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Schmidt On Why Tax Avoidance is Good, Robot Workers, and Google Fiber 780

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday December 13, 2012 @09:06AM from the thats-a-lot-for-one-day dept.

Bruce66423 writes "Eric Schmidt said that a £2.5 billion tax avoidance 'is called capitalism' and seems totally unrepentant. He added, 'I am very proud of the structure that we set up. We did it based on the incentives that the governments offered us to operate.' One must admit to being impressed by his honesty." Schmidt also says that if you want a job in the future you'll have to learn to "outrace the robots," and that Google Fiber is the most interesting project they have going.

Submission + - What Happened To Google+?

Submitted by SquarePixel on Friday December 07, 2012 @02:13PM

SquarePixel writes: Google's own social network Google+ was supposed to the holy grail of social networking and Facebook replacement. It has however changed nothing in the social network game and has become "just-an-another-google-property". Why has Google+ failed to take off and are you using Facebook or Google?

Submission + - Your Own Private Google: The Quest for an Open Source Search Engine (wired.com)

Submitted by

concealment

on Friday December 07, 2012 @01:10PM

concealment writes: "The company guards its search platform like the crown jewels. It’s not about to release a paper describing how it all works, so producing an open source clone is more difficult. But there are options, and the push toward open source versions of the Google search engine has gathered some steam in recent months, with the arrival of a new company called ElasticSearch.

These projects aren’t trying to compete with Google’s public search engine — the one you use every day. They’re trying to compete with Google’s search appliance and other products that help enterprises — i.e., big businesses — find stuff inside their own private networks."

Submission + - Washington Post (& Warren Buffet-owned local newspapers) installing Paywalls (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by McGruber on Friday December 07, 2012 @11:12AM

McGruber writes: The Washington Post reports (http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/washington-post-reportedly-considering-adding-a-paywall-in-2013/2012/12/06/0630b2f4-3ff4-11e2-ae43-cf491b837f7b_story.html) that the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com) and local newspapers owned by Warren Buffet, are all planning to follow the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com) and install metered paywalls.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: How to catch Photoshop plagiarism 4

Submitted by jemenake on Tuesday November 13, 2012 @11:05AM

jemenake writes: A friend of mine teaches electronic media (Photoshop, Premiere, etc.) at a local high-school. Right now, they're doing Photoshop, and each chapter in the book starts with an "end result" file which shows what they're going to construct in that chapter, and then, given the basic graphical assets (background textures, photos, etc.), the students need to duplicate the same look in the final-result file.

The problem, of course, is that some students just grab the final-result file and rename it and turn it in. Some are a little less brazen and they rename a few layers, maybe alter the colors on a few images, etc. So, it becomes time-consuming for her to open each file alongside the final-result file to see if it's "too perfect".

When I first discovered that she was doing this, my first reaction was that there's got to be some automated way of catching the cheaters. Of course, my first idea of just doing MD5 hashes of each file won't work, since most kids alter the file a little bit.

A second idea I had was to alter the final-result file in a way that isn't obvious, like removing someone's shoelace, mis-spelling a word in the background, or removing/adding some dust-specks. (I know map publishers and music transcribers use this trick to catch copiers). But this still requires that she look for the alteration in each file. I'd think that Photoshop, after all these years, would have some kind of scripting language which also supports some digital watermarking, but I've just never dabbled in that realm.

And, of course, I guess another solution would be for her to not provide the end-result file in Photoshop format, but to export it as a flat image. But I'm still intrigued by the notion of being able to "fuzzily" compare two photoshop files or images to find the ones which are too similar in certain aspects (color histograms, where the edges are, level of noise, whatever).

Anybody else have any clever ideas for this?

Submission + - Here come the humanoids. There go U.S. jobs (cnet.com) 1

Submitted by

concealment

on Tuesday November 13, 2012 @09:09AM

concealment writes: "Rethink Robotics founder Rodney Brooks took to the stage at the Techonomy conference here to talk about the wonders of his new robot, Baxter, which is designed to work on factory floors doing dull and necessary tasks. He costs just $25,000 and works for what amounts to $4 an hour.

Baxter is a step forward in robotics with mass potential. It has a face and sensors to tell it when people are near. It's about as close to a humanoid robot as we can get, and Brooks said it's just the beginning.

"Within 10 years, we're going to see humanoid robots," said Brooks, who was a co-founder of iRobot, maker of iRoomba, the vacuum cleaner robot."

Submission + - Mark Cuban: Facebook Is Driving Away Brands - Starting With Mine (readwrite.com)

Submitted by

concealment

on Tuesday November 13, 2012 @08:50AM

concealment writes: "Tech billionaire and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban says he is fed up with Facebook and will take his business elsewhere. He's sick of getting hit with huge fees to send messages to his team's fans and followers.

Two weeks ago Cuban tweeted out a screen grab of an offer he'd received from Facebook. The social network wanted to charge him $3,000 to reach 1 million people. Along with the screen grab, Cuban wrote, "FB is blowing it? This is the first step. The Mavs are considering moving to Tumblr or to new MySpace as primary site.""

