Forgot your password?

Close
typodupeerror
Games

Study of MMOG Proves Human Interaction Theory 119

Posted by kdawson
from the real-science-in-a-made-up-world dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A new study analyzing interactions among 300,000+ players in an online game universe, called Pardus, has for the first time provided large-scale evidence to prove an 80-year-old psychological theory called Structural Balance Theory. The research, published in PNAS, shows that individuals tend to avoid stress-causing relationships when they develop a society, resulting in more stable social networks."
Earth

Debunking a Climate-Change Skeptic 807

Posted by kdawson
from the so-many-notes-mister-mozart dept.
DJRumpy writes "The Danish political scientist Bjørn Lomborg won fame and fans by arguing that many of the alarms sounded by environmental activists and scientists — that species are going extinct at a dangerous rate, that forests are disappearing, that climate change could be catastrophic — are bogus. A big reason Lomborg was taken seriously is that both of his books, The Skeptical Environmentalist (in 2001) and Cool It (in 2007), have extensive references, giving a seemingly authoritative source for every one of his controversial assertions. So in a display of altruistic masochism that we should all be grateful for (just as we're grateful that some people are willing to be dairy farmers), author Howard Friel has checked every single citation in Cool It. The result is The Lomborg Deception, which is being published by Yale University Press next month. It reveals that Lomborg's work is 'a mirage,' writes biologist Thomas Lovejoy in the foreword. '[I]t is a house of cards. Friel has used real scholarship to reveal the flimsy nature' of Lomborg's work."

Comment: Make privacy easy (Score 2, Insightful) 527

by Gaxx (#30400836) Attached to: Mozilla Exec Urges Switch From Google To Bing
Indeed - privacy is possible but not easy (for the average user at least) currently. Until it becomes easy, and obvious, most users will continue to find it all too bothersome to worry about. Now - it's easy to say "that's their lookout" but life gets a fair bit more private for everyone at the point where those who would be snooping on private communications if there is so much that they can't just cherry-pick the stuff that looks suspiciously protected.

Comment: Worrying and amusing in equal measure (Score 1) 523

by Gaxx (#28605017) Attached to: <em>Don't Copy That Floppy!</em> Gets a Sequel
What really strikes me is how well this current fumbled outing into marketing to youth culture really demonstrates the inability to understand that culture and what might motivate its members.

We already had ample indications that the recording industry, as a whole, was seriously struggling with the paradigm shifts of the digital age but this really does suggest floudering at a much deeper level of connect with their customer base.
Education

Old Software or Open Source? 454

Posted by CmdrTaco
from the just-give-'em-all-slide-rules dept.
Pakled writes "I teach a high school multimedia course. We were scheduled to get new software this year but due to several pointy haired bosses, no software was ordered. The software I have to teach is Flash 5, Dreamweaver 2000, Photoshop 7 and (god help me) Movie Maker. The question is: is it better to teach old commercial software or their open source counterparts (Komposer, Gimp, etc.)? Is the steep learning curve and slightly less uniform design worth a little student frustration to teach them software written in the past 5 years?"
Software

Share Point alternatives

Submitted by
Techman83
Techman83 writes "Due to the distributed environment at my workplace, Portal based collaboration tools are coming up as a must have business tool.There seems to be the usual consultants suggesting solutions from the MS Product line, In particular SharePoint. Some people love it, some people loathe it. I am interested in hearing opinions either directions and other options for alternative solutions. Personally I'd like to go the OSS route, but it's a case of using the right tool for the job. My biggest problem with SharePoint is more Microsoft dependence and Vendor Lock-in. I don't want our environment so tied to MS that we can't look at any alternatives when better alternatives are found. It does need to be centrally manageable (preferably tied in with LDAP, eDirectory or AD)and easy for the users to use. I'd also very much like it to be Cross Platform as our IT Team uses linux workstations and I am considering plans for a complete linux environment in the long term future."
Privacy

Should we have the right to breed? 11

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes "I just finished reading Garret Hardin's Tragedy of the Commons and I'm having a little trouble coming to grips with it. In the essay Hardin argues that in a world with finite resources we must stabilize the population at less than the carrying capacity in order to maintain quality of life. However, "Confronted with appeals to limit breeding, some people will undoubtedly respond to the plea more than others. Those who have more children will produce a larger fraction of the next generation than those with more susceptible consciences. The differences will be accentuated, generation by generation." Hardin therefore suggests that we must legally restrict freedom to breed.

However such restrictions would require a invasion of our privacy to a degree that strikes me as simply intolerable. But I'm curious, what do slashdot readers think? Is Hardin's logic sound? If it is, is controlling the population important enough that we should give up what we have long accepted as some of our most basic rights in order to achieve it?"
Math

Numerically Approximating the Wave Equation? 260

Posted by kdawson
from the tools-of-an-arcane-trade dept.
ObsessiveMathsFreak writes "I'm an applied mathematician who has recently needed to obtain good numerical approximations to the classic second-order wave equation, preferably in three space dimensions. A lot of googling has not revealed much on what I had assumed would be a well-studied problem. Most of the standard numerical methods, finite difference/finite element methods, don't seem to work very well in the case of variable wave speed at different points in the domain, which is exactly the case that I need. Are any in this community working on numerically solving wave equation problems? What numerical methods do you use, and which programs do you find best suited to the task? How do you deal with stability issues, boundary/initial values, and other pitfalls? Are there different methods for electromagnetic wave problems? Finally, when the numbers have all been crunched, how do you visualize your hard-earned data?"
Wireless Networking

EMF makes brain more permeable: Vaccine danger?->

Submitted by Drake42
Drake42 writes "http://www.ehponline.org/members/2003/6039/6039.ht ml says EMF does NOT cause cancer but it does make your brain somewhat more permeable. This article http://www.newstarget.com/011764.html sums up that the mercury in vaccines is generally not good for you, and can collect in your brain.

I agree that EMF is generally proven safe. I also agree that vaccines with mercury are generally safe.

However, engineers (i.e. early Wifi/cell phone adaptors) have a 200% chance of having kids with autism over the general populace.
Is it possible that the increased permeability caused by low level EMF emissions causes the mercury in vaccines to be more easily admitted to the brain and thus become dangerous?"
Link to Original Source
Programming

Why do you write software?->

Submitted by
neilgd
neilgd writes "George Orwell once said that he — and all writers — wrote for a combination of four reasons:
  1. Sheer egotism — The desire to seem clever
  2. Aesthetic enthusiasm — The perception of beauty in the external world or in words and their right arrangement
  3. Historical impulse — The desire to see things as they truly are
  4. Political purpose — The desire to push the world in a particular direction
There are probably parallels in software development (for the first two items, definitely). If you write software, why do you do it?"
Link to Original Source

Conceit causes more conversation than wit. -- LaRouchefoucauld