mrflash818 - Slashdot User

Submission + - Sceptical climate researcher withholds code (newscientist.com) 1

Submitted by xav_jones on Wednesday December 23, 2009 @09:25PM

xav_jones writes: New Scientist is reporting that Nicola Scafetta, a physicist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina — whose work is often highlighted by climate-change sceptics, including US senator James Inhofe — is refusing to provide the software he used to other climate researchers attempting to replicate his results. Emails between Rasmus Benestad of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute in Oslo and Scafetta over the past week had Scaffetta repeatedly refusing to provide the code. "If you just disclose your code and data, then we will manage to get to the bottom of this," Benestad writes in one email. "I really do not understand why you are not able to write your own program to reproduce the calculations," responds Scafetta.

Submission + - An Open Source Compiler From CUDA to x86-Multicore (google.com)

Submitted by Gregory Diamos on Wednesday December 23, 2009 @09:58AM

Gregory Diamos writes: An open source project, Ocelot, has recently released a just-in-time compiler for CUDA, allowing the same programs to be run on NVIDIA GPUs or x86 CPUs and providing an alternative to OpenCL. A description of the compiler was recently posted on the NVIDIA forums. The compiler works by translating GPU instructions to LLVM and then generating native code for any LLVM target, it has been validated against over 100 CUDA applications. All of the code is available under the New BSD license.

Comment Six years in a cube, yep. (Score 1) 453

by mrflash818 on Tuesday December 22, 2009 @04:41PM (#30528604) Attached to: The US Economy Needs More "Cool" Nerds

"The fear is that if you pursue computer science, you will be stuck in a basement, writing code. That is absolutely not the reality."

I was a compuer-sciene major in college. I was a professional J2EE programmer from 1999 to 2005. My experience refutes that quote.

My experience from 1999 to 2005 was that I worked in a cube. Hardly ever worked under 45hrs/wk, and wrote code in a high-pressure environment.

The only time I was not in my cube was a few beginning meetings of a project, gathering requirements, writing use-cases, and such. I worked a lot. I got promoted. Then I started my family, and wanted to change my work/family time ratio. Felt compelled to get out of being at that job, and did so, in 2005.

Switched to IT at a nation-wide health care company. Stress was a bit less, but still 'heads down'. Finally got out of IT in 2008.

Comment Thanks to Debian, usually just ISO for ftp install (Score 2, Informative) 483

by mrflash818 on Tuesday December 22, 2009 @04:25PM (#30528364) Attached to: In total, I've downloaded X Linux ISOs, where X= ...

Thanks to Debian, I usually just 'sudo aptitude dist-upgrade'. That is what I did from ETCH to Lenny.

If that is not what I want, then at most I just have to download the ISO for doing a internet-download install, not ISOs for the whole distro.

Microsoft Ordered To Pay $290M, Stop Selling Word 272

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday December 22, 2009 @04:00PM from the not-a-troll dept.

Cytalk and other readers tipped us to Microsoft's loss in a US appeals court, in a patent case brought by Canadian company i4i. Microsoft must now pay $290M and either stop selling Word (and probably Office) by January 11, or somehow work around the patent by that date. A Seattle PI blog reports that Redmond has a few options left: "In a statement, Microsoft said it was working hard to comply with the injunction. The company also said it is considering further legal options, including possible requests for a new hearing or a writ of certiorari from the US Supreme Court." Update: 12/22 20:47 GMT by KD : Tim Bray has up a blog post explaining why it would be no great loss if Microsoft dropped the "custom XML" feature in dispute.
Update: 12/22 23:04 GMT by KD : Reader adeelarshad82 pointed out a statement released by Microsoft earlier today, which says in part: "We expect to have copies of Microsoft Word 2007 and Office 2007, with this feature removed, available for U.S. sale and distribution by the injunction date. In addition, the beta versions of Microsoft Word 2010 and Microsoft Office 2010, which are available now for downloading, do not contain the technology covered by the injunction."

