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Submission + - Perl 6 for 2015 (fosdem.org)

Submitted by eneville
eneville writes: The last pieces are finally falling into place. After years of design and implementation, 2015 will be the year that Perl 6 officially launches for production use.

In this talk, the creator of Perl reflects on the history of the effort, how the team got some things right, and how it learned from its mistakes when it got them wrong. But mostly how a bunch of stubbornly fun-loving people outlasted the naysayers to accomplish the extraordinary task of implementing a language that was so ambitious, even its designers said it was impossible. Prepare to be delightfully surprised.

Comment Re:That was close... (Score 1) 264

by jdschulteis (#48326651) Attached to: We Are Running Out of Sand

I thought the article was about running out of sand for silicon semiconductors. Besides California falling into the Pacific Ocean after a big earthquake, a lack of sand would be the end of Silicon Valley.

No worries: silicon for semiconductors could be made from the fine, smooth, easily-blows-away desert sand.

Comment Re:That explains it... (Score 1) 80

by jdschulteis (#48311219) Attached to: Birds Found Using Human Musical Scales For the First Time

..I could have sworn I heard Whole Lotta Love blasting out of the magnolia tree across the street.

Turns out, it might have been a couple of bluejays getting horny!!!

The only thing missing was the sound of the thermin...

If you mean the descending sound in the chorus, I don't think it's a theremin. I've always thought it was slide guitar and volume control.

Submission + - Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo crashes during test flight (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by rnws
rnws writes: Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo space tourism craft has crashed in a California desert after experiencing what the company described as "a serious anomaly".

The firm says the status of their pilots is "unknown at this time". The craft was undergoing manned testing.

Television images shot from a helicopter showed what appeared to be wreckage bearing the Virgin logo.

Submission + - It's Time to Revive Hypercard

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: HyperCard, an application program and programming tool released for the Apple Macintosh in 1987, represented the ‘computing for the people’ philosophy that enabled users to go past the pre-built software that came on their machines, and to program and build software of their own. "Mac users could use Hypercard to build their own mini-programs to balance their taxes, manage sports statistics, make music – all kinds of individualized software that would be useful (or fun) for individual users." Now Jer Thorp writes that the end of HyperCard left a huge gap that desperately needs to be filled – a space for an easy to use, intuitive tool that will once again let average computer users make their own tools. According to Throp, this type of plain-language programming makes sense, particularly in an application that was designed specifically for non-programmers. "I find the largest concern for learners to be not with the conceptual hurdles involved in writing a program, but with obscure and confusing syntax requirements. I would love to be able to teach HyperTalk to my students, as a smooth on-road to more complex languages like JavaScript, Java or C++." By putting the tools of creation into the hands of the broader userbase, we would allow for the creation of ultra-specific personalized apps that, aside from a few exceptions, don’t exist today."

HyperTalk wasn’t just easy, it was also fairly powerful. Complex object structures could be built to handle complicated tasks, and the base language could be expanded by a variety of available external commands and functions (XCMDs and XFCNs, respectively), which were precursors to the modern plug-in. But ultimately, HyperCard would disappear from Mac computers by the mid-nineties, eclipsed by web browsers and other applications which it had itself inspired. The last copy of HyperCard was sold by Apple in 2004. "One thing that's changed in the intervening decades is that the hobbyist has largely gone by the wayside. Now you're either a user or a full-fledged developer, and the gulf is wider than ever," writes Peter Cohen. "There's really nothing like it today, and I think the Mac is lesser for it."

Submission + - Why is this company trying to make you afraid of flashlight apps? (dailydot.com)

Submitted by Molly McHugh
Molly McHugh writes: Flashlight apps have been around as long as smartphones themselves, so why are we just now hearing about their seemingly obvious dangers? You can thank SnoopWall, which bills itself as a privacy firm looking out for your best interests. The company released what it called a “Threat Assessment Report” earlier this month investigating flashlight apps on Android, iOS, and Windows Phone. But who exactly is SnoopWall?

Submission + - Earth's Oceans May Be Almost as Old as the Planet

Submitted by Beverley Mitchell
Beverley Mitchell writes: A groundbreaking new study led by scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has revealed that the first evidence of water on Earth and in the inner solar system dates the arrival of water to a much earlier time than previously believed. Thanks to new data from NASA’s 4-Vesta project, the team demonstrated that the most primitive type of known meteorite could have brought water to Earth very early on in the planet’s formation. The implications for an earlier “wet Earth” include the possibility that life on our planet began much earlier than previously thought and could once have existed on the other inner planets.

