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Microsoft

Bringing Up Bill 169

Posted by kdawson from the plenty-of-freedom dept.
theodp writes "Over at the WSJ, Bill Gates Sr. describes what it took to turn an unruly 12-year-old into Microsoft's founder and the world's richest man. This included throwing a glass of cold water in the boy's face when he was having a particularly heated argument with his mother at the dinner table. 'He was nasty,' says Libby Armintrout, Bill's younger sister. 'I'm at war with my parents over who is in control,' Bill Gates recalls telling a therapist, who told his parents that their son would ultimately win the battle for independence, and their best course of action was to ease up on him. The rest, as they say, is history. The accompanying Gates Family Album is also worth a look."

Comment Justice FAIL! (Score 1) 1870

by crashandburn66 (#27611655) Attached to: Pirate Bay Trial Ends In Jail Sentences
What a ridiculous verdict. Suppose someone tried to press criminal charges against the owner of a building where a gun show was held, simply because one of the guns bought there was used in a shooting. Anyone stupid enough to try that would be laughed out of court, if they even made it that far. How is this any different?
Science

Higgs Territory Continues To Shrink 118

Posted by kdawson from the hoggamus-higgamus dept.
PhysicsDavid writes "Announced this morning by Fermilab, the possible territory for the Higgs boson has shrunk even further. Combined results from the CDF and DZero experiments at the Tevatron have ruled out the existence of the Higgs with a mass between 160 and 170 GeV/c^2 with 95% confidence. At 90% confidence the Higgs is ruled out between about 157 and 185 GeV/c^2. Here is Fermilab's press release. If the Higgs is to be found at the lighter end of the currently allowed range of 114 GeV/c^2 to 185 GeV/c^2, its detection will be harder than at the heavier end due to the kinds of signals that the Large Hadron Collider and the Tevatron will see. Some physicists think that a lighter Higgs will be easier to spot at the Tevatron as the background processes which obscure the faint signal are not as prevalent in those experiments."

Comment Re:Dude. What about the World's rich? (Score 1) 317

by crashandburn66 (#26873927) Attached to: Drug Giant Pledges Cheap Medicine For World's Poor
Oh really? Last I checked, not very many people here pay the full price for medicine with their own cash. We have health insurance, medicare, medicaid, etc. to make sure that when people need medicine to avoid dying or getting sick, they can get it. That's the difference. In "some shithole country" the normal people don't have that sort of assistance. If they can't afford medicine, nobody's gonna come running to get it for them. They're basically screwed. That's just the way it works. If your idea of equality involves poor people dying because they can't afford medicine and nobody helps them pay for it, then maybe inequality ain't so bad.
Education

UC Berkeley Offering Starcraft Course 148

Posted by Soulskill from the how-about-a-korean-exchange-program dept.
The Tumeroks blog reports that the University of California, Berkeley is now offering a class on Blizzard's Starcraft real-time strategy game. "This course will go in-depth in the theory of how war is conducted within the confines of the game Starcraft. There will be lecture on various aspects of the game, from the viewpoint of pure theory to the more computational aspects of how exactly battles are conducted. Calculus and Differential Equations are highly recommended for full understanding of the course. Furthermore, the class will take the theoretical into the practical world by analyzing games and replays to reinforce decision-making skills and advanced Starcraft theory."
It's funny. Laugh.

Bill Gates' Plan To Destroy Music, Note By Note 659

Posted by timothy from the too-insane-to-ignore-forever dept.
theodp writes "Remember Mr. Microphone? If you thought music couldn't get worse, think again. Perhaps with the help of R&D tax credits, Microsoft Research has spawned Songsmith, software that automatically creates a tinny, childish background track for your singing. And as bad as the pseudo-infomercial was, the use of the product in the wild is likely to be even scarier, as evidenced by these Songsmith'ed remakes of music by The Beatles, The Police, and The Notorious B.I.G.."
Transportation

Can the Auto Industry Retool Itself To Build Rails? 897

Posted by Soulskill from the cross-training dept.
knapper_tech writes "The scope of the auto industry troubles continues to increase in magnitude. The call to retool and develop new vehicles has been made several times already, but with all of the challenges from labor prices and foreign competition, how exactly can the industry retool itself to be more competitive? In light of superior competition facing losses, there doesn't seem to be enough room in the industry moving forward. In the context of finding a new place in the auto industry, the future isn't bright. Calls for no disorderly collapse of the cash-strapped big three and a reluctant congress can only point to an underlying lack of direction. However, consider two other standing economic challenges. The airlines have continued to struggle due to fuel prices and heightened security. Consumers backed off of SUV's due to high fuel prices, and while those prices have eased in the face of global recession, the trend will pick up again with growth in China and India leading the fight for resources. In short, things are moving less, and the industries that support the movement are in need of developing new products while consumers are in need of a cheaper method of transportation." Read on for the rest of knapper_tech's thoughts.
Power

Man Invents Alternative To Cooking Gas 553

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the human-invention-will-find-a-way dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Gazan resident Abed Ar-Rahman has revealed what he is claiming as an alternative to cooking gas that he developed since Israel has prevented deliveries of cooking gas to Gaza. He invented a device using chemical substances available in Gaza, which burn when mixed and brought into contact with oxygen. The first component is a metal filter that controls the interaction between 40% of the oxygen in the surrounding air, the inflammable substance and some other substances."
Networking

Why BitTorrent Causes Latency and How To Fix It 315

Posted by kdawson from the first-mile-downstream-would-still-hurt dept.
Sivar recommends an article by George Ou examining why BitTorrent affects performance so much more than other types of file transfer and a recommendation on how to fix it. The suggestion is to modify P2P clients so that, at least on upload, they space their traffic evenly in time so that other applications have a chance to fit into the interstices. "[Any] VoIP [user] or online gamer who has a roommate or a family member who uses BitTorrent (or any P2P application) knows what a nightmare it is when BitTorrent is in use. The ping (round trip latency) goes through the roof and it stays there making VoIP packets drop out and game play impossible."

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