Reducing One Amino Acid Could Increase Lifespan 286

Posted by timothy on Sunday December 06, 2009 @03:49AM from the for-compulsive-food-sorters dept.

John Bryson writes "Eating less of one amino acid might lengthen your life. There have been lots of previous studies showing that many species live long on highly restricted calories, but a lot of this benefit may be possible by only restricting one amino acid. Amino acids that have shown this have been tryptophan and methionine. A recent study, published online December 2 in Nature, a highly respected journal, may help explain some of the health benefits of restricted-calorie diets."

Microsoft's Top Devs Don't Seem To Like Own Tools 496

Posted by kdawson on Saturday November 28, 2009 @09:55PM from the frankly-speaking dept.

ericatcw writes "Through tools such as Visual Basic and Visual Studio, Microsoft may have done more than any other vendor to make drag and drop-style programming mainstream. But its superstar developers seem to prefer old-school modes of crafting code. During the panel at the Professional Developers Conference earlier this month, the devs also revealed why they think writing tight, bare-metal code will come back into fashion, and why parallel programming hasn't caught up with the processors yet." These guys are senior enough that they don't seem to need to watch what they say and how it aligns with Microsoft's product roadmap. They are also dead funny. Here's Jeffrey Snover on managed code (being pushed by Microsoft through its Common Language Runtime tech): "Managed code is like antilock brakes. You used to have to be a good driver on ice or you would die. Now you don't have to pump your brakes anymore." Snover also joked that programming is getting so abstract, developers will soon have to use Natal to "write programs through interpretative dance."

Intelsat Launches Hardware For Internet Routing From Space 83

Posted by timothy on Tuesday November 24, 2009 @10:01AM from the distinguish-from-other-talking-birds dept.

coondoggie writes "A radiation-proof Cisco router was sent into space today aboard an Intelsat satellite with the goal of setting up military communications from space. The router/satellite combo is a key part of the US Department of Defense's Internet Routing In Space (IRIS) project, which aims to route IP voice, video and data traffic between satellites in space in much the same way packets are moved on the ground, reducing delays, saving on capacity and offering greater network flexibility, Cisco stated."

Solar-Powered Plane Makes Runway Debut 120

Posted by timothy on Tuesday November 24, 2009 @03:52AM from the endless-summer dept.

MikeChino writes "The much-hyped Solar Impulse airplane just completed its first runway test, paving the way for a 20-to-25-day trip around the world next year. Conceived by Bertrand Piccard, the single-pilot plane successfully used its four solar powered motors to taxi around the runway. If all goes according to plan the plane will be able to fly day and night without fuel, signaling a bright future for solar-powered flight."

Fedora 12 Released 236

Posted by timothy on Tuesday November 17, 2009 @02:30PM from the new-hat-for-the-holidays dept.

AdamWill writes "The Fedora Project is pleased to announce the release of Fedora 12 today. With all the latest open source software and major improvements to graphics support, networking, virtualization and more, Fedora 12 is one of the most exciting releases so far. You can download it here. There's a one-page guide to the new release for those in a hurry. The full release announcement has details on the major features, and the release notes contain comprehensive information on changes in this new release. Known issues are documented on the common bugs page."

CERN Physicist Warns About Uranium Shortage 581

Posted by timothy on Tuesday November 17, 2009 @11:24AM from the switch-to-geraniums dept.

eldavojohn writes "Uranium mines provide us with 40,000 tons of uranium each year. Sounds like that ought to be enough for anyone, but it comes up about 25,000 tons short of what we consume yearly in our nuclear power plants. The difference is made up by stockpiles, reprocessed fuel and re-enriched uranium — which should be completely used up by 2013. And the problem with just opening more uranium mines is that nobody really knows where to go for the next big uranium lode. Dr. Michael Dittmar has been warning us for some time about the coming shortage (PDF) and has recently uploaded a four-part comprehensive report on the future of nuclear energy and how socioeconomic change is exacerbating the effect this coming shortage will have on our power consumption. Although not quite on par with zombie apocalypse, Dr. Dittmar's final conclusions paint a dire picture, stating that options like large-scale commercial fission breeder reactors are not an option by 2013 and 'no matter how far into the future we may look, nuclear fusion as an energy source is even less probable than large-scale breeder reactors, for the accumulated knowledge on this subject is already sufficient to say that commercial fusion power will never become a reality.'"

