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Submission + - Intellectual Property and My Job

Submitted by gkulick
gkulick writes: I am wondering if any slashdotters have been in this position. I work for a company as a web developer (mostly back-end functionality programing). They manufacture HVAC parts. Recently several companies have approached us and offered website redesign services.(our website looks like it was designed in the 80s). My boss is interested in getting the site redone. Is there an issue with me redesigning the site at home on my time and then asking him if he would like to buy my design? I know I would be cheaper then a professional design team and I can always use the money. But I would be worried that he might assume that it is part of my job. Thanks
Government

The Upside of the NASA Budget 283

Posted by Soulskill from the new-astronaut-ice-cream-flavors dept.
teeks99 writes "There are a lot of articles circulating about the new changes to the NASA budget, but this one goes into some of the details. From what I'm seeing, it looks great — cutting off the big, expensive, over-budget stuff and allowing a whole bunch of important and revolutionary programs to get going: commercial space transportation; keeping the ISS going (now that we've finally got it up and running); working on orbital propellant storage (so someday we can go off to the far flung places); automated rendezvous and docking (allowing multiple, smaller launches, which then form into one large spacecraft in orbit). Quoting: 'NASA is out of the business of putting people into low-earth orbit, and doesn't see getting back in to it. The Agency now sees its role as doing interesting things with people once they get there, hence its emphasis on in-orbit construction, heavy lift capabilities, and resource harvesting hardware. Given budgetary constraints and the real issues with the Constellation program, none of that is necessarily unreasonable.'"
Space

Submission + - Give space a chance (discovermagazine.com)

Submitted by
The Bad Astronomer
The Bad Astronomer writes: "A lot of pundits, scientists, and people who should know better are decrying the demise of NASA, saying that the President's budget cutting the Constellation program and the Ares rockets will sound the death knell of manned space exploration. This simply is not true.The budget will call for a new rocket design, and a lot of money will go toward private space companies, who may be able to launch people into orbit years ahead of Ares being ready anyway."
Microsoft

Submission + - The Hotness of Windows 7 (wsj.com) 1

Submitted by westlake
westlake writes: The success of Windows 7 can be seen in the second-quarter numbers. Profits up 60% from December 08. Operating profitability in the Windows and Windows Live Division 78% in the quarter. Operating profitability for the whole company: 44%. It's been a big story in the trade and financial press, but studiously ignored on Slashdot. The Hotness of Windows 7

Comment Re:National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Score 1, Troll) 920

by snmpkid (#30920360) Attached to: Obama Choosing NOT To Go To the Moon

Because the Director of the Goddard SPACE flight center is the lightning rod character that in the 70's cried foul about the ozone layer depletion that was going to freeze the earth, then he reversed himself with no supporting data to cry foul about global warming in the late 90's and AlGore then saw his opportunity.

Now the Earth Observation Systems at Goddard get funded for whatever they want and they want to study earth more for the lemmings that follow along.
Linux

Submission + - Using Ubuntu Live CD at a local store 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Last year I bought an Asus U81A laptop from Bestbuy. I took it home and installed Ubuntu. Everything was great except for the fact, the trackpad was being recognized as a PS/2 mouse.
As a result the cursor seemed to jump around while typing and a lot of times a mouse move translated to a click event.
I also had trouble with the built in camera.
I finally gave up and sold the laptop on craigslist.

The second time around, I took a Linux Live CD to the nearest Staples store hoping to test for hardware compatibility. I found out that the store people were very much against the idea
and I was told they could not permit it. Has anyone successfully convinced the local store(Best Buy, Staples, folks..) for Live CD to be used at their store ?
Apple

Submission + - MAC OSX Snow Leopard passes Common Criteria (your-story.org)

Submitted by snmpkid
snmpkid writes: Austin company ATSEC has evaluated Snow Leopard under Common Criteria Certification at EAL 3 (augmented for flaw remediation) with the Controlled Access Protection Profile [CAPP] and it has passed. The evaluation consisted of the operation of Mac OS X in a networked environment with other instances of Mac OS X, as well as other well-behaved network systems and operating systems administered by the same management domain. All of the systems connected to the network were configured according to a defined common security policy.

