devjoe - Slashdot User

How Experienced And Novice Programmers See Code 238

Posted by Unknown Lamer on Wednesday December 19, 2012 @02:50PM from the m-x-run-direct-neural-interface dept.

Esther Schindler writes "We always talk about how programmers improve their skill by reading others' code. But the newbies aren't going to be as good at even doing that, when they start. There's some cool research underway, using eye tracking to compare how an experienced programmer looks at code compared to a novice. Seems to be early days, but worth a nod and a smile." Reader Necroman points out that if the above link is unreachable, try this one. The videos are also available on YouTube: Expert, Novice.

Comment Re:The Alleged Decoded Message (Score 1) 158

by devjoe on Monday December 17, 2012 @09:35AM (#42313285) Attached to: WW2 Pigeon Code Decrypted By Canadian?

Maybe. But in using one-time pads with codes like this there needs to be something to indicate WHICH one-time pad was used. Other codes are known to do something similar. For example, Enigma had initial rotor settings in combination with other agreed-upon global daily settings, and these were encoded (using agreed-upon settings) twice at the start of each message. Here, perhaps AOAKN indicates which one-time pad was used, and it is repeated at the start and end of the message to allow the message to be decipherable (assuming possession of the key) to the extent available if it is damaged and only part of the message is received. The number 27 probably indicates the total number of 5-letter blocks in the message, including AOAKN both times, which helps determine where to start in the key if only the end of the message is recovered. It's not clear what 1525/6 indicates.

Drilling Begins At Lake Hidden Beneath Antarctic 131

Posted by timothy on Thursday December 13, 2012 @06:49PM from the new-places-to-advertise dept.

New submitter stonetony writes with this excerpt from the BBC: "A team of 12 scientists and engineers has begun work at remote Lake Ellsworth. They are using a high-pressure hose and sterilised water at near boiling point to blast a passage through more than two miles of ice. The aim is to analyse ice waters isolated for up to 500,000 years. The team of 12 scientists and engineers is using sterilised water at near boiling point to blast a passage through the ice to waters isolated for up to half a million years. The process of opening a bore-hole is expected to last five days and will be followed by a rapid sampling operation before the ice refreezes."

Comment Re:Terrible summary (Score 1) 221

by devjoe on Wednesday December 12, 2012 @05:07PM (#42265317) Attached to: Vector Vengeance: British Claim They Can Kill the Pixel Within Five Years

They're not "getting rid of pixels," since you'll still have pixels on your monitor and your graphics card will still buffer what it's drawing to the screen.

Vector monitors to the rescue!

And since this is only for a video format, we'll also need to bring back Display Postscript for our user interface elements!

How Peer1 Survived Sandy 130

Posted by Soulskill on Friday December 07, 2012 @11:56AM from the lots-of-inflatable-rafts dept.

Nerval's Lobster writes "When hurricane Sandy knocked out the electricity in lower Manhattan, data-center operator Peer1 took extreme measures to keep its servers humming, assembling a bucket brigade that carried diesel fuel up several flights of stairs. Ted Smith, senior vice president of operations for Peer1, talks about the decisions made as the floodwaters rose and the main generators went offline, as well as the changes his company has made in the aftermath of the storm. He said, 'When the water got to a point that it had flooded the infrastructure and the basement, we were then operating under the reserves the building had on the roof, and our own storage tanks. Literally, at that point we had to do calculations as to how long we could run. And we believed we had enough diesel fuel—between what is in the building, and in our tanks, to about 9 AM the following day. ... You know the bucket brigade—it’s something I’ve never asked the team to do. If you think about what that was at that time, you’re talking about carrying fuel up 17 flights, in total darkness, throughout a whole evening. We had informed our data center manager that we were shutting down, but he kind of took on it himself to say, ‘Not on my watch.’ And he organized himself, got a temporary solution and then more customers jumped in. And at peak I think we had about 30 people helping.'"

Original Batmobile To Be Auctioned For the First Time Ever 51

Posted by Unknown Lamer on Wednesday December 05, 2012 @11:15AM from the almost-as-cool-as-the-pt-cruiser dept.

Zothecula writes "In the past few years, not only has the Corvette-like Batmobile from Batman Returns been put up for auction, but a jet-powered replica of that same style of Batmobile has also been created. A drivable copy of the Dark Knight-era Tumbler has likewise been built, along with a working replica of the associated Bat Pod motorcycle. For many people, however, the only 'true' Batmobile is the original version driven by Adam West in the 1960s TV series – and it's about to be put on the auction block, for the first time ever."

Cyber Monday and Amazon's Online Dominance 174

Posted by samzenpus on Monday November 26, 2012 @01:03PM from the king-of-the-cyber-hill dept.

sturgeon writes "A report out this morning pegs Amazon with a whopping 14% share of all daily Internet users — almost twice the nearest competitor (Ebay). And this number does not include all shopping sites absorbed by the growing Amazon empire. The original report has interesting graphics comparing Amazon to other retailers like Best Buy."

