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Earth

World Population Grows Beyond 7 Billion 349

Posted by samzenpus from the bigger-is-nor-better dept.
First time accepted submitter assertation writes in with a LA Times feature about the booming world population and the strain it puts on the environment and governments. "After remaining stable for most of human history, the world's population has exploded over the last two centuries. The boom is not over: The biggest generation in history is just entering its childbearing years. The coming wave will reshape the planet, and the impact will be greatest in the poorest, most unstable countries."
Robotics

US Regaining Manufacturing Might With Robots and 3D Printing 475

Posted by Soulskill from the finally-something-we-can-exploit-for-cheap-labor-again dept.
For years, the U.S. has been hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs to China because of the vastly cheaper labor pool. But now, several different technologies have ripened to the point where U.S. companies are bringing some operations back home. 3D printing, robotics, AI, and nanotechnology are all expected to dramatically change the manufacturing landscape over the next several years. From the article: "The factory assembly that the Chinese are performing is child’s play for the next generation of robots—which will soon become cheaper than human labor. Indeed, one of China’s largest manufacturers, Taiwan-based Foxconn Technology Group, announced last August that it plans to install one million robots within three years to do the work that its workers in China presently do. It found Chinese labor to be too expensive and demanding. The world’s most advanced car, the Tesla Roadster, is also being manufactured in Silicon Valley, which is one of the most expensive places in the country. Tesla can afford this because it is using robots to do the assembly. ... 3D printers can already create physical mechanical devices, medical implants, jewelry, and even clothing. The cheapest 3D printers, which print rudimentary objects, currently sell for between $500 and $1000. Soon, we will have printers for this price that can print toys and household goods. By the end of this decade, we will see 3D printers doing the small-scale production of previously labor-intensive crafts and goods. It is entirely conceivable that in the next decade we start 3D-printing buildings and electronics."

Comment Re:Europe, bad? (Score 2) 38

Except this is already policy in the United States. All computer programs that are "works of the United States Government" enter the public domain upon publication.

maybe that was wishful thinking but then why is the Federal Reserve Bank/ US Treasury prosecuting and convicting people and getting them to admit to "theft" of public domain stuff (some accounting program)?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/29/usa-crime-fed-idUSL1E8GTBG120120529
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-18/man-said-to-be-charged-by-u-s-in-federal-government-computer-data-theft.html

Comment Re:That Moment (Score 4, Informative) 414

by galaad2 (#40133567) Attached to: 350-Year-Old Newton's Puzzle Solved By 16-Year-Old

I'd reserve your hosannas until this kid's magic formula gets published, along with a formal statement of the problem.

the formula has already been published, here: https://www.jugend-forscht.de/images/1MAT_67_download.jpg
(photo of the formula taken on May 18th)

article source:
https://www.jugend-forscht.de/index.php/projectsearch/detail/6038.4568
and
http://www.jufo-dresden.de/projekt/teilnehmer/matheinfo/m1

i can't find the full paper yet though, but on reddit some users claim that the formula works in Maple
e.g.
http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/u7551/teen_solves_newtons_300yearold_riddle_an/c4szejb

where f is constant on the path the particle makes in the space of velocities:
f:=(g^2 /(2*u^2 ) + a*(g/2)*(v*sqrt(u^2 +v^2 )/(u^2 ) + arcsinh(v/u)));

Comment Re:That is cool, but... (Score 3, Informative) 194

by galaad2 (#40097745) Attached to: Axis, Yahoo's New Browser

I do that, but it is limited in its usefulness because there is not a simple way of then killing off one of those addresses that you have made up on the spot. Eventually if spam to all these made up addresses becomes a problem, you have to turn off the catch-all address to stop the spam coming through. Which then means you have to actually set up another account or group in Google Apps each time you want an extra address, which is a lot less quick and easy.

point taken but i don't usually give such an address to any site. I use mailinator.com / bugmenot.com for random junk like reading nytimes.com or stuff like that.

The Gmail wildcard is useful for sites you want to receive stuff from but these sites are not trusted/appreciated enough to give them a proper email address. Also, in order not to fill up my main email account, i have a separate, dedicated account@my domain and that one is the target of the wildcard, not my main account.
To access that quickly, I set up account access delegation rights between the wildcard-reception account and my main account.

