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Submission + - How Companies Are Preparing For The IT Workforce Exodus (itworld.com)

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: If you think there's a glut of contract IT workers now, just wait. 10,000 U.S. baby boomers will turn 65 every day from now until 2030, and at least some of them will want to ease into retirement. This may sound like music to the ears of IT organizations who already would rather hire temporary staff with specialized expertise — especially for working on legacy technologies. 'The contractor ratio, already high in tech, will continue to increase as companies allow retiring staff to work part-time hours or hire them for short-term projects,' says Matthew Ripaldi, senior vice president at IT staffing firm Modis.

Submission + - Fukushima actually "much worse" than so far disclosed

Submitted by PuceBaboon
PuceBaboon writes: The BBC is reporting that experts are casting doubt on the veracity of statements from both the Tokyo Electric Power Company and the Japanese government regarding the seriousness of the problems at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Not only are the constant leaks releasing radioactivity into the ocean (and thus into the food chain), but now there are also worries that the spent fuel rod storage pools may be even more unstable than first thought.
An external consultant warns, "The Japanese have a problem asking for help. It is a big mistake; they badly need it."

Submission + - A New Spate of Deaths in the Wireless Industry (wsj.com)

Submitted by onehitwonder
onehitwonder writes: The race to build out advanced cellphone networks in the U.S. has contributed to a spike in deaths among tower workers, making this one of the industry’s deadliest years and drawing fresh scrutiny from federal regulators, according to The Wall Street Journal. At least 10 workers have died in falls from communication towers so far this year, and three more were seriously injured. The accidents, nine of which were related to cellphone network work, come during one of the biggest building booms in years, as Sprint Corp. and T-Mobile US Inc. ramp up major network upgrades in an attempt to catch up with Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc.

Submission + - Bradley Manning Sentenced To 35 Years (wsj.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Pfc. Bradley Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison Wednesday, the culmination of a trial that posed tough questions about the balance between government secrecy and national security.

Pfc. Manning was facing a maximum 90-year sentence. The prosecution had asked for 60 years and the defense no more than 25.

After an eight-week court-martial, Pfc. Manning was convicted in July of espionage for downloading volumes of classified military and diplomatic information that he handed to the antisecrecy group WikiLeaks for public release. The presiding judge, Col. Denise Lind, rejected the U.S. government's most serious charge—aiding the enemy—which could have led to a much harsher sentence.

Pfc. Manning, 25 years old, won international notice after his May 2010 arrest at a U.S. military base in Iraq. Supporters, including WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, hailed Pfc. Manning as a heroic whistleblower who risked his own freedom in an attempt to rouse opposition to American foreign policy and its "war on terror."

The prosecution cast Pfc. Manning as a low-level military analyst who recklessly released classified information that could be used against American troops and their allies around the world.

During the court-martial, Pfc. Manning defended his decision to release the information as an effort to spark a broad debate about American foreign policy. Last week, in a final appeal for leniency, he issued a public apology and cast himself as a misguided young soldier who didn't realize that his actions would hurt the U.S.

"I look back on my decisions and wonder how on earth could I, a junior analyst, possibly believe I could change the world for the better," he told the judge

Submission + - Bradley Manning Sentenced to 35 Years (firedoglake.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: After a long and protracted trial, Judge Denise Lind has handed down a sentence in the Bradley Manning case: 35 years and a dishonorable discharge. Manning initially faced a maximum sentence of 135 years, which was reduced to 90 years when Manning was found not guilty of Espionage Act offenses and certain other charged were merged. He has already served over 1000 days in prison, and his sentence will be reduced by 1,274 days.

Submission + - Medical 'Tricorder' Scanadu Scout Raises Over $1M (singularityhub.com) 1

Submitted by kkleiner
kkleiner writes: A Star Trek-like medical 'tricorder' device has already raised $1.3M through crowdfunding with nearly two weeks left in the campaign. The device, called the Scout from startup Scanadu, measures key respiratory and cardiac vital signs, including an electrocardiogram, by simply holding the sensor to a person's forehead for 10 seconds and data are tracked and analyzed via a smartphone. The startup has also revealed plans to expand the integrated app to be able to perform urine analysis using a disposable paddle that connects to the phone.

