yandros - Slashdot User

Submission + - Billionaire ex-Microsoft developer set for space

Submitted by

coondoggie

on Monday March 26, 2007 @10:14AM

coondoggie writes: "It's a long way from helping Microsoft write Word and Excel that's for sure. Next month, billionaire software developer Charles Simonyi, will become the fifth civilian to fly in space when he rockets to the international space station aboard a Russian Soyuz TMA-10 capsule. He will be joined by Russian cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov and return to Earth 11 days later with the systems current orbiting crew — Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and Spanish-born U.S. astronaut Miguel Lopez-Alegria, according to reports. Simonyi is spending over $20 million for the trip. Stanford Phd. grad Simonyi was hired by Xerox PARC during what many consider to be its most productive period, working with Alan Kay, Butler Lampson and Robert Metcalfe. He started work for Microsoft in 1981 and oversaw the development of Word and Excel, as well as Excel's predecessor Multiplan. http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/1290 7"

Submission + - UTSA starting a Cyber Security Center

Submitted by

nawtykitty

on Monday March 26, 2007 @09:05AM

nawtykitty writes: "The University of Texas at San Antonio has announced that they will open a new computer-security research institute. They even were able to hire Ravi Sandhu away from George Mason University. It seems that the University of Texas at San Antonio is striving to make a name for itself in the growing market of computer security. As the article points out,

"increasingly sophisticated hackers have learned to exploit vulnerabilities in, for example, business-to-business deals involving large sums of money".

Is the creation of cyber-security institutes a good thing, or are they attempts to draw more grant money for Universities?"

Submission + - The Incredible Shrinking Engine

Submitted by Somnus on Monday March 12, 2007 @09:12PM

Somnus writes: In the latest issue of MIT's Technology Review , researchers describe how they can dramatically boost engine output and efficiency by preventing pre-ignition, or 'knock:'

... Both turbocharging and direct injection are preexisting technologies, and neither looks particularly impressive ... by combining them, and augmenting them with a novel way to use a small amount of ethanol, Cohn and his colleagues have created a design that they believe could triple the power of a test engine ...
Why didn't I think of this?

Submission + - 9th Annual Independent Games Festival Winners

Submitted by

Ryan Howard

on Monday March 12, 2007 @08:23PM

Ryan Howard writes: "Held on the 7th of March at this year's GDC, the 9th annual Independent Games Festival (fondly referred to as the Sundance of the games industry) has seen its acclaim reach the highest levels to date, and helped to promote a wealth of indie gaming delights. Gameworld Network was on hand to report from the festival, and has a nice three-page summary of the winners, along with some YouTubed gameplay videos to show the winning titles in action! From the article:

"Pocketing a tooth-achingly sweet $20,000 for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, the Bit Blot duo of Derek Yu and Alec Holowka (who attained a respectable level of infamy after their previous work on the hilarious, hyper-violent parody game, I'm O.K.) have caused nothing short of a sensation with their underwater, illusory adventure, Aquaria. Taking on the role of Naija, an isolated mercreature, players explore a hand drawn fantasy world teeming with surreal life in a uniquely fluid, mouse controlled, non-linear gaming experience.""

Submission + - Google Earth to be on the Apple iPhone

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 12, 2007 @06:50PM

An anonymous reader writes: According to Virtual World Times Google Earth will be on the Apple's iPhone. Given that published reports say the iPhone will be a closed system but Google Earth could be considered an open system it begs the question as to whether Google Earth holds an opportunity for developers to develop with the iPhone in mind. 30,000 developers are creating mashups and other stuff on top of Google Earth. Additional Google earth stats are at Virtual World Times

Submission + - Is computer science dead?

Submitted by warm sushi on Monday March 12, 2007 @06:30PM

warm sushi writes: An academic at the British Computing Society asks Is computer science dead? Citing falling student enrolments, and improved technology, British academic Neil McBride claims that off-the-shelf solutions are removing much of the demand for high level development skills: "As commercial software products have matured, it no longer makes sense for organisations to develop software from scratch. Accounting packages, enterprise resource packages, customer relationship management systems are the order of the day: stable, well-proven and easily available." Is that quote laughable? Or has the software development industry stabilised to an off-the-self commodity?

Submission + - What Programming Languages Should You Know?

Submitted by nitsudima on Monday March 12, 2007 @01:31PM

nitsudima writes: David Chisnall posits that the more programming languages you know, the better. The point is not to stuff your head with language rules. Rather, he explains how being able to read multiple languages, even if you never code in them, can help you to select the best possible tool for each coding need — and understand the limitations of the tools you're using.

