Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - Former KGB Spy in high role in NY State Critical Infrastructure (timesunion.com)

schklerg writes: The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), which is responsible for New York State’s electric grid, recently learned that their “Director of Software Development" was a former KGB spy. The organization only discovered this when 60 minutes interviewed him on his life as a Cold War spy. Apparently the background checks were not as thorough as they’d like. They have stated that there are “no instances of our systems or security having been affected in any way”. Should a former enemy state spy have a key role in your country’s critical infrastructure?

Submission + - Google Offers Cheap Cloud Computing For Low-Priority Tasks (itworld.com)

jfruh writes: Much of the history of computing products and services involves getting people desperate for better performance and faster results to pay a premium to get what they want. But Google has a new beta service that's going in the other direction — offering cheap cloud computing services for customers who don't mind waiting. Jobs like data analytics, genomics, and simulation and modeling can require lots of computational power, but they can run periodically, can be interrupted, and can even keep going if one or more nodes they're using goes offline.

Submission + - Choosing an IDE That's Right for You (dice.com)

Nerval's Lobster writes: Today’s software development often requires working with multiple tools in a variety of languages. The complexity can give even the most skilled developer a nasty headache, which is why many try to rely on Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) to accomplish most of the work; in addition to source-code editors and automation, some even feature intelligent code completion. With so much choice out there, it’s hard to settle on an IDE, so Dice interviewed several developers, who collectively offered up a list of useful questions to ask when evaluating a particular IDE for use. But do developers even need an IDE at all? When you go to smaller, newer developer shops, you’re seeing a lot more standalone editors and command-line tools; depending on what you do, you might just need a good editor, and to master the command-line tools for the languages you use.

Submission + - U.S. Navy develops swarms of mini Cicada drones to spy on enemies (thestack.com)

An anonymous reader writes: The U.S. Navy has unveiled its latest Cicada drone – a smaller model of the smart glider which military scientists have been developing for almost ten years. The tiny autonomous machine was presented last week at the Department of Defense’s Lab Day. The newest iteration of the Cicada, a yellow angular unit with two semi-circular wings, is the smallest and most low-cost yet and is able to fit in the palm of a hand. Cicadas or Covert Autonomous Disposable Aircraft, developed by the Naval Research Laboratory, are designed to be disposable and to work together emulating the insects’ swarm flight patterns. The lightweight gliders are packed with sensors to monitor and feedback data on the weather, temperature, humidity and air pressure. They also offer the option to house microphones or vibration sensors to spy on enemy communications and to detect chemical weapons.

Comment Re:Your attitude is sexist (Score 1) 613

Had you bothered to read the article you would have found out that there is copious evidence of sexism in science.

I RTFA and I did not see "copious evidence" of sexism. It seemed like the author was grasping at straws to prove a preconceived notion. Seriously, the examples given boarder creepy/inappropriate but to extrapolate "copious evidence of sexism in science" or in the authors words "institutionalized sexism" is an exaggeration.

The professor who leaned in just a little too-close-for-comfort, not to everyone, but to one girl in particular. The student invited to an academic event one evening, only to find out that her lecturer viewed it as a date. And the one professor who always looked me (and the other young men) right in the eye when we spoke, but whose gaze always drifted downwards, towards their chests, when he spoke with the young women.

The professor who’d talk to a student professionally and politely, then stare at her rear end while she walked away. ...

The graded assignments that would have flirty little comments and smiley faces, only for the female students.

Gossipy conversations—about other people in the department, obviously—that would mysteriously fall silent whenever certain women walked by (but never the men).

And the way word choice would change ever-so-subtly—like how remarks were “ejaculated” instead of “uttered”—in the presence of certain people.

This is your evidence?. That doesn't sound like "institutionalized sexism". It sounds like a guy acting like a guy that may be inappropriate in a professional environment. Here is a clue, sexism, racism, agism, etc are illegal if someone makes sexual advances, ask for favors, etc; it is already illegal and there is legal action the woman can take to protect herself. The article links to some studies, but what is also frustrating about this topic, you can find studies to back up claims on both sides.

If you think the gender imbalance is the entirety of the evidence for sexism then you are likely part of the problem.

Or maybe the gender imbalance is due to other factors of a complex system. Maybe, what is described as "institutionalized sexism" isn't institutionalized. because in the authors own words:

Most authority figures in my field aren’t sexist, aren’t sexually harassing anybody, and treat everyone based on their own merits as people.

How can it be institutionalized sexism if "most authority figures aren't sexist"? The real issue the author is pushing is:

if we want to really change the culture of our field

Comment Re:Agile. (Score 1) 507

Yes, because what you have seen and experienced is obviously the only reality of one methodology in software development. The only people that promote such a methodology is a shill because they are selling books. I cannot validate these claims but we all know its true. I experienced therefore what you say is wrong.

Did I miss something?

Comment Re:acceptance is the only fair outcome (Score 2) 301

keeping in mind none of us have read the paper and that we do not know the background of the reviewer.

When it comes to social sciences, potential is a loaded word. You can have similar studies and conclude completely different results. Does hiring in science favor men or women? Which of those studies represent the 39/100 studies that have not been reproduced and possibly wrong (poor methods, biases, justifications, etc)?

Is a shirt keeping women out of stem and is that shirt evidence of misogyny and/or discrimination or is it a complex issues that is hard to study because it's hard for a microscope to look at itself?

Was the underlying idea behind the reviewer legitimate? He may have said it wrong, but was his premise grounded in scientific inquiry? Is it ok to ask about gender bias in a gender biased research paper?

Comment Re:WTF?! (Score 1) 634

As it turned out, MADD deterred a war.

MADD also had a small risk of leading to a war that would have killed most of humanity. We were lucky.

A war that was assuredly avoided vs. a war that could have happened. I would rather have been lucky playing the odds instead of the known alternative... A war that would have rivaled ww2.

If the Soviet Union and the U.S. had

I am willing to bet that if we were put in the same situation, MADD would win. Even the most selfish, sociopathic tyrant will not kill an enemy if it means suicide. Why would any future belligerents be different?

anybody who adopted a strategy of cheating and exploitation would be tremendously successful. There are a lot of dangerous people out there, and we have to put a lot of resources into protecting ourselves from them.

And that is why weapons can be good for a society. If a society has any worth. It is worth protecting.

Slashdot Top Deals

HELP!!!! I'm being held prisoner in /usr/games/lib!

Working...