lightbox32 - Slashdot User

Submission + - A new C standard is on the way. Here's what to expect in C11 (smartbear.com)

Submitted by

Esther Schindler

on Monday June 25, 2012 @01:56PM

Esther Schindler writes: "Last year, Danny Kalev — a former member of the C++ standards committed — explained the new features in C++. Now, in C11: A New C Standard Aiming at Safer Programming, he shares an overview of the changes in C — 13 years after the ratification of the C99 standard. Kalev describes the goodies in C11, including multithreading support, safer standard libraries, and better compliance with other industry standards."

Submission + - Loudness Wars Coming to an End? (cepro.com)

Submitted by

Stowie101

on Monday June 25, 2012 @11:46AM

Stowie101 writes: "The first major step towards the elimination of heavily-compressed music could be the International Telecommunications Union’s (ITU) ITU-R BS.1770-2 standard recommendation for the measurement of loudness that was introduced in 2006 and revised in 2011.

Following the ITU’s recommendations, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) released its Loudness Recommendation EBU R128 in August of 2010. Acting to rectify the problem on the broadcast side of the issue, many European and Asian broadcasters are adopting loudness standards that are based on the criteria first introduced by the ITU.

Here in the U.S., the federal government has also been proactive to improve the quality of broadcast television. By the end of 2012, the broadcast community will have to follow the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act that requires commercials to be played at the same volume as broadcast television.

In terms of music and recording, these broadcast standards do not apply. But Shepherd theorizes the measurement standards will be applied to the production of music.

“Measuring loudness, in general, isn’t easy. Now the ITU has agreed on a new ‘loudness unit:’ the LU. You can measure short- and longer-term loudness over a whole song. They’ve also agreed on guidelines for broadcast; what the average loudness should be and how much you can vary it. The recommendation has been made law in the U.S. for advertisements and is also being adopted in the U.K. and all over the world. All the major broadcasters here — Sky, the BBC, ITV — have agreed to follow the standard."

Submission + - AutoCAD Worm Medre.A Stealing Designs, Blueprints (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7 on Monday June 25, 2012 @11:44AM

Trailrunner7 writes: Security researchers have come across a worm that is meant specifically to steal blueprints, design documents and other files created with the AutoCAD software. The worm, known as ACAD/Medre.A, is spreading through infected AutoCAD templates and is sending tens of thousands of stolen documents to email addresses in China. However, experts say that the worm's infection rates are dropping at this point and it doesn't seem to be part of a targeted attack campaign.

The worm first hit researchers' radar about six months ago, and when they began digging into the situation, they discovered that not only was the worm highly customized and well-constructed, it seemed to be targeting mostly machines in Peru for some reason. Researchers at Eset notcied a major spike in activity from the worm in Peru two months ago and started the process of figuring out what it was doing and where it came from. What they found is that ACAD/Medre.A was written in AutoLISP, a specialized version of the LISP scripting language that's used in AutoCAD.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Will The Hobbit at 48 fps be better than 24fps? (hollywoodreporter.com) 1

Submitted by kodiaktau on Monday June 18, 2012 @11:50AM

kodiaktau writes: Film makers keep touting increased frame per second rate as improving viewing and cinema experience, however the number of theaters who actually support the equipment that can play the higher rate film. It makes me wonder if this is in the real interest of creating a better experience and art, or if it is a ploy by the media manufacturers to sell more expensive equipment and drive ticket prices up.

Submission + - Cats, cocaine, and currency: inside the world of Ca$hcats.biz (vice.com)

Submitted by derekmead on Monday June 18, 2012 @11:50AM

derekmead writes: Will Zweigart is the creator of Ca$hcats.biz, the Internet’s one-stop shop for pictures of cats positioned near obscene displays of wealth. That includes shots of cats sitting on piles of money, cats sitting on piles of money with guns, and the occasional submission of cats, diamonds, and cocaine.

As absurd as it is, Zweigart has said it's just an examination of cats' own psyches: “Every couple of days, my parents still send me pictures of our cats, who just lie around all day with this smug sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. It just kinda reinforces that they’ve always believed they were superior to us or have this ruling-class attitude."

Even amid the Internet’s ever-growing cat glut, Ca$hcats stands out as something remarkable. Yet the concept is simple: it’s just a Tumblr featuring user-submitted pictures. The layout is clean and free of ads. The cats are calm and oblivious. At then you come across a cat sitting on fox pelts with a pair of rifles, 24 cans of 4 Loko, and a few grand in cash, which, no matter how cute or ironic, is totally insane.

Submission + - Inexplicable stellar disk (sciencenews.org)

Submitted by Coisiche on Monday June 18, 2012 @11:00AM

Coisiche writes: A star has been found with an over-sized debris ring that's difficult to reconcile with current star system models. I expect that there will be a natural phenomenon behind it but just once I want to see "artificial" as the only explanation for something like this.

