Comment Duh (Score 1) 169
Leonardo da Vinci was. Way too late.
3D Printing Might Save the Rhinoceros 163
GordonShure.com writes: San Francisco based biotech startup Pembient have released details of their 3D printing led method to derail the market for Rhinoceros horns. Presently the bulk of demand originates from China, where said horns — gathered in the wild by poachers who usually kill the rhinos — are revered for supposed medicinal qualities. The new firm intends to mix keratin with Rhino DNA, then machine the combination with a 3D printer in a way that their counterfeit horns are difficult to detect by customers and traffickers alike.
The company already mulls expanding its production principle to other, lucrative wild animal trades such as the claws of tigers and lions. Pembient is however a young company — for all their ingenuity, will their ambitions to take on such a colossal black market be realized?
The company already mulls expanding its production principle to other, lucrative wild animal trades such as the claws of tigers and lions. Pembient is however a young company — for all their ingenuity, will their ambitions to take on such a colossal black market be realized?
Comment Invariably bad code in my case (Score 1) 1067
In my case at least, if there is a div0 in there somewhere then it's invariably a mistake that I need to correct. I'd prefer that the compiler or SDK barf on it or warn me.
Philosophically, I suppose I'd prefer that the production code barf as well instead of managing to zoom past some bad logic.
Comment Look to the past (Score 1) 257
Look at stuff that existed 25 years ago that still exists and is supportable today. That will give you an idea of the *sorts* of things that could be supportable in 25 years.
Face Recognition Tech Pushes Legal Boundaries 110
An anonymous reader writes: As face recognition software becomes more capable, companies and governments are coming up with new ways to use it. Microsoft has already patented a Minority Report-style personalized billboard, and loss prevention departments in big stores are rolling out systems to "pre-identify" shoplifters. But this rush to implement the technology runs afoul of privacy laws in at least two U.S. states: Illinois and Texas forbid the use of face recognition software without "informed consent" from the target. Facebook is the target of a recent lawsuit in Illinois over this exact issue; it's likely to test the strength of such a law. "Facebook and Google use facial recognition to detect when a user appears in a photograph and to suggest that he or she be tagged. Facebook calls this "Tag Suggestions" ... With the boom in personalized advertising technology, a facial recognition database of its users is likely very, very valuable to Facebook. ... Eager to extract that value, Facebook signed users up by default when it introduced Tag Suggestions in 2011. This meant that Facebook calculated faceprints for every user who didn't take the steps to opt out." If Facebook loses and citizens start pushing for similar laws in other states, it could keep our activities in public relatively anonymous for a bit longer.
Comment I remember when... (Score 3, Insightful) 318
Ah ... I remember when cable TV started putting ads in. Didn't turn out pretty.
Comment I can understand (Score 1) 90
I can understand peddling heroin, slaves, nuclear weapons and so forth. But COUPONS! Some things just go beyond the pale.
Comment Only geeks can vote? (Score 4, Insightful) 103
I vote yes!
Comment Re:My keychain (Score 1) 278
Y'all heard about how social status is the inverse of the number of keys you carry?
Janitors usually have a big ball of keys, but the President only has one, and a marine carries it around for him.
Comment My keychain (Score 1) 278
8 keys, car remote, gym club barcode
Harry Shearer Walks Away From "The Simpsons," and $14 Million 214
Actor Harry Shearer, perhaps best known as the voice of several characters on The Simpsons, including that of Montgomery Burns, will be leaving the show's cast, according to CNN.
Showrunner Al Jean said Shearer was "offered the same deal as the rest of the cast, but turned it down." ... Shearer is not just walking away from Springfield, but also a large sum of money. The actor was offered a guaranteed $14 million for two years of work, according to someone with direct knowledge of the matter. The proposed deal also allowed for him to do other projects if he wished." That last part, though, seems to be in dispute, and central to Shearer's decision to leave; Shearer tweeted that it's because he "wanted what we've always had: the freedom to do other work."
Comment Recursive (Score 1) 244
Bad FMs tend not to get read leading to more confusion and RTFM comments.
WTFM!
Comment Re:Forget the GPA (Score 1) 125
I second this. In fact, I'd not expect somebody with 15 years experience to list their GPA in their resume. I rarely see GPA on resume except for interns and first-job applicants.
Relevant real-world experience is best. Security certs might be worthwhile I don't know. Never looked into them. Relevant certs won't hurt.
I'd steer clear of any for-profit IT type college for the usual reasons.
Comment Re:So? (Score 0) 461
Similarly, a lot of contractors I use have ancient email domains. I don't care if a roofer or concrete guy has an outdated email. OTOH - seeing AOL or Hotmail on a Dev's resume would tell me they, to say the least, aren't up to date or are completely tone-deaf.
Dawn Spacecraft Gets a Better Look At Ceres' Bizarre 'White Spots' 78
StartsWithABang writes: Since its discovery as the first asteroid more than 200 years ago, Ceres has been one of the most poorly understood objects in the Solar System as even imagery from the Hubble Space Telescope is unable to resolve very much. But NASA's Dawn mission, since moving on from Vesta, has begun to map Ceres, constructing the highest resolution global map ever, with better data to come. The greatest mystery so far are two bright white spots at the bottom of a deep crater, brighter and more reflective than anything else on the planet's surface. Right now, three leading possibilities for the origin of these features exist, with Dawn possessing the capabilities to teach us which one (if any) is correct, hopefully by the end of the year!
