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Inside the World's Most Advanced Planetarium 133

Posted by samzenpus from the laser-floyd-will-never-be-the-same dept.
notthatwillsmith writes "Earlier this month, the most technologically-advanced digital planetarium in the world opened in San Francisco's California Academy of Sciences. The new Morrison Planetarium's 75-foot screen replaces the traditional Zeiss projector with an array of 6 high-resolution DLP projectors arrayed around the edge of the theater, which are powered by three very different, but interesting computing clusters. The three clusters allow for projection of traditional planetarium shows, playback of ultra-high resolution movies, and display of anything from current atmospheric conditions on Earth to a (greatly accelerated) trip to the farthest reaches of the universe, all rendered in real-time on an 8800 sq. ft. dome. Maximum PC went on a behind the scenes tour with the engineers who built the systems that do everything from run the planetarium lights to the sound systems to the tech behind the screen to show you how it works and what it's like to drive, well ... the universe."
Programming

Getting Hired As an Entry-Level Programmer? 540

Posted by kdawson from the foot-in-door dept.
An anonymous reader writes "I received a state university degree in Computer Science. After graduation, I immediately took jobs in QA to pay the bills while waiting for other opportunities, which of course turned out to be as naive as it sounds. I've been working QA for several years now and my resume does not show the right kind of work experience for programming. On the whole I'm probably no better as a a candidate than a CS graduate fresh out of college. But all of the job postings out in the real world are looking for people with 2-5 years of programming work experience. How do you build up those first 2 years of experience? What kinds of companies hire programmers with no prior experience?"
Television

YouTube Adds Full-Length Television Shows 197

Posted by timothy from the what-about-magnum-pi-and-square-pegs? dept.
thefickler writes "YouTube has moved to put full-length television shows on its site for the first time. Historically, YouTube has hosted a bewildering and attractive variety of video clips, the vast majority of which have been under ten minutes in length. YouTube has announced that it had finalized a deal with CBS to offer shows such as Star Trek, MacGyver, Beverly Hills 90210, and The Young and the Restless. I can't wait to watch The Young and the Restless!"
Programming

Do Women Write Better Code? 847

Posted by CmdrTaco from the better-than-me-at-least dept.
JCWDenton writes "The senior vice-president of engineering for computer-database company Ingres-and one of Silicon Valley's highest-ranking female programmers-insists that men and women write code differently. Women are more touchy-feely and considerate of those who will use the code later, she says. They'll intersperse their code ... with helpful comments and directions, explaining why they wrote the lines the way they did and exactly how they did it. The code becomes a type of 'roadmap' for others who might want to alter it or add to it later, says McGrattan, a native of Ireland who has been with Ingres since 1992. Men, on the other hand, have no such pretenses. Often, 'they try to show how clever they are by writing very cryptic code,' she tells the Business Technology Blog. 'They try to obfuscate things in the code,' and don't leave clear directions for people using it later. "
Programming

Cisco To Open-Source New Messaging Protocol 118

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the would-you-like-to-see-my-etchings dept.
Esther Schindler writes "Do you use SOAP, CORBA or EJBs? You might want to take a look at Etch, writes James Turner for CIO.com. It's language-, platform- and transport-agnostic, and Cisco is planning to release it as open source. Certainly, it offers some technical benefits: 'In addition to a simplified configuration, Etch also promises less overhead over the wire, compared to SOAP. In a testbed environment where SOAP was managing around 900 calls a second, Etch generated more than 50,000 messages in a one-way mode, and 15,000 transactions with a full round-trip, company officials stated.' And the open source part? Cisco is in the process of deciding what license to use. 'The intent is to use a less restrictive license than GPL, perhaps Apache or Mozilla. This is to allow commercial developers to incorporate Etch into products without licensing issues. A final announcement on the licensing decision will be available in the next month.'"
Announcements

Journal Journal: How to represent at the anniversary of modern computing

Journal by CheShACat
I have been asked by an old friend, who is now one of the curators of the Manchester Science Museum, to represent at the upcoming celebrations of the 60th anniversary of Alan Turing's greatest work: the invention of the modern computer. As a long term open source evangelist and lifelong computer addict, this is clearly not an opportunity I can turn down. The question is: what can I do (beyond flashing a desktop cube) to engage youngsters of all ages and hopefully at the same time pass on the fre
The Internet

