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Comment Oh, goody (Score 4, Informative) 100

by Hawthorne01 (#31262982) Attached to: Hollywood Stock Exchange Set To Launch In April

Now instead of getting spam about how selected penny stocks on the Vancouver and Hong Kong exchanges are set to explode and make me hundreds of thousands of dollars, I'll get spam about how "TEH A-TEAM MOVIE IS THE BOMB!!!1!! BUY NOW!!!!1".

FWIW, I've been playing the old, free version of HSX for over ten years, and HSX has utterly botched not one, but two beta releases (ask anyone who was on their forums about the V2 rollout and how that went). No way, no how am I letting them anywhere near my real money.

Oh, and "BUY PINK2!".
Programming

"Logan's Run" Syndrome In Programming 599

Posted by CmdrTaco from the stay-off-my-lawn dept.
Ian Lamont writes "InfoWorld has an interesting analysis of the reasons behind the relative dearth of programmers over the age of 40. While some people may assume that the recession has provided a handy cover for age discrimination, a closer look suggests that it's the nature of IT itself to push its elderly workers out, in what the article describes as a 'Logan's Run'-like marketplace. A bunch of factors are listed as reasons, including management's misunderstanding of the ways in which developers work: 'Any developer can tell you that not all C or PHP or Java programmers are created equal; some are vastly more productive or creative. However, unless or until there is a way to explicitly demonstrate the productivity differential between a good programmer and a mediocre one, inexperienced or nontechnical hiring managers tend to look at resumes with an eye for youth, under the "more bang for the buck" theory. Cheaper young 'uns will work longer hours and produce more code. The very concept of viewing experience as an asset for raising productivity is a non-factor — much to the detriment of the developer workplace.'"

Comment Re:Long predictions (Score 1, Troll) 599

by Hawthorne01 (#31131204) Attached to: Gov't Proposes "National Climate Service" For the US

Tax consumption, consumption goes, less is made, less pollution, less climate change.

So if we tax government corruption and waste, we'll get rid of it forever? Can I add a surtax on the macarena and line-dancing, too? What about light beer or the designated hitter rule? Can we get rid of those as well?

Comment Re:Par for the course (Score 4, Insightful) 169

by Hawthorne01 (#31056120) Attached to: White House Claims Copyright On Flickr Photos
This is not a partisan issue.

Nope, both parties are equally clueless on copyright.

There's a good percentage of voters out there, though, who unfortunately believed that a politician groomed by the Mayor Daley's Machine would suddenly become a champion of human rights once he reached the Presidency.

Whoops.

It'd be interesting to hear what Lawrence Lessig has to say about this stunt, given that Lessig was/is a big supporter of Obama.
Government

White House Claims Copyright On Flickr Photos 169

Posted by kdawson from the toddler's-creed dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "US government policy is that photos produced by federal employees as part of their job responsibilities are not subject to copyright in the US. But Kathy Gill writes that after originally putting official White House photos in the public domain, since January the Obama White House has been asserting that no one but 'news organizations' can use its Flickr photos taken by the official White House photographer, who is a US government employee. This change appears to be a heavy-handed response to last month's controversy resulting from a billboard that implied the President endorsed The Weatherproof Garment Co. after the company used an AP photo of the president for a Times Square billboard. However a New York law already protects individuals from unauthorized use of their image for advertising, and the billboard was quickly taken down. Gill writes, 'Whatever the reason, the assertion of these "rights" seems to be in direct contrast to official government policy and is certainly in direct contrast to reasonable expectations by the public, given that the photos are being produced with taxpayer (i.e., public) money. Ironically, the same Flickr page that claims (almost exclusive) copyright also links to the US copyright policy statement.'"

