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Submission + - If immigration reform is dead, so is raising the H-1B cap (computerworld.com)

Submitted by dcblogs
dcblogs writes: In a speech Wednesday on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) declared immigration reform dead. He chastised and baited Republicans in Congress for blocking reform, and declared that winning the White House without the support of a growing Hispanic population will become mathematically impossible. "The Republican Presidential nominee, whoever he or she may be, will enter the race with an electoral college deficit they cannot make up," said Gutierrez. If he's right, and comprehensive immigration reform is indeed dead, then so too is the tech industry's effort to raise the cap on H-1B visas. Immigration reform advocates have successfully blocked any effort to take up the immigration issue in piecemeal fashion, lest business support for comprehensive reform peel away. Next year may create an entirely new set of problems for tech. If the Republicans take control of the Senate, the tech industry will face this obstacle: Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee could become its next chairman. He has been a consistent critic of the H-1B program through the years. "The H-1B program is so popular that it's now replacing the U.S. labor force," said Grassley, at one point.

Submission + - Two senators (one of whom is a Republican!) propose a 12-cent gas tax increase (greatergreaterwashington.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: There are several proposals on the table to stave off the impending insolvency of the Highway Trust Fund (which pays for transit, biking, and walking projects too) in two months. Just now, two senators teamed up to announce one that might actually have a chance. Senators Bob Corker (R-TN) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) have proposed increasing the gas tax by 12 cents a gallon over two years. The federal gas tax currently stands at 18.4 cents a gallon, where it has been set since 1993, when gas cost $1.16 a gallon.

Submission + - U.S. wants to build 'Internet of Postal Things' (computerworld.com)

Submitted by dcblogs
dcblogs writes: The U.S. Postal Service plans to spend up to $100,000 to investigate how it can utilize low cost sensors and related wireless technologies to improve the efficiency of its operations. The postal service already scans letters and parcels up to 11 times during processing, representing 1.7 trillion scans a year. It uses supercomputers to process that data. In theory, the postal service believes that everything it uses — mailboxes, vehicles, machines, or a letter carrier — could be equipped with a sensor to create what it terms the Internet of Postal Things. The Internet has not been kind to the postal service. Electronic delivery has upended the postal services business model. In 2003, it processed 49 billion pieces of single-piece first-class mail, but by 2013, that figured dropped to 22.6 billion pieces.

Submission + - How the 'Internet of Thing' will become the Internet of Things (networkworld.com)

Submitted by smaxp
smaxp writes: Qualcomm’s Liat Ben Zur spoke of the “Internet of Thing,” in the singular case rather than the plural, at the recent MIT Technology Review Digital Summit. She made the point using Google’s Nest thermostat that is connected to the cloud, and the cloud to an app to control it. Add another IoT device, add another cloud, and another app and so on. She brought into question IoT device interoperability and the rationale for sending all IoT data through the cloud when the purpose of much of the data is communicating between local devices on a proximal network. Proximal means local, like a LAN. If IoT devices from different brands are to work together in the proximal network independent of the cloud, the industry will need to agree to standards.

Submission + - At NASA's robot challenge, don't mistake trouble for failure (computerworld.com)

Submitted by rlinke
rlinke writes: After years of research and late nights, a team of scientists set up their robot Thursday to take on a NASA-funded autonomous robotics challenge.

They switched on their robot, stood back and waited for the machine to begin its two-hour effort.

But the robot failed.

Without ever moving off its platform or moving an inch, the robot's challenge was over for this year.

Submission + - Meet Diesel, a cute dog and organic robot (computerworld.com)

Submitted by dcblogs
dcblogs writes: Diesel, a Labrador Retriever, appears to live in a perpetual state of glee. He is happy around people, loves attention and is unbothered by the electronics-packed vest he is wearing. The vest includes a microphone, camera, speakers, and motors that send vibrations, similar to that of a smartphone, to various parts of the dog's body. There's also an array of sensors that measure the dog's physiology: heart, respiration rates and muscle tension. The vest is also equipped with sensors that can detect gasses and radiation, and it has GPS and WiFi, to demonstrate its use in search and rescue. The technology and methods used to communicate with the dog, and send commands, is based on mathematical modeling by David Roberts, an assistant computer science professor at North Carolina State University. "Computers can take a lot of the human error out of the process of training and communicating with dogs," said Roberts. The system can help people understand their dog's behavior and emotional state, which can help reduce mistakes people make in training their pets.