If one of the made-up addresses starts receiving spam i can always set a filter to delete that email as soon as it arrives (usually i just filter it with a label for sending to spamcop) and (usually) the owner of the site it was initially intended for will get a spam & abuse complaint sent on all contact email addresses i can find (via whois and their site)

Comment Re:That is cool, but... (Score 5, Informative) 194

by galaad2 (#40097331) Attached to: Axis, Yahoo's New Browser

This feature is worthless as a spam decoy strategy, as anyone can use it to find your real address. I would be amazed if spammers don't already strip off the "+whatever" from gmail addresses,
[...]
I wonder why Google hasn't stepped up to supply actual disposable email addresses yet

oh, but they do have that but it's a bit hidden and it's only available via Apps for hosted domains. (even free apps has it).
The way to set this up is to host your domain (or at least the mail receiving functions of it) with Google Apps and then you can set up the email service to accept wildcard emails, *@your-domain-hosted-on-google-apps_dot_anything.

Now whenever you give out an address just invent one on the spot @your domain and it will be valid. I do this and i got into the habit of throwing a date stamp and the name of whoever it is for into the email address itself so that if i start receiving spam for that address i know who leaked it and when they were assigned that address. Such an address usually looks like: mail-for-my-name-from-slashdot-org-20120524@example.com

And since my domain is set up at Gmail with a wildcard catch-all address, that will be routed to my actual mailbox (only if it passes Gmail spam filtering tests).

Comment Re:That is cool, but... (Score 4, Insightful) 194

by galaad2 (#40097287) Attached to: Axis, Yahoo's New Browser

What, exactly, does Yahoo! have that Gmail doesn't have? Other! Than! Excessive! Punctuation!

well, there's one thing: yahoo mail has stupid and obnoxious graphical ads, sometimes with flash&sound and sometimes the ads expand to fill the page if you accidentally mouse over them (happened to me a month ago when i was installing a new computer and i didn't had time to install AdBlock Plus. ABP was the first thing i installed after that).

Gmail only has text ads and those are not even remotely as annoying as the crap that yahoo shows.
The Military

Russia Threatens Pre-emptive, Destructive Force On US Missile Defense 675

Posted by Soulskill from the can't-we-all-just-get-along dept.
suraj.sun sends this quote from an article at the BBC: "Russia says it is prepared to use 'destructive force pre-emptively' if the U.S. goes ahead with controversial plans for a missile defense system based in Central Europe. The warning came after the Russian defense minister said talks on missile defense were nearing a dead end. Moscow fears that missile interceptors would be a threat to Russia's security. But the U.S. and NATO say they are intended to protect against attacks from Iran or North Korea. 'A decision to use destructive force pre-emptively will be taken if the situation worsens,' chief of the Russian defense staff Gen Nikolai Makarov said. President Barack Obama ... scrapped plans for a network of bases spread across Poland and the Czech Republic with the capacity to intercept long-range missiles. But in 2010, the U.S. signed an agreement with Poland to use an old airstrip at Redzikowo, near the Baltic coast, as a missile defense base."
The Internet

ISOC Hires MPAA Executive Paul Beringer 93

Posted by timothy from the interesting-choice dept.
First time accepted submitter imwilder writes "The Internet Society has hired Paul Beringer to head up its operations in North America. Beringer was formerly Chief Technology Policy Officer for the MPAA, and Executive Director of Internet and Technology Policy for Verizon Corporate Services. Does this challenge the notion that ISOC is a 'trusted, independent source of Internet leadership?'"
The Media

RIAA Chief Whines That SOPA Opponents Were "Unfair" 525

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the unlike-the-misinformation-in-print-media dept.
First time submitter shoutingloudly writes "In a NY Times op-ed today, RIAA chief Cary H. Sherman accuses the opponents of SOPA of having engaged in shady rhetorical tactics. He (wrongly) accuses opponents such as Wikipedia and Google of having disseminated misinformation about the bills. He lashes out at the use of the term 'censorship,' which he calls a 'loaded and inflammatory term.' Most Slashdot readers will get the many unintentional jokes in this inaccurate, hypocritical screed by one of the leaders of the misinformation-and-inflammatory-rhetoric-wielding content industry lobby." A gem: "As it happens, the television networks that actively supported SOPA and PIPA didn’t take advantage of their broadcast credibility to press their case. That’s partly because 'old media' draws a line between 'news' and 'editorial.' Apparently, Wikipedia and Google don’t recognize the ethical boundary between the neutral reporting of information and the presentation of editorial opinion as fact."
Security

DHS Sends Tourists Home Over Twitter Jokes 709

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the it's-not-like-anyone-would-miss-la dept.
itwbennett writes "In a classic case of 'we say destroy, you say party hard,' the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security detained a pair of British twenty-somethings for 12 hours and then sent them packing back to the land of the cheeky retort. At issue is a Tweet sent by Leigh Van Bryan about plans to 'destroy America,' starting with LA, which, really, isn't that bad an idea."

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