Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Businesses

Submission + - Friends Don't Let Geek Friends Do Finance

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: If Vivek Wadhwa remade Pinocchio, instead of The Coachman luring naughty boys to Pleasure Island to engage in mischievous behavior and be transformed into donkeys, you might find Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd C. Blankfein luring bright engineering grads to Wall Street to, well, engage in mischievous behavior and be transformed into, well, asses. While the practice of poaching engineering talent slowed after the economy tanked in 2008, Wadhwa is dismayed to report that thanks to hundred-billion-dollar taxpayer bailouts, investment banks have recovered and gone back to their old, greedy ways, snagging engineering grads who might otherwise solve the world's problems, making them financial offers they can't refuse, and morphing them into quants, investment bankers and management consultants. 'Not only are the investment banks siphoning off hundreds of billions of dollars from our economy with financial gimmicks like CDOs,' writes Wadhwa, 'they are using our best engineering graduates [25% of MIT grads in '06] to help them do it. This is the talent that our country has invested so much resource in producing.' He concludes: 'Let's save the world by keeping our engineers out of finance. We need them to, instead, develop new types of medical devices, renewable energy sources, and ways for sustaining the environment and purifying water, and to start companies that help America keep its innovative edge.' Amen, but how 'ya gonna keep 'em down on the Engineering farm after they've seen Wall Street?

Submission + - The Ethics of Sex with Robots 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "The Sonoma State Star reports that philosophy professor John Sullins says that as engineers work to design visually pleasing and life-like mechanical robots that simulate emotions, the potential psychological outcomes of this form of advanced technology may pose a threat to the way society functions as a whole. "Humans have a tendency to anthropomorphize things in their environment, like naming their car, for instance. People have a compelling need to make connections with things in their lives," says Sullins adding that engineers have the ability to access human psychological weaknesses when they build a computer that takes the shape of a visually pleasing and attractive mate that can say emotionally moving things, like "I love you," during physically intimate moments. Author David Levy says that these types of robots will be able to end pedophilia and prostitution and that robot sex will become the only sexual outlet for a few sectors of the population: the misfits, the very shy, the sexually inadequate and uneducable but although Levy enlightens his readers with the benefits that sex robots can provide humans, Sullins still believes that they will ultimately cause social isolation.. "Plato argues that in life, humans should not just try to obtain sexual gratification, but they should try to attain the erotic," says Sullins adding that the concept of "the erotic," can be described as a loving and meaningful relationship that transports lovers to a philosophically higher place and helps them become better people."
The Military

Submission + - U.S. Military Deploys Gunfire Detection System (ibtimes.com)

Submitted by
gabbo529
gabbo529 writes: "A new warfighting technology will soon be making its way to Afghanistan. U.S. Army forces will be getting gunshot detection systems, which can tell where a shot was fired from. The system has four small acoustic sensors and a small display screen attached to the soldier's body armor that shows the distance and direction of incoming bullets. The sensors are each about the size of a deck of cards and can detect the supersonic sound waves generated by enemy gunfire. It alerts the soldier of the shot's direction in less than one second."
Math

Submission + - Happy Pi Day

Submitted by
CmdrTaco
CmdrTaco writes: "Just wanted take a break to wish everyone a Happy Pi Day. It's 3/14, so I hope you are all enjoying your day off, and remember not to bother checking your mailbox."

Submission + - Bike grown from powder using laser-sintering

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Aerospace company EADS has shown off a bike made entirely from high strength nylon powder bound together in layers by laser-sintering. Similar to 3D printing, the company reckons the technique — called ALM or additive-layer manufacturing — could do away with factories and production lines in future.

Submission + - Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo Should Fear Facebook (industrygamers.com)

Submitted by donniebaseball23
donniebaseball23 writes: Facebook and Warner Bros. have unveiled a partnership enabling movies to be rented or purchased through Facebook using Facebook Credits, but according to IndustryGamers, the move is possibly a sign of things to come for the games business. "Facebook already has a stranglehold on the social games market and most of the top developers are using Facebook Credits. Although the impact of the Facebook rentals service won't be felt immediately on the traditional games business, it's a sure sign that Facebook is not hesitating to expand its entertainment aspirations," the website writes.
Books

