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Security

Submission + - MIT Student Arrested for Bomb Hoax

Submitted by lechuck
lechuck writes: An MIT student was arrested at Logan International Airport this morning. She was in possession of a proto-board, LEDs, Resistors, and Play-Doh. Story says that she brought said equipment to the information desk and asked about the status of an arriving passenger. State Police Maj. Scott Pare is quoted as saying that "Thankfully, because she followed instructions as was required, she ended up in a cell as opposed to the morgue." I wonder if it was a picture of Err, since the local police seem to hate that little guy.Local Story Here.
Power

Submission + - Future Looks Bright for Large Scale Solar Farms

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "The economist reports that Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) systems that capture and focus the sun's rays to heat a working fluid and drive a turbine, are making a comeback. Although the world's largest solar farm was built over twenty years ago, until recently no new plants have been built. Now with the combination of federal energy credits, the enactment of renewable energy standards in many states, and public antipathy to coal fired power plant, the first such plant to be built in decades started providing 64 megawatts of electricity to Las Vegas this summer. Electricity from the Nevada plant costs an estimated 17 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh), but projections suggest that CSP power could fall to below ten cents per kWh as the technology improves. Coal power costs just 2-3 cents per kWh but that will likely rise if regulation eventually factors in the environmental costs of the carbon coal produces."
Communications

Submission + - Mobile phone makers agree on universal cable std. (blogspot.com)

Submitted by
Kaz911
Kaz911 writes: "Mobile phone manufactures agree on universal cable standard!

According to Press Release from OMTP — the Open Mobile Terminal Platform — have agreed to use Micro USB as the future cable standard for charging and connection to computers and other devices.

Micro USB is NOT mini USB — the connector on many phones today.

Among the participants in OMTP are Operators like Vodaphone and T-Mobile — and sponsors are Nokia and Ericsson among others. The work has spearheaded by Nokias Markku Verkama.

According to the press release Markku says — "The OMTP's work to bring consensus for what is such a simple yet significant recommendation will have wide reaching benefit. With the reduction of cables needed for mobile data connectivity, we can further enhance user experiences in our devices while reducing the burden to the environment."

So welcome to the new bright future — many phones and gadgets — ONE CHARGER! (and after a while — a few gadgets and even more chargers...)"
Education

CMU Professor Randy Pausch's 'Last Lecture' 93

Posted by CmdrTaco from the worth-your-time dept.
This is a bit of an unusual story for Slashdot- it's the "Last Lecture" of a professor at CMU who is terminally ill. His early research in VR has benefited everyone and even if you have never heard of Randy Pausch I think this is worth your time. It's a 2 hour long wmv filled with insight, laughs and wisdom from a man who has really done some amazing work. I've been watching it all morning and I think it would really be worth your time if you can spare it to listen to what he has to say. From virtual reality to education to stuffed animals and childhood dreams, there's a lot here worth your time. Thanks drew for the link. Update: 09/21 15:44 GMT by Z : The link is already a little shakey, so you might want to turn to this cut up YouTube version of the talk instead.
Intel

Submission + - Intel launches LessWatts to lower Linux power

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "Intel plans to launch an effort called LessWatts.org on Thursday, a combination of open source software and helpful hints to reduce power consumption of Linux servers, PCs and gadgets. LessWatts is geared toward technically sophisticated folks from programmers to system administrators. It gathers together a number of Intel projects, such as the PowerTop utility for finding which software is pestering the processor and preventing it from dozing in low-power states. Taking Intel's advice and fixes can trim about 10 watts of power consumption off a modern dual-processor server, said Dirk Hohndel, chief technologist of Intel open source technology center."
Intel

Submission + - Intel Demos Penryn Quad and Octal-Core Benchmarks

Submitted by diggbs
diggbs writes: During a closed-door session at IDF, Intel let a few members of the press get some hands-on time with their new 45nm quad-core processor, code-named Penryn. Dual quad-core 3.4GHz processors were configured in a Seabird chipset-based dual socket system based on the Intel's Skulltrail platform, for a total of eight cores. The benchmark numbers look pretty sharp as does the system with its evil-eyed skull paint job.
Enlightenment

