timothy - Slashdot User

Submission + - Facebook's Colonies (vice.com)

Submitted by sarahnaomi on Wednesday February 25, 2015 @07:13PM

sarahnaomi writes: That the internet is the most powerful tool humanity has ever created is old hat. I'm sure I could find the same thing written somewhere in a 1995 issue of Wired. And over those last 20 years, that knowledge has come with a simple imperative: we must increase access, close the digital divide, lest entire populations of people—who are likely already disadvantaged, as access trickles down with economic and geopolitical privilege—be left behind.

Facebook this week released a major report on global internet access, as part of the company's Internet.org campaign, which aims to bring cheap internet to new markets in partnership with seven mobile companies. Facebook says 1.39 billion people used its product in December 2014, and it's natural for the company to try to corral the other four-fifths of the planet.

But aside from ideals and growth markets, the report highlights a tension inherent to the question of access: When Facebook sets sail to disconnected markets, what version of the internet will it bring?

Submission + - Ceres' Mystery Bright Dots May Have Volcanic Origin (discovery.com)

Submitted by astroengine on Wednesday February 25, 2015 @03:55PM

astroengine writes: As NASA’s Dawn mission slowly spirals in on its dwarf planet target, Ceres’ alien landscape is becoming sharper by the day. And, at a distance of only 29,000 miles (46,000 kilometers), the robotic spacecraft has revealed multiple bright patches on the surface, but one of the brightest spots has revealed a dimmer bright patch right next door. “Ceres’ bright spot can now be seen to have a companion of lesser brightness, but apparently in the same basin,” said Chris Russell, of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and principal investigator for the Dawn mission. “This may be pointing to a volcano-like origin of the spots, but we will have to wait for better resolution before we can make such geologic interpretations.”

Submission + - Whiteboard subsitutes for distributed teams?

Submitted by DoofusOfDeath on Wednesday February 25, 2015 @03:45PM

DoofusOfDeath writes: I work on a fully distributed software development team with 5-10 people. Normally it's great, but when we're doing heavy design work, we really need to all be standing in front of a whiteboard together. This is expensive and time consuming, because it involves airplanes and hotels. Conference calls, editing shared Google docs, etc. just don't seem to be the same. Have people found any good tools or practices to replace standing in front of a real whiteboard?

Submission + - Is Apple "Poaching" or Just "Hiring" For Its Rumored Electric Car Project? (ieee.org) 1

Submitted by Tekla Perry on Wednesday February 25, 2015 @02:04PM

Tekla Perry writes: The rumors about Apple’s move into the electric car business have been rapidly proliferating. While Apple has been able to keep many of the details of the project, whatever it is, under wraps, it has had less success keeping its hiring activities quiet. Battery company A123 filed a "poaching" lawsuit, Samsung execs told the Korea Times about the attractions Apple has to offer, and Tesla's Elon Musk basically figures that if he's going head to head for an engineer his personality will tip the balance. Engineers are flowing from other car companies to Apple as well. It's a good time to be a EV engineer in Silicon Valley.

Submission + - Android-based Apple Pay Competitor Will Support Bitcoin (bitcoinmagazine.com)

Submitted by giulioprisco on Wednesday February 25, 2015 @01:28PM

giulioprisco writes: A new secure mobile payment solution for Android will be showcased at the Mobile World Congress, March 2 – 5 in Barcelona, Spain. The new payment app developed developed by Rivetz, Trustonic, Intercede and Bitcoin payment processors Coinapult and BitPay – an Android alternative to Apple Pay with Bitcoin support – supports bitcoin payments and can be integrated with bitcoin wallets. It will be available in the second quarter of 2015.

Submission + - Reddit imposes ban on non-consensual sexual content (betanews.com)

Submitted by Mark Wilson on Wednesday February 25, 2015 @01:25PM

Mark Wilson writes: If you want to post naked pictures or videos of people on Reddit without their consent, you only have a couple of weeks to do so. As of March, the site is imposing a ban on content of an explicit nature that the subject has not given permission to be posted.

