Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - Can Computers Beat the Game of Go?

Submitted by the_newsbeagle
the_newsbeagle writes: Artificial intelligence programs seem to eventually beat humans at every game we've taught them to play: checkers, chess, Jeopardy, etc. But the ancient game of Go remains a challenge, and lately there's been a lot of attention paid to the AI researchers trying to master it. Wired recently described the tense man vs machine Go matches, and IEEE Spectrum explains the statistics-based algorithm that may soon allow Go programs to triumph over human grandmasters.

Submission + - 2600 Distributor Withholds Money, Magazine Future in Limbo (2600.com) 1

Submitted by themusicgod1
themusicgod1 writes: According to 2600, their distributor (Previously known as "Source Interlink", now recently renamed to "TEN: The Enthusiast Network") has decided to consolidate its resources and is keeping the money retailers paid for the last two issues of the quarterly magazine. 2600, in the meanwhile, is still busy trying to organize the upcoming HOPE X conference. However, according to the link: In the worst case scenario, being ripped off at this level would make it almost impossible for us to continue publishing. We would have to make a lot of painful choices and cut back on things for no reason other than some outside company's mismanagement. Our readers have supported both our print and digital publications and we've been doing quite well overall.

Submission + - National Science Foundation rejects proposal to teach undergrads how to code (software-carpentry.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Greg Wilson from Software Carpentry blogged about the NSF's rejection of their proposal to include software training for undergraduate students.
The reason for the rejection seems to be due to the perception that "most undergraduates only use GUIs and cannot navigate the terminal to save their lives."

Greg says, "The panel did not connect the results from years of Software Carpentry workshops and the expected impact of this effort. This indicates that the proposal did not effectively communicate how well our experience to date has laid the groundwork for efforts like this."

Submission + - HDMI 2.0 reaches the stores, delivers 4K UHD but not totally nor anything else. (technedigitale.com)

Submitted by tafinho
tafinho writes: Although HDMI 2.0 was released in September last year, first TVs with HDMI 2.0 have only reached the market over the last few weeks. This meant finally people can enjoy their 4K Ultra Super Hyper High Def content from something into a TV. Unfortunately, there aren't as many devices outputting 4K content. This article compares what HDMI 2.0 promised, what it really delivers, and what about that HDMI 1.4 cable compatibility, or not...

Submission + - Walkmouse is an Elegant, Motorised Omni-Directional Treadmill Built for VR (roadtovr.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Road to VR take a look at a new omni-direction treadmill with no harness that lets you move untethered through a virtual environment.

"The device houses 100s of motorised spirals which detect traction and respond by spinning under your feet to simulate the ground moving underneath them. At the same time, the unit reads input data from your actions which can be fed into an application or game experience."

Submission + - Should Billionaire-Backed Code.org Pay Its Interns?

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Code.org's Corporate and Founding Donors page reads like a Who's Who of the world's wealthiest corporations and individuals. But a job posting entitled Marketing / Communications Intern (Seattle only, part-time, unpaid, Sept-Dec) (screenshot) makes it clear that no portion of the tax-deductible donations will trickle down to the successful candidate, who will be required to put in an unpaid 10-20 hours/week "under pressure" in a "fast-paced environment" for four months "assisting marketing efforts for December’s global Hour of Code campaign, coordinating prize packages, managing partner commitments and events in databases and researching media prospects." So, does this count as one of the "high-paying jobs" provided by the computing revolution that Code.org supporters told California Governor Jerry Brown about last May in a letter touting the Hour of Code? Perhaps Code.org is just trying to be frugal — after all, it's requiring K-12 teachers from school districts in Chicago, New York City, Boston, and Seattle to report to the presumably rent-free offices of Corporate Donors Google, Microsoft, and Amazon to be re-educated on how Computer Science should be taught.

Submission + - Crowdsourcing a Time Capsule to send to Mars (timecapsuletomars.com)

Submitted by braindrainbahrain
braindrainbahrain writes: In what is claimed to be (and probably is) the largest crowdsourced project ever, a group of students, advisors, and industry sponsors are planning to send a "time capsule" to Mars by charging 99 cents for each person that wants to upload a file, be it a photo, text, or what have you, to their website. They need to raise $25 million to pull this off (that's a lot of files!). The uploaded files will be loaded onto a small form factor satellite which will be launched to land on Mars and (hopefully) be found by explorers sometime in the future.

Submission + - Google buys satellite imaging company Skybox for $500 million (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by mpicpp
mpicpp writes: Google has just acquired satellite imaging company Skybox for a cool half-billion dollars.

According to Inc. magazine, the Mountain View startup launched its first “minibar-sized” satellite into orbit in November 2013 and will launch eight more by the end of 2015. It plans to have 24 satellites in its constellation by 2018. With Google’s backing, though, that timeline could get accelerated.

Skybox is unique because it’s one of the rare companies to provide high-resolution photography from space. The company wants to use computer analytics to unlock valuable data from satellite images—potentially worth a lot of money to future clients.

Submission + - New "Acandescent" Light Bulbs to Challenge LEDs and CFLs (finallybulbs.com)

Submitted by braindrainbahrain
braindrainbahrain writes: An outfit in Massachusetts is poise to offer — no, make that "is offering" — consumer light bulbs based on induction technology, challenging the market share of LED and CFL light bulbs. Induction lighting, long used in industrial applications, was invented by none other than Nikola Tesla, and said Massachusetts company has miniaturized the technology enough to fit an implementation in a standard light bulb size.

Comment Understanding Comics (Score 1) 165

by braindrainbahrain (#47203701) Attached to: Recommendations For Classic Superhero Comic Collections?

Rather than read what somebody think is a classic, why don't you strive to get a better understanding of the medium of comics in general? For that, there is no better resource than Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. It's not a book about comics, it is a comic about comics!

That being said, I haven't read any superhero stuff since I was 12, but in my ripe old age, I still enjoy Prince Valiant

Slashdot Top Deals

For God's sake, stop researching for a while and begin to think!

Close