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Businesses

Indian Software Firm Outsourcing Jobs To US 444

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the turnabout-is-fair-play dept.
phobos13013 writes "NPR is reporting Indian software maker Wipro is outsourcing positions to a development office opening in Atlanta, Georgia. Although it sounds good for US job growth, the implication is that firms outside the US appear to be dominating more and more in the global economy, even from developing and underdeveloped regions of the world. Similarly, salaries of IT professionals world-wide are projected to stagnate or possibly fall due to the large pool of qualified applicants in the market today."
Yahoo!

Yahoo's YSlow Plug-in Tells You Why Your Site is Slow 103

Posted by CmdrTaco from the like-i-need-a-plugin-to-tell-me-i-suck dept.
Stoyan writes "Steve Souders, performance architect at Yahoo, announced today the public release of YSlow — a Firefox extension that adds a new panel to Firebug and reports page's performance score in addition to other performance-related features. Here is a review plus helpful tips how to make the scoring system match your needs.
Privacy

High-Tech Squirrels Trained to Conduct Espionage 269

Posted by Zonk from the the-weekly-world-news dept.
Pcol writes "In the July 20 issue of the Washington Post, columnist Al Kamen reports that the BBC has translated a story headlined 'spying squirrels,' published in the Iranian newspaper Resalat on the use of trained animals to conduct espionage against their country: 'A few weeks ago, 14 squirrels equipped with espionage systems of foreign intelligence services were captured by [Iranian] intelligence forces along the country's borders. These trained squirrels, each of which weighed just over 700 grams, were released on the borders of the country for intelligence and espionage purposes.' According the story the squirrels had 'GPS devices, bugging instruments and advanced cameras' in their bodies. 'Given the fast speed and the special physical features of these animals, they provide special capabilities for spying operations. Once the animals return to their place of origin, the intelligence gathered by them is then offloaded. . . .' Iranian police officials captured the squirrels before they could carry out their assignments."
Microsoft

Microsoft Pledges Conditional Support for ODF 241

Posted by Zonk from the you-can't-say-grudging-respect-without-grudge dept.
Macthorpe writes "BetaNews is reporting that Microsoft has announced in a letter that they will support ODF as a format option, if it doesn't 'restrict choice among formats'. Citing their lack of opposition to the ratification of ODF as a standard, they go on to say: 'ODF's design may make it attractive to those users that are interested in a particular level of functionality in their productivity suite or developers who want to work that format. Open XML may be more attractive to those who want richer functionality [...] This is not to say that one is better than the other — just that they meet different needs in the marketplace.'"
Microsoft

Submission + - Linspire delivers Open XML translator (cbronline.com)

Submitted by karmic_penguin
karmic_penguin writes: Linux distributor Linspire has delivered the first fruits of its controversial interoperability and patent deal with Microsoft in the form of Open XML Translator software for OpenOffice and Star Office. Microsoft's RT Audio Codec has been licensed to "enable voice-enabled interoperability between Linspire's Pidgin client and Microsoft's Office Communicator and Live Messenger instant messaging clients." Linspire has also licensed a number of Microsoft TrueType fonts and has agreed to support Windows Media 10 audio and video codecs. However, they will only be available to Linspire users if they purchase "a patent SKU", and this will not be available for Freespire. It remains to be seen if Microsoft will end up getting the better end of these interoperability agreements.
Databases

Submission + - Cache Method to Improve Application Performance

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: I am currently trying to speed up some processes that slurp up and process some amounts of data from moderately sized databases of several 10's of gigabytes.

I am looking at one approach to build an object layer that will serve as a cache / mediator between the main database and the clients, but I see issues with lazy writing, data merging, and multi-user access.

I currently read data into screens from ADO recordsets, and write similarly. Therefore I am looking at some rewriting to make screens and related code run against my home-grown object layer.

What do people think of this approach, and what other approaches might be suggested? Since some screens include summary and computed information, being able to run SQL against the cache would be a benefit and save me writing some code.
The Courts

Submission + - Deception Leading To Pregnancy

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Many of us nerds are male, and this directly relates to our rights when it comes to parenthood. A friend of mine had a girlfriend for a few months, lasting until about three or so months ago. At that point they could no longer see each other due to neither have a job, and therefore not being able to pay for gas (they lived a hundred plus miles away from each other).
She swore she was on birth control. Now she says that she wasn't, that she's now pregnant, that she doesn't want my friend to be a father figure, and that she wants to move away from her parents and live on my friend's child support and other welfare. In the mean time she's been lying to her parents saying that my friend is ignoring her attempts at communication, while in actuality it has been the girl that is ignoring my friend.
Still, neither the girl nor my friend has a job. Given that the pregnant girl in question is a chronic liar, what legal recourse could my friend possibly have? She will say anything in court that she thinks will work.
Portables (Apple)