The cleanup of the site comes hot on the heels of news from Google that explicit content will be banned from Blogger. It also comes in the wake of last yearâ(TM)s Fappening which saw a glut of naked celebrity photos leaked online.

Submission + - New Icons of Windows 10 Do Not Please Users Aesthetically (softpedia.com) 2

Submitted by jones_supa on Wednesday February 25, 2015 @11:49AM

jones_supa writes: A lot of people got nauseous about the flat looks of Modern UI presented in Windows 8. Recent builds of Windows 10 Technical Preview have now started replacing the shell icons, and to some people they are just too much to bear. Basically, Microsoft opted to change the icons in search of a fresh and modern look, but there are plenty of people out there who claim that all these new icons are actually very ugly and the company would better stick to the previous design. To find out what people think about these icons, Softpedia asked its readers to tell their opinion and the messages received in the last couple of days pretty much speak for themselves. There are only few testers who think that these icons look good, but the majority wants Microsoft to change them before the final version of the operating system comes out.

Submission + - 5 white collar jobs robots already have taken (fortune.com)

Submitted by bizwriter on Wednesday February 25, 2015 @11:39AM

bizwriter writes: University of Oxford researchers Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne estimated in 2013 that 47 percent of total U.S. jobs could be automated and taken over by computers by 2033. That now includes occupations once thought safe from automation, AI, and robotics. Such positions as journalists, lawyers, doctors, marketers, and financial analysts are already being invaded by our robot overlords.

Submission + - The Groups Behind Making Distributed Solar Power Harder to Adopt (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123 on Wednesday February 25, 2015 @11:28AM

Lucas123 writes: Distributed rooftop solar is a threat not only to fossil fuel power generation, but also to the profits of monopolistic model of utilities. While the overall amount of electrical capacity represented by distributed solar power remains miniscule for now, it's quickly becoming one of leading sources of new energy deployment. As adoption grows, fossil fuel interests and utilities are succeeding in pushing anti-net metering legislation, which places surcharges on customers who deploy rooftop solar power and sell unused power back to their utility through the power grid. Other state legislation is aimed at reducing tax credits for households or businesses installing solar or allows utilities to buy back unused power at a reduced rate, while reselling it at the full retail price.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Old PC file transfer problem 4

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 25, 2015 @11:23AM

An anonymous reader writes: I have an old Compaq Contura Aero laptop from the nineties (20 Mhz, 12 Mb RAM, Windows 3.11, 16-bit, PCMCIA, COM, LPT, floppy) with 160 Mb drive that I would want to copy in full to a newer machine. The floppies are so unreliable — between Aero's PCMCIA floppy drive and USB floppy disk drive — that it is a total nightmare to try and do it; it just doesn't work. If that option is excluded, what else can I do? I have another old laptop with Windows XP (32-bit, PCMCIA, COM, LPT) that could be used; all other machines are too new and lack ports. Will be grateful for any ideas.

Submission + - I am terminally ill. What wisdom should I pass on to my budding geek daughter? 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 25, 2015 @02:26AM

An anonymous reader writes: Dear Slashdot:

I am a scientist and educator who has been enjoying and learning from Slashdot since the late 90s. Now I come to you, my geek brothers and sisters, for help. I've been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, which you will remember is what took Steve Jobs and Randy Pausch from us. My condition is incurable. Palliative chemotherapy may delay the inevitable, but a realistic assessment suggests that I have anywhere from two to six months of "quality" time left, and likely not more than a year in total.

I am slowly coming to terms with my imminent death, but what bothers me most is that I will be leaving my wife alone, and that my daughter will have to grow up without her father. She is in sixth grade, has an inquisitive and sharp mind, and is interested in science and music. She seems well on the path to becoming a "girl geek" like her mother, an outcome I'd welcome.

Since I will not be around for all of the big events in her life, I am going to create a set of video messages for her that she can watch at those important times or just when she's having a bad day. I would like to do this before my condition progresses to the point that I am visibly ill, so time is short.

In the videos I will make clear how much I treasure the time we've spent together and the wonderful qualities I see in her. What other suggestions do you have? What did you need to hear at the different stages of your life? What wisdom would have been most helpful to you? At what times did you especially need the advice of a parent? And especially for my geek sisters, how can I help her navigate the unique issues faced by girls and women in today's world?

