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Submission + - Software Controlling Humans - Freelancer.com API (newscientist.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: IF YOU'VE ever joked about your boss being a robot, stop laughing, they soon could be. A web service has launched that allows software algorithms to automatically recruit, hire and pay workers to do a wide variety of tasks.

"For the last 60 years, humans have controlled software — now we're getting to the stage where software can control humans," says Matt Barrie of Australian website Freelancer.com.

The website normally provides a forum for companies wanting to outsource their work. Now it has been upgraded so that developers can write software to post job adverts on the site, take on respondents and pay them for the results without human input.

For example, a program written for a store with a large inventory could automatically recruit salespeople to sell its products and send more work the way of people that do the best job.

Because the software is doing the commissioning and assessing the results, it avoids the need for a company to hire other people to rate the work that was done.

Barrie says there are enough programmers on the site's books for it to be possible to write software that can even improve itself, by recruiting people to improve its own code.

Comment Re:err, why? (Score 1) 376

by quarrel (#28591563) Attached to: iPhone 3GS Finally Hacked

Ironically the same cannot be said fro blackberry, which is only available from Telstra.

I've had a blackberry (well, various handsets) for many years through Optus. They're also at least available through Vodafone.

Agreed on our iphone though. Not only can get them from any of the carriers, you can also just buy them outright and unlocked from Apple.

--Q

Comment Re:The real article, and what it does and doesn't (Score 3, Insightful) 509

by quarrel (#27896821) Attached to: New Pattern Found In Prime Numbers

> That leaves me thinking: what does this article tell us that we couldn't find out ourselves by ripping through some prime numbers?

Nothing?

The important thing is that they ripped through some prime numbers and did notice, and they were the first to publish what they noticed.

The world moves forward in tiny steps like this. Maybe the next mathematician gets his 'Ahuh' moment on the back of an insight like this and bang modern crypto is fucked. He might even be able to prove it for you.

--Q

Comment Grasshopper OS (Score 1) 553

by quarrel (#26762435) Attached to: Phantom OS, the 21st Century OS?

During the first year of my Phd (1996?) I worked on the networking stack of a Persisent Operating System called Grasshopper.

They throw up a lot of interesting problems from a research point of view, but I'm not sure they're ready for prime time... (and yes I realise the intervening years have started to add up!)

Pushing boundaries is good in research of course, and lots of things do end up appearing in real products even if not the in the form originally imagined.

--Q
Biotech

Submission + - Would You Boost Your Own Brain Power?

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "There are several drugs on the market that improve memory, concentration, planning and reduce impulsive behavior and risky decision-making, and many more are being developed. Doctors already prescribe these drugs to treat cognitive disabilities and improve quality of life for patients with neuropsychiatric disorders and brain injury and cognitive-enhancing drugs are increasingly being used in non-medical situations such as shift work and by active military personnel. Although the appeal of pharmaceutical cognitive enhancers — to help one study longer, work more effectively or better manage everyday stresses — is understandable, potential users, both healthy and diseased, must consider the pros and cons of their choices. Read the story from Nature magazine on the ethical issues raised by the use of pharmaceutical cognitive enhancers and the questions raised on how the use of cognitive enhancers should be regulated in healthy people."

Feed Denied Entrance Into The US Thanks To A Google Search Of Your Permanent Record (techdirt.com)

From feed by techdirtfeed
For a long time, people have talked about how Google has effectively created the infamous "permanent record" teachers always warned us about in school. And, now, it appears that it's not just being used for background checks on dates and job reference checks, but for official government purposes as well. Joe McEnaney writes in to alert us to a story of a Canadian man who was denied entrance to the US after border guards did a Google search on his name and discovered a peer-reviewed academic paper he'd written years earlier that mentioned his own LSD use over 30 years ago. Setting aside any thoughts one way or the other on whether or not that should be a criteria for entering the US, just think of what this means for teens today who are discussing their lives very publicly on sites like MySpace. We've already wondered what will happen once the MySpace generation runs for office, but right now they might just want to be careful leaving and entering the country.
Security

Submission + - Video: Hacking the Cisco NAC - NACATTACK

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Two security researchers were able to hack the Cisco NAC solution by exploiting a fundamental design flaw. In this video they illustrate how they worked towards this discovery and give us some exploit details. It is not their intention to simply release a tool, they want the audience to understand how Cisco NAC works and why it is not as secure as Cisco wants us to believe.
Republicans

Submission + - McCain MySpace hacker raided by FBI

Submitted by
Shatter36
Shatter36 writes: "Following on from the clever hack of John McCain's MySpace page on Wednesday, a slashdot subscriber decided to do a follow up, tricking the page maintainers into displaying an embarrassing comment on McCain's page for 18 hours. Not that exciting, except that today he was raided by the FBI and had all of his computer equipment seized, even though he didn't actually "hack" anything! — all the images that appeared in the comment were hosted on his website. He's posted a short account of the afternoon's events on his website (probably NSFW — he sounds a little upset). This is just ridiculous. I am lost for words, though I guess one should never underestimate the stupidity of politicians..."
Bug

Submission + - HDTV requires software update - LG in strife

Submitted by smallstepforman
smallstepforman writes: Well, not only do we have to deal with patch Tuesday to download Operating System bug fixes, now our embedded devices like TV's and toasters will require regular patches to operate. According to The Age newspaper, Tens of thousands of LG customers will require a software upgrade for their TV sets, after the company identified the cause of a mystery software glitch that is causing them to freeze spontaneously. The problem seems to be in LG's implementation of the DVB standard. Broadcasters can optionally encrypt the stream to prevent copying. Channel Nine seem to have turned this on for some of their programming. This is causing problems with LG tuners. LG have more information about the software update here.
Businesses

Submission + - Too much of a good thing?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Register http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/21/four_teat_ sheep/ is reporting a story broken by Stuff.co.nz, that New Zealand scientists plan to tackle the thorny problem of ewes producing more lambs than they have nipples to accommodate by simply upping mum's teat-count. They are looking to do this by traditional breeding tactics, though direct genetic engineering would seem to be another solution. Eccentrica Gallumbits, anyone?

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