Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Science

Submission + - Has climate change data been fudged? (telegraph.co.uk) 2

Submitted by
Orion Blastar
Orion Blastar writes: ""Thousands of emails and documents stolen from the University of East Anglia (UEA) and posted online indicate that researchers massaged figures to mask the fact that world temperatures have been declining in recent years." Now this doesn't necessarily mean that global warming aka climate change is wrong, but there might be a breech of ethics here in which the data may have been fudged or manipulated or cherry picked to show a different result. That is a violation of the scientific method if true.

One of the emails under scrutiny, written by Phil Jones, the centre's director, in 1999, reads: "I've just completed Mike's Nature [the science journal] trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie, from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith's to hide the decline." Prof Jones has insisted that he used the word "trick" to mean a "clever thing to do", rather than to indicate deception. He has denied manipulating data. Another scientist whose name appears in the documents accused the hackers of attempting to undermine the drive for a global consensus at next month's Copenhagen summit. Kevin Trenberth of the US National Center for Atmospheric Research accused climate change sceptics of cherry-picking the documents and taking them out of context.

I suppose a calculation of the margin of error would be needed to verify the data is accurate and not cherry picked."
Novell

Submission + - Novell to charge for access to service packs

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: From February 1st 2010, Novell will now force all customers to hold a current maintenance support contract to download patches/fixes for many of their products.

http://www.novell.com/rc/docrepository/public/13/basedocument.2009-11-05.7701532349/entitlement%20policy%20change%20customer%20faq.final_en.pdf

According to Novell the reason for this is:

To deliver clear value to customers who have already invested in Novell maintenance contracts, and to
encourage even more customers to leverage the maintenance services—including support, training and version
upgrades—that increase overall satisfaction and return on investment.

Or to put it another way (my words, not theirs):

Customers are cancelling their maintenance contracts in ever higher numbers. Rather than address this by actually deliverying real value on the contract, you know by maybe having a Novell engineer or sales contact ring you, pro-actively recommend patches/products or heaven forbid actually visit you on site at any time other than contract renewal (customer relationship, what's that mean ?), we'll just stop providing patches for everyone else that way the people paying for maintenance will instantly see the value in their contract. Frankly if you're using our products and not paying for support, we don't want you as a customer.

Is 2010 going to be the year that Novell finally folds ?
Technology

Submission + - Programmable quantum computer (sciencenews.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A team at NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology) used berylium ions, lasers and electrodes to develop a quantum system that performed 160 randomly chosen routines. Other quantum systems to date have only been able to perform single, prescribed tasks. Other researchers say the system could be scaled up.
Media

Submission + - SPAM: Nano Breakthrough: Self-Assembling Nanoparticles

Submitted by destinyland
destinyland writes: Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Labs have "found a simple and yet powerful way to induce nanoparticles to assemble themselves into complex arrays," discovering that applying light or heat "can be used to further direct the assemblies of nanoparticles for even finer and more complex structural details." Led by Ting Xu (one of Popular Science's "Brilliant 10" young researchers), their technique "promises to revolutionize the data storage industry, eventually leading to the contents of hundreds of DVDs fitting into a space the size of a thumbnail," and the group is already working on paper-thin printable solar cells and ultra-small electronics.
Link to Original Source
Games

Submission + - Relive the 32X & Genesis Days Again (dcemu.co.uk) 2

Submitted by Busshy
Busshy writes: DCEmu have today posted a review of the newly released Neo Myth 3in1 Cart from Neoflash that allows retro fans to relive the best of Segas Cartridge Console days with the ability to play Genesis, Master System and 32X games on the cart, compatability is close to 100% with the ability to put a massive amount of games on one cart. Neoflash are soon to release N64, Snes and Nes carts also, if the quality is as good as the reviewer of this cart says then a lot of retro console fans will be in heaven.
Government

Submission + - Shameless Microsoft plugging for ARRA IT dollars

Submitted by
mtutty
mtutty writes: "Because of the unparalleled focus on transparency, the ARRA will require a huge increase in the amount (and efficiency) of tracking. The vast majority of this increased scrutiny will come through the use of IT, not by adding staff. States and other entities receiving ARRA money are scrambling to find solutions, and of course the big vendors are only too happy to show them the light...

