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Supercomputing

Shaking a 275-ton Building 110

Posted by Zonk from the without-using-your-superpowers dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "If you want to predict how a tall building can resist to an earthquake, some researchers have better tools than others. Engineers from the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) have built a full-size 275-ton building and really shaken it to obtain earthshaking images. The building was equipped with some 600 sensors and filmed as the shake table simulated the 1994 Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles, California. It gave so much data to the engineers to analyze that they needed a supercomputer to help them. Now they hope their study will yield to better structure performance for future buildings in case of earthquakes."
Editorial

Submission + - Where did the cellphone go?

Submitted by
Jim Adkins
Jim Adkins writes: "MHW has a brief editorial about today's current multi use cellphones. What I use a cellphone for is to make calls. Period. I am not looking for a phone that acts as a bad MP3 player, a second rate digital camera, a tiny screened wannabe PSP, or any myriad of other uses. What I want from a cellphone is good reception, a rugged frame that can stand rough use like being dropped occasionally, a front screen LCD so I can see who is calling before I answer, and last but not least — long battery life."
Google

Submission + - Vendors fudging prices for Froogle, others

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: I recently stumbled across a case of an online vendor adjusting it's prices based on url referral; notably, SoftwareMedia.com, but I've noticed similar (though harder to trace) activity from other large vendors such as Dell and Amazon.

Take a look at this page: Exchange Software, then find it again through Froogle. Once you access the SoftwareMedia site through the Froogle link, they update (generally lower) their prices to match those found on Froogle. Accessing the exact same page after going through Froogle results in an entirely different set of prices. (In my case, Exchange 2003 Enterprise was 'discounted' by a whopping $1260)

Is SoftwareMedia trying to make Froogle Fudge? Should this sort of activity be allowed? Should users be presented with two different pages depending on referral? Shouldn't all users be presented with the same set of prices?
Sci-Fi

Submission + - New Laws of Robotics proposed for US kill-bots

Submitted by jakosc
jakosc writes: The Register has a short commentry about a proposed new set of laws of robotics for war robots by John S Canning of the Naval Surface Warfare Centre. Unlike Azimov's three laws of robotics Canning proposes (pdf) that we should "Let machines target other machines and let men target men." although this sounds OK in principle, "a robot could decide under Mr Canning's rules, to target a weapon system such as an AK47 for destruction on its own initiative, requiring no permission from a human. If the person holding it was thereby killed, that would be collateral damage and the killer droid would be in the clear.."
Privacy

Submission + - YouTube Takedowns: Any 15-year old can do it

Submitted by BillGatesLoveChild
BillGatesLoveChild writes: Recently Slashdotters wondered how easy it would be to take down YouTube videos. Wonder no longer:

A 15-year old Australian Boy with nothing more than a HotMail account emailed YouTube saying he was the "Australian Broadcasting Corporation" and under the DMCA ordered YouTube to take down hundreds of videos. They did without immediately and without question. YouTube did not try and call the ABC back, nor ask why the email came from Hotmail. Given Cringely's recent report which lead to Slashdotters asking the question, YouTube seem remarkably slow to learn. How many more DMCA attacks will there be before they get the message?

Many of the Video's were from the ABC's The Chaser, including one where a prankster rolling a cigar asked Senator Hillary Clinton if he could be her new intern. The Chaser Staff were impressed with the youngster, "I don't think we should prosecute him — we should probably hire him."
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - at+t yellowpages.com hit with lawsuit

Submitted by
sdriver
sdriver writes: "The Register reports at+t YellowPages.com has been hit by an overtime class-action suit. IBM has previously settled for such abuses for $65 million with Electronic Arts paying nearly $15 million as well. I for one would love to get all the overtime I've worked paid... my 6 figure salary ends up being around $30/hour for all the time I've put in... *grumble*."
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Bank error not in your favor, lose $400.

