Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:AT&T (Score 1) 321

Now it's far worse. As a single large entity AT&T was vulnerable to rouge researchers conducting their studies in dusty labs corporate management had little understanding of.
Nowadays, each separate entity is either incapable or unwilling to support meaningful research. Worse, like Al-Qaeda, the the beast can't be slain by having it's head severed.

Comment Re:That's a surprise move (Score 1) 195

Why is everyone so reluctant to consider that IBM's engineers have come across the same issues in the 14 nm and below scale as Intel. But, IBM being a more diverse business, have decided if it can't compete in 3-5 years time, they might as well sell off now while there are still interested buyers?
Simply put, maybe the linear progression in the development of the silicon chip fabrication processes has reached it's end or is about to?

On the other hand, we could be more optimistic and say IBM has reached a huge breakthrough with such a different process that all their current facilities are obsolete. But I prefer my science fiction of grim dark variety ;)

Comment Re:Regex this (Score 1) 172

It's a special case of automatic code optimisation: Since regular expressions should be reduce-able to logical gates, it stands to reason a minimized equivalent boolean function could be decompiled into a regex.
On it's own, having compilers\interpreters that optimize regexes is beneficial. But how about you turn the table over and ask yourself this, "Can I design a high, expressive, programming language that could be fully optimised without sacrificing human readability and productivity?" As far as I can tell, this is the holy grail of system research, or what's left of it nowadays...

Comment Re:congrats guys and gals (Score 1) 293

More importantly, this same corporations are the contractors that facilitated these acts. Now, that they're outed, they suddenly feel compelled to act...

What really worries me is that the only means the surveillance had a chance at being stopped, was through corporate influence. This combined with the bought and paid for electoral process in The States is the classic symptoms of corporatism (classic fascism).

Comment Re:What will researchers do next (Score 1) 453

The entire ordeal just screams poetic justice. Activists been screaming for decades that livestock growing condition are inhumane. That the animals lack living space, kept in unsanitary conditions, over-fed unhealthy foods and are generally mistreated.
Now, all those cost saving measures turn around to bite us in the ass. The conditions bred treatment-resistant pathogens that can only be addressed through old fashion quarantines, frequent inspections and blood screenings while keeping smaller herds and at clean living environment... That is, exactly what we should have done in the first place regardless.
It's not just animals too. There are multiple reports of antibiotic resistant bacteria originating from prisons for the exact same reasons. And the living conditions associated with poverty have bred a few out breaks already...

Comment It's all about access and money... (Score 2) 39

I think the utility this guys have in mind is to duplicate the bone after excavation and lease the original off to some bored rich guy. This way, you can keep the research going while he gets "exclusive guardianship". Then, if you ever need the original back - which is very rare considering just how many bones are just laying around in basements - you just need to call on some contract clause and possibly give the money back or just borrow it or whatever you agreed upon.

If I recall correctly Google and other parties were doing something similar with ancient manuscripts. Then I suppose the next logical step is archaeology...

Slashdot Top Deals

The cost of feathers has risen, even down is up!

Working...