Comment I'm disappointed (Score 1) 516
From the signup page:
"All fields are required unless they're marked optional. Don't enter any letters with special characters, like accents, tildes, etc."
Still stuck in the 1980s.
Comment Re:After 30 years of programming (Score 1) 598
A big reason why estimates tend to be low is that when you make your best estimate, then you add 100% buffer for "all the little problems", your management insists that you must be goldbricking and surely that's not a reasonable estimate. So you learn to make your estimates "what you think your management will accept without busting your balls over", and then about half the time they're too low.
Comment Re:What does IT run on .. (Score 1) 516
No, the designers of HTTP were dumb - they totally ignored the state of the art of distributed applications design, and set the Internet back by at least a decade. In their defence, they really were trying to solve a dumb problem, and people abused it to do things it was never meant to do. It was meant to deliver mainly static content, not to be a glorified terminal service for remote applications, but that's what it's become.
Submission + - Rats Ate Easter Island (wsj.com)
kgeiger writes: The Wall Street Journal reviews a new book about Easter Island. Contrary to Jared Diamond's 2005 book Collapse, Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo's The Statues that Walked (Free Press, 2011) posits that brown rats deforested Rapa Nui, that slavers decimated the population, and that the phosphate-poor soils limited both agriculture and population. Because palm trees are soft and fibrous, they make poor rollers; the moai were in fact "walked" into position the same way one person can move a heavy, upright refrigerator by rocking and shifting it.
Submission + - Study: Internet Explorer Users Have Lower IQ (socialbarrel.com)
fysdt writes: "Users of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer web browser have lower IQ than their counterparts who use other browsers, a study from a web consulting firm reveals.
According to a large study conducted by Vancouver, Canada-based AptiQuant, those who use the Internet Explorer web browser scored lower in an IQ test they conducted.
The large study which involved 100,000 participants says Internet Explorer users scored lower than average in the IQ test."
According to a large study conducted by Vancouver, Canada-based AptiQuant, those who use the Internet Explorer web browser scored lower in an IQ test they conducted.
The large study which involved 100,000 participants says Internet Explorer users scored lower than average in the IQ test."
Submission + - Tracking Service That Can't Be Dodged (wired.com)
Worf Maugg writes: Researchers at U.C. Berkeley have discovered that some of the net’s most popular sites are using a tracking service that can’t be evaded — even when users block cookies, turn off storage in Flash, or use browsers’ “incognito” functions.
The service, called KISSmetrics, is used by sites to track the number of visitors, what the visitors do on the site, and where they come to the site from — and the company says it does a more comprehensive job than its competitors such as Google Analytics.
The service, called KISSmetrics, is used by sites to track the number of visitors, what the visitors do on the site, and where they come to the site from — and the company says it does a more comprehensive job than its competitors such as Google Analytics.
Submission + - Lockheed Experimental Blimp crashes in PA (pittsburghlive.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Lockheed Martin launched and experimental Airship on Wednesday morning in Akron,OH. It ascended to 30,0000 feet and the an anomaly occurred and the plan mission to go to 60,0000 feet was aborted. It crashed in a wooded area south of Pittsburgh and then caught on fire a few days later
Submission + - Norway takes the high road in fight against terror (salon.com)
bakayoko writes: Glenn Greenwald's latest column addresses the difference between American and Norwegian responses to domestic terror attacks after the horrifying recent violence in Oslo. While attacks on American soil have almost inevitably resulted in moves to clamp down on individual rights, leaders in Norway have been resolutely opposed to such restrictions, and remain committed to fighting terror without surrendering their people's liberty. Something which, once upon a time, was a distinctly American stance to security.
Submission + - Ruling Upholds Gene Patent in Cancer Test (nytimes.com)
diewlasing writes: In a closely watched case, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday that genes can be patented, overturning a lower court decision that had shocked the biotechnology industry.
Submission + - Matlab Integrate GPU Support for UberMath Computat (mobile.co.nz)
An anonymous reader writes: Matlab now comes with GPU native support in the 2010b version. This means loads of Matlab commands can be parallelized onto the GPU without having to re-code things in C++ or Fortran using CUDA. Pretty sweet for the HPC community.
Submission + - Watson To Be Tasked With Solving Medical Problems (komonews.com)
The Installer writes: "A doctor who is helping to prepare IBM's Watson computer system for work as a medical tool says such blog entries may be included in Watson's database.
Watson is best known for handily defeating the world's best "Jeopardy!" players on TV earlier this year. IBM says Watson, with its ability to understand plain language, can digest questions about a person's symptoms and medical history and quickly suggest diagnoses and treatments.
The company is still perhaps two years from marketing a medical Watson, and it says no prices have been established. But it envisions several uses, including a doctor simply speaking into a handheld device to get answers at a patient's bedside."
Watson is best known for handily defeating the world's best "Jeopardy!" players on TV earlier this year. IBM says Watson, with its ability to understand plain language, can digest questions about a person's symptoms and medical history and quickly suggest diagnoses and treatments.
The company is still perhaps two years from marketing a medical Watson, and it says no prices have been established. But it envisions several uses, including a doctor simply speaking into a handheld device to get answers at a patient's bedside."
Submission + - UK doctors say they must direct health service IT (computerworlduk.com)
DMandPenfold writes: The British Medical Association has called on the NHS to “take stock” on the national programme and reconsider its remit, as a series of tough parliamentary reviews began and a lead supplier proposed a strategy U-turn.
Dr Chaand Nagpaul, a member of the doctors’ association IT industry party, told Computerworld UK: “Too often the programme has been aimed at supporting a political ambition instead of taking account of the real needs of the NHS. The programme’s remit must be decided by clinicians and patients.”
Dr Chaand Nagpaul, a member of the doctors’ association IT industry party, told Computerworld UK: “Too often the programme has been aimed at supporting a political ambition instead of taking account of the real needs of the NHS. The programme’s remit must be decided by clinicians and patients.”
Submission + - Google Profiles Exposes Millions of Usernames (cyberwar.nl)
mrkoot writes: "It is known since at least 2008 that Google exposes sitemaps that link to Google Profiles — 35 million in total. A while ago I checked ALL those links -my connection did NOT get blocked after any amount of connections- and found that ~40% of the Google Profiles expose their owner's username and hence their @gmail.com e-mail address. It totals to ~15 million exposed usernames or @gmail.com e-mail addresses. With no apparent download restriction in place and people disclosing their profession, employer, education, location, links to their Twitter account, Picasa photoalbums, LinkedIn accounts et cetera, is this spear phishing waiting to happen?"
Submission + - Cooperative cars battle it out in Holland (gcdc.net)
An anonymous reader writes: The first cooperative platooning competition, where vehicles use radio communication in addition to sensors, was held in Helmond, Holland a week ago. By using wireless communication the awareness range of each vehicle is extended, enabling vehicles to travel closer together which increases road capacity while at the same time avoiding the shockwave effects (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_wave) responsible for traffic jams. The Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge distinguishes itself from earlier platooning demos (e.g. the PATH project, http://www.path.berkeley.edu/nahsc/) by having a completely heterogeneous mix of vehicles and systems built by multiple researcher and student teams. Using wireless communication to coordinate vehicles raises concerns about the safety of such systems, would you trust WiFi to drive your car?
Submission + - Toyota wants your car to tweet (itnews.com.au)
littlekorea writes: Toyota has announced that it will set up a social network based on Salesforce.com Chatter to enable cars to interact with their owners, dealers and the manufacturer in a Twitter-like fashion.
