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+ - IBM takes System/z to the cloud with COBOL update->

Submitted by hypnosec
hypnosec writes "IBM is taking its COBOL server platform to the next level by updating the mainframe platform in a bid to extend and enable its mainframes to host cloud based applications and services. The latest update is looking to add XMLS Server as well as Java 7 capabilities to the System/z COBOL platform and this update would extend the overall lifespan of COBOL by taking it up a notch and gearing it towards the cloud computing arena."
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Google News Sci Tech: Invasive Crazy Ants Are Displacing Fire Ants, Researchers Find - University of T->

From feed by feedfeeder

Science World Report
Invasive Crazy Ants Are Displacing Fire Ants, Researchers Find
University of Texas at Austin News
Invasive “crazy ants” are displacing fire ants in areas across the southeastern United States, according to researchers at The University of Texas at Austin. It's the latest in a history of ant invasions from the southern hemisphere and may prove to have dramatic ...
Alien 'crazy ants' invading southern USLos Angeles Times
'Crazy ants' a threat in southern USCNN International
Crazy ants are invading parts of the US, including HoustonHouston Chronicle
LiveScience.com-Nature World News-Science Recorder
all 22 news articles

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+ - North Carolina May Ban Tesla Sales To Prevent "Unfair Competition"-> 7

Submitted by nametaken
nametaken writes "From the state that brought you the nation’s first ban on climate science comes another legislative gem: a bill that would prohibit automakers from selling their cars in the state.

The proposal, which the Raleigh News & Observer reports was unanimously approved by the state’s Senate Commerce Committee on Thursday, would apply to all car manufacturers, but the intended target is clear. It’s aimed at Tesla, the only U.S. automaker whose business model relies on selling cars directly to consumers, rather than through a network of third-party dealerships.

[The article adds] it’s easy to understand why some car dealers might feel a little threatened: Tesla’s Model S outsold the Mercedes S-Class, BMW 7 Series, and Audi A8 last quarter without any help from them. If its business model were to catch on, consumers might find that they don’t need the middle-men as much as they thought."
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+ - How do you deal with programmers who have not stayed current? 1

Submitted by skaffen42
skaffen42 writes "The recent Ask Slashdot about becoming a programmer later in life got me thinking about a related question. How do you deal with programmers who have not stayed current with new technologies?

In the hiring process this is easy, you simply don't hire them. However, at most companies I have worked at there are usually a few programmers who have been employed there for long enough that the skill-set they were originally hired for has become irrelevant. At the same time they have not bothered to stay current with newer technologies. They usually have enough business knowledge that they provide some value to the company, but from a technical perspective they are a slowly increasing liability. As an example, I work with a developer who is 10 years my senior, but still doesn't understand how to write concurrent code and cannot be trusted to use a revision control system without causing a mess that somebody else will have to clean up. On top of that he is really resistant to the idea of code reviews, which I think is due to him disliking people he considers junior to him making suggestion about how to improve his code.

So how do my fellow Slashdotters handle situations like this? How do you help somebody like this to improve their skill-sets? And most importantly, how do you do so without stepping on anybody's feelings?"

+ - Are software and pattents about to seperate?

Submitted by laitcg
laitcg writes "According to PJ at Groklaw: CLS Bank v. Alice Corp. has been decided [PDF] by the the Federal Circuit en banc. And Patently O says the court "finds many software patents ineligible"!

        As described more fully below, we would affirm the district court’s judgment in its entirety and hold that the method, computer-readable medium, and corresponding system claims before us recite patent-ineligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. 101.1

        _____
        1 While Chief Judge Rader is correct to note that no single opinion issued today commands a majority, seven of the ten members, a majority, of this en banc court have agreed that the method and computer-readable medium claims before us fail to recite patent-eligible subject matter. In addition, eight judges, a majority, have concluded that the particular method, medium, and system claims at issue in this case should rise or fall together in the 101 analysis."

Comment: Re:Because it's valuable, duh. (Score 1) 209

by fleebait (#43691575) Attached to: Why Is Science Behind a Paywall?

Guess who else gets a cut of that pie.

The research institution does not give this stuff to publishers for free, they get their percentage too. So in addition to the publishers disappearing from existence, the researchers, or institutions lose their cut, too.

I guess we should be able to get this stuff for free, and the individuals, or institutions should give up their additional source of income.

+ - Ask Slashdot: How do you sell an Algorithm to Venture Capitalists?

