Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
AI

Submission + - MIT-designed game used to train an AI system (mit.edu)

Submitted by
Ian Lamont
Ian Lamont writes: "MIT Media Lab and the Singapore-MIT Gambit Game Lab have just released Improviso, an online game that is part of a research project to create a more realistic game AI. Improviso requires two players, a Lead Actor and Director, who pretend to shoot a low-budget science fiction movie about a government cover-up of aliens at Area 51. The goal of the project is to gather recorded improv from thousands of games, which can be used to train an AI system that will be able to play the role of NPCs. Jeff Orkin, the MIT researcher who led game development, says that the best time to play Improviso is between 7 pm and 10 pm. Orkin is also the creator of a game AI called goal oriented action programming, first used in F.E.A.R. in 2005 and later employed in F.E.A.R. 2 and Fallout 3."
Censorship

Scientology Tries To Block German Documentary 565

Posted by timothy from the piece-of-blue-sky dept.
eldavojohn writes "The Guardian is reporting on the strained relationship that Scientology is having with the German government and the airing of a pesky documentary on Southwest Broadcasting. Until Nothing Remains, a $2.3 million documentary, is slotted to air on German television at the end of this month. It recounts the true story of Heiner von Rönn and his family's suffering when he tried to leave the Church of Scientology. A Scientology spokesperson called the film false and intolerant and also said they are investigating legal means to stop the film from being aired. More details on the film can be gleaned here."
Biotech

Submission + - Wood Eating Gribbles May Hold Key to Biofuels (inhabitat.com)

Submitted by MikeChino
MikeChino writes: What’s a Gribble? It’s a tiny marine shrimp found on the southern coast of Britain — and its ability to digest wood may provide a breakthrough in efficient biofuel production. Researchers are studying the gribble’s digestion process at a new UK bioenergy centee in order to synthetically copy the process so that grasses, husk, straw and willow can be converted more efficiently into biofuels. The scientists reckon that information learned from the gribble could increase the efficiency of biofuel conversion by a factor of 6, making biofuels even more cost effective while utilizing non-food crops.
Apple

Submission + - EFF dubs Apple a 'jealous feudal lord' over iPhone (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Ian Lamont
Ian Lamont writes: The Electronic Frontier Foundation has attacked the agreement Apple has with iPhone developers after obtaining a copy of the agreement the company has with NASA through a FOIA request. In a message on the EFF website, it called Apple Inc. a "jealous and arbitrary feudal lord" and singled out several clauses in the agreement as "troubling," including the requirement for secrecy and the arbitrary ability of Apple to reject or remove apps from the App Store. It's not the first time the EFF has attacked Apple's iPhone ecosystem. Last year, it tangled with Apple in court over the company's claim that jailbreaking constitutes a copyright violation. Later in the year, EFF again filed suit against Apple over its lawyers' assertions that discussions on Bluewiki about using software other than iTunes with iPods and iPhones constituted copyright infringement.
Government

Submission + - Microsoft VP suggests 'Net tax to clean computers (itworld.com)

Submitted by Ian Lamont
Ian Lamont writes: Microsoft's Vice President for Trustworthy Computing Scott Charney, speaking at the RSA conference in San Francisco, has floated an interesting proposal to deal with infected computers: Approach the problem of dealing with malware infections like the healthcare industry, and consider using "general taxation" to pay for inspection and quarantine. Using taxes to deal with online criminal activity is not a new idea, as demonstrated by last year's Louisiana House vote to levy a monthly surcharge on Internet access to deal with online baddies.
Security

Submission + - Microsoft: Don't press F1 key in Windows XP (computerworld.com) 2

Submitted by Ian Lamont
Ian Lamont writes: Microsoft has issued a security advisory that warns users not to press the F1 key in Windows XP owing to an unpatched bug in VBScript discovered by Polish researcher Maurycy Prodeus. The security advisory says that the vulnerability relates to the way VBScript interacts with Windows Help files when using Internet Explorer, and could be triggered by a user pressing the F1 key after visiting a malicious Web site using a specially crafted dialog box.