The full report is available at the BSI website https://www.bsi.bund.de/cae/servlet/contentblob/868120/publicationFile/54021/0536a_pdf.pdf
Democrats

Journal Journal: 194.1The corruption of one-party rule 4

Journal by The Fun Guy

In various places, I've seen people moaning about what a terrible thing has happened to Massachusetts with the election of a REPUBLICAN to Uncle Teddy's Senate seat. Oh, what a horrible day for Massachusetts and for the country! What a tragedy that Coakley didn't carry the day!

Bullshit.
Books

Offline Book "Lending" Costs US Publishers Nearly $1 Trillion 494

Posted by Soulskill from the oh-the-humanity dept.
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from a tongue-in-cheek blog post which puts publisher worries about ebook piracy into perspective: "Hot on the heels of the story in Publisher's Weekly that 'publishers could be losing out on as much $3 billion to online book piracy' comes a sudden realization of a much larger threat to the viability of the book industry. Apparently, over 2 billion books were 'loaned' last year by a cabal of organizations found in nearly every American city and town. Using the same advanced projective mathematics used in the study cited by Publishers Weekly, Go To Hellman has computed that publishers could be losing sales opportunities totaling over $100 billion per year, losses which extend back to at least the year 2000. ... From what we've been able to piece together, the book 'lending' takes place in 'libraries.' On entering one of these dens, patrons may view a dazzling array of books, periodicals, even CDs and DVDs, all available to anyone willing to disclose valuable personal information in exchange for a 'card.' But there is an ominous silence pervading these ersatz sanctuaries, enforced by the stern demeanor of staff and the glares of other patrons. Although there's no admission charge and it doesn't cost anything to borrow a book, there's always the threat of an onerous overdue bill for the hapless borrower who forgets to continue the cycle of not paying for copyrighted material."
GUI

Augmented Reality To Help Mechanics Fix Vehicles 81

Posted by timothy from the insert-overlaid-part-a-into-slot-b dept.
kkleiner writes "ARMAR, or Augmented Reality for Maintenance and Repair, is a head mounted display unit that provides graphic overlays to assist you in making repairs. An Android phone provides an interface to control the graphics you view during the process. Published in IEEE, and recently tested with the United States Marine Corps on an armored turret, ARMAR can cut maintenance times in half by guiding users to the damaged area and displaying 3D animations to demonstrate the appropriate tools and techniques."
Privacy

Submission + - Can Facebook get any more creepy? 2

Submitted by whipnet
whipnet writes: OK, I am not sure where to start with this. I am thoroughly creeped out right now. I figured Slashdot would be a good place to ask though.

First off, I do NOT have a Facebook account in any shape or fashion. I have avoided it like the plague since the beginning. Every one else I know is on it, but not me.

I'll try to explain this the best I can and try not to sound confused, but I am confused, so I can't promise anything.

It started today when I got an friend request from my uncle in my email. My uncle does not live in the same state as me, never has and knows none of my friends. As most know when you get one of these emails, there are suggestions of people you might know. I do understand how they make connections using their massive database and data mining algorithms, but the list they sent me was so exact and the fact that the people listed have no clue of one another has really gotten my stomach twisted.

I have everything from ex pot dealers to ex wives listed on it... none of them personally knowing each other.

I understand that my sister and wife may know some of my friends, but they have never met or even know of the others. There is no way anyone on that list or even that I know in the real world could have a connection to a pot dealer I used in college (20 years ago).

There are also business associates listed that don't even live in this country and have never met anyone else I know.

How did they make this connection? (Again, I have NO account or NO fake facebook friends)

Thanks for any input you can provide.
Biotech

Submission + - Evidence of Rapid Evolution in the Y Chromosome (mit.edu)

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: MIT News is reporting on new research overturning the theory that the Y chromosome has remained genetically stagnant for hundreds of millions of years. A sequencing of the chimpanzee Y chromosome allowed the Whitehead Institute to compare that sequencing with that of a human's only to find significant differences despite humans and chimps sharing 98.8% of DNA base pairs. They now have theories about why this is and what differences between the species this may explain but it is difficult to pinpoint what exactly in mating or male behavior can be attributed to the evolution of the Y chromosome. It is, however, evidence that the Y chromosome has been evolving and rebuilding much more rapidly than previously thought. The researchers have begun sequencing the Y chromosomes of several other mammals that are closely related to investigate whether rapid evolution of the Y chromosome is common in the animal kingdom.

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