Comment Yep, good old EROEI is the true take away (Score 1) 720

by mrflash818 on Wednesday November 11, 2009 @03:17AM (#30057172) Attached to: Whistleblower Claims IEA Is Downplaying Peak Oil

"If there really isn't much oil left, then oil will slowly become more and more expensive as the remaining oil becomes harder and harder to extract."

Once the Energy Return On Energy Invested becomes too small a ratio, that is when people truly start to feel the pain of bad things are happening or have already happened.
***
"The running average EROI for the finding and production of US domestic oil has dropped from greater than 100 kilojoule returned per kilojoule invested in the 1930s to about 30 to 1 in the 1970s to between 11 and 18 to 1 today. This is a consequence of decreasing energy returns as oil reservoirs are depleted and as energy costs increase as exploration and development are shifted deeper and offshore (Cleveland et al. 1984, Hall et al. 1986, Cleveland 2004)." quoted from http://netenergy.theoildrum.com/node/4678

Whistleblower Claims IEA Is Downplaying Peak Oil 720

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday November 10, 2009 @04:25PM from the routine-denial dept.

Yesterday the Guardian ran a story based on two anonymous sources inside the International Energy Agency who claimed that the agency had distorted key figures on oil reserves. "The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit, according to a whistleblower at the [IEA] who claims it has been deliberately underplaying a looming shortage for fear of triggering panic buying. The senior official claims the US has played an influential role in encouraging the watchdog to underplay the rate of decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves." Today the IEA released its annual energy outlook and rejected the whistleblowers' charges. The Guardian has an editorial claiming that the economic establishment is too fearful to come clean on the reality of oil suppplies, and makes an analogy with the (marginalized, demonized) economists who warned of a coming economic collapse in 2007.

10% of US Energy Derived From Old Soviet Nukes 213

Posted by timothy on Tuesday November 10, 2009 @12:49PM from the what-about-the-peak-nukes-problem dept.

Nrbelex writes "The New York Times reports that about 10 percent of electricity generated in the United States comes from fuel from dismantled nuclear bombs, mostly Russian. 'It's a great, easy source' of fuel, said Marina V. Alekseyenkova, an analyst at Renaissance Bank and an expert in the Russian nuclear industry that has profited from the arrangement since the end of the cold war. But if more diluted weapons-grade uranium isn't secured soon, the pipeline could run dry, with ramifications for consumers, as well as some American utilities and their Russian suppliers.'"

N.Y. AG Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Intel 169

Posted by timothy on Wednesday November 04, 2009 @03:50PM from the monopoly-on-legal-use-of-force dept.

CWmike writes "New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against microprocessor maker Intel, alleging that the company engaged in a 'systematic campaign' of illegal conduct to protect a monopoly. Cuomo's lawsuit alleges that Intel extracted exclusive agreements from large computer makers and threatened to punish those perceived to be working too closely with Intel competitors. Intel gave computer makers payments totaling billions of dollars in exchange for the exclusive agreements, and the company threatened to cut off payments to computer makers or fund their competitors when they worked with other microprocessor makers, the lawsuit alleged. Cuomo's lawsuit comes less than two weeks after news reports that the FTC is considering filing a formal complaint against Intel. 'Rather than compete fairly, Intel used bribery and coercion to maintain a stranglehold on the market,' Cuomo said in a statement. 'Intel's actions not only unfairly restricted potential competitors, but also hurt average consumers who were robbed of better products and lower prices. These illegal tactics must stop and competition must be restored to this vital marketplace.'"

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