YouTube Breeding Harmful Scientific Misinformation 816

Posted by kdawson from the playing-to-the-emotions dept.
Invisible Pink Unicorn writes "University of Toronto researchers have uncovered widespread misinformation in videos on YouTube related to vaccination and immunization. In the first-ever study of its kind, they found that over half of the 153 videos analyzed portrayed childhood, HPV, flu and other vaccinations negatively or ambiguously. They also found that videos highly skeptical of vaccinations received more views and better ratings by users than those videos that portray immunizations in a positive light. According to the lead researcher, 'YouTube is increasingly a resource people consult for health information, including vaccination. Our study shows that a significant amount of immunization content on YouTube contradicts the best scientific evidence at large. From a public health perspective, this is very concerning.' An extract from the Journal of the American Medical Association is available online."

Feed Engadget: J. Lo brings latest album to Gresso flash drive (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Portable Audio, Storage

Nah, J. Lo won't go down as the first artist to sell an album via flash drive, but she's certainly raising the bar concerning price. Apparently, Gresso has landed an agreement with Sony BMG Music Entertainment that allows it to distribute Lopez's "Brave" album on the Adam&Eve flash drive, which features 1GB of storage and is crafted from African Mahogany or African Blackwood. Word on the street has this one landing later this month for around $70, and while it's only a supposition, we could definitely see this thing selling better without the musical connection. [Warning: PDF read link]

[Via Luxist]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Handhelds

Submission + - Ubuntu Linux Tele-Health Solution For The Aging (phoronix.com)

Submitted by R.Lewis
R.Lewis writes: With the increasing cases of Dementia and Alzheimer's, a new technology venture is set to introduce an Ubuntu Linux-based solution that's designed specifically for the elderly or those that may just be "a little forgetful". This Linux solution consists of a table-top touch-screen monitor, which is loaded with a "lightweight Internet desktop environment". There is then a server component to facilitate interaction between the care-receiver and caregiver(s). The caregivers log-into this "Reside@HOME Network" via a web browser and can share photographs, submit messages, and manage other details of the receiver's day-to-day life. At Phoronix is an article describing this Linux-based Reside@HOME solution, which will be launching in the first part of 2008.
Red Hat Software

Submission + - Solaris vs RedHat support costs

Submitted by
samsonov
samsonov writes: "An interesting whitepaper discussing "real" cost of ownership, Solaris 10 vs RHEL has been put together by Crimson Consulting (no not Crimson Permanent Assurance Co). While it is considerably slanted, it has some comparison of costs to support each operating system. The most irksome quote from the whitepaper "In my opinion, Linux is just not ready for prime-time." -Unix architect/Crimson study participant at a major retailer."
Linuxcare

Submission + - JACK Sync: A Primer For Linux Users

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Recently I've been working with the transport synchronization capabilities of the JACK audio server. This article is a report on those capabilities as tested with a variety of Linux audio applications under the JAD and 64 Studio distributions.
"By now everyone in the Linux music and sound world has heard about Paul Davis's JACK audio server and transport control system. By way of introducing this article and for the benefit of the remaining few people who don't yet know about it I'll briefly review JACK's more salient characteristics..."

Feed Techdirt: Identity Fraud Victims May Soon Be Able To Sue For Time Spent Getting Their Iden (techdirt.com)

From feed by techdirtfeed
One of the biggest problems with scammers taking your ID is that the victims are the ones who have to spend all the time and money cleaning up their credit record and dealing with the fallout of the fraud with little recourse. A new bill that's going through the Senate aims to at least allow identity fraud victims to sue the scammers for the time and effort it takes to repair their lives. Of course, that depends on them figuring out who the scammer was, which isn't always easy. This certainly seems reasonable given the burden placed on the victims of such scams, but it won't lessen the pain in dealing with credit agencies who all to often don't seem particularly willing to help in the aftermath of identity fraud.
Windows

Submission + - Bypass Windows With Fast-Boot Technolo

Submitted by thatnerdguy
thatnerdguy writes: Phoenix Technologies, a developer of BIOS software, is working on a new technology called Hyperspace that will allow you to instantly load certain applications like email, web browser and media player, without loading windows. It could even lead to tailoring of computers to even more specific demographics, like a student laptop preloaded with word processor, email and an IM all available at the press of a button.

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