Submission + - MIT's new bedside diagnostics tools

Submitted by

Roland Piquepaille

on Monday March 12, 2007 @01:31PM

Roland Piquepaille writes: "Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) chemists have developed a high-throughput and inexpensive method for the multiplexed detection of biomolecules by using multifunctional particles. This method could be used to screen for millions of different biomolecules and lead to new and low-cost clinical bedside diagnostics: no more need to wait a day or more before a lab analysis. The particles developed at MIT contain a barcoded ID and one or more probe regions that turn fluorescent when they detect specific targets in a test sample. The researchers think that this method, based on highly customizable particles, could also be used for drug discovery or genetic profiling. Read more for additional references and a picture of a multiplexed analysis using single-probe encoded particles."

Submission + - Direct marketing using airline bookings

Submitted by Overtone on Sunday January 21, 2007 @01:03PM

Overtone writes: Air travelers have to give their real name to fly. New advertising startup Jetera has formed a business to exploit this. In their words "Jetera's patent-pending offering is based on the merging of airline passenger reservation information with consumer data provided by third parties to create a detailed record of the traveller very soon after a flight has been booked. The record will then be associated with one or more relevant groups of goods and services, triggering the dispatch to the traveller via various media of marketing and information content before, during and after the flight." This means direct mailing to your home and ads on the seatback screen in front of you. Jetera plans to launch with their first airline customer by the end of 2007. Ouch! Can a groundswell of slashdotters force them to offer a 5-year opt-out on their website?

Building a Programmer's Rosetta Stone 215

Posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday January 21, 2007 @11:09AM from the still-waiting-for-programmer's-tower-of-babel dept.

Did you ever run into the problem where you knew how to do something in one programming language, but really needed to do it in another? That's what Rosetta Code is all about. A variety of programming tasks are solved using as many languages as possible. You can examine existing tasks, or create your own.

Submission + - Krak demands money from blogger who linked to them

Submitted by

Paul O'Flaherty

on Sunday January 21, 2007 @10:22AM

Paul O'Flaherty writes: "Krak.dk, a danish company has demanded that a blogger pay them 5625 DKK (about 940 USD) because he linked to their site. This was not hotlinking. It was a direct link to page. They have a "no deep linking" policy hidden away in the copyright section of their help pages. But no mention of it anywhere else on the site.

Per Kaarup, a good friend of mine who has been running a Danish WordPress blog about his two dogs received an letter from Krak.dk stating that they were going to charge him 5625 DKK (about 940 USD) because he linked to their site.

Per, for the last two years, has had a link in the footer of his web page, and on his contact page, to a page on Krak.dk which displayed his home. This page has a small copyright notice on the map section of the page itself stating in Danish that it is copyright and you can’t use it.

Per was not using the map, he was directly linking to the page on which it is displayed, and the page itself is much more than just the map.

How long before other sites start doing this?. Full story."

Submission + - Can we find a man with just a photo and a name?

Submitted by

MikeJ

on Sunday January 21, 2007 @05:14AM

MikeJ writes: "Mind Candy, the makers of Perplex City, are testing the power of the Internet by asking that very question; they have recruited one of Earth's 6 billion residents — a man named Satoshi — to participate in this experiment.

It has been suggested that we are each only five to seven people away from any target in the world. Someone, somewhere, knows Satoshi — so we must track these people, and thus Satoshi, down using word-of-mouth communication. People from over 80 countries are already participating in the hunt, with more joining every day. Can you help find Satoshi?"

Submission + - Windows tax now optional at HP

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 21, 2007 @04:27AM

An anonymous reader writes: I've read alot lately about the lack of pre-installed Linux on new machines, and the virtually mandatory Windows tax that customers must pay with most new computers. I haven't found anything WRT the former, but apparently it is possible to opt-out of the latter (up to $100 in some cases) when customizing the options for small and medium business level notebooks from HP's online store. I'll likely take advantage of that option (if it's still available) if/when I'm ready to buy a new notebook.

Submission + - The promise of the commons

Submitted by

Diomidis Spinellis

on Sunday January 21, 2007 @04:07AM

Diomidis Spinellis writes: "The online e-journal Re-public has finished a two-part special issue on the promise of commons. Contributors include Lawrence Lessig (Creative Commons: 4 years on), Richard Stallman (The free software movement), Douglas Rushkoff (Commons: Creating an alternative value system), Michel Bauwens (Peer production, peer governance, peer property), and Gunther Teubner (The private/public dichotomy). Other articles deal with the environment, democracy, sharing, internet governance, and alternative radio. (Full disclosure: I also contributed an item titled Open source as a paradigm for evolving complex systems).

It seems that free and open source software is fueling a crucial debate on how our society deals with private and common goods. Could progress in the commons front counteract the legal (e.g. DMCA) and technical (e.g. DRM) forces that restrict our rights?"

Submission + - Apple vs the Beatles

Submitted by

on Sunday January 21, 2007 @12:19AM

An anonymous reader writes: The name that Apple Inc recently retired, Apple Computer, Inc., cost the company over $26.5 million in damages paid to the Beatles. Beginning in 1978, Apple was sued a total of three times and lost twice. The Beatles lost its most recent suit against Apple (filed in 2004) and the computer company now is able to use the Apple name freely.

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