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Comment Re:missing option (Score 1) 388

by NaleagDeco (#25108857) Attached to: I google myself ...
I'd hope the potential employer you wind up working for is smart enough to realize that more than one person can exist with the same sequence of names. Presumably an employer should be primarily gauging how good of a fit you would make in that specific role. Not sure how crazy this dude is, but if it's not going to come up at the workplace AND it's not going to cost his money through PR or litigation, is this really an issue assuming my first sentence?
Privacy

Submission + - Privacy By Design (holdenkarau.com) 3

Submitted by holdenkarau
holdenkarau writes: Canadian privacy commissioner, Dr. Ann Cavoukian, recently gave a talk entitled Privacy by Design to the University of Waterloo. The focus of the talk is how to use technology to enhance and protect privacy. Some of the technologies discussed included instant messaging, RFID tags and Elliptical Curve Cryptography (ECC). Then Dr. Cavoukian explained the "7 Privacy — Embedded Laws" followed by a discussion on a biometrics solution to encryption.
Operating Systems

QNX "Opens" Source Code 232

Posted by CmdrTaco from the does-anybody-even-use-qnx-anyway dept.
Arista writes "QNX has announced that effective immediately, the company will open the source code to its QNX embedded, RTOS, microkernel operating system. From the press release: "Effective immediately, QNX will make source code for its award-winning, microkernel-based OS available for free download. The first source release includes the code to the QNX Neutrino microkernel, the base C library, and a variety of board support packages for popular embedded and computing hardware." OSNews features an interview with the CEO of QNX, Dan Dodge, on this announcement."
Programming

Submission + - Overview of the Next C++ Standard (uwaterloo.ca) 1

Submitted by
Mike
Mike writes: "In a recent talk, C++ creator Bjarne Stroustrup described the goals he and the ISO C++ Committee have for the next version of the C++ standard. The new standard, tentatively 'C++0x', aims to make programs easier to write and maintain without sacrificing efficiency. Unfortunately, the challenges of revising an existing language and the rigor required make the standardization process slow and painful. The number of proposed features for C++0x far exceeds the number that can feasibly be standardized. Stroustrup describes two new features he believes will make the language much more expressive: initializer lists and concepts. The talk is available for download."
Graphics

Submission + - Making the GIMP Suck Less (uwaterloo.ca) 1

Submitted by GIMPFan
GIMPFan writes: Most people who have ever tried the GIMP know that its UI leaves much to be desired. Thankfully, at least one person is doing something about it. Usability expert Michael Terry has created an instrumented version of the GIMP called ingimp. The key feature of ingimp is that it collects usability data in order to determine how people are using (or struggling to use) the GIMP. This data is made available on the ingimp site so that researchers can study usability in the GIMP, which can hopefully lead to improved usability of the GIMP.

Terry also recently gave a talk on his project. In his talk, he emphasizes that the user's privacy is a key consideration of the project. He notes that contrary to most usage-collecting applications, ingimp is open-source and that the collected data is available to anyone. He also notes that Inkscape is also very interested in creating an instrumented version.
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Bittorrent equals kiddieporn? (com.com)

Submitted by waferthinmint
waferthinmint writes: A week or so ago I asked a question concerning defensive tactics and whether we would be happy seeing them used to defend more serious accusations; I appears that the Swedish authorities read the comments on Slashdot.

From the article, "Swedish authorities last week were preparing to shut down The Pirate Bay, according to Peter Sunde, one of the site's founders. Was the site facing closure for helping users find bootlegged music or video files, as the film and music industries have long alleged? No, The Pirate Bay was being accused of distributing child pornography, Sunde said."
GUI

Submission + - ingimp - Datamining OSS to collect usability data. (uwaterloo.ca)

Submitted by
NaleagDeco
NaleagDeco writes: "In a talk at the University of Waterloo, Professor Michael Terry discusses the use of data mining (in a customized version of The Gimp) in order to discover and analyse real-world usability data. He touches on encouraging users to participate, privacy concerns, as well as common user categories that the software is currently able to sift out.

What is the typical monitor resolution of a GIMP user? How many monitors do they have? What size images do they work on? How many layers are in their images? The answers to these questions are generally unknown: no means currently exist for open source applications to collect usage data. In this talk, Professor Michael Terry will present ingimp, a version of GIMP that has been instrumented to automatically collect usage data from real-world users. Prof. Terry will discuss ingimp's design, the type of data we collect, how we make the data available on the web, and initial results that begin to answer the motivating questions. ingimp can be found at http://www.ingimp.org/"
GNU is Not Unix

Submission + - RMS lecture at UCSD

Submitted by
NaleagDeco
NaleagDeco writes: "Richard Stallman recently gave talk titled "The Free Software Movement and GNU/Linux Operating System". Of particular interest is the open Q&A session where RMS is asked such questions as "Can I use ATI and NVIDIA drivers because Mesa isn't nearly as complete?", and other ethical as well as practical questions.

In keeping with RMS' wishes the talk is only available in Ogg Theora and can be downloaded by http, bittorrent, and dijjer"
Businesses

Submission + - The Economics of a Software Startup

Submitted by
Holden Karau
Holden Karau writes: "Economist Larry Smith discusses how to create a successful software startup company. He notes that many students have the technical knowledge to create a product but lack the skills necessary to market their product and manage a software company. Smith gives specific examples of University of Waterloo startups (with names redacted) that have been successful and others that have been unsuccessful."

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