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Government

Obama's "Google for Government" Policy Vid->

Submitted by
Chris Chiasson
Chris Chiasson writes "Illinois Senator Barak Obama recently unveiled his technology policy, which was skeptically covered by Ars Technica. According to his remarks during his interview as part of the Candidates at Google video series, Mr. Obama indicates that his policy was inspired by his 2004 visit to Google during his Senate campaign. He says that he is determined to create a sort of "Google for Government" spending search engine that will enable constituents to locate the pork-barrel spending in the federal budget in real-time."
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Software

STIX Fonts Beta Released-> 1

Submitted by
Chris Chiasson
Chris Chiasson writes "After more than 10 years in the making, the STIX fonts beta from the STI Pub companies has been released today. After the release of the final version of these fonts, MathML authors will no longer have to rely on users downloading non-free fonts. From the website:

The STI Pub Group is delighted to announce the beta test release of the STIX Fonts in OpenType format. This release includes every glyph that is planned for the final, production release which we hope will follow before the end of the year. The beta test period will run from 1 November through 15 December. Regrettably, this beta test will not include TeX support. We expect the TeX package to be ready for beta test near the end of this year.
"
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Businesses

Auctioning H-1B Visas Instead of Complaining

Submitted by
Chris Chiasson
Chris Chiasson writes "Every year, we hear about technology companies complaining that they can't find enough skilled workers in America to fill their open positions. Every year, we hear accusations that these companies just want to spend less on payroll by hiring foreign workers. So, my question to you is, instead of paying a flat fee for workers to acquire these visas, why not subject the visa slots to auctions? By tying the slots to auctions, I think we could be more sure that companies that really need the foreign workers they say they do — since they would likely be paying through the nose. Also, it could give a cost advantage to American workers. The government would probably like the proposal since it would result in more revenue. What do you think?"
First Person Shooters (Games)

John Carmack's QuakeCon 07 Keynote Videos

Submitted by Rogerpq3
Rogerpq3 writes "Video of John Carmack's keynote address to QuakeCon 2007 is now available. The video runs a little over an hour. This year, Carmack discussed id Software's upcoming game "Rage", QuakeZero, a web-based version of Quake3, his experience developing portable gaming technology, id's decision to hire a second team of developers, his plans to first develop titles for low-end platforms to gauge their success, his discussion with Steve Jobs about the inability to develop application for the iPhone, and many more topics. Video of Carmack's Q&A session with the crowd on-hand is also available."
Math

Today, Mathematica Is Reinvented

Submitted by
Chris Chiasson
Chris Chiasson writes "Wolfram Research, Inc just released Mathematica 6. For those that don't know, Mathematica is a system for doing mathematics by computer and is typically regarded as one of the best pieces of software for this purpose. The new version brings many graphics improvements that have long been requested by users, including the ability to manipulate the primitives that make up plots via the user interface instead of via code, simpler methods for plotting on restricted non-(hyper-)rectangular domains, adaptive meshing for more-efficient plotting, and transparency. Perhaps the most impressive change is the ability of the user interface to display active content, making it practical to create embedded spreadsheet-type functionality and other interactive interface features while retaining the TeX-like math typesetting present in the older versions. It can export some of these interactive displays to Adobe Flash files, which may be found in abundance at the Wolfram Demonstrations website. If you are looking for an open-source numeric & symbolic math project that is at a point where it could possibly use your help, check out Math.NET."

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