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Submission + - Is Stanford too close to Silicon Valley? (newyorker.com)

Submitted by
nicholast
nicholast writes: "A New Yorker story by Ken Auletta about the connections between Stanford and Silicon Valley. The piece explains how important the University is to tech companies and venture capital firms, but it also questions whether the university has become too focused on wealth. "It’s an atmosphere that can be toxic to the mission of the university as a place of refuge, contemplation, and investigation for its own sake," says one professor. The piece also explains Stanford's conflicted thoughts about distance education: which could transform the university or prove to be a threat to it."
PlayStation (Games)

Submission + - Inside the Playstation Studio SDK (gamefromscratch.com)

Submitted by Serapth
Serapth writes: Sony recently released the PlayStation Studio SDK to open beta. Using PSS people are able to write games for various PlayStation certified devices in a C#/Mono based environment. This post takes a look at what's included in the SDK, which is surprisingly quite a bit.
Science

Submission + - Brain Scan Can Predict Math Mistakes (itworld.com)

Submitted by
itwbennett
itwbennett writes: "Computer Science Ph.D. candidate Federico Cirett says that he can predict with 80 percent accuracy when someone is about to make a mistake on a math question. Using an EEG machine, Cirett can identify the patterns in a volunteer's thinking that are likely to result in an error 20 seconds or so before it's made. 'If we can detect when they are going to fail, maybe we can change the text or switch the question to give them another one at a different level of difficulty, but also to keep them engaged,' Cirett said. 'Brain wave data is the nearest thing we have to really know when the students are having problems.' He will present a paper on his findings at the User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization conference in July."
Politics

Submission + - New Obama Administration Sanctions Target Syrian and Iranian Tech Capacity

Submitted by vivIsel
vivIsel writes: This morning, President Obama is set to unveil a new executive order that will allow the U.S. to specifically target sanctions against individuals, companies or countries who use technology to enable human rights abuse. Especially as repressive regimes more effectively monitor their dissidents online (rather than simply blocking access), the sanctions focus on companies that help them do that.

President Obama is set to announce the sanctions in a speech at the Holocaust Museum in D.C. — which will be livestreamed starting at 9:45AM EDT.
Censorship

Submission + - Google helped with CISPA,quietly worked with the bill's authors behind the scene (zdnet.com)

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes: One spark of hope to the people and organizations that oppose cyberspying bill CISPA was that in the list of 28 corporate sponsors (including Facebook), Google was nowhere to be seen. But now CISPA’s author Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) has bragged that Google had, in fact, quietly worked with the bill’s authors behind the scenes. According to Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and number-one fan for the execution of Wikileaks whisteblower Bradley Manning — Google is “very supportive” of CISPA.

CISPA has been nicknamed “SOPA 2 but is more accurately described as a setup to wipe out decades of consumer privacy protections, giving the US government unprecedented access to individuals’ online data and communications. Now it seems we know where Google stands, too. The bill primarily protects internet companies that share private data and communications with the government — it promotes digital spying on citizens without a warrant under the guise of cybersecurity. The bill’s vague language, in addition to the power it can give Homeland Security entities involved in domain shutdowns to go after sites such as Wikileaks, has had CISPA labeled as a relative to SOPA and PIPA.
Education

Submission + - Computers Can't Read (nytimes.com)

Submitted by
stoolpigeon
stoolpigeon writes: "With a large study showingsoftware grades essays as well as humans, but much faster, it might seem that soon humans will be completely out of the loop when it comes to evaluating standardized tests. But Les Perelman, a writing teacher at MIT, has shown the limits of algorythms used for grading with an essay that got a top score from an automated system but contained no relevant information and many innaccuracies. Mr. Perelman outlined his approach for the NY Times after he was given a month to analyze E-Rater, one of the software packages that grades essays."
Earth

Submission + - Satellite system will speed up tsunami warnings (nature.com)

