39535541
submission
eldavojohn writes:
On September 14th a PDF report titled "Taxes and the Economy: An Economic Analysis of the Top Tax Rates Since 1945" penned by the Library of Congress' nonpartisan Congressional Research Service was released to little fanfare. However the following conclusion of the report has since roiled the GOP enough to have the report removed from the Library of Congress: 'The results of the analysis suggest that changes over the past 65 years in the top marginal tax rate and the top capital gains tax rate do not appear correlated with economic growth. The reduction in the top tax rates appears to be uncorrelated with saving, investment, and productivity growth. The top tax rates appear to have little or no relation to the size of the economic pie. However, the top tax rate reductions appear to be associated with the increasing concentration of income at the top of the income distribution. As measured by IRS data, the share of income accruing to the top 0.1% of U.S. families increased from 4.2% in 1945 to 12.3% by 2007 before falling to 9.2% due to the 2007-2009 recession. At the same time, the average tax rate paid by the top 0.1% fell from over 50% in 1945 to about 25% in 2009. Tax policy could have a relation to how the economic pie is sliced—lower top tax rates may be associated with greater income disparities.' From the New York Times article: 'The pressure applied to the research service comes amid a broader Republican effort to raise questions about research and statistics that were once trusted as nonpartisan and apolitical.' It appears to no longer be found on the Library of Congress' website.
39534135
submission
another random user writes:
Facebook has moved quickly to shut down a loophole which made some accounts accessible without a password.
The bug was exposed in a message posted to the Hacker News website.
The message contained a search string that, when used on Google, returned a list of links to 1.32 million Facebook accounts.
In some cases clicking on a link logged in to that account without the need for a password. All the links exposed the email addresses of Facebook users.
39533377
submission
Lucas123 writes:
As anyone who's typed on a virtual keyboard — or yelled at a voice-control app like Siri — can attest, no current text input holds a candle to a traditional computer keyboard. From the reed switch keyboards of the early '70s to the buckling spring key mechanism that drove IBM's popular PC keyboards for years to ThinTouch technology that will have about half the travel of a MacBook Air's keys, the technology that drove data entry for decades isn't likely to go anyone anytime soon. Computerworld takes a look back on five decades of keyboard development and where it's likely to go in the future.
35824257
submission
cweditor writes:
Grupo Posadas has five data centers supporting more than 100 hotels and other lines of business, but it's moving almost all of those operations to a service provider in Texas. Could cloud service providers help the US become a destination for tech outsourcing instead of an exporter of tech jobs? One stumbling block: The US finds itself on the receiving end of protectionist legislation in other countries that discourages use of non-domestic IT service providers, says the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation.
35645899
submission
alphadogg writes:
University of Washington computer scientists have created a tabletop card game that puts players in the role of White Hat hackers, taking on missions such as hacking into hotel minibar payment systems and converting robotic vacuums into toys. While the game is designed to be fun, and not necessarily educational, players will undoubtedly pick up security concepts. The game, called Control-Alt-Hack, is being introduced at the Black Hat security conference this week.
35644107
submission
RedEaredSlider writes:
Researchers from Princeton's School of Engineering and Applied Science have written a program called SSDAlloc, which tells a computer running to pretend that it's running using RAM, even though it's actually accessing the storage (flash) memory.
Most computers are designed to look in the RAM first for the data they need. Only after that does the operating look elsewhere, such as on the hard drive or a flash drive. That kind of hierarchical searching around can really slow things down.
SSDAlloc changes that, basically making a computer pretend the flash is the RAM. That cuts power consumption by up to 90 percent, the researchers say, because flash doesn't need power to run nor does it use the power that hard drives do.
34202605
submission
Lucas123 writes:
A supportive work environment and a commitment to innovation stands out among the top attributes a great company for IT workers, according to the results of a survey of the best places to work by Computerworld. For example, CareerBuilder awarded employees $236,000 for innovative ideas in 2011 and USAA offers $10,000 tuition reimbursement per year. At Commonwealth Financial network staffers get free stay at chairman's vacation home and Quicken Loans
gives IT staffers 4 hours a week for personal tech projects.
34030779
submission
cweditor writes:
ESRI formally unveiled organizational subscriptions for ArcGIS online, in beta since December. ArcGIS online now lets you turn data into a map service with or without a GIS server and adds tools for application development, including both native and HTML 5 support for Android and iOS. Free personal, non-commercial ArcGIS Online accounts continue, but only let you use map services, not create them, and don't include app dev tools.
31068303
submission
Lucas123 writes:
IT jobs are booming, according to a just-released biennial report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on employment projections. Demand for software developers will be the strongest in over the next eight years, with increases ranging from 28% to 32%, depending on the type of software development. Database admins are running a close second with 31% and network & computer sysadmins are in third with 28% job growth. For IT managers, employment is projected to increase 18% by 55,800 jobs to 363,700 jobs by 2020. The median pay for IT managers in 2010 was $115,780, database admins made an median $73,490.
31067821
submission
bonch writes:
Figures in court documents filed as part of a settlement with Oracle suggest Google generated only $550 million in Android revenue since 2008. According to the numbers, which were derived from figures offered by Google as part of a damages offer to Oracle, Google receives just over $10 per Android handset annually. Google's presence on iOS was much more lucrative, generating four times a much revenue--though it may not last, as Apple is working to replace its use of Google Maps.
31067643
submission
sackbut writes:
From the "This is obvious" department:
From the story: "Psychologists led by Laurent Begue at the Pierre-Mendes France University in the southeastern city of Grenoble carried out an unusual experiment in a local bar and then in laboratory conditions. In the first stage, 19 drinkers, two-thirds of them men, were asked to assess their attractiveness on a scale of one to seven. Their alcohol levels were measured by a breathalyser, and true to form, the higher the amount of booze that had been drunk, the rosier the self-assessment."
The interesting second part of the experiment demonstrated that even thinking you had drank alcohol (as a placebo) was enough to inflate the subjects attractiveness in their eyes
So beer goggles are a two way street.
