Nerd Girls Community

Making Vista Work for Me

2008-07-27T13:08:20-06:00

This post could also be called, reverting back to Windows XP in the Windows Vista environment!

I finally got tired of trying to work on my Vista computer - as it was slow, and annoyingly questioning everything I did.

So I searched on google for “improve Vista performance” and found some excellent recommendations:

1: Disable indexing. Use google’s search instead
2: Change performance settings to be based on best performance, not display. Essentially this takes away all of those GUI intense “perks” of the Vista experience. I do recommend enabling the smooth font edges option.
3: Uninstall any programs that I really don’t need.

Honestly, by doing all of the above I now have a machine that you would think was an XP box, not Vista. For this I say YAAAAAY! And it is actually responding quickly so I can work on a website design.

So it can be done!

would you take an evil job?

2008-07-20T14:06:30-06:00

i gotta be honest… i had an internship for a power plant company once, and during a lunch-n-learn session they had a talk once from a project manager whose team had just bulldozed wetlands to build a plant. it was a little scary, and he had NO idea how we were all taking it. I talked to some coworkers after that and they were in agreement, like, “he might as well have had a powerpoint slide with baby otters dying!”

so I’ve made it my resolution to try to stay out of jobs that involve, say, making bombs, screwing too much with the environment, general badness. but it’s tough. who’s to judge what’s good and bad, right?

plus I feel like if I ever want to work someplace REALLY cool, like NASA, i’ll have to start off in defense. making fighters.

anyway I’ve been in the workforce for a while and luckily I’ve been able to avoid anything controversial, but I still worry what the future brings. is this something that any of you think about? have you been able to successfully draw the line and decide which jobs you will and won’t take? is that even possible? so much about engineering is about making the world a better place, but it’s powerful, you’ve got to watch out for the other side sometimes!

Cell Phone Warnings. . .breaking news in Pittsburgh

2008-07-24T08:50:39-06:00

So, while I don’t think it is “anything new,” a local doctor is issueing warnings about the health risks of cell phone use. I don’t use my cell phone a large amount, but Ido actually work with my laptop on my lapop (I have a back issue that is healing still, so I have to lay down most the day - good thing I work from home!)

Here is a link with the warning in the news:
http://kdka.com/seenon/cell.phone.health.2.777769.html

So - what are your thoughts on the impact that modern technologies are having on our health? What can we do (in the field of technology, engineering, etc) to protect ourselves from the potential dangers?

Solution to the nerd-chauvinist

2008-09-05T16:51:40-06:00

Many of you have possibly already seen this, but I was digging through XKCD looking for something and thought this might be worth dropping in here :)

xkcd.com comic 322

Scientifically speaking. . .how do you weigh in on the Energy Debates?

2008-07-23T08:00:18-06:00

As we all know (I think...if not...check it out in the news!! lol) , there are many debates and disagreements about how to provide more energy in the United States in the years to come. Outside of the United States there are also debates about the humanity of such new options as Ethanol - which is essentially consuming an unbalanced amount of foog.

What are some “solutions” common in your field to deal with the energy crisis?

If you could set out a plan to help the United States (or your own country if other than the US) become more energy independent, what would it be?

Venting. . .because we all need to sometimes!

2008-07-19T11:01:42-06:00

I am just posting this to vent. . .which I think we all need sometimes!

I am working on a major data warehouse. I am essentially the sole coder with generalized support from the programming department. This has been the biggest sql based project I have ever worked on - and the first data warehouse. Man have I learned alot!

I have been struggling with load times - the balance of resources, data update, and indexes. We are talking a good 10,0000+ fact records a day. Long story short, I spent all day yesterday reworking the timing of the index builds, setting up a rebuilt script, and testing load times. Since some of the scripts take over an hour to run this is a tedious part of the process. I can’t completely leave the computer, but I have to stay around in-case there are any errors. I also have to decide when its taking too long. I finally got things processed in a time frame that I think is acceptable. And I did so in time for the nightly load to kick off - finishing up around 11:30pm.

This morning I excitedly checked in.

Crap - I had forgotten to remove one of the store procedures. So the second step in the job (the step I had been testing the previous day) did not complete. Crap crap crap.

Anyway. I corrected the error and I am running the step again. Fingers crossed it should finish in approximately 7 hours. Then I can actually do the work that is billable for this customer - rewriting their original report scripts to point to the new data warehouse.

Anyone else have a vent? Feel free to follow up! You are not alone!

Let’s Talk Shop

2008-07-17T21:35:56-06:00

OK, for all you Nerd Girls out there who know what its like to have a tight timeframe on a project that you are trying to get out the door, lets talk about the first thing that gets cut every time something slips in your schedule because, Murphy’s Law, something’s inevitably goes wrong. QA - or Quality Assurance. How do you deal with having to cut down on your QA time, which ultimately puts the quality of your project in jeopardy?