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Science

Predicting IQ With a Simple Visual Test 33

Posted by Soulskill
from the forest-for-the-trees dept.
New submitter trendspotter writes "Scientists at the University of Rochester found a unique way to measure high IQ and IQ of the brain in general just by studying individuals and their abilities to filter out noise in images (abstract). The results of a visual test where people were told to quickly detect movements showed similar IQ results as a classic intelligence test. 'The relationship between IQ and motion suppression points to the fundamental cognitive processes that underlie intelligence, the authors write. The brain is bombarded by an overwhelming amount of sensory information, and its efficiency is built not only on how quickly our neural networks process these signals, but also on how good they are at suppressing less meaningful information. ... The researchers point out that this vision test could remove some of the limitations associated with standard IQ tests, which have been criticized for cultural bias.'"
Cloud

Google Code Deprecates Download Service For Project Hosting 176

Posted by timothy
from the look-but-don't-slurp dept.
New submitter c0d3g33k writes "Google Project Hosting announced changes to the Download service on Wednesday, offering only 'increasing misuse of the service and a desire to keep our community safe and secure' by way of explanation. Effective immediately, existing projects that offer no downloads and all new projects will no longer be able to create downloads. Existing projects which currently have downloads will lose the ability to create new downloads by January 2014, though existing downloads will remain available 'for the foreseeable future.' Google Drive is recommended as an alternative, but this will likely have to be done manually by project maintainers since the ability to create and manage downloads won't be part of the Project Hosting tools. This is a rather baffling move, since distributing project files via download is integral to FOSS culture."
Privacy

Why We Should Celebrate Snapchat and Encourage Ephemeral Communication 138

Posted by samzenpus
from the get-off-my-lawn dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Within a few months of launching, Snapchat has made an enormous and lasting impact on the culture of communication on the Internet – and we should all be grateful. They have simplified a security process enough to the point that anybody can use it, while validating the market of the next generation of privacy-preserving ephemeral communication. Most importantly, we may finally get a break from the forced permanence of the Facebook and Google world, where everything you do and share is a data point to be monetized and re-sold to the highest bidder."
Bug

Ask Slashdot: Moving From Contract Developers To Hiring One In-House? 521

Posted by Soulskill
from the wipe-his-brain-and-download-stack-overflow-into-it dept.
An anonymous reader writes "I run a small software consulting company who outsources most of its work to contractors. I market myself as being able to handle any technical project, but only really take the fun ones, then shop it around to developers who are interested. I write excellent product specs, provide bug tracking & source control and in general am a programming project manager with empathy for developers. I don't ask them to work weekends and I provide detailed, reproducible bug reports and I pay on time. The only 'rule' (if you can call it that) is: I do not pay for bugs. Developers can make more work for themselves by causing bugs, and with the specifications I write there is no excuse for not testing their code. Developers are always fine with it until we get toward the end of a project and the customer is complaining about bugs. Then all of a sudden I am asking my contractors to work for 'free' and they can make more money elsewhere. Ugh. Every project ends up being a battle, so, I think the solution is to finally hire someone full-time and pay for everything (bugs or not) and just keep them busy. But how can I make that transition? The guy I'd need to hire would have to know a lot of languages and be proficient in all of them. Plus, I can't afford to pay someone $100k/year right now. Ideas?"

Comment: I'll be watching you (Score -1, Offtopic) 32

by For a Free Internet (#43789927) Attached to: Special Ops Takes Its Manhunts Into Space

Attention single women of Slashdort. I know this is painful for you, since you all are secretly obsessed with me, but as I have told you many times I only love Laura, so give up and move on. There are plenty of fish in the sea, even though most of the guys on Slashdort are admittedly gross and extremely dull and stupird. Or try lesbianism, it's awesorme.

Google

Aurora Attackers Were Looking For Google's Surveillance Database 80

Posted by Soulskill
from the go-big-or-go-home dept.
An anonymous reader writes "When in early 2010 Google shared with the public that they had been breached in what became known as the Aurora attacks, they said that the attackers got their hands on some source code and were looking to access Gmail accounts of Tibetan activists. What they didn't make public is that the hackers have also accessed a database containing information about court-issued surveillance orders that enabled law enforcement agencies to monitor email accounts belonging to diplomats, suspected spies and terrorists. Whether this was the primary goal of the attacks as well as how much information was exfiltrated is unknown. current and former U.S. government officials interviewed by the Washington Post say that the database in question was possibly accessed in order to discover which Chinese intelligence operatives located in the U.S. were under surveillance."

Comment: I don't have bitcoins (Score -1) 92

But I do have grapes. They are red and might have some seeds.

Where should I send them?

In an unrelated note: Dear Slashdort, you are a web site on the internet and I believe that the internet owes me an opoplogy for its disgursting behavior in front of my life-partner, Laura. I demand five hundred dollars (not bitcons!) by tomorrow, or no GRAPES for you!

Communications

Google Drops XMPP Support 413

Posted by Unknown Lamer
from the do-not-evil-yeah-right dept.
Cbs228 writes "During last week's Google I/O conference, the company announced a replacement for its aging Talk instant messenger: Google Hangouts. Hangouts, which is only available for Android, iOS, and Chrome, offers closer integration with Google+. Unfortunately, the new product drops support for the XMPP instant messaging protocol, which has been an integral part of Talk for over ten years. XMPP delivers instant messages to desktop clients, like Pidgin, and enables communication between users on different instant messaging networks. Hangouts users attempting to communicate with contacts on non-Google servers, such as jabber.org, have found that all communications have been suddenly and inexplicably severed. A Google account is now required to communicate with Hangouts users. Google Hangouts joins the ranks of an already-crowded ecosystem of closed, incompatible chat products like Skype." Interesting, because Google Wave was based on XMPP and Google was integral to the creation of the Jingle extension that enabled video chatting over XMPP. Note that no end date has been set for Talk yet, but the end must surely be nigh given Google's recent history of axing products like Reader and CalDAV support from their calendar app without much notice.
Hardware Hacking

Ask Slashdot: Wiring Home Furniture? 235

Posted by timothy
from the for-a-couch-that-seats-1 dept.
b1tbkt writes "So it seems that furniture manufacturers have not yet acknowledged the realities of modern life. Kitchen tables could benefit greatly from built-in concealable receptacles. Even more obvious is the need for electrical wiring in couches and coffee tables. I realize that there are safety (fire) concerns but as it stands most families that I know already have power cords for laptops, tables and phones draped over, under and through their couches at any given point. If someone wanted to wire their furniture with AC or some type of standardized LV DC system, what are some dangers to watch for and what, if any, specialized hardware exists for the purpose?"

Comment: FBI boogeyman (Score -1) 318

Try and extract meaning from this Slashdort post, I dare you!

Once upon the brans it froloked og pilogonof funky jamjam pills. To you, I salort!

Attention Slashdort: It has come to my atention that recently, I died.

In case any of you believe in that religious hooey, I can categorically confirm that there is no afterlife, so give up already!

I would rather say that a desire to drive fast sports cars is what sets man apart from the animals.

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