Submission + - Germans Happy To Have Chip Implants (eweekeurope.co.uk)

Submitted by hardsix
hardsix writes: "The head of Germany’s main IT trade body told the audience at the opening ceremony of the CeBIT technology exhibition that one in four of his countrymen are happy to have a microchip inserted for ID purposes. “We just carried out a survey and one out of four people are happy to have a chip planted under their skin for very trivial uses for example to pass gates more quickly at a discotheque for example and to be able to pay for things more quickly in the supermarket,” said Professor August Wilhelm Scheer. “The willingness of the population to accept our technology is certainly given.”"
Privacy

German Data Retention Law Ruled Unconstitutional 129

Posted by Soulskill from the raise-a-stein dept.
mseeger writes "The German Federal Constitutional Court has ruled the country's current data retention law unconstitutional. All stored telephone and email communication data, previously kept for six months in case it was needed by law enforcement, now must be deleted as soon as possible. The court criticized the lack of data security and insufficient restrictions for access to the data. The president of the court said continuing to retain the data would 'cause a diffusely threatening feeling of being under observation that can diminish an unprejudiced perception of one's basic rights in many areas.' While it doesn't disallow data retention in general, the imposed restriction demands a complete reworking of the law." An anonymous reader contributes the Court's press release and more information on the ruling, both in German.

Submission + - Intel dangles cash to lure developers (infoworld.com)

Submitted by ccraigiw
ccraigiw writes: Intel is using cash incentives to lure mobile software developers to its AppUp Center application store, hoping to spur the development of new applications for netbooks with Atom microprocessors inside. The incentives, which Intel is calling the Million Dollar Development Fund, include payments of $500 to 250 developers between April 1 and April 14, and a bonus of $2 per download for 100 applications during the same period, up to $5,000 for free applications and $25,000 for paid applications. While netbooks have become popular among laptop users, there is little to differentiate them from larger laptops apart from their relatively underpowered processors, price, and smaller size. The AppUp Center is meant to change that, spurring the development of applications that will make netbooks more useful.
Programming

Submission + - "Logan's Run" syndrome in programming (infoworld.com)

Submitted by Ian Lamont
Ian Lamont writes: InfoWorld has an interesting analysis of the reasons behind the relative dearth of programmers over the age of 40. While some people may assume that the recession has provided a handy cover for age discrimination, a closer look suggests that it's the nature of IT itself to push its elderly workers out, in what the article describes as a "Logan's Run"-like marketplace. A bunch of factors are listed as reasons, including management's misunderstanding of the ways in which developers work:

Any developer can tell you that not all C or PHP or Java programmers are created equal; some are vastly more productive or creative. However, unless or until there is a way to explicitly demonstrate the productivity differential between a good programmer and a mediocre one, inexperienced or nontechnical hiring managers tend to look at resumes with an eye for youth, under the "more bang for the buck" theory. Cheaper young 'uns will work longer hours and produce more code. The very concept of viewing experience as an asset for raising productivity is a nonfactor — much to the detriment of the developer workplace.

Submission + - Superbowl tech ads, 1976 - present (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Ian Lamont
Ian Lamont writes: Computerworld has put together a collection of interesting, funny, and just plain weird Superbowl television advertisements from tech companies — exluding Internet retailers. Everyone has seen the Macintosh ad that played during the 1984 Superbowl, but there are a bunch of other gems, starting with a long-winded ad for the Xerox 9200 from 1976. The funniest is probably EDS' "herding cats" ad from 2000, but there are some oddities, too, including a bizarre ad for Network Associates depicting a Russian nuclear missile launch, and a very dated ad for Sharp from the mid-1980s. Intel has one ad in the collection from 1997, and it turns out that it is returning with two ads this year that it says feature "geek humor".
Security

Submission + - Can you trust Chinese computer equipment? (itworld.com)

Submitted by Ian Lamont
Ian Lamont writes: Suspicions about China slipping eavesdropping technology into computer exports have been around for years. But the recent Chinese spying attacks on Google and other Internet companies have revived the hardware spying concerns. An IT World blogger suggests the gear can't be trusted, noting that it wouldn't be hard to add security holes to the firmware of Chinese-made USB memory sticks, computers, hard drives, and cameras. He also implies that running automatic checks for data of interest in the compromised gear would not be difficult.

Slashdot Top Deals

Get hold of portable property. -- Charles Dickens, "Great Expectations"

Close