Please note that I'm posting anonymously because I don't want this to be about me. I'd prefer that the focus be on my daughter and how I can best help her.

Thank you so much for your help.

Submission + - AmeriCorps VISTA to Fight Poverty with Google's CS First Curriculum

Submitted by theodp on Wednesday February 25, 2015 @01:18AM

theodp writes: Conceived by President John F. Kennedy, VISTA has been on the front lines in the fight against poverty in America for 50 years. On Monday, Google announced it will be training newly-hired AmeriCorps VISTA Members to help Boys & Girls Clubs in six cities facilitate Google's CS First curriculum. "Working together," explained Google of its Code Corps partnership with Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Corporation for National and Community Service, "we can empower more young people with the technical know-how they need to succeed in today’s society and economy." The news comes the week after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Google will roll out after-school CS First coding classes for 100K NYC school kids, part of De Blasio's $10 million Tech Talent Pipeline initiative.

Submission + - Houston researchers using nanoparticles to speed blood clot busting (examiner.com)

Submitted by MarkWhittington on Wednesday February 25, 2015 @01:03AM

MarkWhittington writes: When a person is brought into the emergency room, having suffered a heart attack or stroke, one of the first things the trauma team will do is to administer clot busting drugs. The idea is that in cases where a clot has caused the trauma, blood flow has to be reestablished as quickly as possible to minimize the damage. Minutes and even seconds count between the patient having a speedy recovery or else spending months in rehab and possibly having permanent impairment. Gizmag reported that some new research being conducted at Houston Methodist Research Institute has the potential to speed up the blood clot busting, helping stroke and heart attack patients to recover faster.

Submission + - Ra unstable branch supports non-English programming (github.com)

Submitted by oahmad04 on Tuesday February 24, 2015 @11:20PM

oahmad04 writes: The unstable branch on the GitHub project page for Ra supports programming in user-defined languages (as in non-English languages). I need help for testing, bug reporting, and language submissions that Ra can support by default. Also, I would love feedback on my implementation. I already foresee some issues (see the issue tracker). If anyone is remotely interested, thank you for your interest.

Submission + - The Peculiar Economics of Developing New Antibiotics

Submitted by HughPickens.com on Tuesday February 24, 2015 @11:10PM

HughPickens.com writes: Every year at least two million people are infected with bacteria that can’t be wiped out with antibiotics but the number of F.D.A.-approved antibiotics has decreased steadily in the past two decades. Now.Ezekiel J. Emanuel writes at the NYT that the problem with the development of new antibiotics is profitability. “There’s no profit in it, and therefore the research has dried up, but meanwhile bacterial resistance has increased inexorably and there’s still a lot of inappropriate use of antibiotics out there," says Ken Harvey. Unlike drugs for cholesterol or high blood pressure, or insulin for diabetes, which are taken every day for life, antibiotics tend to be given for a short time so profits have to be made on brief usage. "Even though antibiotics are lifesaving, they do not command a premium price in the marketplace," says Emanuel. "As a society we seem willing to pay $100,000 or more for cancer drugs that cure no one and at best add weeks or a few months to life. We are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars for knee surgery that, at best, improves function but is not lifesaving. So why won’t we pay $10,000 for a lifesaving antibiotic?"

Emanuel says that we need to use prize money as an incentive. "What if the United States government — maybe in cooperation with the European Union and Japan — offered a $2 billion prize to the first five companies or academic centers that develop and get regulatory approval for a new class of antibiotics?" Because it costs at least $1 billion to develop a new drug, the prize money could provide a 100 percent return — even before sales. "From the government perspective, such a prize would be highly efficient: no payment for research that fizzles. Researchers win only with an approved product. Even if they generated just one new antibiotic class per year, the $2-billion-per-year payment would be a reasonable investment for a problem that costs the health care system $20 billion per year." Unless payers and governments are willing to provide favorable pricing for such a drug, the big companies are going to focus their R&D investments in areas like cancer, depression, and heart disease where the return-on-investments are much higher.

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