8354126
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Arvisp writes
"In 1912 Australian explorer Douglas Mawson planned to fly over the southern pole. His lost plane has now been found. The plane – the first off the Vickers production line in Britain – was built in 1911, only eight years after the Wright brothers executed the first powered flight. For the past three years, a team of Australian explorers has been engaged in a fruitless search for the aircraft, last seen in 1975. Then on Friday, a carpenter with the team, Mark Farrell, struck gold: wandering along the icy shore near the team's camp, he noticed large fragments of metal sitting among the rocks, just a few inches beneath the water."
103056
submission
SeaDour writes:
The Cassini spacecraft has recently entered a highly-inclined orbit around Saturn, revealing some never-before-seen images of the planet's ring system as seen from above and below the planet. "Finally, here are the views that we've waited years for," said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader at the Space Science Institute. "Sailing high above Saturn and seeing the rings spread out beneath us like a giant, copper medallion is like exploring an alien world we've never seen before. It just doesn't look like the same place. It's so utterly breath-taking, it almost gives you vertigo." The spacecraft will eventually return to its standard orbit parallel to the ring plane in late June.
103046
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justelite writes
"John C. Dvorak from PC Magazine has up an article looking at the new strategy of American cell-phone-service companies. From article: 'There is mounting evidence that the cellular service companies are going to do whatever they can to kill Wi-Fi. After all, it is a huge long-term threat to them. We've seen that the route to success in America today is via public gullibility and general ignorance. And these cell-phone-service companies are no dummies.'"
103012
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UniversalVM writes:
Fellow SlashDotters,
Ever since childhood, I have always been interested in Astronomy (and Astrophysics when I was old enough). Later in life I started getting more and more into Computers and ended up spending about 10 Years in IT -professionally — and doing very well at it. However, over the past year or so I have been seriously considering going back to my original passion Astrophysics. I have been reading every pop-sci book that I could get my hands on and getting started with an "Introduction to General Relativity" in my off time (I know how that sounds but it's true). I have a reasonable background in Mathematics (Masters in Comp. Engg and Bachelors in Electrical Engg). I know that the pay will be much less and the work much harder but this is something I got to do for my mental satisfaction.
SO the question I have is — What is the next logical step? Is it to Enroll full time at some college in a Master's Program? (I have some funds that can last me for 2-3 years). Has anyone else performed such a career switch? Do you have any feedback or pointers for a newbie trying to enter these fields (Astrophysics/Cosmology)? Which universities should I apply to?
103008
submission
pigscanfly.ca writes:
Back in 1989 (in the Windows 2.0 days), Bill Gates came to talk to the students of the University of Waterloo on the early days of Microsoft and the future of computing. It's an interesting blast to the past. He even touches on his 640K statement. He also covers lots of other topics, including OS/2, software piracy, the history of the software industry, and his role at Microsoft.The talk is available in a number of audio formats from the University of Waterloo Computer Science Club website.
