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Submission + - IBM Gives Feds $45M in Translation Tech

Submitted by Endure=Glory on Monday April 02, 2007 @05:55PM

Endure=Glory writes: To honor an employee's son who was badly wounded in Iraq, IBM Corp. plans to give the U.S. military $45 million worth of Arabic-English translation technology that the Pentagon had been testing for possible purchase. The offer — made from the highest reaches of the company directly to President Bush — is so unusual that Defense Department and IBM lawyers have been scouring federal laws to make sure the government can accept the donation.

Submission + - Computer Science Careers Outside of IT?

Submitted by Pojodojo on Friday March 23, 2007 @10:04AM

Pojodojo writes: I have been pursuing a CS degree for the last two years at a very reputable University in the field, however I have recently come into question my intentions past graduation. I am currently working as a Student IT at school, and do not mind the IT environment, however I am almost certain it is something I would not want to do as a career. I am not particularly gifted in programming, nor am I that interested in it, I enjoy the theory behind the programming far more. The problem arises in that I would like to get a doctorate in CS eventually, but I do not know of any careers outside of academics that would be enjoyable for someone such as myself (one whom would rather not program all day). I would not mind being in academics, but what I want to know is: What sort of careers exist outside of the IT field for a computer scientist?

Submission + - Alcohol and tobacco more dangerous than ecstasy

Submitted by GBC on Friday March 23, 2007 @09:49AM

GBC writes: The Lancet [lancet.com — free registration required] has published an article about a rational system for drug classification in the UK.

The article claims that "In the UK, the total burden of drug misuse, in terms of health, social, and crime-related costs, has been estimated to be between £10 billion and £16 billion per year."

It proposes that drugs should be classified by the amount of harm they do, rather than "A", "B", and "C" divisions in the UK Misuse of Drugs Act. The three main factors that determine the harm associated with any drug of potential abuse are: physical harm to the individual user caused by the drug; tendency of the drug to induce dependence and addiction; and effect of drug use on families, communities, and society. Each of these factors is further broken down into three sections.

Based on assessments from independent experts and specialist addiction psychiatrists, drugs were then ranked according to these nine parameters. Alcohol and tobacco are considered alongside other drugs in the rankings.

Of the twenty substances examined, alcohol was ranked fifth most harmful (behind heroin, cocaine, barbiturates and street methodone) and tobacco came in ninth (behind ketamine, benzodiazepines and amphetamine).

4-MTA, LSD and Ecstasy (all considered "Class A" drugs under the Act) all ranked lower than alcohol and tobacco. From the article: "Overall there was a surprisingly poor correlation between drugs' class according to the Misuse of Drugs Act and harm score."

As someone who supports an end to the "War on Drugs", it would be nice if this article leads to a more rational examination of drug policy both here in the UK and abroad; I am not holding my breath though.

Submission + - Genetically Enginereed Pet Food causes deaths

Submitted by on Thursday March 22, 2007 @10:40PM

An anonymous reader writes: As thousands of pets die from contaminated pet food, some veterinarians believe that a new form of genetically engineered wheat, recently introduced to the recalled pet food, is causing kidney failure in animals. The company Menu Foods has been under pressure from the agricultural industry not to admit using the new genetically engineered wheat, for fear of consumer backlash against genetically engineered foods. Experts aren't sure how exactly the genetically engineered wheat may be causing the kidney failure, some have suggested that the new wheat creates a protein toxic to animals, or that the new wheat provides a better breeding ground for pathogens. The FDA is currently investigating Menu Food plants in New Jersey and Kansas which used the genetically engineered wheat in their recipes.

Journal Journal: LinuxMCE loves my media, loves my house

Journal by Indulis on Thursday March 22, 2007 @09:58PM

For "whole of house" control and media freaks, you can have it all, pay $0, and enjoy the virtuous pleasures of Open Source at the same time, if LinuxMCE is to be believed. And why wouldn't we believe, after watching it in action at Google Video. LinuxMCE wraps Mythtv, Asterisk and other Open Source "must haves" inside a shiny wrapper full of lovely goodies. So squirm into y

Submission + - Microsoft issues Vista security scorecard,

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 22, 2007 @09:49PM

An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft issues Vista security scorecard, gives itself an A-plus. Vista has a third of the bugs of XP, a fifth as many as Mac OS X, company says A Microsoft Corp. executive yesterday said Windows Vista's first 90 days was a huge security success when compared with the opening three months of Windows XP, the current Apple Inc. Mac OS X and three flavors of Linux. Jeff Jones, the strategy director in Microsoft's security technology unit, tallied up vulnerabilities patched during the first 90 days of Vista, XP, Mac OS X 10.4, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Workstation, Ubuntu 6.06 LTS, and Novell SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10. He gave Vista the checkered flag. Really? Can I do my own work Performance reviews from now on too? http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?com mand=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9014080&intsrc=hm_ list

Submission + - Wind, Solar & Biofuels to Power Remote Cell To

Submitted by

tcd004

on Friday March 09, 2007 @12:23PM

tcd004 writes: "How do you set up a cell network when there's no power grid? Namibia, India and Nigeria are building towers using localized power soucres to provide critical cell phone access to the most remote parts of their countries. Wind/solar hybrids, and biofuel power plants will power the radio towers, peripheral communications, and even the protective fencing around the installations."

Submission + - Open-source ID project awaits Microsoft's blessing

Submitted by what about on Friday March 09, 2007 @12:13PM

what about writes: An open-source rival to a Microsoft identity tool has been in limbo for months, awaiting the software giant's go-ahead on certain patent-related issues.

news.com continues

Developers working on the Higgins project want to create a tool equivalent to Microsoft's Windows CardSpace, but fear the software giant's legal wrath if they don't receive permission on certain features. Although parts of the project continue to move forward, proponents say it may not reach its full potential without Microsoft's help.

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