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Comment Re:Great engineering! (Score 1) 151

by Hamoohead (#38928085) Attached to: Mars Rover Opportunity Turns 8
Wow, I wanna live in YOUR world. It sounds like a wonderful place. You see, I deal with asshats every day that are convinced that their products are perfect even though the life is manufactured out of the original specification in the name of maximizing profit and damage only occurs because of improper handling or use. You should come to work for my company. The CEO would love you.

The longevity of Opportunity renews my faith in our ability to create lasting technology.

**Disclaimer: I am a new products engineer in the pro audio industry

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Best Certifications To Get?

Submitted by Hardhead_7
Hardhead_7 writes: Seeing the recent article on Slashdot about how much your degree is worth got me thinking. I've been working in the IT field for several years now, but I don't have anything to my name other than an A+ certificate and vendor specific training (ie, Dell certified). Now I'm looking to move up in the IT field, and I want some stuff on my resume to demonstrate to future employers that I know what I'm doing, enough that I can get in the door for an interview. So my question to Slashdot is this: What certifications are the most valuable and sought-after? What will impress potential employers and be most likely to help land a decent job for someone who doesn't have a degree, but knows how to troubleshoot and can do a bit of programming if needed?
Microsoft

Submission + - Is Bill Gates the Cure for What Ails Microsoft?

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: After reading the soon-to-be classic children's story Steve Ballmer and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week, gdgt's Ryan Block concludes that it's time for Bill Gates to come back to Microsoft. 'I've long seen it as a foregone conclusion that Ballmer isn't the guy to be running what was until quite recently the world's preeminent technology company,' writes Block. 'The more pressing question is: who should replace him? I think we all know damn well who — but I'm not so sure he's available. Yet.' Block adds: 'I'm not saying Bill's going to leave his new gig as the world's greatest living philanthropist with aplomb, but the multi-billion dollar wheels at The Gates Foundation have been set in motion — and lest we all forget, the Foundation's endowment is tied directly to Microsoft's long-term success. It may just happen that Bill can help the Foundation more by securing Microsoft's future.'
Earth

Submission + - CO2 emissions reach a record high in 2010 (iea.org)

Submitted by Nrrqshrr
Nrrqshrr writes: "Energy-related carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2010 were the highest in history, [...]. In addition, the IEA
has estimated that 80% of projected emissions from the power sector in 2020 are already locked in."

"The IEA’s 2010 World Energy Outlook set out the 450 Scenario, an energy pathway consistent with achieving this goal, based on the emissions targets countries have agreed to reach by 2020. [...] global energy-related emissions in 2020 must not be greater than 32 Gt.This means that over the next ten years, emissions must rise less in total than they did between 2009 and 2010."
GNOME

Submission + - GNOME Shell Ruins Linux Gaming Performance (phoronix.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A set of benchmarks across GeForce and Radeon graphics with the open and closed source Linux drivers was done under the different Linux desktops and compositing window managers. The benchmark results show that the open drivers can be quite buggy with the new GNOME Shell and even Compiz, but it shows clearly that the GNOME 3.0 Shell will slow down the system more than GNOME2 w/ Metacity, GNOME 2 w/ Compiz, KDE w/ KWin, and Ubuntu's Unity w/ Compiz.
Bug

Submission + - Software Bug will be considered a crime in Japan (shugiintv.go.jp)

Submitted by kazekiri
kazekiri writes: Very soon, leaving software bug without defect-fixing effort will be considered a crime in Japan.
On May 27 afternoon, Satsuki Eda, Minister of Justice, stated that it will be a crime to leave software bugs without treatment, at the Japanese House of Representatives Committee on Judicial Affairs, like the lower house in US. The video of his reply can be seen online, and the Japanese text version can be checked at Slashdot Japan story.

Now, the Committee is aiming to pass the new bill defining that committing to development or distribution of the computer virus is a crime. The bill specifies that software deliberately not functioning along user's will or deliberately functioning against user's will is a virus. When Mr Eda was addressed by the Committee Member that “for instance, a free software was released and then a user points out a bug. If the software was continue to be opened to the public disregarding the user's notice, will that be a crime according this bill?”, he answered just “Yes”.

