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Intel

Intel Threatens To Revoke AMD's x86 License 476

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the toddlers-fighting-over-a-toy dept.
theraindog writes "AMD's former manufacturing division opened for business last week as GlobalFoundries, but the spin-off may run afoul of AMD's 2001 cross-licensing agreement with Intel. Indeed, Intel has formally accused AMD of violating the agreement, and threatened to terminate the company's licenses in 60 days if a resolution is not found. Intel contends that GlobalFoundries is not a subsidiary of AMD, and thus is not covered by the licensing agreement. AMD has fired back, insisting that it has done nothing wrong, and that Intel's threat constitutes a violation of the deal. At stake is not only AMD's ability to build processors that use Intel's x86 technology, but also Intel's ability to use AMD's x86-64 tech in its CPUs."
Math

Data Mining Moves To Human Resources 262

Posted by Soulskill from the incrementing-your-workplace-post-count dept.
theodp writes "Just when you thought annual reviews couldn't get worse, BusinessWeek reports that HR departments at companies like Microsoft and IBM are starting to use mathematical analysis to determine the value of each employee. At an undisclosed Internet company, analysis of (non-verbal) communications was used to produce a circle to represent each employee — those determined to generate or pass along valuable info were portrayed as large and dark-colored circles ('thought leaders' and 'networked curators'), while those with small and pale circles were written off as not adding a hell of a lot. 'You have to bring the same rigor you bring to operations and finance to the analysis of people,' explains Microsoft's Rupert Bader. Hey, who could argue with what Quants did for finance?"
Education

Women Skip Math/Science Careers To Have Families 616

Posted by kdawson from the mommy-track dept.
hessian notes a Cornell survey, published in the Psychological Bulletin, of 35 years of sociological studies that concludes that women tend to choose non-math-intensive fields for their careers not because they lack mathematical ability, but because they want flexibility to raise children or prefer less math-intensive fields of science. "'A major reason explaining why women are underrepresented not only in math-intensive fields but also in senior leadership positions in most fields is that many women choose to have children, and the timing of child rearing coincides with the most demanding periods of their career, such as trying to get tenure or working exorbitant hours to get promoted,' said lead author Stephen J. Ceci... The authors concluded that hormonal, brain, and other biological sex differences were not primary factors in explaining why women were underrepresented in science careers, and that studies on social and cultural effects were inconsistent and inconclusive. They also reported that although 'institutional barriers and discrimination exist, these influences still cannot explain why women are not entering or staying in STEM careers,' said Ceci."
United States

DHS To Use Body Odor As a Lie Detector 206

Posted by samzenpus from the we-can-smell-the-truth dept.
The US Department of Homeland Security is studying lies, damned lies, and smells. They hope to prove that human body odor could be used to tell when people are lying. The department says they are already "conducting experiments in deceptive behavior and collecting human odor samples" and that the research it hopes to fund "will consist primarily of the analysis and study of the human odor samples collected to determine if a deception indicator can be found."
Games

Dealing With Fairness and Balance In Video Games 192

Posted by Soulskill from the it's-balanced-when-i-always-win dept.
MarkN writes "Video games are subject to a number of balance issues from which traditional games have largely stayed free. It can be hard finding players of comparable skill-level to create even match-ups, diverse gameplay options can quickly become irrelevant if someone finds a broken feature that beats everything else, and some online games make your ability to play competitively a question of how much time and money you've invested in a game, rather than the skill you possess. In this article, I talk about some of the issues relating to fairness and balance in games, in terms of the factors and strategies under the player's control, the game's role in potentially handicapping players, and the role a community of gamers plays in setting standards for how games are to be played. What are your thoughts on managing a 'fair and balanced' gaming experience?"
Censorship

Latest World of Warcraft Expansion Blocked In China 165

Posted by Soulskill from the mourn-the-farmers dept.
The Opposable Thumbs blog reports that World of Warcraft's most recent expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, is not being allowed into the Chinese market. The Escapist brings further details, saying, "According to an insider, two specific shortcomings included the presence of skeleton characters and a 'city raid.' Nor did the submitted version contain the starting area for the game's new Death Knight class." The Chinese version of World of Warcraft has been modified in the past to remove skeletons and zombies.
United States

