danelav - Slashdot User

Nobel Prize Winning Physicist As Energy Secretary 498

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday December 11, 2008 @07:57AM from the the-man-for-the-job dept.

bledri writes "Officials close to the Obama transition team say that Physics Nobel Laureate Steven Chu is the likely candidate for Energy Secretary. Some are worried that Chu is not politically savvy enough, but I'm hopeful that a scientist will base policy on evidence. Discuss among yourselves."

Comment Use a Real-World Language (Score 1) 962

by danelav on Wednesday December 10, 2008 @07:54PM (#26067903) Attached to: Best Introduction To Programming For Bright 11-14-Year-Olds?

My CS program started us in Pascal, and I would vote against doing that. I'm a Java programmer now, so of course I'm biased in that direction, but I believe Java, C#, C (if you're brave), or any of the web scripting languages would be a better choice than Pascal.

Economic Crisis Will Eliminate Open Source 753

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday October 22, 2008 @10:53AM from the why-so-gloomy dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The economic crisis will ultimately eliminate open source projects and the 'Web 2.0 free economy,' says Andrew Keen, author of The Cult of the Amateur. Along with the economic downturn and record job loss, he says, we will see the elimination of projects including Wikipedia, CNN's iReport, and much of the blogosphere. Instead of users offering their services 'for free,' he says, we're about to see a 'sharp cultural shift in our attitude toward the economic value of our labor' and a rise of online media businesses that reward their contributors with cash. Companies that will survive, he says, include Hulu, iTunes, and Mahalo. 'The hungry and cold unemployed masses aren't going to continue giving away their intellectual labor on the Internet in the speculative hope that they might get some "back end" revenue,' says Keen."

A Look At Google's Newest Data Center 75

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday October 22, 2008 @10:11AM from the hey-google-gimme-a-tour dept.

miller60 writes "Google doesn't allow the public inside its secret data centers. But a recent groundbreaking event at the company's new South Carolina data center provided glimpses of the exterior of the facility, which shows a design that has evolved since Google's Oregon data center made front page news. A new feature: an open, lighted area resembling a parking deck (containers?). Still missing: moats filled with sharks with friggin' laser beams on their head."

New Gadget Blocks 'Spam' Phone Calls 274

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday October 22, 2008 @09:24AM from the this-doesn't-sound-right dept.

Smivs writes "The BBC report on a new gizmo that can block/filter spam phone calls. The system basically intercepts all calls. If it recognizes them as a friend or a member of the user's family — numbers on the so-called star list created by the user — it lets them through as normal. If the caller's number is on a zap list — numbers of telemarketers or other nuisance callers — the device answers it, and all future calls from that number, with an automated message which means the phone does not ring at all. If the system doesn't recognize the caller's number, or the caller withholds their number, it asks them who they are, puts them on hold and then rings the user's phone. The user has the option of taking the call, having the system take a message, or they can reject the call and add the number to the 'zap' list. Users can add callers to their 'star' list by pressing the star button on their phone at any point during a call." So wait, they can't spam me twice? If I press a button? And if they actually show their phone number on my caller ID? What about the auto insurance scammers that hit me 10x/week?

Indian Moon Mission Launched 305

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday October 22, 2008 @08:46AM from the to-the-moon-alice dept.

hackerdownunder writes "India's maiden lunar mission (Chandrayaan-1) got off to a flying start today. Describing the launch as 'perfect and precise,' the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), G Madhavan Nair, said that it would be 14 days before the satellite would enter into lunar orbit. Chandrayaan carries eleven payloads: five designed and developed in India, three from the European Space Agency, one from Bulgaria and two from NASA."

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