Submitted by ananyo
ananyo writes: NASA and a group of universities known as the READI network have begun testing an earthquake-warning system based on satellite data from the Global Positioning System (http://www.nature.com/news/satellite-system-will-speed-up-tsunami-warnings-1.10480). The method could have allowed Japanese officials to issue accurate warnings of the deadly March 2011 earthquake and tsunami (http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/12/07/0427217/merging-tsunami-amplified-destruction-in-japan) ten times faster than they did, say scientists.
The system is currently being tested using the US Pacific Northwest Geodetic Array: hundreds of GPS receivers placed along the North American coast between Northern California and British Columbia in Canada.
While conventional seismometers provide similar information, they run into trouble with earthquakes of magnitude 7 or higher. This is partly because in big quakes, the ground may shake for longer, but not significantly harder. GPS has no such problem, because it directly measures the movement of the ground.
Education

Submission + - The Crisis of Big Science (nybooks.com)

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: The New York Review of Books has an article penned by Steven Weinberg lamenting the future of physics, cosmology and this era of "big science" in which we find ourselves. A quote from Goldhaber sums up the problem nicely, 'The first to disintegrate a nucleus was Rutherford, and there is a picture of him holding the apparatus in his lap. I then always remember the later picture when one of the famous cyclotrons was built at Berkeley, and all of the people were sitting in the lap of the cyclotron.' The article is lengthy with a history of big physics projects (most painfully perhaps the SSC) but Weinberg's message ultimately comes across as pessimism laced with fatalism — easily understandable given his experiences with government funding. Unfortunately he notes, 'Big science has the special problem that it can’t easily be scaled down. It does no good to build an accelerator tunnel that only goes halfway around the circle.' Apparently this article mirrors his talk given in January at the American Astronomical Society. If not our government, will anyone fund these immense projects or will physics slowly grind to a halt due to fiscal constraints?
Science

Submission + - The Scientific Method Versus Scientific Evidence In The Courtroom (litigationandtrial.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A few months back, the National Research Council and the Federal Judicial Center published the Third Edition of the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence, the primary guide for federal judges in the United States trying to evaluate scientific evidence. One chapter in particular, “How Science Works,” written by David Goodstein (Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at CalTech), has raised the issue of how judges should see science in the courtroom: should they look at science to see if it matches our idealized view of the scientific method, or should they consider the realities of science, where people advocate for their own theories far more than they question them?
Education

Submission + - University of Florida Cuts Computer Science, Ups Athletic Budget (forbes.com) 1

Submitted by
scubamage
scubamage writes: "In an incredulous move, the University of Florida has cut its Computer Science and Engineering Department in an effort to save 1.7 million dollars a year. Yet at the same time, it has increased funding to its athletics department by more than 2 million dollars a year. The move has spurred criticism across the industry and academia, and caused the launch of a "Save the CS Department" website, and incited student protests. Ironically, all of this seems to be happening as Florida Governor Rick Scott is evangelizing a push towards STEM education (while cutting education budgets by more than 30%)."

Submission + - Diet of buckyballs nearly doubles rat lifespan (gizmag.com) 1

Submitted by cylonlover
cylonlover writes: Sometimes I (almost) envy mice, rats, and yeast — it seems that almost any aging research we carry out on them doubles their lifespan and returns semi-senescent (say, a human equivalent of about 60 years of age — not thinking of anyone in particular, of course) to youthful vigor. It now appears that dramatic anti-aging results are associated with dietary ingestion of buckyballs, more properly known as C-60 fullerene. A recent French study study looking for chronic toxicity resulting from ingesting buckyballs dissolved in olive oil found that 10 month old rats who ingested the human equivalent of a tenth of a gram of C-60 buckyballs (which in technical grades cost less than US$10/gram) several times a week showed extended lifespans instead of toxic effects.
Communications

Submission + - Tethr puts disaster-zone worldwide connectivity into your backpack (bbc.com)

