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Businesses

Submission + - Dell begins their largest layoff ever. 3

cyphercell writes: Dell has begun their largest series of layoffs ever. This morning at about 10:00am more than two hundred employees at Dell's Roseburg Oregon Call center found out that they no longer had jobs. Sparking what appears to be the beginning of year long run of layoffs for the company. http://www.newsreview.info/article/20070802/NEWS/7 0802014

Refuting local suspicions of malice Dell spokesman David Frink states:

... the closure has nothing to do with a lawsuit filed by employees of the Roseburg center in February, claiming Dell violated federal and state wage and hour laws.
http://www.newsreview.info/article/20070213/NEWS/7 0213020

and later says

...plans to reduce employment worldwide by 10 percent at the end of May.


Their plans to reduce employment can be found here:
http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business /stories/technology/06/01/1dell.html

Here are some highlights:

Dell set to shed 8,800 workers...

Dell has 82,200 permanent workers, including 18,000 in Central Texas, and 5,300 temporary workers worldwide. The layoffs are expected to affect both groups...

In its last large-scale layoffs, Dell cut more than 5,000 jobs in Austin after the high-tech bust in 2001.

...many of the layoffs could come in Central Texas, where Dell is headquartered. In a March 29 report to clients, Goldman Sachs analysts said Dell might reduce the work force at its test and assembly facilities in the U.S. and Malaysia.
Space

Submission + - New Theory Explains Periodic Mass Extinctions

i_like_spam writes: The theory that the dinosaurs were wiped out by an asteroid impact, the K-T extinction, is well known and supported by fossil and geological evidence. Asteroid impact theory does not apply to the other fluctuations in biodiversity, however, which follow an approximate 62 million-year cycle. As reported in Science news, a new theory seems to explain periodic mass extinctions. The new theory found that oscillations in the Sun relative to the plane of the Milky Way correlate with changes in biodiversity on Earth. The researchers suggest that an increase in the exposure of Earth to extragalatic cosmic rays causes mass extinctions. Here is the original paper describing the finding.
Privacy

Submission + - UCLA Probe Finds Taser Incident Out Of Policy (ucla.edu)

Bandor Mia writes: Last November, it was reported that UCLA cops Tasered a student, who forgot to bring his ID, at the UCLA library. While an internal probe by UCLAPD cleared the officers of any wrongdoing, an outside probe by Police Assessment Resource Center has found that the police actions on Mostafa Tabatabainejad were indeed out of UCLA policy. The probe was conducted at the behest of acting UCLA Chancellor Norman Abrams.

From the report:
"In light of UCLAPD's general use of force policy and its specific policies on pain compliance techniques, Officer 2's three applications of the Taser, taken together, were out of policy. Officer 2 did not take advantage of other options and opportunities reasonably available to de-escalate the situation without the use of the Taser. Reasonable campus police officers, upon assessing the circumstances, likely would have embraced different choices and options that appear likely to have been more consistent both with UCLAPD policy and general best law enforcement practices."

Programming

Submission + - Poll: do you document your code?

raner writes: "How much documenting comments (javadoc, etc.) does your code contain:

* less than 5% code/comment ratio, and that's okay
* less than 5% code/comment ratio, but I'm feeling guilty
* between 5% and 20% code/comment ratio
* more than 20% code/comment ratio
* more than 20% code/comment ratio, and that's how it should be
* I'm agile: communication instead of documentation!"
Games

Submission + - Hacking Second Life

An anonymous reader writes: The open source release of the Second Life viewer program by developer Linden Lab offers a rare opportunity to peer into the comparative strengths of closed and open source development models. This article gives an overview of some of the differences between these development styles, and talks about what's involved in setting up your own build environment.
Space