Submission + - Windows Head Leaves Microsoft

Submitted by

Hugh Pickens writes

on Tuesday November 13, 2012 @05:52AM

Hugh Pickens writes writes: "The Guardian reports that in a shocking move move that comes just two weeks after the launch of Windows 8, Steven Sinofsky, the head of the Windows division at Microsoft is to leave the company. Sinofsky had been at the company for 23 years and had been seen by some as a future chief executive of the software giant but according to reports, there had been growing executive friction between Sinofsky and other top executives at the company. "This is shocking news. This is very surprising," says Brendan Barnicle, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities. "Like a lot of people, I thought Sinofsky was in line to potentially be Ballmer's successor." Sinofsky's place will be taken by Julie Larson-Green, another Windows executive who has been at Microsoft nearly as long as Sinofsky – joining in 1993 – and will be in charge of hardware and software for Windows. "If this had happened before Windows 8 shipped, I would have worried about potential delays," says Al Hilwa, program director for application software at the research company IDC. "The strategy of folding PC, tablet, phone and set-top into a single platform and ecosystem is the right strategy, and likely will continue to be the strategy of record.""

Submission + - What is the best way to deal with a team unwilling to do Agile 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 13, 2012 @05:25AM

An anonymous reader writes: I recently started a new job as a developer (non-lead) at a decently well-known software shop that has massive, worldwide corporation as a client. Most work for this client before I joined was a very disorganized form of Waterfall, and now the client is cracking the whip and has demanded that we all convert over to Agile (scrum). I am one of two people on my team that have experience with Agile, and although it's not my job, I've tried to lead the effort in establishing scrum roles, meetings, and backlogs, but have been thwarted at every step by managers on my side and the client side that don't seem to know or care about learning what they're doing, nor any real oversight from top managers that things are a complete disaster. I don't want to give up and search for another job, but I hate the disorganization and chaos that everyday brings. Should I move on or try to fight the good fight?

Submission + - Flash Player Update Forces Installation of Google Toolbar (adobe.com) 4

Submitted by

breakpoint8088

on Tuesday November 13, 2012 @05:04AM

breakpoint8088 writes: "Flash users who don't want the Google Toolbar should avoid updating Flash, at least on 64-bit Windows 7. I finally relented and allowed Adobe Flash to update on my Windows 7 box, and my security solution caught it trying to install the Google Toolbar-- without asking. Other people are seeing this as well. Adobe has not yet commented."

Submission + - Malware starts using the mouse to hide itself (geek.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 30, 2012 @08:37AM

An anonymous reader writes: Security vendors have to analyze and detect millions of potential threats every year. However, you can’t analyze all potential threats by hand, so automated threat analysis systems are employed. These typically look at suspicious files in a virtual machine and test each one quickly to see if it poses a threat.

The malware developers know such systems exist and have therefore employed countermeasures to try and avoid detection. Symantec has discovered that some malware won’t start running unless it detects activity from the mouse. Why would malware writers do this? Mouse activity is done by a user, and in an automated threat analysis system a user isn’t present and therefore no mouse activity is required.

Some malware has also been found to go to sleep for several minutes and then wait several more minutes once active before infiltrating a system. The reason for this is a typical automated threat analysis system looks at individual files very quickly, so waiting to execute helps ensure the malware is on a real system and not a virtual test environment.

Submission + - EFF: Ubuntu v12.10 A Major Privacy Problem (eff.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 30, 2012 @05:13AM

An anonymous reader writes: Ubuntu version 10.12 was released and it includes a whole range of new features and updates. However, EFF demands that Ubuntu should disable "online search results" by default. Users should be able to install Ubuntu and immediately start using it without having to worry about leaking search queries or sending potentially private information to third party companies such as Amazon, BBC, Facebook, and Twitter. Let us make sure that you respect your users' privacy and security.

Submission + - House GOP Voted To Cut Disaster Relief In Order To Preserve Military Spending (thinkprogress.org)

Submitted by dishorely040 on Tuesday October 30, 2012 @03:16AM

dishorely040 writes: As part of their bill to void the military spending cuts included in the Budget Control Act — which was passed as a result of 2011?s GOP inspired debt ceiling standoff — House Republicans proposed eliminating a program that helps states and localities respond to disasters like hurricanes.

Submission + - Major Apple shakeup - Forstall out; iOS executive fired for maps debacle? (9to5mac.com) 1

Submitted by noh8rz10 on Monday October 29, 2012 @05:29PM

noh8rz10 writes: Wow, just wow. Apple fires Scott Forstall, who grew iOS from its inception. Rumors say its the Maps, and problems with Siri as well. Jony Ive taking a larger human interface role, which will probably kill the skeumorphic interfaces that he hates. Browett out as well as the retail head; he never won the trust of the community. What does such a major shakeup say about Tim Cook's leadership? Decisive action, or flip-flopping?

Dolphins Can Sleep One-half of Their Brain At a Time Say Researchers 139

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday October 18, 2012 @07:35PM from the we-don't-need-no-stinking-sleep dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Looks like the evolution in multi-core computing is something nature has already figured out. Dolphins will sleep one core while the other remains vigilant, running background tasks necessary for survival. From the article: 'The scientists wrote: "From an anthropomorphic viewpoint, the ability of the dolphin to continuously monitor its environment for days without interruption seems extreme. However, the biological, sensory and cognitive ecology of these animals is relatively unique and demanding. If dolphins sleep like terrestrial animals, they might drown. If dolphins fail to maintain vigilance, they become susceptible to predation. As a result, the apparent 'extreme' capabilities these animals possess are likely to be quite normal, unspectacular, and necessary for survival from the dolphin's perspective."'"

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