Submission + - U.S. workers protested job losses by displaying American flags on cubicles (computerworld.com)

Submitted by dcblogs
dcblogs writes: This is the story of an IT worker who was replaced by a worker on an H-1B visa, one of a number of visa holders, mostly from India, who took jobs at this U.S. company. For purposes of this story, the worker has been given initials — A.B. Before they lost their jobs, A.B.'s co-workers decided to made a subtle and symbolic protest over what was happening: As the H-1B visa workers gradually took over the offices once occupied by U.S. workers, one employee brought in a bunch of small American flags on sticks. The flags were displayed, cubicle after cubicle, much like way flags are hung on homes in a residential neighborhoods on the 4th of July. They were visible to anyone walking down the hall. "That was the only thing that we could do," A.B. said. "We felt that we were making a statement. But to be honest, I don't think the Indian workers fully understood what was going on."

Submission + - What It's Like To Train The H-1B Visa Worker Who Replaces You

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: In a company where 220 IT jobs have been lost to offshore outsourcing over the last year, one IT worker recounts what it was like to actually train the H-1B worker who replaced him. "I think once we learned about it, we became angrier toward the U.S. government than we were with the people that were over here from India... because the government is allowing this," said the worker in an interview with Computerworld. The employee, whose real name was not used, said the IT workers at his firm first learned of the offshore outsourcing threat through rumors. Later, the IT staff was called into an auditorium and heard directly from the CIO about the plan to replace them, but the process still took months after that. Many younger IT workers found jobs and left. Mainframe workers were apparently in demand and also able to find new jobs. But older workers with skills in open systems, storage and SAN faced a harder time.

Submission + - A cellular network for gadgets set to arrive in San Francisco (computerworld.com)

Submitted by dcblogs
dcblogs writes: The San Francisco Bay Area and south to San Jose will soon have what may be the nation's first dedicated Internet of Things network. Sigfox, is a France-based firm that has already deployed such technology in France, hopes the have the system installed by the end of September. Its network is designed for short m-to-m messages and uses a low data rate of 100 bits per second, which gives it very long range over the unlicensed industrial, scientific and medical (ISM), radio bands in the sub-GHz frequencies. Therefore, base stations antennas, depending on whether they are being deployed in an urban core or in rural area, can be spread apart at distances ranging from several miles to tens of miles, if not more. In its various markets, Sigfox seeks out a network provider partner and uses its sites and towers and backhaul, but puts in its own antennas. Sigfox's technology also means that wearable tech can be connected without a smartphone or proximity to a WiFi network. For instance, a GPS-enabled watch may keep track of your running, but the data isn't mapped until a user connects it to a mobile device or PC. But a GPS watch with a Sigfox radio included will be able to send location data via a network so someone can track your run from home. Potential system competitors include U.K.-based Nuel's Weightless technology, and the Japanese-developed Wide Area Ubiquitous Network (WAUN). Analyst believe U.S. firms long-range, low-bandwidth technologies in development as well.

Submission + - Why I'm Sending Back Google Glass (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: After using Google Glass for several weeks, Computerworld columnist Matt Lake had plenty of reasons to explain why he returned them, not the least of which was that they made him cross-eyed and avoid eye contact. Google Glass batteries also drain like a bath tub when using either audio or video apps and they run warm. And, as cool as being able to take videos and photos with the glasses may be, those shots are always at an angle. Of course, being able to do turn-by-turn directions is cool, but not something you can do without your smart phone's cellular data or a mobile hotspot. The list of reasons goes on... Bottom line, if Google Glass is in the vanguard of a future class of wearable computers, the future isn't the present.