Submission + - BarCampers launch iPhone Developers Camp (barcamp.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Created by BarCampers (Raven Zachary, whurley, and Chris Messina) iPhone Developers Camp is an upcoming gathering to develop web-based applications and optimize web sites for iPhone. It is a non-commercial event, organized by volunteers, with attendance free to all. The event is being held the week following the public release of the iPhone. Attendees will include web designers, developers, testers, and iPhone owners, all working together over the weekend to improve the web experience for iPhone. Development projects will include both solo and team efforts. While some attendees will wish to work solo during the event, we encourage attendees to team up, based on expertise, to work in ad-hoc project development teams. All attendees should be prepared to work on a development project during the event. You do not need to own an iPhone to attend (although, a large number of iPhones at the event will make the development and testing process much easier).
Input Devices

Journal Journal: Flight training software? 12

Journal by nizo

What kind of options are out there for software to teach you how to fly? I realize there is way more involved, but I am looking for something that is a good introduction, since my oldest (age 11) is making noises about wanting to learn.
Sony

Submission + - Cell SPU at 4Ghz and ~25% smaller (beyond3d.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Beyond3D reports that Toshiba has migrated the Stream Processing Units found on the Cell processors away from its previously custom design towards a synthesizable design that can be easily integrated into new processors. The new design created an SPU that 20-30% smaller than the SPUs found in the Cell, although it is 10% slower at the same frequency. However, the new design is capable of hitting 4Ghz, much faster than current SPUs.
Businesses

Submission + - Smart Car Will Be Sold In The USA 1st Quarter 2008

Submitted by Blahbooboo3
Blahbooboo3 writes: Finally, the smart car is coming to the USA in January 2008. Smart car uses a special designed crash cage to protect the driver and gets upwards of 40MPG. Crash test are very positive. The car is deceptively large inside, as showcased by this great ad from the smart usa web site. The 2nd gen Fortwo will be offered first, starting around $12000. The slick roadster unfortunately isn't coming soon.
Books

Submission + - Orson Scott Card Confirms Ender's Game Video Games (filefront.com)

Submitted by lymeca
lymeca writes: In an interview over at Gaming Today, Orson Scott Card confirms the development of an Ender's Game video game and elaborates on the multitude of potential future games in the Ender universe. He also talks about his experiences writing for and playing games, as well as why he believes games inherently never have the potential for storytelling on the level of novels and films. From the interview: "What makes a game work is the opposite of what makes a story work. In a story, you are seeking to find out what really happened — why people do what they do, what the results of their choices are. You identify with the character(s) but you do not control them. Instead, the author has the ultimate authority. ... In a game, the opposite illusion must be created. Even though most games absolutely force you to follow preset paths, the gamewrights try to give you the illusion that you are making free choices."
Programming

Submission + - Apache Ant gets a Makeover (placidsystems.com)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Virtual Ant, a new GUI for the popular Apache Ant build tool creates an environment similar to Windows Explorer where users can play around with their file system, while whatever they do is recorded and turned into an Ant build script. The real cool part is that whatever they do inside Virtual Ant does not affect the real file system. So deleting a file by mistake doesnt actually delete it. The program also has some really cool features like allowing you to go back and forward in time to see how the file system looked like after each ant task was executed on it.
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - IT ads from the past: From the quaint to the weird (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
PetManimal
PetManimal writes: "Computerworld has dug up some funny IT advertising gems from decades past. The highlights include "The Personal Mainframe", Elvira hawking engineering software, and an image of the earliest screenless "briefcase portables." Strange to think that people not only took these technologies so seriously, but also paid big bucks for gear that seems positively primitive now."
Microsoft

Microsoft Pressures Testers After Software Leak 263

Posted by CowboyNeal from the everyone-play-nice dept.
narramissic writes "ITworld reports that Microsoft is 'taking tough measures to find out who leaked a Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Windows Home Server to The Hotfix.net blog.' The software preview was posted on the site by a user named 'Richard' soon after it was released to a small group of testers. In an e-mail to MVPs whose names contain 'Richard,' Kevin Beares, the Windows Home Server community lead at Microsoft, wrote: 'For right now, you have no access to the beta until I can find the Richard who posted the WHS (Windows Home Server) CTP on this site.... I will work with the Connect Admin team to determine which one of you is the real culprit of this leak.'"

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