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Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft to keep control of two Zeus botnets (eweek.com)

Submitted by Dainutehvs
Dainutehvs writes: Eweek reports that Microsoft won a court order on Nov. 28 to allow the company and its financial-services partners to continue to administer command-and-control servers for two Zeus botnets that had been shut down by the company's legal and technical campaign in March 2012. Do You think it is fair? Speculations what on earth will they do with those poor infected machines...
Government

Submission + - Is China's Political Model Superior? 6

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "As the leader of world’s most powerful electoral democracy and the heir apparent to its largest one-party state meet at a time of political transition for both, Eric X. Li, a venture capitalist in Shanghai, writes in the NY Times that the West’s current competition with China is a clash of two fundamentally different political outlooks. The modern West sees democracy and human rights as the pinnacle of human development while China sees its current form of government merely as a means to achieving larger national ends. "The American Federalists made it clear they were establishing a republic, not a democracy, and designed myriad means to constrain the popular will," writes Li. "The political franchise expanded, resulting in a greater number of people participating in more and more decisions. As they say in America, “California is the future.” And the future means endless referendums, paralysis and insolvency." China is on a different path. Its leaders are prepared to allow greater popular participation in political decisions if and when it is conducive to economic development and favorable to the country’s national interests. The fundamental difference is whether political rights are considered God-given and therefore absolute or whether they should be seen as privileges to be negotiated based on the needs and conditions of the nation. "The West seems incapable of becoming less democratic even when its survival may depend on such a shift," concludes Li. "History does not bode well for the American way.""

Submission + - Life after software development ?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I've been writing database apps for various industries as the senior developer or tech lead on a given project for most of the past 20 years. The last few years have become particularly taxing as I struggle to reiterate basic concepts to the same technically illiterate managers and stakeholders who keep turning up in charge. While most are knowledgeable about the industries our software is targeting, they just don't get the mechanics of what we do and never will and after so many years, I'm tired of repeating myself. On top of this, I've spent the last decade watching with an ever increasing sense of despair as blogs like Slashdot become filled with stories about billion dollar IP legal fights, heavy-handed bullying from the world's largest IT corporations, media companies running rampant and unopposed, and government after government looking to regulate and monitor anything with an electronic pulse, and track anyone within range. I need a break. I need to walk away from it, and want to look at doing something that doesn't focus heavily on the IT industry day in, day out. The problem is I'm locked to a regional city and I've just spent the majority of my adult life coding and have no other major skills to fall back on. While I'm not keen on remaining in front of a screen, I wouldn't be averse to becoming a tech user and consumer, rather than a creator. Are there similar Slashdotters out there who have made the leap of faith away from tech jobs and into something different? If so, where did you end up? Is there a life after IT for people who are geeks at heart ? Apart from staying in my current job, is there any advice for someone who can't really risk the mortgage and kids education on a whim?

Submission + - Skynet (theatlantic.com)

Submitted by Dainutehvs
Dainutehvs writes: The Atlantic has published an excerpt from David Weinbergers new book "Too Big to Know". Weinberger gives examples of large data amounts around and difficulties makes using these data . For example, Johannes Kepler examined the star charts and somehow gasped that if the planets orbit the Sun in ellipses rather than perfect circles, data starts making sense. It is unlikely that someone can comprehend big amounts of data that todays science produces and make astounding discoveries like Kepler did as it is simply beyound capabilities of human brain. So how can we deal with it?
Hod Lipson and Michael Schmidt at Cornell University designed the Eureqa computer program to find equations that make sense of large quantities of data and it looks like the results of programs work are impressive. So are we (humans) moving away from being primary interpretators and analysts and move to working on algorithms that look for sense in world around us using more capable devices than our brains? One thing is to suck at Jeopardy, another — loose the dominating role in science.

Submission + - Fermi Lab May Have Not Discovered New Particle (newscientist.com)

Submitted by Dainutehvs
Dainutehvs writes: Do You remember article in slashdot "Fermi Lab May Have Discovered New Particle or Force" and quite a few slashdotters being skeptical aout it. They might be right. Another team has analysed data from the collider and come to the exact opposite conclusion about whether it hints at a new particle. Read more in NewScientist's website http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20564

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