Comment How to analyze current media (Score 1) 1142

How many courses did you take on how to break down a sentence or write an expository paragraph, but no one is teaching kids to tell the difference between an analysis piece and a regular news item (or an infomercial or a regular ad, for that matter). We have a generation of kids with critical thinking skills perfectly suited to Victorian England and as such, they are prime targets for the mass media. If there's one thing I want to instill in my two pre-schoolers, it's pay attention to what you're paying attention to.
Science

Why the First Cowboy To Draw Always Gets Shot 398

Posted by timothy from the more-guns-less-crime dept.
cremeglace writes "Have you ever noticed that the first cowboy to draw his gun in a Hollywood Western is invariably the one to get shot? Nobel-winning physicist Niels Bohr did, once arranging mock duels to test the validity of this cinematic curiosity. Researchers have now confirmed that people indeed move faster if they are reacting, rather than acting first."
NASA

Lacking Buyers, NASA Cuts Prices On Shuttles and Old Engines 131

Posted by Soulskill from the try-craigslist dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Russia's Space Shuttle, Buran, ended its days at a theme park in Moscow and was once offered for sale on the Internet for 3 million dollars. Now the NY Times reports that when the National Aeronautics and Space Administration put out the call in December 2008 seeking buyers for US shuttles from museums, schools and elsewhere, the agency didn't get as much interest as expected, so now NASA has slashed the price of the 1970s-era spaceships, available for sale this fall once their flying days are over, from $42 million to just $28.8 million apiece. 'We're confident that we'll get other takers,' says agency spokesman Mike Curie. The Discovery is already promised to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum but the Atlantis and the Endeavour are still up for grabs and it is possible that the Enterprise, a shuttle prototype that never made it to space, will also be available. The lower price is based on NASA's estimate of the cost for transporting a shuttle from Kennedy Space Center to a major airport, and for displaying it indoors in a climate-controlled building. As for the space shuttle main engines, those are now free. NASA advertised them in December 2008 for $400,000 to $800,000 each, but no one expressed interest. So now the engines are available, along with other shuttle artifacts, for the cost of transportation and handling."
Education

CMU Web-Scraping Learns English, One Word At a Time 148

Posted by timothy from the hao-ubowt-hahmnimz dept.
blee37 writes "Researchers at Carnegie Mellon have developed a web-scraping AI program that never dies. It runs continuously, extracting information from the web and using that information to learn more about the English language. The idea is for a never ending learner like this to one day be able to become conversant in the English language." It's not that the program couldn't stop running; the idea is that there's no fixed end-point. Rather, its progress in categorizing complex word relationships is the object of the research. See also CMU's "Read the Web" research project site.

Comment First, make a good video game (Score 5, Insightful) 523

by Hawthorne01 (#30554070) Attached to: Religion in Video Games
Then worry about the religious content. If it's not a good game (or movie, or song, or book) you can stuff it to the gills with religious messages, and no one outside of your particular religious community will ever buy it. Build a better game (or movie, or song, or book) and the world will come to you. (See: Sufjan Stevens, C.S. Lewis, VeggieTales, etc.).
Power

"Home Batteries" Power Houses For a Week 325

Posted by CmdrTaco from the probably-bigger-than-c dept.
tjansen writes "Panasonic has announced plans to create 'home batteries.' They are lithium-ion batteries large enough to power a house for a week, making energy sources such as solar and wind power more feasible. Also, you can buy energy when it is cheapest, and don't need to worry about power outages anymore."
Government

Cyber-Security Czar To Be Named 139

Posted by kdawson from the lightning-rod-for-blame dept.
The Washington Post and everybody else is reporting that on Tuesday President Obama will name Howard A. Schmidt as cyber-security czar. Schmidt was an advisor to President Bush on cyber-security matters. The Post rehearses the reasons why the Obama administration has had difficulty in finding someone for the post, and notes that the turf battles did not start in this administration: "Schmidt was chosen after a long process in which dozens of people were sounded out. Many declined the post, largely out of concern that the job conferred much responsibility with little true authority, some of them said. Meanwhile, the cybersecurity chief at the National Security Council, Christopher Painter, has served as the de facto coordinator, trying to push ahead the 60-day cyberspace policy review plan unveiled by Obama in May. That plan's formulation was led by Melissa Hathaway, who resigned in frustration in August after delays in naming a cyber-coordinator. She had been a contender for the position... Schmidt served as special adviser for cyberspace security from 2001 to 2003 and shepherded the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, a plan that then was largely ignored. He left that job also frustrated, colleagues said."

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