Submission + - Computer science enrollments up 13%, but still below peak (computerworld.com)

Submitted by dcblogs
dcblogs writes: Computer science undergrad enrollments increased 13% last year, the sixth straight year of increases, according to the Computing Research Association. This trend began after the Wall Street collapse in 2008. The number of computer science graduates earning degrees from Ph.D.-granting institutions reached a low of 8,021 in 2007, down from 14,185 in the 2003-2004 academic year. The number of bachelor degrees awarded in computer science last year at these schools was 12,503. The number of computer science graduates will continue to increase. Computer science enrollments rose by nearly 30% in the 2011-12 academic year, and they increased 23% the year before that.

Submission + - Embedded systems are a 'life form,' says In-Q-Tel's security chief (computerworld.com)

Submitted by dcblogs
dcblogs writes: Dan Geer, the CISO of In-Q-Tel, says that embedded systems, microcontrollers, are "immortal" in the sense that they can continue to function for many years at an assigned task. "The longer lived these devices," said Geer, "the surer it will be that they will be hijacked within their lifetime." Embedded systems without a remote management interface "and thus out of reach, are a life form," and "as the purpose of life is to end, an embedded system without a remote management interface must be so designed to be certain to die no later than some fixed time."

Submission + - In 1972, Scientists Discovered a 2 Billion-Year-Old Nuclear Reactor in W Africa

Submitted by KentuckyFC
KentuckyFC writes: In June 1972, nuclear scientists at the Pierrelatte uranium enrichment plant in south-east France noticed a strange deficit in the amount of uranium-235 they were processing. That’s a serious problem in a uranium enrichment plant where every gram of fissionable material has to be carefully accounted for. The ensuing investigation found that the anomaly originated in the ore from the Oklo uranium mine in Gabon, which contained only 0.600% uranium-235 compared to 0.7202% for all other ore on the planet. It turned out that this ore was depleted because it had gone critical some 2 billion years earlier, creating a self-sustaining nuclear reaction that lasted for 300,000 years and using up the missing uranium-235 in the process. Since then, scientists have studied this natural reactor to better understand how buried nuclear waste spreads through the environment and also to discover whether the laws of physics that govern nuclear reactions may have changed in the 1.5 billion years since the reactor switched off. Now a review of the science that has come out of Oklo shows how important this work has become but also reveals that there is limited potential to gather more data. After an initial flurry of interest in Oklo, mining continued and the natural reactors--surely among the most extraordinary natural phenomena on the planet-- have all been mined out.

Submission + - White House sees 'real danger' China will soon take R&D lead (computerworld.com)

Submitted by dcblogs
dcblogs writes: John Holdren, who heads the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, told a Senate committee Tuesday that China's R&D spending is growing by 20% to 25% a year, and will surpass U.S. R&D investment before 2022, an often-cited private sector estimate. The U.S., he said, is "in real danger" of being overtaken by China in R&D spending, he said. U.S R&D investments in 2011 was $429 billion, in that same year China spent $208 billion. President Obama, said Holdren, set a goal in 2009 of investing 3% of the nation's GDP in R&D, and the U.S. is near that level. But this analysis combines public and private sector R&D spending; when federal R&D spending is separated out, the picture is different. In a letter to the committee, MIT President Rafael Reif said that from the mid-1950s through the mid-1970s, federally-funded R&D averaged approximately 1.5% of GDP; by 2011, however, funding had fallen to 0.8% of GDP. "This declining benchmark should be a flashing yellow light for the nation," he wrote.

Submission + - An IT worker training his replacement writes: 'Emotionally, we are broken' (computerworld.com)

Submitted by dcblogs
dcblogs writes: There’s an IT professional who, at this moment, is training offshore replacements, the people who are taking over the work. This IT pro is also a good writer, and has penned a short explanation about what life is now like: “As Americans, we maintain our pride and dignity as we are forced to train our H-1B replacements. We struggle with the reality of having no jobs, but yet we train our replacements without prejudice and hold our heads up high because we are ingrained with a work ethic to do our very best."

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