Submission + - The Nature of Gravitation

hgreend writes: "There were many attempts to explain the nature of gravitation. Scientists disputed at XVII century, whether gravitation is a consequence of external influences or it is an internal property of physical bodies? Despite of searching all new elementary particles which could be carriers of the gravitation ("gravitons"), despite of creating newest theories of multi-dimensional spaces (the theory of "membranes", etc.) essential promotion in understanding of physical essence of the gravitation phenomenon is not visible. The author is an ukrainian inventor which has created the concept of the Gyro-turbine that is a gyroscopic-dynamical system, generating plurality Coriolis's levitation forces. You can see it on www.gyro-turbine.com 1. Why the mass of the proton is so clumsy (1.67*10-27kg)? 2. What is v-graviton? 3. Why scientists not able to catch the graviton? 4. Why the gravitation constant G is equal to 6.67*10-11 N*m2/kg2? 5. etc. The author answers all these questions in his sensational article- ...INTRODUCTION/GYRO-DYNAMICAL NATURE OF GRAVITATION Also, on this page "www.gyro-turbine.com" in section "Contact Us" You can ask a question to the author of the invention!"
Movies

Submission + - Helvetica: the movie

roguelike writes: According to the blurb, "Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which is celebrating its 50th birthday this year) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives." It finally premiered on the 13th at SXSW, and has received excellent reviews.
Editorial

Submission + - New blog undermines politicians and the law

J.D. Tuccille writes: "A new blog addressing political and cultural matters from an iconoclastic perspective has just hit the Internet. Disloyal Opposition, the blog of widely published writer J.D. Tuccille, has already addressed the Washington, D.C. gun rights ruling, Real ID, smoking bans, jury nullification and other matters of interest to people who care about personal freedom. Tuccille puts a particular emphasis to means by which individuals can disrupt the enforcement of intrusive laws and otherwise make life uncomfortable for politicians and bureaucrats.

The Disloyal Opposition blog can be found at:
http://www.tuccille.com/blog/index.html

J.D. Tuccille is the former editor of About.com's popular Civil Liberties online publication, and the one-time Senior Editor of Free-Market.Net. His columns on topics such as civil disobedience, drug legalization, Hurricane Katrina relief and the War on Terror have appeared in newspapers including the Arizona Republic, The Denver Post, The Las Vegas Review-Journal and The Washington Times."
Bug

Submission + - The TurboTax Solution: Lie on your Tax Return

Reinhard writes: "Getting this message when trying to efile at turbotax.com?

Your Order Can't Be Processed Now. Please try again later.
No worries! Turbotax has a great solution:

Change the following personal information to some fictitious information: First Name, Last Name, Birth Date, Soc. Sec. No.
"
Privacy

Submission + - Where should RFID tags be used?

stupid_is writes: RFID tags can be fairly controversial in their use — because of this, the EU has set up a commission to examine the issues and come up with recommendations for a regulation policy on their use. Full details can be found on their website here. The BBC are also running an article on this, and there's an interesting viewpoint over at El Reg.
Patents

Submission + - Orphan 70-Year-Old Plane Data = 'Trade Secrets'?

Anonymous Flyboy Coward writes: The Experimental Aircraft Association is taking on the Federal Aviation Administration, which has denied a FOIA request for access to construction data to the owner of 70+ year old antique Fairchild F45 aircraft. The FAA sided with a company that was formed in 1990 (and which didn't even know the airplane type existed until the FAA's inquiry) that claims it "owns" the design and manufacturing data to the aircraft, calling the data a "trade secret". The company failed to register with the FAA (as required by law) yet the FAA is standing by it's assertion that they "own" this data, which was turned over to the public domain in the 1950s. Many vintage aircraft owners face a Catch-22 situation: they are required by law to perform maintenance to the manufacturer's specs, but much of this data is unavailable because the FAA refuses to release it without the data's owner's permission... even if there is no such owner. The decision in this case will likely have wide-ranging implications on FOIA requests, as well as affect whether historical antique aircraft will remain flyable or lost forever to a pointless bureaucratic death. The full story is available here.
United States

Submission + - Growth of e-waste may lead to national 'e-fee'

jcatcw writes: "A bill in Congress would add a recycling charge to the cost of laptop PCs, computer monitors, televisions and some other electronic devices, according to a story at Computerworld. The effort to control what's called e-waste could lead to a national "e-fee" that would be paid just like a sales tax. Nationwide the cost could amount to $300 million per year. Already, California, Washington, Maryland and Maine have approved electronics recycling laws, and another 21 states plus Puerto Rico, are considering them."

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