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Submission + - Out of control Job Responsibilities 5

Submitted by greymond
greymond writes: I was originally hired as an Online Content Producer to write articles for a company website as well as start up the company’s social media outlets on Facebook and Twitter. With budget cuts and layoffs I ended up also taking over the website facilitation for three of the company’s websites (they let go of the current webmaster). During this time the company has been developing a new website and I was handed the role of pseudo project manager to make sure the developer stayed on course with the projects due date. Now that we’re closer to launch the company has informed me that they don’t have the budget or staff in place to set up the web server and have tasked me with setting up the LAMP and Zend App on an Amazon EC2 setup, which while it’s been years since I worked this much with Linux I’m picking it up and moving things along. Needless to say I want to ask for more money, as well as more resources, as well as a better title that fits my roles, but what is the best way to go about this? Of course my other thought is that I'd much rather go back to writing and working with marketing than getting back into IT.
Power

Submission + - ITER Fusion Reactor Enters Existential Crisis

Submitted by deglr6328
deglr6328 writes: The long beleaguered experimental magnetic confinement fusion reactor ITER, is currently in what some are calling the worst crisis of its 25 year history. Still existing only on the paper of thousands of proposed design documents, latest cost estimates for the superconducting behemoth are soaring to nearly 20 billion USD; roughly twice the estimates of as recent as a few years ago. Anti-nuclear environmentalist organizations have seized upon the moment as an opportunity to use the current global economic crisis as a means to push for permanently killing the project. If ITER is not built, the prospect of magnetic confinement fusion as a technique to reach thermonuclear breakeven and ignition in the laboratory would be in serious question. Meanwhile, the largest laser-driven inertial confinement fusion project, the National Ignition Facility, has demonstrated the ability to use self generated plasma optical gratings to control capsule implosion symmetry with high finesse, and is on schedule to achieve ignition and potentially high gain before the end of the year.
Patents

Submission + - An end to frivolous patents may be in sight (economist.com)

Submitted by fiannaFailMan
fiannaFailMan writes: The Economist has high hopes that frivolous patents may become a thing of the past.

America’s Supreme Court is about to issue a ruling which, by all accounts, will make it difficult, if not impossible, to get a patent for a business process. And because most business processes are, at bottom, computer algorithms, the Supreme Court’s judgment could also bar all sorts of software patents in the process. As a result, a lot of patents for online shopping, medical-diagnostic tests and procedures for executing trades on Wall Street could be invalidated.
Music

Submission + - W Street Journal confirms RIAA fired MediaSentry (p2pnet.net)

Submitted by
newtley
newtley writes: "The Wall Street Journal has confirmed p2pnet's report that the RIAA has fired MediaSentry. MediaSentry has been, "invading the privacy of people," says Recording Industry vs The People's Ray Beckerman in the WSJ, and, "They've been doing very sloppy work". He cites MediaSentry's practice of, "looking for available songs in people's filesharing folders, uploading them, and using those uploads in court as evidence of copyright violations." MediaSentry, "couldn't prove defendants had shared their files with anyone other than MediaSentry investigators.""
Music

Submission + - Prince To Release 3 Albums, Shuns Record Companies (billboard.com)

Submitted by
Mike
Mike writes: "Prince is planning to release three new albums in 2009 without the assistance of a record label, according to an interview with the Los Angeles Times. A "major retailer", rumored to be Wal-Mart, is in talks with the artist to release the music physically, while a new Prince Web site will sell it in digital form. It's too early to tell if this is an isolated move or if other performers will opt to bypass the record labels."
PC Games (Games)

Submission + - Why Game Developers Should Support OSX and Linux (wolfire.com)

Submitted by
kevind23
kevind23 writes: "Although Mac OSX and Linux have a small (but growing) market share, Jeff from Wolfire Games argues that supporting non-Windows platforms can lead to a huge increase in game sales. Using their popular game Lugaru as an example, he shows how less-popular platforms, or more specifically, their userbase can be a powerful advertising force. This can lead to a dramatic increase in popularity and exposure, which usually means a large boost in overall sales.

The short article is an interesting read, especially for those working in game development and sales."
Biotech

Submission + - Doctors say placebo use common (reuters.com)

Submitted by The Madd Rapper
The Madd Rapper writes: According to the survey, 45% of respondents have prescribed placebos in actual practice (as opposed to clinical trials). They disclosed this with varying specificity, e.g, this "may help and will not hurt" or is "a medicine with no specific effect." Only 12% said placebos should never be used.

http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USN0323176620080103

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