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Submission + - Beware The Mobile Tech Jobs Bubble (infoworld.com)

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes: "A recent study by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics sheds light on the business cycle for the tech industry, and if the dot-com bust is any indication, we may soon witness the implosion of today's mobile tech jobs boom. Venture capital firms are drastically reducing investment in the mobile industry, a trend that could render many mobile ventures unable to meet their rapidly increasing payrolls in the near future. And while the dot-com era is remembered for its profligate excess and perks, 'the real destroyer of the balance sheet was the payroll' — so much so that U.S. BLS chief regional economist Amar Maan suggests that many tech entrepreneurs would be better off opening a restaurant."
Google

Submission + - How to turn Google back to normal? 6

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Google has rolled out instant searches and previews, apparently because it makes searching easier. However, the instant search is annoying and I actually searched faster before it was introduced. Now that the preview option is not the little magnifying glass anymore, it always gets on my nerves because my mouse too often lands on one of the preview buttons and the autoloaded previews pop up.

Google says that "In our testing, we’ve found that people who use Instant Previews are about 5% more likely to be satisfied with the results they click." (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/beyond-instant-results-instant-previews.html). What good are those 5% when it makes me 100% annoyed at the search engine?

Is there any way to disable both "features"? Logging into Google is not an option, because I don't want them to track me constantly. Or is the only option switching to another search engine?

Submission + - Reference for SQL data types

Submitted by bob3940
bob3940 writes: I am starting to use MySQL databases and have found a lot of reference material related to setting up and administering databases but I can not find a good reference (online or book) concerning appropriate data types. I would like to find something that explains each of the data types and some of the best uses for them.

Just one example I would like to find a suggestion for is storing a zip code. I know that in the U.S. that it is either a 5 or 9 digit number and that it is not necessary to store the "-" but in several countries (I'm look at you Canada) they have postal codes which contains alpha-numeric postal codes. So should I store all of my zip codes in text format and perform testing based on the Country?

I would love a reference that covers best practices for storing a lot of the common data that I will run into (zip code, social security, phone number, etc) as well as a general overview of the different data types. any Suggestions?
Data Storage

Submission + - OCZ Releases First 1TB Laptop SSD (digg.com) 2

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: OCZ today released a new line of 2.5-in solid state drives that have up to 1TB of capacity. The new Octane SSD line is based on Indilix's new Everest flash controller, which allows it to reduce boot-up times by half over previous SSD models. The new SSD line is also selling for $1.10 to $1.30 per gigabyte of capacity, meaning you can buy the 128GB for about $166.
Science

Why the First Cowboy To Draw Always Gets Shot 398

Posted by timothy from the more-guns-less-crime dept.
cremeglace writes "Have you ever noticed that the first cowboy to draw his gun in a Hollywood Western is invariably the one to get shot? Nobel-winning physicist Niels Bohr did, once arranging mock duels to test the validity of this cinematic curiosity. Researchers have now confirmed that people indeed move faster if they are reacting, rather than acting first."

Comment Re:A quick idea for patent reform (Score 1) 191

by beejhuff (#30831092) Attached to: USPTO Grants Google a Patent On MapReduce

This argument:

"The whole "software is math" argument is old and debunked. Anything which requires creativity and careful analysis, and the investment therein, is a potentially valuable addition to human knowledge. In exchange for investing in such a thing, there should be the potential to protect your investment from copycats without resorting to keeping it a secret."

seems to support using Copyrights instead of Patents. Knowledge shouldn't be patented, right? Perhaps copyrighted (if published), but not patented.

I'm not sure that "software is math" is really debunked anyways, but honestly, I never found that argument that compelling in the first place. I've always like "software is speech" - it is a literal series of 1's and 0's representing language, right? Just because both humans and machines can interpret that language doesn't make it any less a language. And NO language is patentable - expressions created within that language are COPYRIGHTABLE, but ought not be patented. It seems to me that we can still encourage creativity and innovation without allowing people who truly don't grok what software even is (voodoo magix?!?!?) to completely mis-classify what software actually is.

I know not everyone will agree with me, but for those of us that actually spend all day / night writing in programming languages, how do you view this interpretation?

Comment Re:Wireless? You've already ruled me out (Score 1) 569

by beejhuff (#28649011) Attached to: Best Mouse For Programming?

I know I may get blasted by the MS haters that lurk here, but I have to say the MS / Razer Habu I picked up at the local Fry's on sale (1/2 price!) has served me well. It's "technically" a gaming mouse (or that's how they market it, anyway), but I've found it works really well at high resolutions on my dual displays in both Windows XP & Ubuntu. I had to do a little bit of configuration in Ubuntu to map all of my keys, but it has 6 programmable keys, great resolution (1600 DPI) and the programmable keys are in positions (IMHO) that really are useful to me whether I'm fraggin zombies in Left 4 Dead or banging out code in Eclipse / VS.

The one thing that DID bum me out was that the firmware update utility only runs on Windows (or at least it did when I bought it a year or so ago), but I mean, this is a MS product, so I kind of figured that. Once I updated the FW, though, Ubuntu detected it fine, so I'm not complaining too loudly.

It's a wired mouse (I'd hate to think how heavy it would be with enough batteries to get that high of a laser DPI), but it does have a really nice long cord and is pretty ergonomic. YMMV, but that's my 2 cents.

Comment Re:How many years have they been working on this? (Score 5, Insightful) 247

by beejhuff (#27401327) Attached to: NASA Shows Off Mock-Up of Mars-Capable Spacecraft

I (for once) RTFA, and from what I gathered, they've developed this module and updated launcher to provide an effective round trip mechanism for Moon expeditions, where they will practice the operations that will be required when a full scale Mars mission is executed (sometime around between 2020-2030). I think the important point is that NASA is realizing that the shuttle is not an effective mission system for the next generation of Moon missions, which are a pre-req for any future Mars missions.

To me, this actually sounds like a sober assessment - and one that is long overdue.
Programming

Was Standardizing On JavaScript a Mistake? 525

Posted by CmdrTaco from the hindsight-is-twenty-twenty dept.
snydeq writes "Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister questions the wisdom of standardizing on a single language in the wake of the ECMA Committee's decision to abandon ECMAScript 4 in favor of the much less ambitious ECMAScript 3.1, stunting the future of JavaScript. Had the work continued, McAllister argues, it could have ushered in an era of large-scale application development that would ensure the browser's ability to meet our evolving needs in the years ahead. 'The more I hear about the ongoing efforts to revise the leading Web standards, the less convinced I am that we're approaching Web-based applications the right way,' McAllister writes. 'If anything, the more we talk about building large-scale Web applications, the more we should recognize that a single style of programming will never suit every job.' McAllister's simple truth: JavaScript will never be good for everything — especially as the Web continues to evolve beyond its original vision. His solution? 'Rather than shoehorning more and more functionality into the browser itself, maybe it's time we separated the UI from the underlying client-side logic. Let the browser handle the View. Let the Controller exist somewhere else, independent of the presentation layer.'"

Timing Technology Behind Olympic Record Results 118

Posted by CmdrTaco from the even-clocks-are-at-least-sixteen dept.
An anonymous reader writes "We've been on the edge of our seats cheering on the athletes at the Beijing Olympic games — but so often do athletes' victories and defeats rely on accurate timing. As the athletes compete on the world stage behind the scenes technology records their results. This interview with Omega's Christophe Berthaud (video) — the company's 23rd time as official Olympic timekeeper — explores how far the technology has come since the first time it was used in 1932."

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