouse (Â£10 online).

Comment: 3 screens ... efficiently. (Score 1) 312

by wallyhall (#43061851) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Monitor Setup For Programmers
Middle holds the code I'm working on (Notepad2, Delphi, midnight commander or most likely vim - with PuTTY maximised.)

Windows taskbar sits at the top of the middle screen, as it feels most natural to me... (given I have no choice of OS at work).

Left of me is usually my inbox or a production monitoring screen, because I have that responsibility too. With web app programming it holds a browser showing the rendering of my latest code probably with the javascript debugger running. Depending on the nature of the code, it might be another PuTTY session with a "tail -f /var/log/mycode" ... because I rarely get it right first time ;-)

Finally on the right, php.net or Delphi's awesome help files, or even some reference material from stackoverflow (WIN). Slashdot sits in a tab at the back there.

Most importantly, with 3 screens I've never felt I don't have enough space. My brain can only handle 2 things at once (i.e. code and code output, or stackoverflow and code, or code output and the email I'm copying it into, etc) ... but my brain (personally) gets distracted if I loose something "behind" another. So having that 3rd screen lets me have 3 things open, switching between any combination of a pair.

I like having them big enough for my poor eye sight, reasonably low brightness setting (with high contrast). Different white balance annoys me, but that's a personal thing purely.

Finally, they have to be high enough. I'm tall, and I sit upon a gym ball to try and enforce my naturally awful posture. Having the screens a little higher than recommended relieves my neck pain hugely. (Someone will no doubt tell me I'm wrong here! I personally find it works well, judging by how well I sleep at late.)

A non-distracting wallpaper (solid colour) or a good MacOSX shipped offering and no icons (no, not one!) ... they distract me hugely. And a little tip from myself, have the two on the left/right slightly lower (if your taskbar is at the top, or slightly higher if the bottom) so you can move straight to the start button and system tray and have Windows "corner" your mouse cursor for you (without it flying off to another screen).

I've met several good programmers who swear 2 is enough, I've secretly sourced and subtly (like a ninja) installed a 3rd screen for them, they didn't even notice for the first few hours. They've all eventually converted.

It's not about *using* all three, it's about having the room to spread work out, without having to context switch yourself between stacks of windows. Well, at least it is for me.

Comment: Re:Simple (Score 1) 76

by wallyhall (#41726485) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How To Both Mirror and Protect Crowdsourced Data?
[Not so] simple?

I may be wrong, as the OP didn't mention budget!

However looking at their site, I'm guessing they're desperate to keep costs to an absolute minimum - correct me if I'm wrong (please), I think the S3 would be potentially quite expensive?

I *think* the OP is looking for crowd-source solutions, i.e. a way for people to run mirrors themselves whilst maintaining integrity and copyright(s).

Comment: I can't enter, I'm not a US citizen - but... (Score 1) 240

by wallyhall (#41706243) Attached to: Free Online Education Unwelcome In Minnesota
...if any US citizen *does* want to enter, feel free to take my idea! (I'm sure many others have proposed it already though...) Simply a CAPTCHA, audio version. Using DTMF codes to answer. i.e. "To connect this phone call, please type the number three thousand, seven hundred and twenty two on your keypad". Known "white listed" caller IDs can skip it. It can be made harder by presenting mathematics or asking "Please type on your keypad the number of duck quacks you hear ... woof quack moo quack woof." Etc.

Comment: Re:roundcube squirrelmail (Score 1) 554

by wallyhall (#37014828) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Self-Hosted Gmail Alternatives?
+1 parent. I've been using RoundCube for some time (3 - 4 years?), it's used both my myself (as a technical person) and many non-technical people, it both "gets on with the job" and provides a glossy UI for doing it (by glossy, I mean it's pretty and it shows similarity to popular desktop environments, like Windows, Gnome, KDE and OSX - drag/drop, buttons, scrolly bits, HTML previews, WYSIWYG editors, etc). It's only a web UI for IMAP though, so you're still going to need something powerful on the back-end for spam etc. For an MTA (email server), I use Courier-MTA. The whole lot can be installed on Debian (Â£30 a month dedicated server, or less for a virtual/home hosted option) in a day, there after I can honestly say you rarely have to touch it. Happy to provide help if you want it ... http://matt.matzi.org.uk/
