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Education

Submission + - C.S. versus I.S. degree?

Submitted by
minotaurcomputing
minotaurcomputing writes: "When attempting to determine the advantages of a Computer Science (C.S.) degree versus an Information Systems (I.S.) degree, what are the likely advantages of one over the other? It is a common perception that the I.S. path is the "easier" computer-related degree path requiring far less programming, but likewise worth less in the eyes of the computer job market. Is this accurate?

-m"
Java

Submission + - Is Java ready for Safety Critical Applications? (javolution.org) 4

Submitted by
dautelle
dautelle writes: "Last week, I was invited at the Space 2007 conference to introduce Javolution (open source Java library) to rocket scientists. Here is the paper presented. This might seem like good news for the Java platform. But is Java ready for use in safety critical applications? Or in other words would you trust your life to a Java program?"
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - It's easy to cheat on an IT certification exam

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "It's easy to cheat on an IT certification test. Half of all IT certification exams are available for sale on the Internet, according to a survey by the American Association of Test Publishers. You can also offshore IT test taking to "gunmen" in China who will take the test for you. When it comes to certification, a CIO says tells Computerworld that IT vendors need "to clean up their act.""
Security

Submission + - Quantum Cryptography Hacked

Submitted by mrbluze
mrbluze writes: Nature reports on a eavesdropping technique developed by researchers at MIT for intercepting quantum-encrypted messages:

To listen in, the team used a quantum-mechanical principle known as entanglement, which can link together two different traits of a particle. Using an optical setup, the team was able to entangle the transmitted photon's polarization with its momentum. The eavesdropper could then measure the momentum in order to get information about the polarization, without affecting the original polarization.
This stuff is beyond me, but I can't wait to read Slashdot's explanation!
Security

EBay Hacker's Conviction Upheld 174

Posted by Zonk from the watch-your-back-out-there dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in the case of Jerome Heckenkamp, the former University of Wisconsin student convicted of federal computer crime charges in 2004 after hacking into Qualcomm, Cygnus Solutions and other companies, and defacing eBay. Heckenkamp was caught after a system administrator at the university hacked into his Linux box to gather evidence that Heckenkamp had been attacking the college mail server. The court ruled today that such counter-hacks are allowable under the 'special needs' exception to the Fourth Amendment, and upheld the warrantless search."
Enlightenment

Submission + - China systematically develops technology

Submitted by
newsblaze
newsblaze writes: "China, having recognized there are major gaps in its science and technology arsenal, released their Technology Development Plans. The plans cover five main areas — geology, mechanical engineering, metallurgical engineering and aeronautical engineering. Three areas are prioritized in space technology and six major goals are announced. All this comes after having first set out their 100 Year Vision of Greatness. They appear to be giving themselves a breathing space, telling the world they are interested in cooperation and also giving themselves a major target, in much the same way as John F Kennedy did for the USA."
First Person Shooters (Games)

Submission + - A Brief Look at Free Quake3 Engine Based Games

Submitted by
Thilo2
Thilo2 writes: "As most of you probably know, id software released the Quake3 engine in summer 2005 under the terms of the GPL, which is now past over two years. Ever wonder what came out of it? Even though the engine is eight years old, just recently two independent projects have released fully featured multiplayers games, weighing in with downloads of about 550 megabytes each. Urban Terror and World of Padman, formerly modifications that required you to have the original Quake III Arena game, can now be played independently as stand-alone versions. Urban Terror combines realistic environments and weaponry with movement similar to Quake3. World of Padman on the other hand is a colorful shooter in comic style giving you fun weapons like water balloons and water pistols to shoot with. Last but not least there is Tremulous, a first person shooter with added real time strategy elements which has been out for quite some time now. Interesting to note, its game data is licensed under a CC license. All three games use an improved Quake3 engine from ioquake3, which has cleaned up the Quake3 source code since its release and made many improvements like OpenAL, Vorbis and SDL support, and thus are available for Windows, Linux and MacOSX. If you are willing to compile the engine yourself you can get support for even more platforms like Solaris or *BSD."

Feed Intel poised to unveil new UMPC platform? (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Handhelds, Tablet PCs

If slides released today by hardware site HKEPC turn out to be accurate, Intel is preparing to launch a new UMPC platform and CPU on the 18th that promises a much smaller footprint than the current architecture while almost doubling the devices' battery life. Known only by its codename "McCaslin," the chipset will reportedly occupy a space of 975 square millimeters (as opposed to the relatively enormous 2915 square millimeters of today's models) and feature power-sipping 600MHz and 800MHz processors known as "Stealey" that are targeting four to five hours of run time. Also sporting additional comm ports for devices such as GPS, 3G, and DTV, McCaslin is said to be Intel's response to Via's small form factor C7M, which has been adopted into models like Samsung's Q1 and continues to provide advantages over offerings from Santa Clara. Hit the Read link for a few more deets and another slide, and obviously stay tuned, as this rumor should be validated or debunked within a matter of days.