Submission + - Video: Complete Voluntary Pain Control Possible? (functionalisminaction.com)

Submitted by
IConrad01
IConrad01 writes: "As most-anyone who has been through severe chronic pain for most of their life can tell you, how bad it gets can sometimes be a result of one's emotional state. But it turns out that the old legends about Buddhist monks is actually true — and that, with the 'Miracle of Modern Technology! (tm)'; you, too, can benefit from the brain's ability to turn pain on or off. And you won't even need to give up red meat to do it! Or so, at least, this video would tend to indicate."
Programming

GCC Compiler Finally Supplanted by PCC? 546

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the all-good-things-must-end dept.
Sunnz writes "The leaner, lighter, faster, and most importantly, BSD Licensed, Compiler PCC has been imported into OpenBSD's CVS and NetBSD's pkgsrc. The compiler is based on the original Portable C Compiler by S. C. Johnson, written in the late 70's. Even though much of the compiler has been rewritten, some of the basics still remain. It is currently not bug-free, but it compiles on x86 platform, and work is being done on it to take on GCC's job."
Software

Submission + - Best Practices for Selecting Retail Software (softwareadvice.com)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Selecting Retail Software: You're Better at IT than You Think

If you are like most retail executives, you don't view yourself as a software technology expert. In fact, you probably approach new information technology (IT) projects with trepidation and hand them off to the back-office staff or third-party consultants. This is an understandable fear, and one of the reasons retailers are still catching up to others in their adoption of technology.

The good news is that you probably already have the experience you need to change your company's success with IT; the same skills that make for effective retail operations can be applied to software selection. Just like opening a new store, selecting software requires meticulous planning and an accurate budget.

Why So Many Software Projects Fail

There are many reasons why IT projects fail, but we've isolated what we believe are the top four:
  • Limited budgeting and planning;
  • The wrong team for the job;
  • Poor requirements planning; and,
  • Lack of a rigorous selection process.
Ten Steps to Successful Software Selection

These ten clear steps should help retailers through a successful, efficient selection process.

1. Assemble the Right Team. Start with an executive-level project sponsor to ensure the project gets the right funding and attention. Next, assemble a team of a store manager responsible for all details of the project, an IT staff if available, and end-users that will contribute their requirements and ideas.

2. Establish Clear Goals for the Project. All choices throughout the project should be weighed according to how well they help achieve goals such as: "Speed up the checkout process;" or "Improve inventory planning and purchasing."

3. Build a Detailed Project Schedule. The next step is to create a project schedule that outlines all the major activities and their sub-tasks. Be sure to assign an owner to each activity and task, and to monitor progress with an Excel spreadsheet.

4. Create a Budget for the Project. For a successful project, it is critical to have an accurate budget to work against. Be sure to account for costs outside of the software itself, such as touch screens, printers, barcode scanners, and credit card processing terminals.

5. Define Your Requirements. As the most important step in the entire process, define your functional and technical requirements for the new system. Consider a simple list of features, as well as a thoughtful analysis of "current" versus "optimal" business processes.

6. Draft a Request for Proposal (RFP) and Evaluation Framework. The RFP will take the form of a list of questions, critical features, and technical requirements that can be sent to software vendors for their response. The evaluation framework spreadsheet should track each product's capabilities relative to your unique requirements.

7. Develop a Short List of Products. Create a "short list" of software products — three to five — by answering questions such as:
  • Does the company serve your specific trade and business size?
  • Do they meet your technology requirements and present a professional image?


8. Evaluate Short List Products. Using the feature-by-feature scores and the weightings for each requirement, rule out any product that falls short of your most critical requirements. After prioritizing the others according to their performance across all of your criteria, select one that you feel is best, and one runner-up.

