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+ - What is it really like to be a developer?

Submitted by kungfujesus
kungfujesus writes "am a computer science student and am starting to realize that while I love programming and computer science, I am starting to have doubts as to whether i would be happy doing it as a profession.

Background: I consider myself to have an aptitude for it and have done it for many years and know a variety of languages from C, C++, Java, D, and am learning erlang

Aspects which i would like to inquire about:
- Hours
- Job Satisfaction
- Longevity (ie: what happens when you become an older developer?)
- How much of your time must be devoted to learning new technologies to be competive?

I know it pays well, but are you happy as a developer?"
Power

Hydrogen-Powered cars with Zero-Carbon-Emission? 203

Posted by Zonk
from the look-up-in-the-sky-it's-some-sort-of-pastry dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have a bright idea — at least at first sight. They want to create a sustainable transportation system by using hydrogen-powered cars. They would like to create an infrastructure where people could use a liquid fuel for driving while the carbon emission in their vehicles is trapped for later processing at a fueling station. 'The carbon would then be shuttled back to a processing plant where it could be transformed into liquid fuel.' Where will all this liquid carbon be stored? The researchers don't know. They suggest that it could be stored in geological formations or under the oceans."
PC Games (Games)

+ - First commerical open source game in development

Submitted by LingNoi
LingNoi writes "Blender's project Apricot has begun work on creating the first open source commerical title scheduled for release on Windows, Linux and Mac platforms. The project is being funded by the Blender and Crystal Space communities in an effort to address the problems that professionals face in the games industry with regards to using Blender 3d and Crystal Space engine.

Discussions have already begun on improvements that can be made on the blender forums."
Operating Systems

+ - Windows XP SP3 Yields Performance Gains-> 2

Submitted by
hairyfeet
hairyfeet writes "OSNews is reporting that after an abysmal showing by Vista SP1 in the latest benchmarks that, surprisingly, Windows XP SP3 showed a marked improvement over SP2, gaining around ten percent in performance in the benchmarks. Considering that Microsoft has kept pushing forward the end of life date on XP due to customer and PC manufacturer demand, one has to wonder how wise it is for them to release a service pack that makes the older XP even faster than it already was compared to Vista."
Link to Original Source

Science Daily: Less Is More When Fighting Crime->

From feed by sdfeed
Both crime and prison populations could be reduced dramatically by focusing on the 'power few' criminals who commit the most crime. Using data across a wide range of research, scientists show that most crime is committed by a small fraction of all criminals, at a tiny fraction of all locations, against a tiny fraction of all victims, during a few hours a week.
Link to Original Source
Announcements

+ - Labor Party wins Australian Federal Election->

Submitted by
kamatsu
kamatsu writes "The Australian Labor Party has won the Australian Federal Election with at least a 22 seat majority. Among the ALP's policies is a fiber-to-the-node broadband network nationwide, as part of a plan to improve national infrastructure. Other policies cover areas such as climate change, health and education. The former Prime Minister John Howard has also potentially been ousted from his own parliamentary seat of Bennelong, with Labor candidate Maxine McKew taking a slight margin ahead, however neither party is willing to call the seat until postal votes are counted. The former Prime Minister's anointed successor, Peter Costello, has rejected the nomination to be leader of the opposition and instead will have a brief tenure in the back bench before retiring. This leaves the position of the leader of the Liberal party uncertain over the next few days as members are nominated and elected, with Malcolm Turnbull currently favorited for the position."
Link to Original Source
User Journal

+ - tie sailing knots->

Submitted by inhousesol
inhousesol writes "tie sailing knots the easy way with this step by step guide. If you learn to tie the following sailing knots you should be able to handle almost every situation."
Link to Original Source
Biotech

Backing Up Your Brain 204

Posted by CmdrTaco
from the error-document-not-found dept.
couch_warrior writes "Microsoft is now working on a system that will back up the contents of your brain. The pilot project lacks a direct brain interface, but "MyLifeBits" will provide a simulacrum of actual memories. No mention is made as to whether Microsoft will claim to own the digital rights to the content of your life, or what license fees you will have to pay to access your own memories." Honestly this looks like a bunch of hooey to me, but I figured others would be better suited to say.
Operating Systems

Intel Chief Evangelist Comments on Linux Scheduler 178

Posted by Zonk
from the little-penguins-everywhere dept.
ByeByeWintel writes "James Reinders is Intel's Chief Evangelist for Intel's Software Development Products. In a recent interview on Devx.com he stated: 'If I could get ONE wish fulfilled would be for OS scheduling to focus on processes, and not threads, for scheduling. And demand that processes manage their scheduling of threads ... There is a lot of opportunity for operating systems to offer these types of control in the 'running of applications' interfaces. I'd like an OS to let me specify the 'world' my application runs in (which processors, how many, etc.) These interfaces are available in Windows at run time (the task manager will let you adjust where a running task can go).'"
Robotics

Robotic Scout To Survey Arctic Ice 58

Posted by Zonk
from the here-robot-birdie dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "The Meridian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is a single-engine research aircraft with fixed landing gear designed by engineers at the University of Kansas. According to Technology Review, it will be used to see what happens beneath the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. Two units are currently being built for a cost of about 3 million US dollars. The Meridian will fly for up to 13 hours over a distance of 1,750 kilometers. The first flight over Greenland is forecast for next summer, and a second flight will take place over the Antarctic later in 2008."

You own a dog, but you can only feed a cat.

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