xkcd, Devotion To Duty 167
xkcd really hit the nail on the head today.
Robots To Clear the Baltic Seafloor of WW-II Mines 286
An anonymous reader writes "A Russian company is building a massive natural gas pipeline that will run across the Baltic Sea floor. But first, they must clear some of the 150,000 unexploded bombs sitting at the bottom of the sea, left there by the Russian and German armies in the 1940s. About 70 of these mines, each filled with 300 kg of explosive charge, sit in the pipeline's path, mostly in its northern section just south of Finland. And so the company contracted to remove the mines is bringing in robots to do the dirty work. Here's how it will work: A research ship deploys the robot to the seabed, where it identifies the exact location of the explosive. After sounding a warning to surrounding ship traffic, scaring fish away using a small explosive, and then emitting a 'seal screamer' of high intensity noises designed to make the area around the blast quite uncomfortable for marine mammals, Bactec's engineers erupt a 5 kg blast, forcing the mine to detonate. This process ensures the safety of humans plus any animals living in the surrounding environment. The operation concludes with the robot being redeployed to clear up the scrap of the now-destroyed bomb."
Measuring the Speed of Light With Valentine's Day Chocolate 126
Cytotoxic writes "What to do with all of those leftover Valentine's Day chocolates? — a common problem for the Slashdot crowd. The folks over at Wired magazine have an answer for you in a nice article showing how to measure the speed of light with a microwave and some chocolate. A simple yet surprisingly accurate method that can be used to introduce the scientific method to children and others in need of a scientific education."
Breaking the Squid Barrier 126
An anonymous reader writes "Dr. Steve O'Shea of Auckland, New Zealand is attempting to break the record for keeping deep sea squid alive in captivity, with the goal of being able to raise a giant squid one day. Right now, he's raising the broad squid, sepioteuthis australis, from egg masses found in seaweed. This is a lot harder than it sounds, because the squid he's studying grow rapidly and eat only live prey, making it hard for them to keep the squid from becoming prey themselves. If his research works out, you might one day be able to visit an aquarium and see giant squid."
Comment Your fields aren't short-term. (Score 1) 366
Counseling and Networking/Telecom are not "short term" one week fields - Networking and Counseling are not like medicine where you can do quick meatball surgery and fix immediate problems.
For your wife to be of any value she would need to form a therapeutic relationship with people, which takes time and trust. This won't happen in a week, and such short term "counseling" may end up doing more harm than good.
For you to do any good you would need to engineer a solution to some problem (could take more than a week in itself) and be available to help with deployment, which could stretch into months or longer depending on the scale of the project.
If you want to volunteer I suggest finding local causes - Your wife could work a crisis center hotline one night a week, and you could volunteer at a local non-profit that needs the networking help but can't afford a full-time guy.
If you want to help out a stricken region but can't commit to a month or longer I think your money is more useful than your time (and probably tax-deductible).
Comment Shortsighted Thread is Shortsighted (Score 3, Insightful) 366
Most of the rescue work to be done in Haiti is done - Finding people at this point is now recovery. At this point the range of "professionals" needed is much broader than you or the grandparent imply.
- Medical personnel are needed for the ongoing care of the injured Many of those there now are volunteers, new volunteers will be needed when those currently in the field need to return home to earn a living.
Construction and Demolition specialists are needed to repair (or demolish and rebuild) structures.
- Infrastructure specialists (power, plumbing, roads & telecom) are needed to rebuild what was destroyed.
- Counselors are needed to help people deal with the shock, and in many cases tragic loss.
For many of the people in those categories Haiti will be their first "real" disaster scene. Others may have previous experience and volunteer to help even though their "day job" isn't rebuilding nations after a catastrophic event.
While I agree that people should only go into a disaster area like Haiti as part of an organized recovery effort I don't believe the "Don't go there because you don't work for [insert disaster group]" attitude this post and the grandparent take is at all productive - These organizations do not have the manpower or expertise to do it all themselves.
Just my $3.50 as someone who has gone in after fires and floods to bring skeleton infrastructure up and support further recovery.
Comment Re:Stunt (Score 1) 538
Cute and smart-funny. I'll fight ya for him :-P
Comment Take BOTH courses, in the order you listed them. (Score 2, Insightful) 466
You should probably take both of these courses: requirements aside, both are important for a truly solid CS education.
Take Discrete Structures first, especially since it has graph theory rolled into it. This will be more directly applicable to your CS coursework as discrete math and graph theory pop up EVERYWHERE, and when you get out into the real world you'll benefit from a solid understanding of these concepts.
Math Analysis will be useful too, as will the linear algebra components that seem to be buried in that class somewhere.
As others have said, make sure you get a good professor. Sit in on a lecture if they'll let you. A dull, droning, Ben Stein type teaching either of those courses will cure your insomnia, but your GPA will suffer.