Submitted by dryriver
dryriver writes "Dear Slashdotters, We are a 2 man crew who have spent almost 3 years developing a video processing algorithm that "upgrades" the visual quality of digital video footage. We take video footage that is "of average quality" — think an amateur shooting on a cheap digital camcorder or on a smartphone camera — and use various mathematical tricks we have developed to make the footage look better — optically sharper, better lit, more vivid colours, improved contrast, enhanced sense of three-dimensionality and of "being-there realism". — In about a month from now, we will be presenting our algorithm to some venture capitalists. We have the obligatory before-after video demos prepared for this, of course. But there will also be a short PowerPoint presentation where we explain our tech in some detail. Now here is our main question: What, in your opinion, should we — or indeed should we NOT — put in the PowerPoint presentation to impress a Venture Capitalist? Should we talk about how we developed the algorithm at all — what kind of R&D and testing was involved? Should we try to walk the VCs through how our algorithm works under the hood — simplified a bit for a "non-engineer" audience of course? Or should we stick to talking about market potential, marketing strategy & money-related stuff only? If you were in our shoes — presenting a digital video-quality improvement technology to professional VCs — what would and would you not put in your PowerPoint? Any advice on this from Slashdotters with some experience would be most welcome!"

+ - Ask Slashdot: Wasn't early email a replacment for voice?

Submitted by bluestair
bluestair writes "I'm a retired Air Force officer who is back in school, sitting through a business communications class that keeps stressing the importance of picture-perfect grammar and punctuation in all email. I clearly recall that in the very early days of email use, the guidance was pretty clearly the opposite: be brief, get your point across, ignore capitalization and punctuation. Email replaced voice communications (not mail) and should receive the same effort you give to speaking perfectly correctly (ie none). Can anyone back me up on this? Is there an old reference that I can show to my class to keep them from just thinking I'm getting senile when I bring this up?"

+ - How to teach IT to senior management 1

Submitted by gagol
gagol writes "I recently took a position at a small industrial equipment manufacturer. We are looking to buy a new ERM software package and my boss, who is looking forward to buy the thing, knows nothing about computers or software. I will be providing basic IT training to the senior management and I am looking for your input on the scope and content of said training. I am thinking: basic components and architecture -> networking -> software -> proprietary vs open source. What do you think?"

+ - Bruce Schneier: Why Collecting More Data Doesn't Increase Safety-> 1

Submitted by Jeremiah Cornelius
Jeremiah Cornelius writes "Bruce Schneier, security expert (and rational voice in the wilderness), explains in an editorial on CNN, why "Connecting the Dots" is a "Hindsight Bias". In heeding calls to increase the amount of surveillance data gathered and shared, agencies like the FBI have impaired their ability to discover actual threats, while guaranteeing erosion of personal and civil freedom. "Piling more data onto the mix makes it harder, not easier. The best way to think of it is a needle-in-a-haystack problem; the last thing you want to do is increase the amount of hay you have to search through. The television show 'Person of Interest' is fiction, not fact.""
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+ - anyone have a good, viable way to move off AD?

Submitted by wrmorris
wrmorris writes "What would be your recommended alternative and what migration path to move 200 users to OLDAP. Any gotchas? How did you migrate the existing users and machines? Did you use Apache Directory studio?"

+ - not enough garbage?->

Submitted by lister king of smeg
lister king of smeg writes "Oslo, a recycling-friendly place where roughly half the city and most of its schools are heated by burning garbage — household trash, industrial waste, even toxic and dangerous waste from hospitals and drug arrests — has a problem: it has literally run out of garbage to burn.
The problem is not unique to Oslo, a city of 1.4 million people. Across Northern Europe, where the practice of burning garbage to generate heat and electricity has exploded in recent decades, demand for trash far outstrips supply. “Northern Europe has a huge generating capacity,” said Mr. Mikkelsen, 50, a mechanical engineer who for the last year has been the managing director of Oslo’s waste-to-energy agency."

I have to wonder why we would sell our garbage when we could be doing this ourself?"
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+ - Cicada swarm approaching->

Submitted by symbolset
symbolset writes "The Periodical Cicada is a bizarre insect. It is extraordinarily long-lived for an insect: the nymphs live in the ground for 13-17 years. Cohorts of cicadas or "broods" gain adulthood simultaneously, overwhelming their countryside with millions of singing, breeding adult insects for four to six weeks. And then the adults die to be seen no more above ground for another 17 years. This odd cycle seems to be an adaptation to predation: by not being available all the time the cicadas outlive and outnumber their predators and can successfully reproduce.

Such a plague of cicadas, Brood II is expected to erupt in the Northeast US in the coming weeks. They do not normally bite or sting so aren't considered harmful. They can be unsettling to people who don't like insects, and gorging on cicadas by fish and birds can have some undesirable side effects.

For the culinary adventurer a [PDF] periodical cicada cookbook is available."
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No matter where I go, the place is always called "here".

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