The National Academy of Public Administration (http://www.napawash.org/) has sponsored a free and open discussion about IT approaches and solutions at http://www.thenationaldialogue.org./ While there are some genuinely free and open discussions (e.g., Citability — http://www.thenationaldialogue.org/ideas/citability-org-making-govt-documentation-web-citable-to-a-paragraph-level), there's also some pretty shameless self-plugging going on there. Check out the suggestion called "Use the tools you know and the software you trust " at http://www.thenationaldialogue.org/ideas/use-the-tools-you-know-and-the-software-you-trust.

While the posting itself is a fairly honest, straightforward sales pitch, the comments are obviously slanted ("Stimulus 360 is an incredible solution that is taking off rapidly.", "I'm encouraged by this opportunity to evaluate Stimulus360 even further.", "I am thrilled that Microsoft has released an end to end solution") and in some cases misleading ("Microsoft is not charging for the Stimulus360 solution!").

Full disclosure: I work for the IT department of a small State government. We were pitched the Microsoft solution two weeks ago and I found it less thrilling than these posters."

Comment Re:Sad (Score 1) 103

by mtutty (#26248769) Attached to: Streaming Video Service Coming To the Wii

Depends, many people enjoy doing crazy jumps and moves and fighting monsters and stuff (yes, that includes Mario games), which they couldn't perform when they would be wearing a a mo-cap suit and have perfect 1:1 mapping. Abstraction helps you do stuff you couldn't do in reality, complete lack of abstractions just puts you back into reality, which is not where most people want to be when they think about games.

To some extent, I think that's my point, too. But wouldn't you agree that there are many cases where pointing at the screen or moving the controller in space is a more effective abstraction? The controlled level of physicality in Wii games is different and very enjoyable for non-gamers.

And yet I have never seen such huge obtrusive tutorial texts as in Wii games on any other console. Those games sure have to explain a hell of a lot of stuff for their "intuitive interaction".

As a recovering 133t gamer, I sure don't need those, but if they help my wife, nieces, and kids catch up, then that's fine. It's not all about me anymore.

Really? How come third party developers largely ignore the Wii and focus on Xbox360 and PS3 instead?

That's a pretty subjective point.

Bottom line - the Wii is definitely made for a different class of gamer. Hardcore gamers are generally not going to understand the point of it.

Comment Re:Sad (Score 4, Informative) 103

by mtutty (#26241571) Attached to: Streaming Video Service Coming To the Wii
AC above is clearly an idiot. The abstraction is a neccessary evil, not a feature. Motion-sensing controls and peripherals (like the Wii Fit board) give the user more intuitive interaction with the game. This is where game developers (and non-133t gamers) WANT to go - it's not some degradation of "pure" gaming design.
Image

LHC Forces Bookmaker To Lower Odds On the Existence of God 457

Posted by samzenpus from the god-particle dept.
A UK bookmaker has lowered the odds on proving that god exists to just 4-1 to coincide with the switching on of the Large Hadron Collider. The chance that physicists might discover the elusive sub-atomic object called the "God particle" has forced the odds lower. Initially the odds that proof would be found of God's existence were 20-1, and they lengthened to 33-1 when the multi-billion pound atom smasher was shut down temporarily because of a magnetic failure. A spokesman for Paddy Power said, "The atheists' planned advertising campaign seems to have renewed the debate in pubs and around office water-coolers as to whether there is a God and we've seen some of that being transferred into bets. However we advise anyone still not sure of God's existence to maybe hedge their bets for now, just in case." He added that confirmation of God's existence would have to be verified by scientists and given by an independent authority before any payouts were made. Everyone getting a payout is encouraged to tithe at least ten percent.
The Almighty Buck

How To Make Money With Free Software 81

Posted by kdawson from the coin-of-the-realm dept.
bmsleight writes "The Dutch Ministry of Finance organized an architecture competition to design not a building, but rather the new 5-Euro commemorative coin. The theme was 'Netherlands and Architecture'. The winning design was made 100% with free software, mainly Python, but also including The Gimp, Inkscape, Phatch, and Ubuntu. The design is amazing — the head of Queen Beatrix is made up of the names of architects based on their popularity in Yahoo searches (rendered in a font of the artist's own devising). In the end the artist, Stani Michiels, had to collaborate closely on location with technicians of the Royal Dutch Mint, so all the last bits were done on his Asus Eee PC. Soon, 350,000 Dutch people will use and enjoy the fruits of free software."
Politics

Who Do Warcraft Players Want As President? 82

Posted by samzenpus from the give-the-orcs-a-voice dept.
I'm not sure how many electoral votes Azeroth has, but it could be a key battleground state.

Slashdot Top Deals

Real Programmers don't eat quiche. They eat Twinkies and Szechwan food.

Close