Noiser - Slashdot User

Submission + - Murderer with 'aggression genes' gets sentence cut (newscientist.com)

Submitted by Noiser on Wednesday November 04, 2009 @10:17AM

Noiser writes: New Scientists reports: 'In 2007, Abdelmalek Bayout admitted to stabbing and killing a man and received a sentenced of 9 years and 2 months. An appeal court judge in Trieste, Italy, cut Bayout's sentence by a year after finding out he has gene variants linked to aggression.' It would make more sense to me if this would get him jailed for life to prevent further violence, but i am not a lawyer.

Submission + - Colleges Secretly Test Music-Industry Project (chronicle.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 04, 2009 @09:54AM

An anonymous reader writes: The music industry is still pushing Choruss, a controversial blanket-licensing scheme, but it is far less innovative than first described. Six colleges are setting it up now, but they refuse to have their name released because the issue is a political landmine — and who wants to be associated with the recording industry?

Submission + - What Should I Do With All My Money?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 04, 2009 @08:49AM

An anonymous reader writes: As a software engineering student about to graduate and enter the workplace, I am faced for the first time with the prospect of having a significant amount of money to call my own. My question, for all those undoubtedly fiscally savvy Slashdotters out there, is what do I do with it? I am hoping to escape the cliché of being a coder living in my parents house soon, so any investments that require over a year or two are not ideal right now (although they will be later on). Surely there must be something better than just getting the best bank account I can?

Submission + - Why a high IQ doesn't mean you're smart (newscientist.com)

Submitted by

D1gital_Prob3

on Wednesday November 04, 2009 @02:19AM

D1gital_Prob3 writes: "...how can a "smart" person act foolishly? Keith Stanovich, professor of human development and applied psychology at the University of Toronto, Canada, has grappled with this apparent incongruity for 15 years. He says it applies to more people than you might think. To Stanovich, however, there is nothing incongruous about it. IQ tests are very good at measuring certain mental faculties, he says, including logic, abstract reasoning, learning ability and working-memory capacity — how much information you can hold in mind."

Submission + - Critical Thinking for Kids

Submitted by dsbracer on Wednesday November 04, 2009 @02:03AM

dsbracer writes: My 12 year old daughter is very smart, but is not exactly following in her dad's nerdy footsteps. She is good at math and science but also is entranced by ghost stories, psychic anecdotes, and the like. How do I ensure she is learning critical thinking? I certainly don't want to depend on the school system (which evidently has failed at least 50% of the American population). I have discussed it with her on several occasions, but she has been...well...skeptical of being skeptical. I am considering having her watch Nova's "Secrets of the Psychics" (which is surprisingly hard to find — amazon has the VHS for $299.99). Richard Dawkins might be a little too hard core. Slashdot is a community of critical thinkers (and smart asses...) What do they recommend?

Submission + - What happens to your webmail when you die? (news.com.au)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 04, 2009 @01:06AM

An anonymous reader writes: Remember that time you poured your heart out in an email to your best friend? Or that sexy message from an old lover that made you blush at work? Well, when you die, your family and others could end up reading them. Web email services Gmail and Hotmail have a policy of keeping your data after you die and letting your next of kin or the executor of your estate access it. There is no way for users to flag that they don't want this to happen and no recourse under Australia's existing privacy laws.

Comment consider some Soviet science fiction (Score 1) 1021

by Noiser on Monday October 05, 2009 @05:14PM (#29650111) Attached to: What Belongs In a High School Sci-Fi/Fantasy Lit Class?

For variety, consider some Soviet science fiction.

The author with the most neutral and universal appeal, especially to young people, is probably Kir Bulychev.

The brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky are more brainy. They are immensely popular among Russian-speaking geeks and hackers. You may have heard about the film "Stalker" and "The Inhabited Island", which are based on their novels.

The more communist authors are Alexander Belyayev and Ivan Yefremov. Despite the political angle of many of their works they were translated into English and other languages and well-regarded outside of the USSR. They honestly imagined that the future would be communist - this is an important point that you should consider telling your students.

Comment Bundles-schmundles (Score 0, Flamebait) 361

by Noiser on Wednesday April 22, 2009 @12:35PM (#27675905) Attached to: The History of Microsoft's Anti-Competitive Behavior

OK, Microsoft bundles a browser with the OS.

Bundles-schmundles.

Get over it. All GNU/Linux distributions bundle a browser, an office suite, a photo editing program and a bunch of compilers with an OS, nobody says that it's anti-competitive and it doesn't help GNU/Linux to gain market share.

Microsoft bundles with their OS a crappy browser that breaks web interoperability and locks people on Windows, 'cuz they think they need those crappy nonstandard sites - yes, those still exist in 2009; now that's a problem.

I don't want to hear about the bundling anymore.

Comment Not tiny, not former, not independent (Score 2, Informative) 129

by Noiser on Sunday April 12, 2009 @04:07AM (#27547039) Attached to: Hungary, Tatarstan Latest To Go FOSS

Tatarstan is not tiny - it is one of the most populous and important regions of Russia. Its capital Kazan is one of the most important cities in Russia.

Tatarstan is not independent - it is an autonomy within the Russian Federation.

Tatarstan is not a former Russian republic - see above.

Submission + - Rupert Murdoch gets positive about free content (chicagotribune.com)

Submitted by

Amir E. Aharoni

on Tuesday July 03, 2007 @05:04AM

Amir E. Aharoni writes: "Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch considers purchasing the Wall Street Journal and says that free, quality, online content is a good business model. Quote: Spinning a `what if' scenario for Time magazine, Murdoch bet the Journal would be more profitable if it spent $100 million a year to employ top business writers and got rid of the presses, paper and trucks and put everything online for free."

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