Submission + - Mysterious substance found in human brain

Submitted by

Velcroman1

on Wednesday November 21, 2012 @03:14PM

Velcroman1 writes: "A mysterious molecule that turns people into modern-day Rip Van Winkles has been discovered in the brain, and it may be responsible for a rare disorder that has some sufferers sleeping more than 70 hours a week. The strange molecule, called a "somnogen," is believed to be at the root of the sleeping disorder, which in some cases also makes it difficult for people to wake up from their marathon sleep sessions. The somongen is made up of amino acids, just like a protein, and may keep sufferers bedridden for years, said David Rye, professor of neurology at Emory University School of Medicine and director of research for Emory Healthcare’s Sleep Center Clinic. “They feel as if they’re walking around in a fog – physically, but not mentally awake,” Rye said."

Comment 40 million too high? (Score 3, Insightful) 55

by devjoe on Wednesday November 21, 2012 @01:17PM (#42057123) Attached to: Vendors Sue Dutch Government Over Media Levies

In the US the entertainment industry attributes losses of more 40 million to a single file-sharer.

Google's Server Cooling Plan Produces 4ft Alligator 79

Posted by Unknown Lamer on Wednesday November 14, 2012 @11:33AM from the who-doesn't-have-a-moat-dragon dept.

concealment writes "In addition to potentially keeping Google's search and email programs from overheating, the pond also has become home to plenty of algae, which meant Google had to stock it with fish. And since this is the Lowcountry, the food chain didn't stop there. 'So we now have a 4-foot alligator that has taken up residence in our pond as well,' Kava said, clearly amused. He added that government experts have said it'll have to be removed once it grows to six feet long."

Samsung Accuses Foreman Hogan of Misrepresentation 208

Posted by Unknown Lamer on Wednesday November 14, 2012 @11:11AM from the couldn't-keep-quiet dept.

sfcrazy writes "Samsung is clearly accusing Hogan in its recent filing of influencing the jury in favor of Apple. Samsung said in its filing: 'Mr. Hogan's own statements to the media suffice if such a showing is required. Once inside the jury room, Mr. Hogan acted as a "de facto technical expert" who touted his high-tech experience to bring the divided jury together. Contrary to this Court's instructions, he told other jurors incorrectly that an accused device infringes a utility patent unless it is "entirely different"; that a prior art reference could not be invalidating unless that reference was "interchangeable"; and that invalidating prior art must be currently in use. He thus failed "to listen to the evidence, not to consider extrinsic facts, [and] to follow the judge's instructions."'"

Intel Details Eight-Core Poulson Itanium Processor 102

Posted by Soulskill on Friday November 09, 2012 @01:01PM from the here's-a-thing-that-exists dept.

MojoKid writes "Intel has unveiled details of their new Itanium 9500 family, codenamed Poulson, and the new CPU appears to be the most significant refresh Intel has ever done to the Itanium architecture. Moving from 65nm to 32nm technology substantially reduces power consumption and increases clock speeds, but Intel has also overhauled virtually every aspect of the CPU. Poulson can issue 11 instructions per cycle compared to the previous generation Itanium's six. It adds execution units and re-balances those units to favor server workloads over HPC and workstation capabilities. Its multi-threading capabilities have been overhauled and it uses faster QPI links between CPU cores. The L3 cache design has also changed. Previous Itanium 9300 processors had a dedicated L3 cache for each core. Poulson, in contrast, has a unified L3 that's attached to all its cores by a common ring bus. All told, the new architecture is claimed to offer more than twice the performance of the previous generation Itanium."

Foxconn Sees New Source of Cheap Labor: The United States 430

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday November 08, 2012 @11:10PM from the times-they-are-a-changing dept.

hackingbear writes "Foxconn is planning to build manufacturing plants in the U.S., probably in cites such as Detroit and Los Angeles. 'Since the manufacturing of Apple's products is rather complicated, the market watchers expect the rumored plants to focus on LCD TV production, which can be highly automated and easier.' Foxconn chairman Terry Guo, at a recent public event, noted that the company is planning a training program for US-based engineers, bringing them to Taiwan or China to learn the processes of product design and manufacturing."

Skype Hands Teenager's Information To Private Firm 214

Posted by Unknown Lamer on Tuesday November 06, 2012 @04:21AM from the but-we-were-friends dept.

New submitter andrew3 writes "Skype has allegedly handed the information of a 16-year-old boy to a security firm. The information was later handed over to Dutch law enforcement. No court order was served for the disclosure. The teenager was suspected of being part of a DDoS packet flood as a part of the Anonymous 'Operation Payback'." According to the article, Skype voluntarily disclosed the information to the third party firm without any kind of police order, possibly violating a few privacy laws and their own policies.

PayPal, Symantec Hacked In Anonymous November 5 Hacking Spree 101

Posted by samzenpus on Monday November 05, 2012 @10:35AM from the history-repeating dept.

New submitter Journe writes "Anonymous claims to have begun a hacking spree for the 5th of November. In their spree, they've laid waste to several Australian Government sites, and, for some reason, the site of Saturday Night Live. They also claim to have leaked VMware source code, along with user and employee info from Paypal and Symantec. There's some argument however that Anonymous is falsely taking claim for Symantec."

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