Submission + - Stuart Biggs, first Cisco CCIE, dies at age 53 (networkworld.com)

Submitted by netbuzz
netbuzz writes: Stuart Biggs, who in 1993 led a team that created the Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert program and was the first to be awarded a CCIE number (1025), has died at age 53. Cisco director of operations Tony George relayed the sad news on a blog post that Biggs himself authored last year explaining the origins of the certification program. “Stuart made numerous contributions to the technology we all use every day and as this story outlines, its propagation to the world via knowledge transfer in various forms.” In that post, Biggs wrote of CCIE: “I am amazed as to how well this program has grown. Next year — 2013 will be the 20th year of this program — and people still take notice when someone says they're a CCIE!”

Submission + - Death of U.S. Science (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by StillNeedMoreCoffee
StillNeedMoreCoffee writes: "Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) is drafting legislation that would require the NSF director to certify that research met a number of new criteria. being worked up by Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX), represents the latest—and bluntest—attack on NSF by congressional Republicans seeking to halt what they believe is frivolous and wasteful research being funded in the social sciences. Last month, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) successfully attached language to a 2013 spending bill that prohibits NSF from funding any political science research for the rest of the fiscal year unless its director certifies that it pertains to economic development or national security. Smith's draft bill, called the "High Quality Research Act," would apply similar language to NSF's entire research portfolio across all the disciplines that it supports."

Politics controlling Scientific grants? Not in the country's or the worlds best interest. Rep Smith should hear from the tech/science community before this goes too far.

Submission + - The video game drawn by hand (redbull.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Interesting behind the scenes interview with the creator of Paper Sorcerer, the stunning hand drawn RPG video game that was successfully Kickstarted last year and is now nearing launch. Jesse Gallagher, the artist single handedly creating the game in Unity, has painstakingly drawn out each character and environment across all 50 dungeons. He estimates he's gone through at least 600 pages of drawings in his notebooks in the process, and had to scan them all in — but he says it's worth it to give artists more control over the games they work on. "I was disappointed with how little input the artists had into the overall game design, so I decided to go the solo dev route,” he says. "Now I’d like to just continue making indie games until I fall over dead at the keyboard."

Comment Re:Self teaching, followed by volunteer work (Score 2) 293

by Giskard Reventlov (#43929839) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Getting Exchange and SQL Experience?
#2 can be substituted with "help solve other people's problems on online forums". There's a lot of homework BS on MSDN Forums, Stack Overflow, etc - but there are quite a few great, diverse, relevant questions as well. When I was learning SQL Server in an environment where it wasn't a large part of my job, I combined extensive reading (books & blogs) with solving other people's problems on online forums. I went from zero to intermediate/advanced in a couple of years, using this method.

Submission + - New Strain of "Superwheat" Could Be An Answer To Food Security Concerns 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A new, bigger, stronger strain of wheat has been created by British scientists who bred the "superwheat" by combining a modern wheat variety with an ancient one. Scientists at the National Institute of Agricultural Botany say that the U.K.'s wheat yields could increase by as much as 30 percent by introducing the new strain of synthetic wheat.

Submission + - Supreme Court Rules For Monsanto In Patent Case (huffingtonpost.com)

Submitted by Pigskin-Referee
Pigskin-Referee writes: WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has sustained Monsanto Co.'s claim that an Indiana farmer violated the company's patents on soybean seeds that are resistant to its weed-killer.

The justices, in a unanimous vote Monday, rejected the farmer's argument that cheap soybeans he bought from a grain elevator are not covered by the Monsanto patents, even though most of them also were genetically modified to resist the company's Roundup herbicide.

Justice Elena Kagan says a farmer who buys patented seeds must have the patent holder's permission. More than 90 percent of American soybean farms use Monsanto's "Roundup Ready" seeds, which first came on the market in 1996.

Submission + - Bloomberg admits to snooping on the stock terminals it leased. (nytimes.com)

Submitted by sir lox elroy
sir lox elroy writes: Evidently Bloomberg wanted that little extra inside information. They have admitted to snooping on the users of their stock terminals they leased. Bloomberg reporters were told "to use the terminals to get an edge in the competitive world of financial journalism" which let them "view subscribers’ contact information and, in some cases, monitor login activity in order to advance news coverage".

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