If the bill's passage goes well, it will go into effect by this summer, and after that, leaving the bug as it is will lead to an imprisonment maximum of three years .

Submission + - Germany to End Nuclear Power by 2022 (yahoo.com)

Submitted by
dcollins
dcollins writes: ""Germany on Monday announced plans to become the first major industrialised power to shut down all its nuclear plants in the wake of the disaster in Japan, with a phase-out due to be wrapped up by 2022... Germany has 17 nuclear reactors on its territory, eight of which are currently off the electricity grid... Already Friday, the environment ministers from all 16 German regional states had called for the temporary order on the seven plants to be made permanent... Monday's decision is effectively a return to the timetable set by the previous Social Democrat-Green coalition government a decade ago. And it is a humbling U-turn for Merkel, who at the end of 2010 decided to extend the lifetime of Germany's 17 reactors by an average of 12 years, which would have kept them open until the mid-2030s.""
Science

Submission + - Oyster Mushrooms Could Break Down Diapers in month (inhabitots.com) 3

Submitted by greenerd
greenerd writes: Disposable diapers are one of the biggest contributors to overflowing landfills, piling up at a rate of 1 ton of trash per kid per year — and they take 500 years to decompose. But now, a scientist named Alethia Vázquez-Morillas from the Autonomous Metropolitan University in Mexico City has found a way to turn that 500-year span to a mere 4 months, by using oyster mushrooms to accelerate the breakdown.
Censorship

Submission + - US Citizen Arrested while in Thailand for Blog (asiancorrespondent.com)

Submitted by societyofrobots
societyofrobots writes: A US citizen, upon visiting Thailand for medical treatment, was arrested for lese majeste (insulting the king) and computer crimes ("entering false information into a computer system"). He is charged for posting a link on his blog to a banned book, The King Never Smiles, and for translating excerpts of it. He made the posting four years ago in 2007, while in the US. Trials for lese majeste are traditionally held in secret, for reasons of 'national security'. AFP has more information.
Moon

Submission + - Japanese Plan Would Turn Moon into a Giant Solar C (yahoo.com)

Submitted by
MarkWhittington
MarkWhittington writes: "Shimizu, a Japanese company, has announced a scheme to turn the Moon into a giant solar collector. Using a concept first developed by Dr. David Criswell of the University of Houston, Shimizu proposes to circle the lunar equator with solar panels, using local materials, and beam the energy collected to receiving stations on Earth."
Science

Submission + - Activists destroy scientific GMO experiment (deredactie.be)

Submitted by
Freggy
Freggy writes: "In Belgium, a group of activists calling themselves the Field Liberation Movement has destroyed a field which was being used for a scientific experiment with genetically modified potatoes. In spite of the presence of 60 police officers protecting the field, activists succeeded pulling out the plants and sprayed insecticides over them, ruining the experiment. The goal of the experiment was to test potato plants which are genetically modified to be resistant to potato blight. It's a sad day for the freedom of scientific research."

Submission + - GameStop to honor ancient Duke Nukem Pre-Orders (gamepro.com)

Submitted by doug141
doug141 writes: GameStop encourages customers who pre-ordered more than a year ago to verify their reservation with their local store. 'Provided the customer has a receipt, we will honor even those pre-orders taken long ago. At this time, we expect that all pre-order customers will receive Duke's Big Package at time of purchase, regardless of when the reservation was made.'
Space

Submission + - Time Lapse Video of the VLT in Chile (popsci.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The video below was captured by Stephane Guisard and Jose Francisco Salgado at the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile’s Atacama Desert. And it might make you cry.

What makes this time lapse particularly amazing--because we’ve all seen plenty of time lapse videos of the night sky--is the four telescopes in the foreground. Watching these instruments work against a black background would be endlessly fascinating on its own. Unfortunately you won’t be able to pay them too much attention. Because damn, what a sky.

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