Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:Seriously... (Score 1) 245

by Hognoxious (#50166273) Attached to: Giving Doctors Grades Has Backfired

How do you ensure that two different graders wouldn't give two completely different grades for the same "creative" answer?

You can't. However, you can mitigate the effects by indepedently grading it twice. If they're close, take the average. If there's a big discrepancy do it a third time.

Some college admission processes work like that.

Of course, this is more expensive. A lot of people on this thread seem to be confusing "can't do" with "can't do cheaply".
Technology

Pocket SCiO Spectrometer Sends Chemical Composition of Anything To Smartphones 82

Posted by samzenpus from the scan-it dept.
MojoKid writes: Is that a tricorder in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? All joking aside, the handheld SCiO could truly make you feel like a member Bones McCoy's medical team. The SCiO turns science fiction into science fact by shrinking mass spectrometry technology used in traditional lab settings into a device small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. While pricey handheld spectrometers have been available for researchers, the SCiO is the first such device marketed directly at consumers. To get the SCiO down to a reasonable price point, Consumer Physics uses near-IR spectroscopy and optics typically found in smartphones to measure the light reflected from any given object. Held at a distance of 5 to 15 mm from the intended target, SCiO captures reflected spectrum data and uploads it to its own cloud platform. The company's proprietary algorithms then analyze the data and send the information back down to your smartphone (SCiO require a Bluetooth connection). Reportedly, this whole process occurs within 1.5 seconds. The hope is to empower consumers to learn more about the world around them and even about the things that we put in our mouth. You'll be able to ascertain nutritional information about the foods you eat without having to rely on labels, or even determine the ripeness of fruits and vegetables with the push of a button. The Whole Foods crowd will be all over this, one would think.
The Almighty Buck

19-Year-Old's Supercomputer Chip Startup Gets DARPA Contract, Funding 150

Posted by samzenpus from the show-me-the-money dept.
An anonymous reader writes: 19-year-old Thomas Sohmers, who launched his own supercomputer chip startup back in March, has won a DARPA contract and funding for his company. Rex Computing, is currently finishing up the architecture of its final verified RTL, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year. The new Neo chips will be sampled next year, before moving into full production in mid-2017.The Platform reports: "In addition to the young company’s first round of financing, Rex Computing has also secured close to $100,000 in DARPA funds. The full description can be found midway down this DARPA document under 'Programming New Computers,' and has, according to Sohmers, been instrumental as they start down the verification and early tape out process for the Neo chips. The funding is designed to target the automatic scratch pad memory tools, which, according to Sohmers is the 'difficult part and where this approach might succeed where others have failed is the static compilation analysis technology at runtime.'"
Shark

Since Receiving Satellite Tags, Some Sharks Have Become Stars of Social Media 31

Posted by samzenpus from the just-when-you-thought-it-was-safe-to-tweet-in-the-water dept.
Lucas123 writes: A research project that tags the world's most dangerous sharks with four different tracking devices and then offers all the data to the public has taken off, garnering hundreds of thousands of users; one shark even has more then 80,000 followers on Twitter. OCEARCH, a non-profit shark tracking project, has tagged about 130 sharks, from great whites and tigers to hammerheads and makos, and open sourced the data in the hope that it will create citizen scientists who will follow the animals and care about what happens to them. To further personify the apex predators, the researchers at OCEARCH have also given the sharks names such as Katharine and Mary Lee, two sharks that are more than 14 feet long and weight more than a ton. OCEARCH's shark tracker has garnered 10 times the traffic it had last year, and it's expected to grow 20 times more by the end of this year. Along with data from satellite, acoustic and accelerometer tags, the project expects to begin using big data analytics to offer more granular data about the animals and their lives to scientists and the public at large.
Privacy

FCC CIO: Consumers Need Privacy Controls In the Internet of Everything Era 46

Posted by samzenpus from the i'd-rather-remain-anonymous dept.
Lemeowski writes: Who is responsible for ensuring security and privacy in the age of the Internet of Things? As the number of Internet-connected devices explodes — Gartner estimates that 25 billion devices and objects will be connected to the Internet by 2020 — security and privacy issues are poised to affect everyone from families with connected refrigerators to grandparents with healthcare wearables. In this interview, U.S. Federal Communications Commission CIO David Bray says control should be put in the hands of individual consumers. Speaking in a personal capacity, Bray shares his learnings from a recent educational trip to Taiwan and Australia he took as part of an Eisenhower Fellowship: "A common idea Bray discussed with leaders during his Eisenhower Fellowship was that the interface for selecting privacy preferences should move away from individual Internet platforms and be put into the hands of individual consumers." Bray says it could be done through an open source agent that uses APIs to broker their privacy preferences on different platforms.

Comment Re: It's like Venezuela but without all the gun cr (Score 3, Insightful) 431

by Hognoxious (#50058979) Attached to: Software Devs Leaving Greece For Good, Finance Minister Resigns

Greece reported a nearly 2 billion euro surplus in 2014, without taking interest payments into account.

I could take a cash advance on a credit card at 28%, put it in a deposit account at 1%, and generate a surplus without taking interest payments into account.

Comment Re: It's like Venezuela but without all the gun cr (Score 0) 431

by Hognoxious (#50058325) Attached to: Software Devs Leaving Greece For Good, Finance Minister Resigns

That situation is exactly the same in the US (except the gap is about $500 billion right now, more than the entire Greek debt).

The US has two things that Greece doesn't: an economy, credibility, and nukes.

I'll come in again.

The only reason that the US keeps going is that they control the lender (the Federal Reserve). At least they think they do.

The Greek PM was mumbling about "external forces" (in between wittering about ancient history) on TV over the weekend. He looked & sounded drunk to me. Frankly, if I was PM of a tin-pot kleptocracy like that I'd probably have a decent nip of Ouzo before going on the box.

If you think it's the illuminati, the freemasons or the joooooz, just say so. Don't piss around.

Slashdot Top Deals

"It says he made us all to be just like him. So if we're dumb, then god is dumb, and maybe even a little ugly on the side." -- Frank Zappa

Close