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NASA

Why Does the US Have a Civil Space Program? 308

Posted by timothy from the why-indeed? dept.
BDew writes "The Presidents of the National Academy of Science and the National Academy of Engineering have commissioned a study on the Rationale and Goals of the US Civil Space Program. In short, the Academies are asking why the nation has a civil space program (including human, robotic, commercial, and personal spaceflight). The study is intended to provide a strategic framework for the nation's activities in space that can provide consistent guidance in an increasingly interconnected world. The members of the study committee are interested in the views (positive or negative) of the general public, particularly those people with a scientific and/or technological interest."
Google

"Necessary Complexity" in Online Games 95

Posted by Soulskill from the unnecessary-simplicity dept.
Massively is running a story about Google's short-lived virtual environment, Lively. The article examines why Lively shut down so quickly, and how its simplicity and its attempts at user-friendliness did more harm than good. Quoting: "The idea here is that any interactive system has a certain amount of complexity, usually involving the number and type of tasks which can be performed. Obviously, it is detrimental if the interaction interface is more complicated than it needs to be. That just makes things harder. What's a little less obvious is that reducing the complexity of the interaction interface too far makes things harder as well. Either it makes it hard to perform the tasks, or it reduces the number of tasks which can be performed. ... ideally the interaction interface needs to be of an order of complexity that is coupled to the order of complexity of the number and type of possible tasks. If it rises above that or falls below that, performing tasks becomes harder. Performing tasks with an oversimplified interaction-interface is like trying to make coffee with one hand tied behind your back. Overcomplicating it is like trying to instruct five people to build a shed, when none of you have any language in common."
Announcements

Gen Con Goes Up For Sale 34

Posted by Soulskill from the i-bid-$5d20 dept.
Trask writes "LivingDice has documents indicating that Gen Con LLC is up for sale. Additionally, there is an offer pending which could close by the end of the year. This may finally put an end to the uncertainty caused by Gen Con's chapter 11 filing and the recently dismissed Lucasfilm lawsuit."
Government

Submission + - Army Buys Macs to beef up security

Submitted by agent_blue
agent_blue writes: The Army is integrating macs into their IT network to thwart hack attempts. the Mac platform, they argue Mac are more secure because there are less attacks against macs than there is against windows based systems. Story Here
Security

Submission + - Researchers Intervene in Vulnerability Auction

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Last week, Slashdot carried a discussion about Internet startup WabiSabiLabi that was launching an eBay style auction site for software vulnerabilities. According to a Washington Post story, some in the research community have worked out two of the five vulnerabilities currently for sale in the auction. From the story: "Zampariolo confirmed that one of the vulnerabilities publicly reported by researchers indeed was the exact same as a flaw being auctioned on the site — a bug in an add-on component of an open source e-mail application called "SquirrelMail" — and that it had since been patched by the vendor. However, he said the site is preparing to start an auction on a new flaw found in the newest, patched version of SquirrelMail. The company is touting both incidents as an example of how their service will serve to make software users safer in the long run."

Comment A lonely man in a lonely city (Score 4, Insightful) 361

by Magnifico (#15597600) Attached to: Internet to Blame for Lack of Close Friends

Add to the Internet:

  1. Your car
  2. Your cell phone
  3. Your cable television
  4. Your DVDs and home theater
  5. Your iPod and headphones

These all contribute to not talking to people, not mingling, and not making new friends. Why make a new friend on the streetcar when you're yapping to a friend on your Bluetooth cell phone in your car? Why go out to a theatre when you can see it in private on DVD or cable? Why make listen to that attractive woman trying to hit on you when you're rocking out with your iPod?

The more private, the more personal devices and tools we have, the more solitary our lives are becoming We don't want to share an experience anymore. We don't want to do things for the common good or the benefit of society at large. The Internet is just one facet of an overall trend. Our lifestyle in the early 21st century promotes this focus inwards and our selfishness.

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Ya'll hear about the geometer who went to the beach to catch some rays and became a tangent ?

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