172467
submission
165099
submission
tinpan writes:
I've got a communication problem. When non-technical managers ask me to explain technical choices, they often make choices I recommend against and they later regret. I can tell that they do not understand their choice because of how they are explaining things to each other, but they usually refuse further explanation.
So it's time for some education. I want to get better at communicating technical subjects to non-technical people. More accurately, I want to get better at helping non-technical people make better technical decisions and I'm willing to accept it may include some understanding of "selling your idea."
What books, online courses and/or seminars do you recommend and why?
157839
submission
DebNY writes:
Larry Downes, a fellow at the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society, says that in the digital age, there's no such thing as intellectual property. "The very idea of intellectual property, which covers the laws of patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets, is a fiction. Intellectual creations — ideas, techniques, characters, stories, methods — are not tangibles like parcels of land or barrels of oil. But these products of the mind are very valuable, and to encourage us to spend our time creating them, the law pretends they are a form of property, with the same kinds of rights, responsibilities and protections as physical property."
This approach, says Downes, may have worked well at the dawn of capitalism, "but only because stealing information was difficult." Since the Industrial Revolution, however, "technology has made the spread of information faster and cheaper, leading to sometimes vicious struggles over who gets to benefit financially from the new value technology makes possible...The cause of nearly all of today's intellectual property conflicts is information technology — it's IP law vs. Moore's Law."
Unfortunately, Downes concludes, "As technology advances and the law stays rooted firmly in the past, expect more billion dollar lawsuits."
106610
submission
Parallax Blue writes:
The BBC is reporting on a new study by UK researchers in Current Biology that suggests subliminal messages may register in the brain if it has 'spare capacity'.
Participants in the study were asked to carry out an easy task and a hard task while being flashed with everyday objects in one eye and a strong flashing image in the other. The strong flashing image cancelled out the images of everyday objects in the other eye so that the participants were unaware of them. When the participants were carrying out an easy task, the brain scan detected activity in the primary visual cortex, indicating the subliminal images did register. However, when carrying out the hard task there was no activity, indicating the images did not register.
The implications for such uses as subliminal advertising is interesting, suggesting that subliminal messages in ads may work. However, further studies will have to be done to evaluate the precise impact of subliminal words and images.
104852
submission
nunya_bizns writes:
Defective by Design has an open letter to Steve Jobs asking him to back his pledge on DRM by April 1.
http://www.defectivebydesign.org/actions/open_lett er/steve_jobs
103690
submission
PreacherTom writes:
Scientists at the NEC Research Institute in Princeton, NJ are reporting that they have broken the speed of light. For the experiment, the researchers manipulated a vapor of laser-irradiated atoms, causing a pulse that shoots about 300 times faster than it would take the pulse to go the same distance in a vacuum, to the point where the pulse seemed to exit the chamber before even entering it. Apparently, Uncle Albert is still resting comfortably: relativity only states that an object with mass cannot travel faster than light. Still, the results are sufficient to merit publication in the prestigious journal, Nature.
103544
submission
steverar writes:
If you're in IT and having "fun" making sure everything's (OS, phone system, patient monitors, Blackberries, etc. ) updated/patched for the new Daylight Saving Time change coming March 11th, please thank Rep. Ed Markey.
He sponsored and attached the amendment to the Energy Act of 2005.
Read about him here http://markey.house.gov/index.php?option=com_conte nt&task=view&id=2624&Itemid=141