Submission + - Bank of America's green hustle (patexia.com)

Submitted by

ericjones12398

on Monday June 18, 2012 @10:34AM

ericjones12398 writes: "Outside of a few fake plastic trees, the lobby of a Bank of America branch does not resemble an organic farmer’s market or a warm place for an earth-saving entrepreneur. But with a recent announcement of $50 billion tagged for new environmental investments, Bank of America has turned green and joined the banking run to companies engaged in renewable energy, energy efficiency and carbon-light transportation. Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs have made similar commitments to a jagged industry under siege from China, cheap natural gas and tepid moral support. With allegations of posturing and greenwashing tainting big banking’s altruism, it is hard to forget these are the same folks that brought us the mortgage crisis."

Submission + - Sued Pi Musician celebrates legal victory with Ode to Phi (youtube.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 15, 2012 @11:11AM

An anonymous reader writes: "Michael John Blake, the creator of "What Pi Sounds Like" -the viral math/music video that earned him millions of YouTube hits as well as charges of copyright infringement, is celebrating his recent legal victory with his new creation, "What Phi (the golden spiral) Sounds Like just in time for Phi day (6/18)."

Submission + - Monsanto may have to repay 10 years of GM soya royalties in Brazil (nature.com)

Submitted by scibri on Friday June 15, 2012 @09:41AM

scibri writes: Biotech giant Monsanto is one step closer to losing billions of dollars in revenues from its genetically-modified Roundup Ready soya beans, after the Brazilian Supreme Court ruled the company must repay royalties collected over the past decade.

Since GM crops were legalized in 2005, Monsanto has charged Brazilian farmers royalties of 2% on their sales of Roundup Ready soya beans. The company also tests Brazilian soya beans that are sold as non-GM — if they turn out to be Roundup Ready, the company charges the farmers 3%. Farmers challenged this as an an unjust tax on their business.

In April a regional court ruled against Monsanto, though that ruling has been put on hold pending an appeal. The Supreme Court, meanwhile has said that whatever the final ruling is, it will apply throughout the whole country.

Submission + - Subject to a "stop and frisk"? There's an app for that. (msn.com)

Submitted by lightbox32 on Friday June 08, 2012 @07:07PM

lightbox32 writes: The New York Civil Liberties Union released a free smartphone application on Wednesday that allows people to record videos of and report police “stop and frisk” activity, a practice widely denounced by civil rights groups as mostly targeting minorities and almost never resulting in arrests.
The app was thoroughly criticized by the New York Police Department, which said that the tool might prove useful for criminals.

Submission + - News flash - copying data is no longer illegal (stuff.co.nz)

Submitted by LesFerg on Friday June 08, 2012 @02:27PM

LesFerg writes: "FBI agents who copied data from Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom's computers and took it overseas were not acting illegally because information isn't "physical material", the Crown says." So copying data is NOT illegal if you don't take anything physical? How come they get to have it both ways.

Submission + - Best Buy chairman and founder resigns ahead of schedule (msn.com)

Submitted by lightbox32 on Thursday June 07, 2012 @01:18PM

lightbox32 writes: Best Buy's chairman and founder Richard Schulze has announced his resignation from the board of directors Thursday a year ahead of the planned transition at the helm of the struggling retailer.
The resignation of Dunn and Schulze come after Best Buy reported a quarterly loss of $1.7 billion after same-store sales dropped 5 percent.

Submission + - Video: How Cockroaches and Geckos 'Vanish' (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit on Thursday June 07, 2012 @11:12AM

sciencehabit writes: If you've ever seen a cockroach or a gecko disappear before your eyes, science now knows where they go. High-speed video of American cockroaches and flat-tailed house geckos running up a cardboard ramp reveals that both creatures barely slow as they approach the edge. But instead of launching into space like miniature ski-jumpers, they anchor their hind limbs and swing down, perching on the underside of the ledge. Both species experience 3 to 4 Gs during these acrobatics, similar to forces humans experience at the bottom of a bungee jump.

Submission + - 5 Million Farmers Sue Monsanto for $7.7 Billion (readersupportednews.org)

Submitted by Lorien_the_first_one on Thursday June 07, 2012 @07:59AM

Lorien_the_first_one writes: From the article, "aunching a lawsuit against the very company that is responsible for a farmer suicide every 30 minutes, 5 million farmers are now suing Monsanto for as much as 6.2 billion euros (around 7.7 billion US dollars). The reason? As with many other cases, such as the ones that led certain farming regions to be known as the ‘suicide belt’, Monsanto has been reportedly taxing the farmers to financial shambles with ridiculous royalty charges. The farmers state that Monsanto has been unfairly gathering exorbitant profits each year on a global scale from “renewal” seed harvests, which are crops planted using seed from the previous year’s harvest."

Submission + - 30 billion dollar social security hack (cringely.com)

Submitted by MisterE on Friday March 30, 2012 @11:28PM

MisterE writes: I, Cringely's server is apparently overloaded because of this report that millions of identities were stolen from the Social Security Administration's own computers.

Now, fake tax returns are being filed using those stolen identities.

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