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The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Source code marketplace? 2

Submitted by doesntbyte
doesntbyte writes: I spend a lot of my free time writing little programs and libraries that help me accomplish a task or are just a pet project. I'm sure nearly everyone here does this, too. I also contribute to opensource projects a fair amount, too, but sometimes what I'm working on in my free time doesn't match any of their needs very well. After suffering a series of injuries and racking up some medical bills I got to thinking: I have all these great little libraries and algorithms I've created and I'm sure they would be useful to someone.

I guess what I'm wondering is, does anyone know any way I could put these things up for sale? Some of my friends suggested joining RentACoder or ScriptLance, but that's more for selling my time in the future which isn't what I'm really looking for. A friend pointed me to SourceSale, but that looks like it's not getting much action right now. My brother suggested just putting some code up on my personal blog with a PayPal link, but that seems less than optimal as well. Anyone have any ideas?
Power

Submission + - First Electric Cars Have Power Industry Worried 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "Jonathan Fahey writes for AP that as the first mass-market electric cars go on sale next month, the power industry faces a huge growth opportunity, with SoCal Edison expecting to be charging 100,000 cars by 2015 and California setting a goal of 1 million electric vehicles by 2020. But utility executives are worried that the difficulty of keeping the lights on for the first crop of buyers — and their neighbors — could slow the growth of this new growth industry because it's inevitable that electric utilities will suffer some difficulties early on. "We are all going to be a lot smarter two years from now," says Mark Perry, director of product planning for Nissan North America. When plugged into a home charging station the first Leafs and Volts will draw 3,300 watts and take about 8 hours to deliver a full charge, but both carmakers may soon boost that to 6,600 watts while the Tesla Roadster, an electric sports car with a huge battery, can draw 16,800 watts. That means that adding an electric vehicle or two to a neighborhood can be like adding another house, and it can stress the equipment that services those houses. The problem is that transformers that distribute power from the electrical grid to homes are often designed to handle less than about 12,000 watts so the extra stress on a transformer from one or two electric vehicles could cause it to overheat and fail, knocking out power to the block. "We're talking about doubling the load of a conventional home," says Karl Rabago, who leads Austin Energy's electric vehicle-readiness program. "It's big.""
Power

Submission + - Al Gore Recants Support for Corn-Based Ethanol (politicsdaily.com)

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "Federal ethanol subsidies reached $7.7 billion last year and the bio-fuel industry faced criticism in 2008 as food prices rose with ethanol consuming ever more of the corn crop and drawing down feedstocks. Now Al Gore says his support for corn-based ethanol subsidies while serving as vice president was a mistake that had more to do with his desire to cultivate farm votes in the 2000 presidential election than with what was good for the environment. "It is not a good policy to have these massive subsidies for first-generation ethanol," Gore said at a green energy conference in Athens, Greece adding that the energy conversion ratios — how much energy is produced in the process — "are at best very small." Gore now favors second-generation ethanol, using farm waste and switchgrass. Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis, representing ethanol producers, responded that "the contributions of first generation ethanol to our nation's economy, environment and energy production are not a mistake, but a success story.""

Submission + - What 2D GUI Foundation do you use? 2

Submitted by Zmee
Zmee writes: I am looking to build a 2D application for personal use and I will need to use a canvas to paint custom objects. I am trying to determine what foundation to use and have not located a good side-by-side comparison of the various flavors. For reference, I need the final application to work in Windows; Linux is preferred, but not required. I have looked at WPF, Qt, OpenGL, Tcl/Tk, Java's AWT, and others. I have little preference as to the language itself, but each of the tutorials appear to require significant time investment. As such, I am looking to see what the community uses and what seems to work for people prior to making that investment.

Comment But honestly? (Score 1) 1

by zvrk (#33873546) Attached to: Survey Shows How Stupid People are With Passwords
When there is an trusted password generator based on 'master password' and a domain of site that users logs in, and when this is prevalent in web browsers, I think we will have a chance... This will of course expose possibility that one can reverse engineer master password from domain and encrypted password but it will be a bit less likely than now. And really - how much do you trust web browser vaults?

Submission + - Where Can I Find a Web Developer? 1

Submitted by omnibit
omnibit writes: I've been wanting to start a new online business for a while. My dilemma is in sourcing a web designer/developer that offers a history of great design, functionality and back end server structure. My budget for design and development is somewhat flexible, but I don't want to spend more than $75,000. The site would be of an e-commerce nature with subscribing members receiving additional offers and discounts. The search function would have to anticipate plurals when customers search for products. I'd also want faceted search. My suppliers would have access on how well their products are selling so some automated report generation would be needed.

Ultimately, where does one go to source a web developer with some acclaim? Are there sites, developer groups or organizations that specialize in these kind of medium budget solutions? Does anyone have any recommended design houses of note?
Google

Submission + - Oracle's newest move to undermine Android (infoworld.com)

Submitted by GMGruman
GMGruman writes: Oracle's decision to shift focus from the Harmony Java open source project to OpenJDK seems innocuous enough — but InfoWorld's Josh Fruhlinger explains it's part of an effort to derail Google's mobile Android OS by gutting the open source project that Android has been driven by. IBM has signed on, apparently in return for getting the Java Community Process reactivated, leaving Google in a bind.
Iphone

Motorola Sues Apple 176

Posted by CmdrTaco from the sue-sue-sudio dept.
rexjoec writes "Just a week after Motorola Inc. (MOT) itself became the target of legal action by Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), it sued Apple Inc. (AAPL) for the alleged infringement of 18 of its patents. Motorola subsidiary, Motorola Mobility Inc. also filed patent suits against Apple in federal court in Illinois and Florida."
Space

Submission + - Are those blob alians really us? (popsci.com)

Submitted by zvrk
zvrk writes: Discovery reports that cells grow bone degrading proteins in space. This has two interesting extrapolations — If we have no bones in space, we may need to rethink UI for use in space and maybe pregnant women who want athletic children should sit in the centrifuge 1h a day.

Submission + - Firms Pay More to Foreign IT Professionals (informs.org)

Submitted by djcooley
djcooley writes: Contrary to public assertions, IT professionals in the U.S. who are not citizens actually earned more than their American colleagues from 2000-2005 and therefore did not depress the salaries of American citizens, according to the Management Insights feature in the current issue of Management Science, the flagship journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.
Microsoft

Submission + - Former Hacker: MS More Secure Than Apple, Adobe? (pcworld.com)

Submitted by damagemanual
damagemanual writes: "A seasoned hacker believes Microsoft is now more secure than both Apple and Adobe.Marc Maiffret, who once faced FBI agents waving a gun in his face over his hacking exploits aged 17, now works trying to find security flaws in Microsoft's software and well as tackling malware."

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