PheniciaBarimen - Slashdot User

Submission + - Facebook acquires FriendFeed (techcrunch.com)

Submitted by

carpenter37

on Monday August 10, 2009 @04:38PM

carpenter37 writes: "Facebook has acquired FriendFeed, we've learned. We're gathering details now. At this point details on the acquisition are still very sparse, but it's clearly a good match. Over the last year or so, Facebook has "borrowed" quite a few of features that FriendFeed popularized, including the 'Like' feature and an emphasis on real-time news updates."

Submission + - Perseid meteor shower predicting a dazzling show

Submitted by PheniciaBarimen on Monday August 10, 2009 @03:00PM

PheniciaBarimen writes: National Geographic has posted today infomation on viewing the Perseid Meteor Shower occuring in the wee hours between Wednesday and Thursday. The Perseid meteor shower will have to fight it out with a bright moon for visibility this year, but astronomers are still predicting a dazzling show.

Submission + - SPAM: Humans lose $21 billion to computer traders

Submitted by

destinyland

on Monday August 10, 2009 @02:11PM

destinyland writes: ""We are just mice dancing" between the supercomputers of Wall Street giants, complains one trading executive, and an investment manager notes computers are making 73% of all stock trades on U.S. exchanges. One former NYSE chairman admitted "This is where all the money is getting made." (Between April and June, Goldman Sachs earned $100 million in one day — on 46 different days.) High-speed algorithms use 30-millisecond trades to probe market conditions, and can buy and sell with a nearly omniscient knowledge of every other investor's price point. The New York Times notes that already these algorithms "execute millions of orders a second and scan dozens of public and private marketplaces simultaneously...""
Link to Original Source

Submission + - SPAM: Is Genius I.Q. Linked to Psychosis? 2

Submitted by

destinyland

on Wednesday August 05, 2009 @03:44AM

destinyland writes: "New research suggests a genetic mutation linked to psychosis (and schizophrenia) could also be related to genius IQs. This supports the pscyhological theory that genius "blends intelligence with just the right amount of psychoticism" (which creates unconventional thinking). Evolution may even have favored schizophrenia and bipolar syndrome because the same gene also boosts creativity. But one geneticist still believes exactly the opposite. "Madness is often madness — and doesn't have as much genetic association with intelligence.""
Link to Original Source

Comment Re:Depressing, but not uncommon (Score 1) 1251

by PheniciaBarimen on Tuesday August 04, 2009 @08:58PM (#28950283) Attached to: Student Sues University Because She's Unemployable

And people wonder why the US is loosing so many people who can think logically, and make informed choices. When the culture is against the logical thinking people, and you have the chance to be able to move most people jump at it. Its better to be able to look back and go thank God I'm not there anymore, than to sit and watch your neighbors and country fall into social patterns seen more often in 1984, Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451.

Comment Re:I have to say it (Score 1) 142

by PheniciaBarimen on Tuesday July 01, 2008 @09:50AM (#24015047) Attached to: Provider of Free Public Domain Music Re-Opens

Why look to Orwell and Rand - if they want something for keeping tabs on things in the legal market. Disney; who keeps managing to hold on to the copyright for their products multiple years after the original copyright should have left it in the hands of public domain.

I think the only thing that is safe to exist in Public Domain is patents atm, but if we let intellectual property slip how long till patents hold the same weight as copyright?

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