Submission + - Crime Writer Makes a Killing with 99 Cent eBooks

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Joe Konrath has an interesting interview with independent writer John Locke who currently holds the coveted #1 spot in the Amazon Top 100 and has sold just over 350,000 downloads on Kindle of his 99 cent books since January 1st of this year which with a royalty rate of 35%, is an annual income well over $500k. Locke says that 99 cents is the magic number and adds that when he lowered the price of his book "The List" from $2.99 to 99 cents, he started selling 20 times as many copies — about 800 a day, turning his loss lead into his biggest earner. "These days the buying public looks at a $9.95 eBook and pauses. It’s not an automatic sale," says Locke. "And the reason it’s not is because the buyer knows when an eBook is priced ten times higher than it has to be. And so the buyer pauses. And it is in this pause—this golden, sweet-scented pause—that we independent authors gain the advantage, because we offer incredible value." Kevin Kelly predicts that within 5 years all digital books will cost 99 cents. "I don't think publishers are ready for how low book prices will go," writes Kelly. "It seems insane, dangerous, life threatening, but inevitable.""
Technology

Submission + - Study Shows Technology Prevent us from Good Sleep (ispyce.com)

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "Nearly two-thirds of Americans say they're not getting enough sleep and late-night computer use, texting and video games are a significant part of the problem, according to a national survey released today. Virtually all of Americans surveyed in the Sleep in America poll reported "very active" use of technology at least a few nights a week within an hour of bed. It is clear that we have a lot more to learn about the appropriate use and design of this technology to complement good sleep habits," said David Cloud, CEO of the National Sleep Foundation, which conducted the survey."
Open Source

Submission + - Gameduino: "Ridiculously Awesome" (createdigitalmotion.com) 1

Submitted by
beckman101
beckman101 writes: "Gameduino is a DIY game platform built on a shield for the Arduino. It'(TM)s open source hardware (BSD and, for the code, GPL). Okay, that’s fairly cool. But what makes this project special is that this inexpensive board has hardware that'(TM)s capable enough to be interesting. The result is a lo-fi game console built on an FPGA that gives you retro graphics without being, you know, too retro. Games actually look good."
Intel

Submission + - Intel's New Core i7-990X Extreme Edition Tested (hothardware.com)

Submitted by
MojoKid
MojoKid writes: "Intel recently launched a speed bump of their flagship Extreme Edition Core i7 processor, known as the Core i7-990X. Its multiplier is unlocked and it's clocked at 3.45GHz stock speed with a Turbo Boost top-end speed of 3.73GHz. Intel claims its the fastest desktop chip on the planet; like geek tiger blood for your PC. The new Core i7-990X is also based on the 32nm Gulftown core and the performance metrics show it's easily the fastest 6-core chip for the desktop currently but of course it'll cost you as well."
Science

Submission + - The Car Faster Than a Speeding Bullet (wsj.com) 1

Submitted by
pbahra
pbahra writes: "Formula 1 is seen as the apogee of engineering excellence and automotive power. So it says something that in Bloodhound SSC—the car that, if all goes well, in 2013 will shatter the current land speed record—the Cosworth Formula 1 engine is just the fuel pump. “We are creating the ultimate car; we’re going where no-one has gone before,” said Richard Noble, the project director. The car, which Mr. Noble says takes £10,000 a day just to keep it ticking over, will be powered by not one, but two other engines. The smaller one, the EJ200, is normally found in the British Royal Air Force’s Typhoon jet. Its job is to get the 13.4 meter long car up to 350 mph. That’s when the big one kicks in. The big one is the 18-inch diameter, 12-foot-long Falcon rocket, the largest of its kind ever made in the U.K.. Its job is to catapult the car through the sound barrier to its maximum speed of 1,050 mph. That is, literally, faster than a speeding bullet."

Submission + - World's Most Powerful Optical Microscope (sciencedaily.com)

Submitted by gamricstone
gamricstone writes: Scientists have produced the world's most powerful optical microscope, which could help understand the causes of many viruses and diseases. Previously, the standard optical microscope can only see items around one micrometre — 0.001 millimetres — clearly. But now, by combining an optical microscope with a transparent microsphere, dubbed the 'microsphere nanoscope', the Manchester researchers can see 20 times smaller — 50 nanometres ((5 x 10-8m) — under normal lights. This is beyond the theoretical limit of optical microscopy. "Seeing inside a cell directly without dying and seeing living viruses directly could revolutionize the way cells are studied and allow us to examine closely viruses and biomedicine for the first time."

Slashdot Top Deals

The best way to accelerate a Macintoy is at 9.8 meters per second per second.

Close