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The Courts

Assange Loses Latest Round In Extradition Fight 296

Richard_at_work writes "After losing his appeal to the UK Supreme Court a couple of weeks ago, Assange's lawyer was given leave to seek a reopening of the case on particular grounds — the UK Supreme Court has now rejected those grounds and upheld its earlier ruling that Assange should be extradited, which could happen in the next few days."
Math

Brain Scan Can Predict Math Mistakes 133

itwbennett writes "Computer Science Ph.D. candidate Federico Cirett says that he can predict with 80 percent accuracy when someone is about to make a mistake on a math question. Using an EEG machine, Cirett can identify the patterns in a volunteer's thinking that are likely to result in an error 20 seconds or so before it's made. 'If we can detect when they are going to fail, maybe we can change the text or switch the question to give them another one at a different level of difficulty, but also to keep them engaged,' Cirett said. 'Brain wave data is the nearest thing we have to really know when the students are having problems.' He will present a paper on his findings at the User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization conference in July."
Transportation

Ask Slashdot: The Very Best Paper Airplane? 183

An anonymous reader writes "'The Harrier' (or 'Eastern star,' as it is also called), is very well known, and is considered to be one of the best paper airplane designs. After much searching and trying, I have not found a better plane. So, I am asking Slashdot: is there anything that beats 'The Harrier' in a competition (indoors or outdoors)? This would be a really nice geek skill!"
Education

Submission + - New Programming Languages Come from Designers (tagide.com)

eldavojohn writes: A very lengthy and somewhat meandering essay from Crista Videira Lopes has sparked off some discussion of where new programming languages come from. She's writing from the viewpoint of academia under the premise that new languages don't come from academia. And they've been steadily progressing outside of large companies (with the exception of Java and .NET) into the bedrooms and hobbies of people she identifies as 'designers' or 'lone programmers' instead of groups of 'researchers.' Examples include PHP by Rasmus Lerdorf, JavaScript by Brenden Eich, Python by Guido van Rossum and — of course — Ruby by Yukihiro Matsumoto. The author notes that, as we escape our computational and memory bounds that once plagued programming languages in the past and marred them up with ultra efficient syntax in the name of hardware, our new languages are coming from designers with seemingly little worry about the budget CPU being able to handle a large project in the new language. The piece is littered with interesting assertions like "one striking commonality in all modern programming languages, especially the popular ones, is how little innovation there is in them!" and "We require scientific evidence for the claimed value of experimental drugs. Should we require scientific evidence for the value of experimental software?" Is she right? Is the answer to studying modern programming languages to quantify their design as she attempts in this post? Given the response of Slashdot to Google's Dart it would appear that something is indeed missing in coercing developers that a modern language has valid offerings worthy of their time.

Comment It can work with an adder (Score 1) 594

Main problem with crowd sourcing or any other form of sourcing is, we can't (don't want to) look far enough into the future to understand implications of what we are doing now.

So if they add a mandatory re-validation of constitution periodically (say 20 years, ala TJ) into the constitution itself, then it just might work.

Comment Talk (Score 1) 735

If you have good relationship with your managers you may not feel like bargaining. £7k doesn't sound much assuming this is on annual salary. But those 1.5 hrs of commute you are saving can be much more beneficial. You are recovering about 8% of your waking life which could be spent in better way.

In the long run you know this new job is more beneficial for you. So start talking to your managers, not for bargaining but to explain your scenario. Tell them you do need to quit, but give them time to plan your departure so that there is no feeling of betrayal. If given some time, they can recruit someone capable enough to take it over from you. If the other company really wants you they will relax their joining date.

But before you talk, you should make up your mind on what you want. All the best.

Transportation

Airline Pilots Allowed To Dodge Security Screening 285

OverTheGeicoE writes "Wired has a story about TSA's known crewmember program, which allows airline pilots to bypass traditional airport security on their way to the cockpit. Pilots will be verified using a system known as CrewPASS that relies on uniforms, identity cards, fingerprints, and possibly other biometrics to authenticate flight deck crews. Once they are authenticated, they can enter secure areas in airports without any further screening. Participation at present is voluntary, and applies at Baltimore/Washington (BWI), Pittsburg (PIT), Columbia (CAE) and now Chicago O'Hare (ORD) airports. TSA is hoping to expand the program nationally. Bruce Schneier thinks this program is 'a really bad idea.' Pilots are already avoiding scanners and patdowns at security checkpoints (video). Is the new program just a way for TSA to hide this fact from the flying public?"

Comment EVM: Simple tech & tamper resistent procedures (Score 2, Informative) 179

The way EVMs reduce rigging is not by any superior technology. It is based on simple accessible technology and elaborate procedures to ensure that poll rigging is minimized to the maximum extent possible. Check this very detailed FAQ by Election Commission of India, specifically Q24 and Q28.

http://www.indian-elections.com/electionfaqs/electronic-voting-machines.html

Comment Re:Oh, get over yourself (Score 1) 556

To keep my daughter pounding on the keyboard, I gave a keyboard of her own. Just a plain keyboard with cable dangling - not attached to anything. These things cost next to nothing and are pretty sturdy. That worked until she realized the relation between keyboard and monitor :0). Still it kept her busy until she was about 2 yrs old.

Now she is 3, and I just let her on my home desktop (Linux Mint with XFCE) with her own restricted user id. Somebody has to log her in, but once logged in she has ready access to launchers for TuxPaint, etc.

Portables

Submission + - Asus announces four Eee PC Configurations

i4u writes: "The Asus Eee PC is supposed to ship today in Taiwan. Asus announced four Eee PC configurations. The top of the line is the Asus Eee PC 8G with 8G SSD, 1GB RAM, integrated camera and 3.5 hours battery life. The low-end Eee PC 2G Surf has a 2GB SSD drive and 256MB RAM. This one is possibly selling for around $200. All Asus Eee PCs are compatible with Linux and Windows XP.
The Asus Eee PC should arrive in stores end of the month."

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