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Education

Is a Computer Science Degree Worth Getting Anymore? 630

Posted by Soulskill from the art-history-is-back-on-top dept.
snydeq writes "Self-taught technologists are almost always better hires than those with a bachelor's degree in computer science and a huge student loan, writes Andrew Oliver. 'A recruiter recently asked me why employers are so picky. I explained that of the people who earned a computer science degree, most don't know any theory and can't code. Instead, they succeed at putting things on their resume that match keywords. Plus, companies don't consider it their responsibility to provide training or mentoring. In fairness, that's because the scarcity of talent has created a mercenary culture: "Now that my employer paid me to learn a new skill, let me check to see if there's an ad for it on Dice or Craigslist with a higher rate of pay." When searching for talent, I've stopped relying on computer science degrees as an indicator of anything except a general interest in the field. Most schools suck at teaching theory and aren't great at Java instruction, either. Granted, they're not much better with any other language, but most of them teach Java.'"

Comment Re:BLECK! (Score 1) 647

by Lorkki (#39031185) Attached to: GNOME 3: Beauty To the Bone?

I am all for experimentation and choice. Gnome wants to remove that choice.

If you preferred GNOME 2, you might want to check out MATE. As far as I know, the GNOME Project has done nothing to hinder their efforts.

Comment Re:NT4 was such an abomination... (Score 1) 221

by Lorkki (#37964552) Attached to: MS Traces Duqu Zero-Day To Font Parsing In Win32k

This, plus proliferation of antialased rendering offsets advancements in CPU power - to the point that navigating source code in QtCreator on my Linux box is not that smooth as I'd like it to be.

That almost certainly has more to do with either display sync issues (which sadly aren't uncommon on a composited X desktop especially with non-free drivers) or the various services of the IDE. Anti-aliased font and line drawing aren't that demanding to begin with, and can be GPU-accelerated with pretty much any hardware you might have picked up within the last five years or so.

Image

Theater Professor's Firefly Poster Declared Threatening Screenshot-sm 566

Posted by samzenpus from the wait-until-they-find-out-about-reavers dept.
ocean_soul writes "Probably because nothing more threatening was happening and they need to prove their usefulness the school police at University of Wisconsin-Stout decided a Firefly poster with the quote: "You don't know me, son, so let me explain this to you once: If I ever kill you, you'll be awake. You'll be facing me. And you'll be armed," was a threat to the safety on campus. Wasn't that a quote about not killing people?"
Education

Code Hero: Play and Learn 101

Posted by timothy from the young-man's-or-lady's-illustrated-primer dept.
mikejuk writes with a bit from I Programmer on what sounds like an intriguing new game: "If you're bored with games where you run around shooting soldiers or monsters, how about a game where you shoot enemies to win computer code snippets that you can then use to shape the reality around you? It's good to play and good enough to win both the Editor's Choice and Kid's Choice at this year's Bay Area Maker Faire." The linked story has a video demo, too.
Science

Hair Growth Signal Dictated By Fat Cells 146

Posted by Soulskill from the let-it-shine-let-it-shine dept.
RogerRoast writes "According to an article published in the journal Cell, molecular signals from fat cell (adipocyte) precursors under the skin are necessary to spur hair growth in mice. Yale researchers report in the paper that these cells produce molecules called PDGF (platelet derived growth factors), which are necessary to produce hair growth. The discovery of the source of signals that trigger hair growth may lead to new treatments for baldness. The trick is in getting adipocyte precursors under the skin to talk to stem cells at the base of the hair follicles."
Google

Google Launches Identity Verification Badge Scheme 241

Posted by samzenpus from the papers-please dept.
theodp writes "CNET reports that rather than backing down after complaints about its insistence that Google+ user accounts be opened under a real name, Google has upped the ante and will pin 'verification badges' on users in an effort to assure people that 'the person you're adding to a circle is really who they claim to be.' In a Friday night post, Google employee Wen-Ai Yu explained that the Google+ team is initially 'focused on verifying public figures, celebrities, and people who have been added to a large number of Circles, but we're working on expanding this to more folks.'"
Crime

Terrorist Target Mexican Nanotechnology Professors 234

Posted by samzenpus from the enter-the-unobomber dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A Mexican terrorist organization sent an explosive device to an ITESM professor due to his research in nanotechnology. ITS or Individuals with Wild Tendencies in english, is a group that claims to be against the 'nanotechnology revolution' in fear of a nanomachine take over that will mean the end of civilization. The group has published on their website that they plan to target individuals in this research field to ensure the survival of mankind. Mexican authorities are investigating the case."

Comment Re:This can't be!! (Score 1) 463

by Lorkki (#36770698) Attached to: Watch Out Linux, GNU Hurd Coming
DNF was finished thanks to being given to a development team that had actually released a game within the last ten years. So it's completely plausible that they finally got people into Hurd whose goal is to finish real projects as opposed to chasing perfect ideas.
Government

US House Takes Up Major Overhaul of Patent System 205

Posted by samzenpus from the cleaning-things-up dept.
Bookworm09 writes "The House took up the most far-reaching overhaul of the patent system in 60 years today, with a bill both parties say will make it easier for inventors to get their innovations to market and help put people back to work. Backed by Obama and business groups, the legislation aims to ease the lengthy backlog in patent applications, clean up some of the procedures that can lead to costly litigation and put the United States under the same filing system as the rest of the industrialized world."
Firefox

No Additional Firefox 4 Security Updates 445

Posted by samzenpus from the you're-cut-off dept.
CWmike writes "Unnoticed in the Tuesday release of Firefox 5 was Mozilla's decision to retire Firefox 4, shipped just three months ago. Mozilla spelled out vulnerabilities it had patched in that edition and in 2010's Firefox 3.6, but it made no mention of any bugs fixed in Firefox 4 on Tuesday, because Firefox 4 has reached what Mozilla calls EOL, for 'end of life,' for patches. Although the move may have caught users by surprise, the decision to stop supporting Firefox 4 has been discussed within Mozilla for weeks. In a mozilla.dev.planning mailing list thread, Christian Legnitto, the Firefox release manager, put it most succinctly on May 25: 'Firefox 5 will be the security update for Firefox 4.' Problem is, users are being prompted to upgrade now but are hesitant because the new rapid release of updates means many add-ons are not compatible. And without security updates in between, many could be left exposed with unpatched browsers."

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