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Comment Re:I fail to see what is newsworthy (Score 0) 456

by osomoore (#33075444) Attached to: Man Wants to Donate His Heart Before He Dies

preserving one life, or preserving several. I don't suppose any of these decisions are easy, but how many people die every year due to a lack of an available organ? How many people do we keep alive for a few days, or a few hours just for the benefit of their families emotional state (which is a product of a culture we created), and in the process wreck their organs? ... We keep people alive, when they aren't able to live, and we treat the absolute maximum survivability of one individual as paramount over the reasonable survivability of many. It's an emotional allocation of resources, not an efficient one. Whether it's healthcare dollars or peoples organs, they are in truth, resources which can be, and are managed. The goal is to manage them efficiently. That needs to combine the people, and actual experts, who are removed from the emotional realities of the situation.

"Efficient" approaches to managing human life have a bad history. I fully support the right of someone to do whatever they want with their own body. But allowing "experts" who are "removed from the emotional realities" to decide life-and-death matters of myself and my family is beyond dangerous.

Submission + - Meteor Spotted Over Midwestern United States (google.com)

Submitted by the1337g33k
the1337g33k writes: The National Weather Service is reporting that a fireball that many people had witnessed last night is a meteor that entered the atmosphere last night around 10:10PM Central Time. This meteor was spotted by many in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois.

Submission + - Videos/Reports of Unexplained Fireball Pour In (cnn.com) 1

Submitted by insufflate10mg
insufflate10mg writes: Incredible footage, undeniable evidence and massive numbers of people in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Wisconsin phone in reports of an unbelievably large fireball. The footage from many surveillance cameras in the cities show a fireball seemingly larger than the city itself. Some are speculating it was a meteor, but the conspiracy theorists have dawned their tinfoil hats and feel the government will HAVE to explain this one!

Comment Re:I don't understand (Score 0) 384

by osomoore (#31524570) Attached to: Disgruntled Ex-Employee Remotely Disables 100 Cars
There are other methods of making payments automatically. In my case, all my payments are automated, but they are automated by pushing to those owed, not allowing them to pull.

By doing this I am not in danger of too much ever being taken out. The costs that do differ from month to month (and thus can't be automated entirely) I pay online with a few clicks every month.

There is no need to write and send checks by hand with today's technology.

Submission + - MySpace to sell user data (readwriteweb.com)

Submitted by OnlyJedi
OnlyJedi writes: Hot on the news of Netflix canceling its latest contest over privacy concerns, news has spread that MySpace is going the opposite direction. Apparently, the one-time leading social network is now selling user data to third party collection firms. From the article, the data that InfoChimps has listed includes, "user playlists, mood updates, mobile updates, photos, vents, reviews, blog posts, names and zipcodes." InfoChimps is a reseller that deals with individuals and groups, from academic researchers to marketers and industry analysts. So if you're worried about your data on MySpace being sold off to anybody with a few hundred dollars, now's the time to delete that little-used account.
Education

Computer Games and Traditional CS Courses 173

Posted by Soulskill from the terrible-terrible-games dept.
drroman22 writes "Schools are working to put real-world relevance into computer science education by integrating video game development into traditional CS courses. Quoting: 'Many CS educators recognized and took advantage of younger generations' familiarity and interests for computer video games and integrate related contents into their introductory programming courses. Because these are the first courses students encounter, they build excitement and enthusiasm for our discipline. ... Much of this work reported resounding successes with drastically increased enrollments and student successes. Based on these results, it is well recognized that integrating computer gaming into CS1 and CS2 (CS1/2) courses, the first programming courses students encounter, is a promising strategy for recruiting and retaining potential students." While a focus on games may help stir interest, it seems as though game development studios are as yet unimpressed by most game-related college courses. To those who have taken such courses or considered hiring those who have: what has your experience been?
Microsoft

Submission + - Inside Microsoft's New Retail Store (pcmag.com)

Submitted by adeelarshad82
adeelarshad82 writes: The launch of Windows 7 wasn't the only big deal for Microsoft last week, Microsoft's first retail store, which opened in Scottsdale, Ariz., last week was another milestone for the company. Microsoft's idea to take to the mall likely spawned from the success that arch rival Apple has had in the retail space. The Microsoft Store looks a lot like Apple Store with a slick, minimal design featuring plenty of large tables lined with laptops for shoppers to try. But while Apple stores focus on Apple-branded hardware, the Microsoft Store showcases laptops, netbooks, and all-in-one PCs from a number of hardware manufacturers including Acer, Dell, HP, Samsung, and Sony, and others. Computers purchased in the retail store are part of the Microsoft's "Signature PC" program, in which the systems are stripped of crapware, the often-annoying trial apps that come from PC manufacturers, and are instead equipped with Microsoft's own apps including Windows Live, Silverlight, and Zune software. Also, customer service is a key part of the Microsoft-retail-buying experience. If you purchase a PC in the Store, you get a 15-minute set-up and customization session aswell.

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