Microsoft Executive Tapped For Top DHS Cyber Post 138

Posted by samzenpus from the reboot-to-be-safe dept.
krebsatwpost writes "The Department of Homeland Security has named Microsoft's 'chief trustworthy infrastructure strategist' Phil Reitinger to be its top cyber security official. Many in the security industry praised him as a smart pick, but said he will need to confront a culture of political infighting and leadership failures at DHS. From the story: 'Reitinger comes to the position with cyber experience in both the public and private sectors. Prior to joining Microsoft in 2003, he was executive director of the Defense Department's Computer Forensics Lab. Before that, he was deputy chief of the Justice Department's Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property section, where he worked under Scott Charney, who is currently corporate vice president for trustworthy computing at Microsoft.'"
Government

VoIP Legal Status Worldwide? 180

Posted by samzenpus from the free-for-all dept.
Cigarra writes "There was much public debate going on during the last several months here in Paraguay, regarding the 'liberation of Internet,' that is, the lifting of the restriction on ISPs to connect directly to international carriers. Up until this week, they were forced to hire wholesale service from the State run telco, Copaco. During the last month, when the new regulation was almost ready, the real reason supporting the monopoly made it to the headlines: Copaco would fight for the monopoly, fearing VoIP based telephony. Finally, the regulator Conatel resolved today to end the monopoly, but a ruling on VoIP legal status was postponed for 'further study.' I guess this kind of 'problem' arose almost everywhere else in the world, so I ask the international slashdotters crowd: what is VoIP's legal status in your country / state / region? How well did incumbent telcos adapt to it, and overall, just how disruptive was this technology to established operators?"
Power

New Electrode Lets Batteries Charge In 10 Seconds 348

Posted by samzenpus from the greased-electricity dept.
Al writes "A new lithium-ion electrode allows batteries to be charged and discharged in 10 seconds flat. Developed by Gerbrand Ceder, a professor of materials science at MIT, it could be particularly useful where rapid power bursts are needed, such as for hybrid cars, but also for portable electronic devices. In testing, batteries incorporating the electrodes discharged in just 10 seconds. In comparison, the best high-power lithium-ion batteries today discharge in a minute and a half, and conventional lithium-ion batteries, such as those found in laptops, can take hours to discharge. The new high rate electrode, the researchers calculate, would allow a one-liter battery based on the material to deliver 25,000 watts, or enough power for about 20 vacuum cleaners."
Announcements

Fermilab Not Dead Yet, Discovers Rare Single Top Quark 194

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the emphasis-on-the-operating dept.
Several sources are reporting that in spite of LHC hype, Fermilab's Tevatron has produced another feat for scientific discovery. Currently the world's most powerful operating particle accelerator, the Tevatron has allowed researchers to observe a rare single Top Quark. "Previously, top quarks had only been observed when produced by the strong nuclear force. That interaction leads to the production of pairs of top quarks. The production of single top quarks, which involves the weak nuclear force and is harder to identify experimentally, has now been observed, almost 14 years to the day of the top quark discovery in 1995."

Comment Re:Why Authentication is a good idea! (Score 1) 256

by Zymergy (#27055941) Attached to: Diebold Election Audit Logs Defective
I have read much in the 'media' about voter disenfranchisement FUD, because of the *onerous burdens* associated with obtaining an "unaffordable" authenticated ID Card... (photo or other biometric authentication)
I am not buying that it is too expensive. What about the costs a voter incurs to miss work to go vote? What about the gas used to drive the voter to the voting booth? It is all the same. (Obviously missed work time is much less money than the cost of a state-issued photo ID card, even at minimum-wage rates)...

That being said, Biometric/Photo ID Cards should be free to eligible voters (once per election cycle) who go to the State tag office and request one.
The State should pay for at least one Authenticated Photo ID every four years. This is the 21 Century People!
Have the State issue free voting Photo IDs as part of the election process if the voter does not wish to purchase a passport or Photo Driver's License/Photo ID. (And passports would be ideal, as they list your citizenship and thus your eligibility to vote, assuming you are not a felon...)

I agree with the sovereignty of State's Rights, but for FEDERAL elections, we need solid uniform standards and a way to verify that voting fraud is not occurring.
It is difficult to believe that my state WILL NOT verify it is me when I go vote. ? There ARE ways to allow me to authenticate my SECRET vote that are very hard to tamper with...? I require a "Secure" web session and a Federally-assigned PIN number to even view the balance on my Student Loans!... why not to verify my voting choices?
-If I need a State or Federally-Issued Photo ID to cash an Unemployment/Welfare/Social Security/Retirement/Military/IRS Refund Check at a US bank (don't forget my fingerprint), why NOT to vote here?

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