9. Check Customer References. Do your "due diligence" by checking the winning vendor's customer references. To offset "cherry picking" of their happiest customers, require at least three references and prepare a detailed list of questions that require specific answers.

10. Negotiate the Deal. In determining the final price, consider key areas such as: what type of license does the vendor offer; how is the software priced; and, what are the maintenance and support policies. As a rule of thumb, the larger the check you write, the more room for negotiation.

Software selection is not easy and should never be considered a second tier project. The right software, implemented properly, can have a very positive effect on your business. Follow these guidelines and you are on your way to IT project success.

Don Fornes is the president and founder of Retail Software Advice, a website dedicated to helping retailers research and select software applications. Email Don at don@softwareadvice.com or visit Retail Software Advice at Retail Software Advice.
The Internet

Submission + - Virgin Air to offer air-to-ground broadband in '08 (reuters.com)

Submitted by lju
lju writes: Virgin Air has been selected as the "Geeks Airline of 2008" because they are offering "air-to-ground broadband" services starting next year (among a Linux PC for every seat and other things previously discussed on slashdot.) Access it with your choice of either wifi or ethernet cable and you're off surfing while flying.
The Matrix

Submission + - Current A.I. Projects

Submitted by no1nose
no1nose writes: Are there any artificial intelligence projects that I can participate in at home? A colleague of mine said he had heard of a project started by some programmers at Microsoft several years ago that ran as a service on a PC. This service had the ability to interact with the A.I. services running on other PC's it knew about. Unfortunately, neither of us can find any information about this project.

I'm not looking for a stand-alone A.I. program. I would like something that runs locally and communicates its knowledge to other PC's (either by a mesh network or a central server).
Biotech

Submission + - Milestone In The Regeneration Of Brain Cells (sciencedaily.com)

Submitted by
Raver32
Raver32 writes: "The research group of Prof. Dr. Magdalena Götz at the Institute of Stem Cell Research of the GSF — National Research Centre for Environment and Health, and the Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich, has achieved an additional step for the potential replacement of damaged brain cells after injury or disease: functional nerve cells can be generated from astroglia, a type of supportive cells in the brain by means of special regulator proteins. The majority of cells in the human brain are not nerve cells but star-shaped glia cells, the so called "astroglia". "Glia means "glue", explains Götz. "As befits their name, until now these cells have been regarded merely as a kind of "putty" keeping the nerve cells together. A couple of years ago, the research group had been already able to prove that these glia cells function as stem cells during development. This means that they are able to differentiate into functional nerve cells. However, this ability gets lost in later phases of development, so that even after an injury to the adult brain glial cells are unable to generate any more nerve cells. In order to be able to reverse this development, the team studied what molecular switches are essential for the creation of nerve cells from glial cells during development. These regulator proteins are introduced into glial cells from the postnatal brain, which indeed respond by switching on the expression of neuronal proteins. In his current work, Dr. Benedikt Berninger, was now able to show that single regulator proteins are quite sufficient to generate new functional nerve cells from glia cells. The transition from glia-to-neuron could be followed live at a time-lapse microscope. It was shown that glia cells need some days for the reprogramming until they take the normal shape of a nerve cell. "These new nerve cells then have also the typical electrical properties of normal nerve cells", emphasises Berninger. "We could show this by means of electrical recordings"."

Gen Con 2007 In A Nutshell 125

Posted by Zonk from the just-look-at-all-the-stormtroopers dept.
Another year, another Gen Con? Hardly. This year was the 40th anniversary of Gen Con, marked the announcement of the newest edition of Dungeons and Dragons, and was the first year videogame companies were actively sought out as exhibitors. Put together this resulted in what felt like record crowds, a healthy dealer's hall, and an instant conversation-starter with every other person at the event. Read on for notes on the new tabletop releases, thoughts on the new edition of D&D, impressions of the videogames that were in attendance, and a shameful admission of weakness.

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