DavidHOzAu - Slashdot User

Submission + - Mouse brain simulated on computer

Submitted by

atamyrat

on Saturday April 28, 2007 @06:44AM

atamyrat writes: "BBC has an article about mouse brain simulated on a Blue Gene L supercomputer. Quote: "The team, from the IBM Almaden Research Lab and the University of Nevada, ran the simulation on a BlueGene L supercomputer that had 4096 processors, each one of which used 256MB of memory. Using this machine the researchers created half a virtual mouse brain that had 8,000 neurons that had up to 6,300 synapses. The vast complexity of the simulation meant that it was only run for ten seconds at a speed ten times slower than real life — the equivalent of one second in a real mouse brain."
Article refers to this research report[PDF] titled "Towards Real-Time, Mouse-Scale Cortical Simulations""

Submission + - Google Shareholder Proposal to Resist Censorship

Submitted by buxton2k on Saturday April 28, 2007 @02:13AM

buxton2k writes: Slashdot has had plenty of stories about technology companies like Google kowtowing to repressive political regimes such as China's. I'm an (extremely) small shareholder in Google, and I looked at their proxy statement today. Most of the time, shareholders' meetings don't deal with anything other than rubber-stamping the board of directors, but Google's upcoming meeting has a interesting shareholder proposal dealing with free speech and censorship to be voted on at the May 10 meeting.

The proposal cites the UN Declaration of Human Rights and declares that "technology companies in the United States have failed to develop adequate standards by which they can conduct business with authoritarian governments while protecting human rights to freedom of speech and freedom of expression". If adopted by shareholders, it would call for management to adopt 6 minimum standards including: not storing data that can identify an individual in repressive countries; using all legal means to resist censorship; and documenting and publicizing "all cases where legally-binding censorship requests have been complied with." The proposal was submitted by the Comptroller of New York City, which owns large amounts of Google stock in City pension plans.

Is a proposal like this (assuming it ever passed) feasible to implement? Would it actually do anything to open up repressive regimes? Is this a reasonable balance between upholding liberal democracy values and doing business in dictatorships? Would it have any effect on domestic issues such as DMCA takedown orders? Most of all, as a shareholder, what is Google's board of directors' justification for recommending that shareholders vote AGAINST this proposal? If you are a Google shareholder, were you aware of this proposal, and if so, are you going to vote for or against?

Submission + - Technique to turn all blood into type 0

Submitted by davidwr on Sunday April 01, 2007 @11:54PM

davidwr writes: Is this the end of type-O blood shortages? In an article published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, researchers figured out how to make bacterial enzymes turn type-A, -B, and -AB blood into type O blood, or "universal red blood cells." From the abstract:

The enzymatic conversion processes we describe hold promise for achieving the goal of producing universal RBCs, which would improve the blood supply while enhancing the safety of clinical transfusions.
Related story.

Submission + - Australia to ban P2P

Submitted by Karl_R on Sunday April 01, 2007 @11:10PM

Karl_R writes: The guys at whirlpool.net.au have posted a story about a U-tern by the Australian Federal government.

"The federal government has shocked industry by rushing a bill through parliament that will compel ISPs to block all P2P traffic. It is a back-flip on a promise made just weeks ago that the government would move ahead with its filtering plans using PC-based parental controls, which, at the time, it argued would provide flexibility for internet users. (source whirlpool.net.au)"

Submission + - RIAA offers "Toddler settlement rate"

Submitted by

Dolda2000

on Sunday April 01, 2007 @09:03PM

Dolda2000 writes: "In their next righteous move against piracy, the RIAA now offers advance settlement to all parent of children under the age of three. FTA: "'Our goal is to make this easier for parents,' said RIAA President Cary Sherman. 'Everyone knows that in this era of increasing hard drive capacity and new digital media technologies, it is inevitable that every child in America will infringe copyright sooner or later.'""

Submission + - Small Businessman Feels Pinch of Software Patents

Submitted by Penguinisto on Saturday March 17, 2007 @09:39PM

Penguinisto writes: A few days ago, Phil Cooke, a small-time hobbyist 3D/CG programmer, was sent a Cease and Desist notice from Reyes Infografica over a small 3D/CG clothes-generating program he had sold for years (it generated clothing mesh for a figures in a CG hobbyist program known as Poser). The program has since been pulled from the maker's site, as he cannot afford to retain counsel with which to fight back. Apparently, Phil's program had collided against a software patent that Reyes filed in 2001 (the patent was filed in the US and Spain). The C&D notice, and some of the discussion surrounding it can be found a PhilC's site discussion forums. While we usually see stories about small-time patent trolls raking in huge bucks from large companies, is this an indication of a disturbing trend by larger companies using software patents to intimidate and eliminate their smaller competition? And if so, then how on Earth is this supposed to foster innovation and creativity?

Submission + - Deepwater sunk perhaps with youtube help

Submitted by

anagama

on Saturday March 17, 2007 @03:32PM

anagama writes: "You may recall some time ago a slashdot topic about Mike DeKort, an engineer from Lockheed Martin working on the Coast Guard's Deepwater project (basically, construction of new ships). He released a whistleblower video on Youtube outlining problems and cover up/apathy related to the ships under construction. Well, in the news today, looks like the Coast Guard is taking over the project and ending its contract with Lockheed Martin and Northrup Grumman. Perhaps the (digital) pen is mightier than the sword (manufacturer)."

