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Submission + - Quantum teleportation distance record smashed

Submitted by Ivan Stepaniuk
Ivan Stepaniuk writes: For the first time, a team of physicists at the Univertisty of Geneva have successfully teleported a quantum state of a photon to a crystal over 25 kilometers away through a fiber optic cable, smashing their own previous record of 6 kilometers, archieved a decade ago. The press release reports:

Passing from light into matter, using teleportation of a photon to a crystal, shows that, in quantum physics, it is not the composition of a particle which is important, but rather its state, since this can exist and persist outside such extreme differences as those which distinguish light from matter.

The paper was published in Nature Photonics (Paywall alert)

Submission + - Lotus creator Ray Ozzie is back -- with Talko (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: Ray Ozzie, the man who created Lotus Notes and later went on to become Microsoft's chief software architect after selling the company his collaboration company called Groove, is back with a startup called Talko that on Tuesday introduced its first product — an iPhone app designed to encourage people to start using their cellphones again for voice conversations. The app mixes text and voice messaging, voice calling, image sharing and more, and is designed for delivering more meaningful group conversations.
Programming

Ask Slashdot: Finding a Job After Completing Computer Science Ph.D? 479

Posted by timothy from the I'm-a-people-person-dammit dept.
An anonymous reader writes I recently completed my PhD in computer science and hit the job market. I did not think I would have difficulty finding a job esp. with a PhD in computer science but I have had no luck so far in the four months I have been looking. Online resume submittals get no response and there is no way to contact anybody. When I do manage to get a technical interview, it is either 'not a good match' after I do the interviews or get rejected after an overly technical question like listing all the container classes in STL from the top of my head. I had worked as a C++ software developer before my PhD but in the past 6 years, software development landscape has changed quite a bit. What am I doing wrong? Has software development changed so much in the last 6 years I was in school or is my job hunting strategy completely wrong? (The PhD was on a very technical topic that has very little practical application and so working on it does not seem to count as experience.)
Programming

The Site That Teaches You To Code Well Enough To Get a Job 131

Posted by timothy from the tab-a-slot-b-memory-array-structure-q dept.
HughPickens.com writes Wanna be a programmer? Klint Finley reports that software developer Katrina Owen has created a site called Exercism.io where students can learn to craft code that's both clear and efficient and get a lot of feedback on what they're doing right and what they're doing wrong. Exercism is updated every day with programming exercises in a variety of different languages. First, you download these exercises using a special software client, and once you've completed one, you upload it back to the site, where other coders from around the world will give you feedback. Then you can take what you've learned and try the exercise again. The idea was to have students not only complete the exercises, but get feedback. Exercism.io now has over 6,000 users who have submitted code or comments, and hundreds of volunteers submit new exercises or translate existing ones into new programming languages. But even Owen admits that the site is a bit lacking in the usability department. "It's hard to tell what it is just by looking at it," she says. "It's remarkable to me that people have figured out how to use it."
Google

Google Quietly Nixes Mandatory G+ Integration With Gmail 139

Posted by timothy from the maybe-now-I'll-like-it-better dept.
An anonymous reader writes Back in 2012, Google had made it mandatory for new Gmail users to simultaneously create Google+ (G+) accounts. This is no longer so. Following the departure of G+ founder Vic Gundotra in April 2014, Google has been quietly decoupling its social media site from its other services. First, YouTube was freed, then Google+ Photos. Now, anyone who wants to create a new Gmail account unencumbered with a G+ profile can also do so.

Submission + - To fight $5.2B in identity theft IRS may need to change the way you file taxes (networkworld.com) 2

Submitted by coondoggie
coondoggie writes: Crime in this case is paying lots of scammers. Based on preliminary analysis, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) estimates it paid $5.2 billion in fraudulent identity theft refunds in filing season 2013 while preventing an additional $24.2 billion (based on what it could detect). As a result the IRS needs to implement changes in a system that apparently leaks like a sieve and such changes could impact legitimate taxpayers by delaying refunds, extending tax season and likely adding costs to the IRS.

Submission + - Is The Majority Of Global Warming Caused By Natural Atmospheric Circulation?