Submission + - Google Announces Project Ara Developer Conference: Mountain View on January 14

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Google today announced it will be hosting the second iteration of its Project Ara Module Developers Conference early next year. The first event will be in Mountain View on January 14, 2015, with satellite locations at Google offices in New York City, Buenos Aires, and London. The same agenda will be repeated in Singapore on January 21, 2015, with satellite locations at Google offices in Bangalore, Tokyo, Taipei, and Shanghai. During the full-day events Google plans to share the latest on the Ara platform and promises to have Project Ara team members at all event sites. Even though the speakers will be in Mountain View and Singapore, bi-directional video links will be available at the satellite locations.

Submission + - Tech firm fined USD 3500 for paying workers $1.21 per hour (mercurynews.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: "FREMONT — Electronics for Imaging paid several employees from India as little as $1.21 an hour to help install computer systems at the company's Fremont headquarters, federal labor officials said Wednesday.

"We are not going to tolerate this kind of behavior from employers," said Susana Blanco, district director of the U.S. Labor Department's wage and hour division in San Francisco."

Submission + - Scout SV is British Army's Smart-Tank of the Future, to be Driven By Videogamers (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by concertina226
concertina226 writes: The UK branch of global defence firm General Dynamics is working on a futuristic state-of-the-art smart-tank to replace the British Army's ageing armoured vehicle fleet, to be delivered to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in 2020.

The Scout SV armoured vehicle is the first fully-digitised armoured fighting vehicle to have been built for the British Army, and is far bigger and more durable than any of its existing tanks, which are now at least 20 years old.

The tank comes in six variants that can be customised with a tools for different missions, and has numerous sensors, cameras, and sights to offer real-time intelligence on weather conditions, target acquisition, and reconnaissance — all crucial battlefield data required by commanders to access and direct situations.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Easy Programming Environment For Processing Video And Audio?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Dear Slashdotters: Me and a couple of pals want to test out a few ideas we have for processing video and audio files using code. We are looking for a programming language that is a) uncomplicated to learn b) runs reasonably fast (compiled, not interpreted please) and c) can read and write video and audio files with relative ease. Read/write support for common file formats like AVI, Video For Windows, Quicktime, MP3, WAV would make our job much easier. The icing on the cake would be if the IDE/language/compiler used is free and runs on Windows as well as MacOS (we may try Linux further down the line as well). Any suggestions? Please note that we are looking for a rapid prototyping language that is quick to setup, makes it easy to throw some working video/audio code together, and test it against an array of digital test footage/audio, rather than a language for creating a final consumer release (which would likely be C++, Assembly or similar). The ability to build a basic user interface for our experimental video/audio algos — sliders, buttons, data entry fields — would also be a plus, although we wouldn't be building hugely complex UIs at this stage. And one more bonus question — are some of the visual/node-based audio & video processing environments available, like http://vvvv.org/ any good for this kind of algorithm prototyping? (We want the final algos resulting from the effort available in code or flowchart form). Thanks for any help — Five Anonymous Video/Audio Processing Freaks =)

Submission + - Contact between Native Americans and Easter Islanders before 1500 C.E (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Polynesians from Easter Island and natives of South America met and mingled long before Europeans voyaged the Pacific, according to a new genetic study of living Easter Islanders. In this week’s issue of Current Biology, researchers argue that the genes point to contact between Native Americans and Easter Islanders before 1500 C.E., 3 centuries after Polynesians settled the island also known as Rapa Nui, famous for its massive stone statues. Although circumstantial evidence had hinted at such contact, this is the first direct human genetic evidence for it.

Submission + - Incapacitating Chemical Agents: Coming Soon to Local Law Enforcement? (thebulletin.org)

Submitted by Lasrick
Lasrick writes: To this day, Russian authorities refuse to disclose the incapacitating chemical agent (ICA) they employed in their attempt, 12 years ago, to save 900 hostages held in a theater by Chechen fighters. Malcom Dando elaborates on a new report that Russia, China, Israel, and a slew of other countries are continuing research into ICAs, and the apparent indifference of the international community into such research. Proponenets of ICAs have long promoted their use in a variety of scenarios, including that of law enforcement, because in theory these chemicals incapacitate without permanent disability. Critics, however, point out that these weapons rely on exact dosage to prevent fatality, and that the ability to 'deliver the right agent to the right people in the right dose without exposing the wrong people, or delivering the wrong dose' is a near-impossible expectation. ICAs represent the further misuse and militarization of the life sciences and a weakening of the taboo against the weaponization of toxic substances, and the idea that they could be used in law enforcement situations is a disturbing one.

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