Journal Journal: SCO says GNU doesn't have a license

Journal by Ritchie70 on Saturday March 17, 2007 @10:54AM

I was browsing SCO's website trying to figure out development tool options for SCO OpenServer 5.0.6 (I know, I know) and stumbled across this.

It describes one of the three options for OpenServer 5.0.7 as:

Submission + - Open RT project Ray-tracing algorithms available

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 17, 2007 @09:21AM

An anonymous reader writes: Ray-tracing is a technique that allowed Peter Jackson to make special effects look convincing in the Lord of the Rings. Now, Daniel Pohl, has used the new algorithms [develped by Professor Philipp Slusallek and co-workers from the University of Saarland] to produce ray-traced versions of the Quake 3 and 4 video games. "It gives much higher image quality in shadows and reflections," said Mr Pohl. "You can even do reflections on reflections on reflections." This is something that would be impossible with traditional rendering techniques. The algorithms are being made available to anyone to use via the Open RT project. Graphics in computer games are typically rendered via a technique known as rasterisation which involves drawing all the elements of a scene using polygons. The scientists have shown that their series of ray-tracing algorithms can run on a high-end PC graphics card.

Feed The Internet Makes Us Naked (wired.com)

From feed by wiredfeed on Friday March 09, 2007 @07:12AM

When we can no longer pretend that we behave the way our cultural expectations say we should, perhaps it's time to adjust those expectations. Commentary by Regina Lynn.

Submission + - Auto-parallelizing compiler from Codeplay

Submitted by

Max Romantschuk

on Friday March 09, 2007 @02:21AM

Max Romantschuk writes: "Parallelization of code is a very tricky thing. We've all heard of the challeges with Cell, and with dual and quad core pocessors this is becoming an ever more important issue to deal with. The Inquirer writes about a new auto-parallelizing compiler called Sieve from Codeplay: What Sieve is is a C++ compiler that will take a section of code and parallelize it for you with a minimum hassle. All you really need to do is take the code you want to run across multiple CPUs and put beginning and end tags on the parts you want to run in parallel.

Is this the Silver Bullet of parallelization? There's more info on Sieve on Codeplay's site."

Submission + - PC Gaming's Future Evolution

Submitted by Dr. Eggman on Thursday March 08, 2007 @11:29PM

Dr. Eggman writes: 1up.com is reporting on the GDC panel "PC Gaming in an Age of Connected Consoles", and their views on the PC. Unlike the usual doom and gloom about the "death" of PC games, this panel's has suggested that the death is of PC games as we know it; in that PC games will evolve. They believe PC gaming's future lies in it's strenghs like persistent-world environments, not just as MMOs but anything that has elements of a persistent nature such as Battlefield 2142. They go on to describe the PC's greatest edge over consoles: user created content and the supportive game communities built around it. The article also cited the panel's views on the weaknesses inherent in consoles' closed networks and content control.

Submission + - Vermont towns move to impeach Bush

Submitted by

Creighton

on Thursday March 08, 2007 @08:45PM

Creighton writes: "http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20070307/cm_then ation/1172344

The subject says it all."

Submission + - The energy problem, and what we can do to solve it

Submitted by

notyou2

on Thursday March 08, 2007 @07:49PM

notyou2 writes: "Steve Chu, Nobel prize winner and Director of Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, recently presented a talk at Google. It's a balanced look at all aspects of the energy problem and its effects, from global warming to emerging technologies, and well worth viewing. 'Among America's most serious concerns are (i) national security, which is intimately tied to energy security, (ii) economic competitiveness, and (iii) the environment. These issues transcend our national boundaries and have serious implications for the world. At the core of these problems is need to secure clean, affordable and sustainable sources of energy. Solutions must come from a combination of improvements on both the demand and supply side, and science and technology will be an essential part of the solution. After briefly describing the energy problem, the remainder of the talk will describe areas of research that may lead to transforming technologies.'"

Submission + - Global economic crisis anticipated for April 2007

Submitted by

advid.net

on Thursday March 08, 2007 @06:26PM

advid.net writes: "According to this European think-tank, several practical consequences of the unfolding crisis will converge in April 2007, some of them are:

Acceleration of the pace and size of bankruptcies among US financial organisations: from one per week today to one per day in April

Spectacular rise of US home foreclosures: 10 million Americans out on the street

Accelerating collapse of housing prices in the US: — 25%

Entry into recession of the US economy in April 2007

Precipitous rate cut by the US Federal Reserve

Sudden drop of US dollar value against Euro, Yuan and Yen

About home foreclosures they mention Beacon Journal 11/01/2007, United Business Media 12/02/2007, Austin Business Journal 26/01/2007 and CNN Money on 25/01/2007.
They also mention scores of blogs appearing on the web and trying to review the on-going housing disaster and the stream of human tragedies, for instance My Real Estate Money or Foreclosure Pulse"

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