Comment Evolution (Score 3, Insightful) 381
In other words... Human intelligence is the result of evolution. Shocking.
I sure hope there was more to this study that the submitter simply failed to mention...
Comment Re:The things they will NOT learn are interesting (Score 1) 255
What they wont learn is exactly what worries me.
I've been interviewing a lot of candidates at work for the past several months and the complete lack of knowledge in recent college grads scares the hell out of me. I've seen several people with 3.7-3.9 GPAs in comp sci from top10 (using us news rankings, yes I know they aren't perfect) engineering schools who couldn't do even basic tasks with pointers.
They spent all their time writing java. That's great if you need to write java but the fact that they didn't learn enough to be able to generalize their skills to other languages while still doing well in school does not day good things about that (and other) schools.
A pointer is not _that_ hard. You should at least be able to copy a linked list in an interview question. I used to have higher standards but the string off candidates I've seen lately has crushed all faith I once had.
I've been interviewing a lot of candidates at work for the past several months and the complete lack of knowledge in recent college grads scares the hell out of me. I've seen several people with 3.7-3.9 GPAs in comp sci from top10 (using us news rankings, yes I know they aren't perfect) engineering schools who couldn't do even basic tasks with pointers.
They spent all their time writing java. That's great if you need to write java but the fact that they didn't learn enough to be able to generalize their skills to other languages while still doing well in school does not day good things about that (and other) schools.
A pointer is not _that_ hard. You should at least be able to copy a linked list in an interview question. I used to have higher standards but the string off candidates I've seen lately has crushed all faith I once had.
Comment This is news? (Score 3, Insightful) 218
"Sony Updates PS3 Firmware To 3.56 To Stop Jailbreaking"
"Sony did not state that it would stop jailbreaking the console but we can only assume that it does."
You can only assume? Call me when you know. Until then stop wasting my bandwidth with your wild guesses.
Quantum Film Might Replace CMOS Sensors 192
An anonymous reader writes "Quantum film could replace conventional CMOS image sensors in digital cameras and are four times more sensitive than photographic film. The film, which uses embedded quantum dots instead of silver grains like photographic film, can image scenes at higher pixel resolutions. While the technology has potential for use in mobile phones, conventional digital cameras would also gain much higher resolution sensors by using quantum film material." The original (note: obnoxious interstitial ad) article at EE Times adds slightly more detail.
Planned Nuclear Reactors Will Destroy Atomic Waste 344
separsons writes "A group of French scientists are developing a nuclear reactor that burns up actinides — highly radioactive uranium isotopes. They estimate that 'the volume of high-level nuclear waste produced by all of France’s 58 reactors over the past 40 years could fit in one Olympic-size swimming pool.' And they're not the only ones trying to eliminate atomic waste: Researchers at the University of Texas in Austin are working on a fusion-fission reactor. The reactor destroys waste by firing streams of neutrons at it, reducing atomic waste by up to 99 percent!"
Comment Re:CPU speed vs memory bandwidth, I don't get it (Score 1) 231
You might expect a Power6 to be at a bandwidth disadvantage when compared to the x5560 but when you look at the memory bandwidth specs they're surprisingly close. Once you move up to Power7 you begin to see a big difference.
Xeon x5560 memory bandwidth/chip: 32 GB/s [1]
Power6 memory bandwidth/chip: 32 GB/s (??? This may be wrong. I see references to 50GB/s but I believe that's peak)
Power7 memory bandwidth/chip: 100 GB/s [3]
Xeon x5560 memory bandwidth/chip: 32 GB/s [1]
Power6 memory bandwidth/chip: 32 GB/s (??? This may be wrong. I see references to 50GB/s but I believe that's peak)
Power7 memory bandwidth/chip: 100 GB/s [3]
Comment Uh... Power7 also executes 6 instr/cycle (Score 1) 231
Itanium is superscalar to an extent that POWER doesn't come close to, with each core being able to execute up to six instructions per cycle.
Hate to break it to you but POWER7 can dispatch 6 instructions per cycle as well.
That little fact was revealed last year during the Hot Chips 21 presentation.
IBM Releases Power7 Processor 231
Dan Jones writes "As discussed here last year, IBM has made good on its promise to release the Power7 processor (and servers) in the first half of 2010. The Power7 processor adds more cores and improved multithreading capabilities to boost the performance of servers requiring high up-time, according to Big Blue. Power7 chips will run between 3.0GHz and 4.14GHz and will come with four, six, or eight cores. The chips are being made using the 45-nm process technology. New Power7 servers (up to 64 cores for now) are said to deliver twice the performance of older Power6 systems, but are four times more energy efficient. Power7 servers will run AIX and Linux." And reader shmG notes Intel's release of a new Itanium server processor after two years of delays. The Power7 specs would seem to put the new Intel chip in the shade.
Comment Re:grad vs masters vs phd the myth. (Score 1) 844
That person gets bumped to the middle of the resume pile.
The person on the top of the resume pile knows that VHDL, Verilog, SystemC, Specman, C, C++, Java, etc are all tools. Like all tools there are correct and incorrect times to use them (though there are plenty of instances when they're interchangeable).
The key part is that they know how to apply the tools to solve a problem, regardless of what the tools may be.
Comment There are a LOT of variables here (Score 1) 844
There are LOT of variables here. In some cases you absolutely cannot expect to make that much to start. In others you can expect that much or more.
I won't get into specifics but we've recently spent a few months trying to hire some recent grads & experienced candidates.
- In a few cases we lost experienced candidates because their company (which was already paying them well above the salaries listed here) threw even more money at them to keep them on board.
- Countless recent grads had already accepted offers above the range we're talking about here. One recent Masters grad was considering an offer from us that was above those listed in the story when he suddenly received a higher offer from a competitor.
Comment Re:TWA 800 (Score 1) 809
No, I was referring to TWA 800:
Comment TWA 800 (Score 1) 809
All of the recent reports are claiming the "explosive device" contained PETN.
For those of you that don't remember, PETN was a component in the bomb that brought down TWA 800, killing all 230 on board.
"Firecracker" my ass...
Comment Not a fire cracker (Score 1) 809
It wasn't a firecracker. Google "binary explosive"
Alternatively, there's a few videos on youtube discussing them. Here's the first one I came across that shows how to mix the powder & liquid parts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fESo6JweU20
The Science Credibility Bubble 1747
eldavojohn writes "The real fallout of climategate may have nothing to do with the credibility of climate change. Daniel Henninger thinks it's a bigger problem for the scientific community as a whole and he calls out the real problem as seen through the eyes of a lay person in an opinion piece for the WSJ. Henninger muses, 'I don't think most scientists appreciate what has hit them,' and carries on in that vein, saying, 'This has harsh implications for the credibility of science generally. Hard science, alongside medicine, was one of the few things left accorded automatic stature and respect by most untrained lay persons. But the average person reading accounts of the East Anglia emails will conclude that hard science has become just another faction, as politicized and "messy" as, say, gender studies.' While nothing interesting was found by most scientific journals, he explains that the attacks against scientists in these leaked e-mails for proposing opposite views will recall the reader to the persecution of Galileo. In doing so, it will make the lay person unsure of the credibility of all sciences without fully seeing proof of it, but assuming that infighting exists in them all. Is this a serious risk? Will people even begin to doubt the most rigorous sciences like Mathematics and Physics?"
Scientists Step Down After CRU Hack Fallout 874
An anonymous reader writes "In the wake of the recent release of thousands of private files and emails after a server of the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia was hacked, Prof. Phil Jones is stepping down as head of the CRU. Prof. Michael Mann, another prominent climate scientist, is also under inquiry by Penn State University."