Submitted by
shmorhay
shmorhay writes: "Aaron Huslage, an experienced disaster-zone communications expert, has used the lessons learned from setting up wireless networks in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 to create an open-source communications hub packed in a waterproof Pelican box that will help first responders link to the outside world from within crisis zones. See the BBC news article at http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120413-communicating-in-a-crisis and see his application for funding at http://newschallenge.tumblr.com/post/19450685278/tethr-evolving-networks and also at http://angel.co/tethr ."
Hardware

Submission + - Terahertz CMOS video camera (ieee.org)

Submitted by zigfreed
zigfreed writes: From IEMN, STMicroelectronics, and the University of Wuppertal comes a 1024 pixel terahertz camera capable of 25fps. Fabricated on 65nm, it won't give a resolution good enough for the TSA but will allow new applications to be developed in the 0.6 to 1THz range.
Microsoft

Submission + - Skype 1.0 for Windows Phone released, still no background multi-tasking (video) (tech-stew.com)

Submitted by
techfun89
techfun89 writes: "The wait is over the official Skype 1.0 for Windows Phone has arrived and can be downloaded via the Windows Phone Marketplace, fulfilling Microsoft's statement at the Mobile World Congress that it would be arriving in April.

With Skype for Windows Phone you can interface with over 200 million people that use Skype each month on multiple platforms. Skype for Windows Phone can be used across 4G, 3G and Wi-Fi networks and supports 18 languages.

Skype for Windows Phone works with Windows Phone 7.5 and higher (Mango). Unfortunately you still can't receive Skype calls while the app isn't running on the phone. The new version of Skype includes a new feature that lets you search your contacts and add them on Skype. Included is the ability to dial landline phone numbers, quicker boot times and other fixes."
Open Source

Submission + - An Interview With Linus Torvalds (techcrunch.com)

Submitted by dgharmon
dgharmon writes: In recognition of his creation of a new open source operating system kernel for computers leading to the widely used Linux operating system. The free availability of Linux on the Web swiftly caused a chain-reaction leading to further development and fine-tuning worth the equivalent of 73,000 man-years.

Today millions use computers, smartphones and digital video recorders like Tivo run on Linux. Linus Torvalds’ achievements have had a great impact on shared software development, networking and the openness of the web, making it accessible for millions, if not billions.
Facebook

Submission + - products the Facebook generation does not use (yahoo.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: According to 24/7 Wall Street, email use among young people declined 59% in a single year. Other products no longer used by youth include landline phones in favour of mobiles, and desktop computers.

Does this signal the beginning of the end for the aging protocol?

Submission + - Monsanto threatens to sue Vermont over GMO labelling requirement (blacklistednews.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Things are heating up on the genetic engineering front in the state of Vermont, where an overwhelming 96 percent of Vermonters vehemently support “right to know” legislation that mandates full disclosure of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) on food labels. But according to Ronnie Cummins from the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), Monsanto is now threatening to sue the state of Vermont should it dare to pass such legislation, which has stalled it in committee.
United States

Submission + - In Nothing We Trust 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Ron Fournier and Sophie Quinton write in the National Journal that seven in 10 Americans believe that the country is on the wrong track; eight in 10 are dissatisfied with the way the nation is being governed, only 23 percent have confidence in banks, and just 19 percent have confidence in big business. Less than half the population expresses “a great deal” of confidence in the public-school system or organized religion. “We have lost our gods,” says Laura Hansen. "We’ve lost it—that basic sense of trust and confidence—in everything.” Humans are coded to create communities, and communities beget institutions. What if, in the future, they don’t? People could disconnect, refocus inward, and turn away from their social contract. Already, many are losing trust. If society can’t promise benefits for joining it, its members may no longer feel bound to follow its rules. But history reminds us that America’s leaders can draw the nation together to solve problems. At a moment of gaping income inequality, when the country was turbulently transitioning from a farm economy to a factory one, President Theodore Roosevelt reminded Americans, “To us, as a people, it has been granted to lay the foundations of our national life.” At the height of the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt chastised the business and political leaders who had led the country into ruin. “These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men," said FDR. “Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation asks for action, and action now.""

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