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Power

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Micron-Gap Thermo-Photovoltaics (semimd.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A question for the physics geeks: Is the science behind this company's technology rooted in reality, or is it another case of too-good-to-be-true electricity generation?
Security

Submission + - Unabomber Kaczynski's property raises $232K (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "The US Marshals today said the online auction of the personal effects of Ted Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber, raised $232,246 which will be divvied up among to Kaczynski's victims. The Marshals office said the most expensive lot, which sold for $40,676 consisted of approximately 20 personal journals, which describe in diary fashion Kaczynski's thoughts and feelings about himself, society and living in the wilderness. They also include admissions to specific bombings and other crimes."
Security

Submission + - Beware Skype Spam Scarecalls (itworld.com)

Submitted by
itwbennett
itwbennett writes: "Blogger Dan Tynan got a Skype call the other day from 'Online Help' warning him that a virus had infected his PC. Naturally, his next steps were to blog the number, report it, and then start digging. He found more than 100 callers who use the name 'Online Help', dozens of which were obviously spammy. The question is, what is Skype doing about the problem? 'I reported several of these numbers as abusive two days ago,' says Tynan. 'Yet when I search today there are more of them, not less.'"
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft and Nvidia Have Acquisition Pact (informationweek.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Infoweek is reporting that Microsoft has obtained the exclusive right to match any buyout offers for Nvidia. The obscure pact was uncovered in SEC documents, and apparently stems from Microsoft's licensing of Nvidia chips for the Xbox. But its real value now lies in the fact that Nvidia has become a major player in tablet chips, including chips for Windows 8 slates.
Graphics

Submission + - What Makes a Photograph Memorable?

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Anne Trafton writes in MIT News that next time you go on vacation, you may want to think twice before shooting hundreds of photos of that scenic mountain or lake because researchers have developed a computer algorithm that can rank images based on memorability and found that in general, images with people in them are the most memorable, followed by images of human-scale space — such as the produce aisle of a grocery store — and close-ups of objects. Least memorable are natural landscapes. Researchers built a collection of about 10,000 images of all kinds for the study — interior-design photos, nature scenes, streetscapes and others and human subjects who participated through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk program were told to indicate, by pressing a key on their keyboard, when an image appeared that they had already seen. The researchers then used machine-learning techniques to create a computational model that analyzed the images and their memorability as rated by humans by analyzing various statistics — such as color, or the distribution of edges — and correlated them with the image’s memorability. “There has been a lot of work in trying to understand what makes an image interesting, or appealing, or what makes people like a particular image," says Alexei Efros at Carnegie Mellon University. “What [the MIT researchers] did was basically approach the problem from a very scientific point of view and say that one thing we can measure is memorability.” Researchers believe the algorithm may be useful to graphic designers, photo editors, or anyone trying to decide which of their vacation photos to post on Facebook (PDF)."
China

Submission + - China calls US culprit in global 'Internet war' (cbsnews.com) 1

Submitted by sticky.pirate
sticky.pirate writes: From the article:

The Chinese military accused the U.S. on Friday of launching a global "Internet war" to bring down Arab and other governments, redirecting the spotlight away from allegations of major online attacks on Western targets originating in China.
Government

Submission + - US House Wants To Cut $270 Million From TSA Budget (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Republican-controlled House approved legislation Thursday that would cut funding for transportation security officers, the men and women on the front line of aviation safety. The 219 to 204 vote approved cutting the Transportation Security Administration’s budget by $270 million, according to Democrats and union leaders. ... the House also voted 218 to 205 to prevent TSA from collective bargaining with its workers. Both measures were contained in a $42.3 billion homeland security budget bill for fiscal year 2012, which the House passed 231 to 188. Union leaders hope that the Senate, which labor-friendly Democrats control, will reject the two amendments."

Comment Productivity be Damned. (Score 1) 1002

by Alanbly (#36144748) Attached to: Do Developers Really Need a Second Monitor?
The best argument for a second monitor is that developers aren't constantly productive. Tests take time to run, code takes time to compile. If I'm using the same monitor to compile as to read email (or /.) for example, how long will it take me notice the compile/test has completed? It's close to instantaneous if the compile is running on a different screen. If it saves me 30 seconds a compile that's a few minutes a day every day. So having the second monitor pays it self off quickly without any productivity gains based on real estate. Now, personally, I find that there are real gains as I alternate between programming on my single monitor with multiple workspaces at home and my dual screen setup at work. But either way the extra monitor adds value.

Comment Assuming you absolutely have to use Windows... (Score 5, Interesting) 427

by Alanbly (#36052872) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Moving From *nix To Windows Automation?
When I was working in Software Quality Assurance we had a lot of luck with Mercury Quick Test Pro and Test Batch Runner. They have a solid recording interface than can be coded manually (in VBScript.Net but what can you do?). Integrated fabulously with C# .Net code for doing black-box and grey-box testing. I'd also suggest Symantec Ghost for setting up test systems.

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