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Android

Flash On Android Is 'Shockingly Bad' 657

Posted by timothy from the not-so-flash dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Ryan Lawler writes on GigaOm that although many have touted the availability of Flash on Android devices as a competitive advantage over Apple's mobile devices, while trying to watch videos from ABC.com, Fox.com and Metacafe using Flash 10.1 on a Nexus One over a local Wi-Fi network connected to a 25-Mbps Verizon FiOS broadband connection, mobile expert Kevin Tofel found that videos were slow to load, if they loaded at all, leading to an overall very inconsistent experience while using his Android device for video. 'While in theory Flash video might be a competitive advantage for Android users, in practice it's difficult to imagine anyone actually trying to watch non-optimized web video on an Android handset,' writes Lawler. 'All of which makes one believe that maybe Steve Jobs was right to eschew Flash in lieu of HTML5 on the iPhone and iPad.'"
Botnet

Malicious Spam Jumps To 3B Messages Per Day 211

Posted by kdawson from the with-a-b dept.
Trailrunner7 writes "Last year saw a monstrous increase in the volume of malicious spam, according to a new report (PDF). In the second half of 2009, the number of spam messages sent per day skyrocketed from 600 million to three billion, according to new research. For some time now, spam has been accounting for 90 or more percent of all email messages. But the volume of spam had been relatively steady in the last couple of years. Now, the emergence of several large-scale botnets, including Zeus and Koobface, has led to an enormous spike in the volume of spam."
Science

Why the First Cowboy To Draw Always Gets Shot 398

Posted by timothy from the more-guns-less-crime dept.
cremeglace writes "Have you ever noticed that the first cowboy to draw his gun in a Hollywood Western is invariably the one to get shot? Nobel-winning physicist Niels Bohr did, once arranging mock duels to test the validity of this cinematic curiosity. Researchers have now confirmed that people indeed move faster if they are reacting, rather than acting first."
Image

"Tube Map" Created For the Milky Way 142

Posted by samzenpus from the non-stop-service-to-the-Perseus-Arm dept.
astroengine writes "Assuming you had an interstellar spaceship, how would you navigate around the galaxy? For starters, you'd probably need a map. But there's billions of stars out there — how complex would that map need to be? Actually, Samuel Arbesman, a research fellow from Harvard, has come up with a fun solution. He created the 'Milky Way Transit Authority (MWTA),' a simple transit system in the style of the iconic London Underground 'Tube Map.' (Travel Tip: Don't spend too much time loitering around the station at Carina, there's some demolition work underway.)"
Education

China Luring Scientists Back Home 292

Posted by Soulskill from the ooo-a-piece-of-candy dept.
blee37 writes "The NY Times reports that China is increasing incentives for Chinese students earning PhDs in the US to return home. One example is a prestigious Princeton microbiologist who returned to become a dean at Tsinghua, the Chinese MIT. In my experience as a grad student, Chinese students were often torn about returning home. The best science and the most intellectually stimulating jobs are in the US. Yet, surely they miss their families and their hometown. As alluded in the article, Chinese science remains far behind, especially because of rampant cronyism in academia as well as government. But, if more Chinese students go back, it could damage the US's technology lead. A large percentage of PhD students in the US are from China. Also, the typical PhD student has their tuition paid for and receives a salary. Does it make sense to invest in their training if they will do their major work elsewhere?"

Comment All your base are belong to developers anyway... (Score 1) 605

by MonkeyBot (#30608972) Attached to: Do Your Developers Have Local Admin Rights?
If you have decent developers and they have physical access to their machines (particularly laptops that they can take away from scrutinizing eyes), then they likely already have local admin rights in some form or fashion, whether you want them to or not. It's an asinine waste of resources to try and use an IT group that is usually less competent than the developers to police those developers' local admin rights when they have physical access to their machines.

Comment Re:Industrial! (Score 1) 491

by MonkeyBot (#28228217) Attached to: Best kind of engineering:

Industrial is the joke engineering degree. Anyone who can't cut it as a chemE or ME, this is the major for you!

Have fun poisoning yourself and losing fingers! I'll be in the air conditioned office working on a spreadsheet, ok?

Comment Re:Industrial! (Score 1) 491

by MonkeyBot (#28228113) Attached to: Best kind of engineering:
It might not sound like a good solution, but...

-I've only had 2 jobs since my Master's (I quit the first after 5 months because of the cross-country commute...please forgive my improper use of the word "several")
-I've had my current job for the past 3 years, and I'm not scared of being laid off anytime soon
-You should see my paycheck!!

Your allegations of me being an opportunistic job-hopper cut me deep...I'm going to go wipe away my tears with some hundred dollar bills, then put them in a stripper's g-string.

Comment Re:almost like a technical MBA? (Score 1) 491

by MonkeyBot (#28228031) Attached to: Best kind of engineering:
The lobotomy is actually optional. As for qualifying my reasons for representing it as a "good thing," I was referring to the impact it has had to my career opportunities.

What better way to keep your friends close and your enemies closer than by blending in with the suits in charge while still maintaining your technical prowess?!?

Comment Industrial! (Score 4, Informative) 491

by MonkeyBot (#28203037) Attached to: Best kind of engineering:
I have an undergraduate degree in Computer Science. When I graduated in 2000, I found a great job, which I was subsequently laid off from during the demise of the dot com bubble.
This freaked me out, so I took a "holding pattern" job for a couple of years until I could afford to go back to grad school. I wanted to get an advanced degree in something very, very general that I could apply to a wide variety of industries.
Industrial Engineering seemed to be the ticket. I have had a very easy time during the several job searches I've had since receiving my Master's.
Also, because of the curriculum requirements (Engineering Economy, Optimization, Project Management/Efficiency), I feel like I have a much easier time relating to my finance and accounting coworkers than many of my engineer counterparts.
I feel that it's almost like a technical MBA with a focus on mathematics geared towards business and process management.

Comment Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research? (Score 1) 149

by MonkeyBot (#26258575) Attached to: Using Lasers To Generate Random Numbers Faster
I wonder if this has applications to any of the experiments done at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research department. I seem to remember some of their experiments being dependent upon generating large amounts of *truly* random numbers, usually generated from thermal fluctuations. If you believe them, they were able to generate statistically significant variations in these thermally generated random numbers simply from a person thinking that way...

I know, I know...sounds weird, but read some of their experiments and the outcomes and see what you think.

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