[Via The Inquirer]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft to offer DRM-free music too

Submitted by Fjan11
Fjan11 writes: According to a Dutch Microsoft spokesman the company is planning to offer DRM-free music on Zune marketplace. No indication is given on when this will happen however. This is an embarassing 180 because Microsoft claimed DRM was "necessary for the business model" only a few weeks ago when Steve Jobs published his letter.
Announcements

Submission + - New breakthrough theory in brain and AI research

Submitted by
Alan Barton
Alan Barton writes: "Hello, I am a computer programmer with 27 years of experience in the field of computer science. I am now in the process of publishing the results of my research, to finally develop a theory to explain how brains work. My work is based on biologically inspired AI research, combined with Neuroscience and Psychology.

I have developed a new theory which takes the research of Neuroscience, to produce a new form of computational methodology to explain Psychology. In effect, the concepts underlying Psychology are an emergent property of my new theory.

In the process of developing the theory, I have also discovered some fundamental aspects, about how the brain processes knowledge. Its a breakthrough in brain and AI research.

One of the most fundamental discoveries and exciting aspects of my work, is the discovery of a quantum like structure to all human knowledge!

If my work can be proved by other scientists, it would have extremely wide spread applications.

It will also be very interesting watching how the religions attempt to explain my work. Especially as my work can show the fundamental basis of superstitiousness.

I have just set-up a web site containing the details of my work and the front page provides a more detailed summary of the wide spread implications of my work.
http://www.openingtheglassbox.com/

The next step, after the publication of my work, is obviously extensive peer review. (My work can even show the fundamental basis, of the importance of the peer review process, from the perspective of the quantum like structure of knowledge).

After extensive peer reviews, if my work is confirmed by scientists to be correct? ... then it would for example, be able to show the follow:

My work can show how the brain processes the quantum like structure of knowledge, to achieve an understanding of the world around us. My work can also show the basis of consciousness, intelligence, imagination, creativity and superstitiousness. My work can also show the neurological and psychological basis for personality disorders, who lack empathy for others. My work can also show the basis for the evolution of languages. My work can also show a new economic theory, which highlights the importance of science, to provide a competitive advantage. My work can also show the evolution of tools is far longer and far more closely linked to biological evolution, than we ever dared to think possible. My work can also be applied to interpret the operation of all brains, from mammals to the earliest brains. Its not specific to only human brain operation. I can also show many creatures are conscious and have the beginnings of an understanding of causality and are even superstitious in their limited knowledge of the world! ... (Yes, and I have not lost my mind! ;)

My work can also show how to construct truly intelligent conscious machines. Not simply simulations of consciousness. The machines will think the way we think and learn the way we learn.

If after extensive peer reviews, my work can be confirmed by scientists as correct?, then it will be very interesting watching what happens next! :)

http://www.openingtheglassbox.com/"
Unix

Submission + - ZFS committed to FreeBSD CVS

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Pawel Jakub Dawidek has announced on the freebsd-current mailing list that he has committed Sun's ZFS file system to FreeBSD 7-CURRENT. This full support for its logical volume management via storage pools, self-healing and data corruption detection, NFS export, and more. Arguably the most exciting new file system on the planet will be available out of the box in FreeBSD 7.0 later this year!
Emulation (Games)

Submission + - GCSX Source Code Released - PS One Emu for Wii

Submitted by YokimaSun
YokimaSun writes: Yoshihiro over at DCEmu has released the source code to his port of the Playstation Emulator PCSX for the Nintendo Wii, the project needs extra work but a lot of the groundwork has already been done. "I cant finish this port because i've no time but i've already port all plugins . PAD , CD , GPU SOFT VIDEO and SPU NULL For GC . i've fixed the memory swap too but i've never worked before on Big Endian CPU for Converting 32Bit memory to 64Bit . so maybe you need to fixe something for the memory check PsxMem.h and PsxMen.c", anyone brave enough to carry this on ?
Censorship

Submission + - A crime for Americans to internet date foreigners

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: US Judge Affirms IMBRA: Americans Must Have Criminal Checks Before Contacting Foreigners on Internet. It offical its a crime for Americans to communicate with foreigners on dating websites without criminal background check. The law called International Marriage Broker Regulation Act (IMBRA) was passed in 2005 and was uphelded in court European Connections v. Alberto Gonzales, 1:06-CV-0426-CC Judge Clarence Cooper dismissed the lawsuit by European Connections. wired

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The only possible interpretation of any research whatever in the `social sciences' is: some do, some don't. -- Ernest Rutherford

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