Submitted by
Loconut1389
Loconut1389 writes: "A few days ago, I deposited $400 cash in an atm. Long ago, I remember my mother saying not to put cash in an ATM, but have been doing so ever since I 'grew up' without problem- until now. This morning I looked at my online banking to see if a check had gone through only to see that they 'corrected' my deposit to $40 instead of $400. I have to wait until things open to speak with a human and work towards fixing this, but even if they immediately take me at my word and correct the 'correction'- the larger question remains: is it safe to deposit cash? I've been a customer at this particular bank for 6 years with no incidents like this- which should be in my favor, but I ask Slashdot, do you deposit cash? Have you had a problem like this? What problems did you have getting the bank to trust you?"
Programming

Submission + - Which programming language should a noob learn?

Submitted by
howhardcanitbetocrea
howhardcanitbetocrea writes: "I have been programming for a few years. Web-wise I moved from ASP/VBscript/Access to PHP/mySQL (which I quite enjoy using) a while back.

I have developed a browser based PHP/mySQL application to manage Australian volunteer bushfire brigades. Other Brigades eye it enviously but in its current form it would be too hard to share and expect them to be able to use it effortlessly. So I would like to turn into a standalone Windows executable to give to other brigades.

The app would have a database to store member records and also handle real-time incident management by assigning members from the db to trucks etc. Keep in mind that as bushfire brigades we don't have incidents every day so we don't need "professional" (=expensive) software.

I am considering learning C++ to do this but is it best language to change to? The options as I understand it are either C/C++ or Visual Basic...or are their other languages that /.ers recommend.

I notice there are a bunch of free/open source compilers. Are there any favourites out there?

The one reason I can see going for C++ is it is easier to spell :o) But I am sure people have their own opinions. Let's hear them."
Input Devices

Submission + - DIY mid-air pointing device

Submitted by
Werner Heuser
Werner Heuser writes: "From Linuxdevices: "Three researchers at Microsoft Research have created an innovative handheld pointing device that works in mid-air. "Soap", which resembles a bar of soap, is based on hardware found in a common wireless optical mouse, and is relatively easy to make, according to its inventors. Imagine numerous situations in which one might wish to control an appliance while standing or walking, for example, when giving a slide presentation or interacting with a wall-sized display...". There is a YouTube video showing the Soap in action and detailed instructions to make your own Soap."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft's Yellow Road to Cairo

Submitted by DECS
DECS writes: In 1991, Microsoft introduced a vision for the future named Cairo. It ended up disrupting development and marginalizing competition throughout the next decade, battling IBM's OS/2, to Novell's NDS, to NeXT's object-oriented development frameworks without ever actually appearing as a product. The tactic worked so well that Microsoft repeated it in the following decade as Longhorn. Here's how it happened, and why Microsoft won't be able to repeat the same tactics again. Microsoft's Yellow Road to Cairo
Education

Submission + - Evolution under fire in Russian schools

Submitted by sdriver
sdriver writes: If you thought it was only the US giving Darwin a hard time, Russia has its own problems starting with evolution. A student has "sued the St. Petersburg city education committee, claiming the 10th-grade biology textbook used at the Cervantes Gymnasium was offensive to believers and that teachers should offer an alternative to Darwin's famous theory." The court held hearings today.
Sci-Fi

Submission + - New Animated Star Trek In The Works

Submitted by Philias
Philias writes: A new web-based Star Trek Animated Series may be in the works. CBS are considering a pitch by veteran Trek producer Dave Rossi for a 'Clone Wars' style animated series for StarTrek.com. Like Clone Wars the episodes would be just a few minutes long. Unlike the old animated Trek show from the 70s, this one would be with a whole new crew set in a new time period. The setting is to be a war-torn post-9/11-like Trek universe 150 years after the time of Picard. Details and artwork at TrekMovie.com
Businesses

Submission + - "Logic bomb" backfires on hacker

Submitted by
Jay
Jay writes: "From Reuters, A former UBS PaineWebber employee was sentenced to eight years in prison on Wednesday for planting a computer "logic bomb" on company networks and betting its stock would go down. The investment scheme backfired when UBS stock remained stable after the computer attack and Roger Duronio lost more than $23,000."

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