Submitted by tranquilidad
tranquilidad writes: In a paper published by the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, two authors ascribe the majority of northeast pacific coastal warming to natural atmospheric circulation and not to anthropogenic forcing. In AP's reporting, Ken Caldeira, an atmospheric scientist with the Carnegie Institution for Science says the paper's authors, '...have not established the causes of these atmospheric pressure variations. Thus, claims that the observed temperature increases are due primarily to "natural processes are suspect and premature, at best."' The paper's authors, on the other hand, state, '...clearly, there are other factors stronger than the greenhouse forcing that is affecting...temperatures,' and that there is a 'surprising degree to which the winds can explain all the wiggles in the temperature curve.'
Canada

Netflix Rejects Canadian Regulator Jurisdiction Over Online Video 184

Posted by timothy from the on-what-authority dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Last week's very public fight between the CRTC and Netflix escalated on Monday as Netflix refused to comply with Commission's order to supply certain confidential information including subscriber numbers and expenditures on Canadian children's content. While the disclosure concerns revolve around the confidentiality of the data, the far bigger issue is now whether the CRTC has the legal authority to order it to do anything at all. Michael Geist reports that Netflix and Google are ready to challenge it in a case that could head to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Submission + - How Techies Should Pick A City To Live In (itworld.com)

Submitted by jfruh
jfruh writes: You've just graduated from college with a technical degree, and you're more mobile than you've ever been in your life or ever will be again. How do you decide where to settle? If you're trying to advance your technical career, you might want to try working through the checklist offered by Fred Shilmover. Shilmover is the CEO of a cloud-based company but his guidelines could apply to anyone in a technical field. (He picked Boston, by the way.)

Submission + - Widespread Chernobyl Radiation Risk From Forest Detritus

Submitted by Rambo Tribble
Rambo Tribble writes: It is being reported that forest detritus, contaminated in the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster [abstract], is decaying at a much slower rate than normal, building up and creating a significant fire risk. This, in turn, is creating a real potential for the residual radioactive material to be distributed, through smoke, over a broad area of Europe and Russia. Looking at different possible fire intensities, researchers speculate, "20 to 240 people would likely develop cancer, of which 10 to 170 cases may be fatal". These figures are similar to those hypothesized for Fukushima.

Submission + - Dell's Unexpected Next Act: Stylish, High-Quality Tablets And PCs

Submitted by jfruh
jfruh writes: If Dell has a reputation in the PC market, it's as the company that got low-end PCs to customers cheaply. But after the great drama of founder Michael Dell taking the company private, the company is following a new path, adding higher-quality (and more expensive) products like the Venue 8 7000, the thinnest tablet on the market today, to its lineup. One analyst notes that "Because they are no longer reporting to Wall Street, they can be more competitive."

Submission + - The Site That Teaches You to Code Well Enough to Get a Job

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: Wanna be a programmer? Klint Finley reports that software developer Katrina Owen has created a site called Exercism.io where students can learn to craft code that’s both clear and efficient and get a lot of feedback on what they're doing right and what they're doing wrong. Exercism is updated every day with programming exercises in a variety of different languages. First, you download these exercises using a special software client, and once you’ve completed one, you upload it back to the site, where other coders from around the world will give you feedback. Then you can take what you’ve learned and try the exercise again. The idea was to have students not only complete the exercises, but get feedback. Exercism.io now has over 6,000 users who have submitted code or comments, and hundreds of volunteers submit new exercises or translate existing ones into new programming languages. But even Owen admits that the site is a bit lack in the usability department. “It’s hard to tell what it is just by looking at it,” she says. “It’s remarkable to me that people have figured out how to use it.”
Upgrades

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Premieres On Linux, 2 Years After Windows 93

Posted by timothy from the man-this-is-a-long-party dept.
An anonymous reader writes Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has finally been released for Linux two years after its Windows debut. The game is reported to work even on the open-source Intel Linux graphics drivers, but your mileage may vary. When it comes to the AMD and NVIDIA drivers, NVIDIA continues dominating for Linux gaming over AMD with Catalyst where there's still performance levels and other OpenGL issues.

Submission + - jQuery.com Compromised To Serve Malware

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: jQuery.com, the official website of the popular cross-platform JavaScript library of the same name, had been compromised and had been redirecting visitors to a website hosting the RIG exploit kit and, ultimately, delivering information-stealing malware. While any website compromise is dangerous for users, this one is particularly disconcerting because of the demographic of its users, says James Pleger, Director of Research at RiskIQ.

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I tell them to turn to the study of mathematics, for it is only there that they might escape the lusts of the flesh. -- Thomas Mann, "The Magic Mountain"

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