Final word of wisdom: Do not take the advice of a random (non-CS) teaching assistant, "general" academic advisor, or (ESPECIALLY) Slashdot. They're idiots (even me). Talk to other students, professors in your department or your major advisor for course order recommendations.
Take Discrete Structures first, especially since it has graph theory rolled into it. This will be more directly applicable to your CS coursework as discrete math and graph theory pop up EVERYWHERE, and when you get out into the real world you'll benefit from a solid understanding of these concepts.
Math Analysis will be useful too, as will the linear algebra components that seem to be buried in that class somewhere.
As others have said, make sure you get a good professor. Sit in on a lecture if they'll let you. A dull, droning, Ben Stein type teaching either of those courses will cure your insomnia, but your GPA will suffer.
Final word of wisdom: Do not take the advice of a random (non-CS) teaching assistant, "general" academic advisor, or (ESPECIALLY) Slashdot. They're idiots (even me). Talk to other students, professors in your department or your major advisor for course order recommendations.
Comment Defining a "closed container" (Score 1) 161
Over-simplifying for the scope of the decision:
A woman's purse with the zipper shut is a closed container. If said woman is arrested police have the right to search her handbag *incident to her arrest*, *assuming probably cause*.
The Ohio Supreme Court decision says that the contents of your cell phone don't fall into that category - i.e. your cell phone is not just a box filled with "data" but rather falls under the 4th amendment's "papers and effects" scope.
(Of course the woman who just had her tampons and birth control pills dumped out on the hood of a police cruiser could argue the same Re: her purse -- the difference being you might have a knife/gun/etc. in the purse)
A woman's purse with the zipper shut is a closed container. If said woman is arrested police have the right to search her handbag *incident to her arrest*, *assuming probably cause*.
The Ohio Supreme Court decision says that the contents of your cell phone don't fall into that category - i.e. your cell phone is not just a box filled with "data" but rather falls under the 4th amendment's "papers and effects" scope.
(Of course the woman who just had her tampons and birth control pills dumped out on the hood of a police cruiser could argue the same Re: her purse -- the difference being you might have a knife/gun/etc. in the purse)
The Struggle For Private Game Servers 125
A story at the BBC takes a look at the use of private game servers for games that tend not to allow them. While most gamers are happy to let companies like Blizzard and NCSoft administer the servers that host their MMORPGs, others want different rules, a cheaper way to play, or the technical challenge of setting up their own. A South African player called Hendrick put up his own WoW server because the game "wasn't available in the country at the time." A 21-year-old Swede created a server called Epilogue, which "had strict codes of conduct and rules, as well as a high degree of customized content (such as new currency, methods of earning experience, the ability to construct buildings and hire non-player characters, plus 'permanent' player death) unavailable in the retail version of the game." The game companies make an effort to quash these servers when they can, though it's frequently more trouble that it's worth. An NCSoft representative referenced the "growing menace" of IP theft, and a Blizzard spokesperson said,"We also have a responsibility to our players to ensure the integrity and reliability of their World of Warcraft gaming experience and that responsibility compels us to protect our rights."
Comment Ah my dear representative... (Score 1) 311
For the record as someone in Peter King's district:
Rep. King is a douche.
As a representative he is useless, his office staff is less than useless.
I'm *THRILLED* to see how he plans to waste^Wspend my tax dollars "look[ing] into [WikiLeaks]".
That's my only statement on the matter: I'm done. Ignore, Flame or Agree to your heart's content.
Rep. King is a douche.
As a representative he is useless, his office staff is less than useless.
I'm *THRILLED* to see how he plans to waste^Wspend my tax dollars "look[ing] into [WikiLeaks]".
That's my only statement on the matter: I'm done. Ignore, Flame or Agree to your heart's content.
Proton Beams Sent Around the LHC 115
feldhaus writes "The BBC reports that the first beams for over one year have been successfully sent around the complete circumference of the Large Hadron Collider. Engineers do not yet have a stable circulating beam but they hope to by 0600 GMT on Saturday."
Comment Well, why not? (Score 1) 541
He's managed to foster a global community (fractious and contentious though the wars between distributions may be) and I don't think that anyone can argue that a typical open-source developer conference looks a bit like the UN with all the disparate countries and cultures coming together to work on a common project.
Linux and the GNU bits have been picked up as THE standard for computing in low-income countries and regions - How many systems targeted at getting the poor, underdeveloped, etc. on the net are running Linux distributions under the hood?
I say give it to him -- seems like the above is worthy of recognition IMHO.
Linux and the GNU bits have been picked up as THE standard for computing in low-income countries and regions - How many systems targeted at getting the poor, underdeveloped, etc. on the net are running Linux distributions under the hood?
I say give it to him -- seems like the above is worthy of recognition IMHO.
Comment Don't need hackers... (Score 1) 359
... here in NY our power grid is blown up by the trifecta of evil: Rats, Squirrels and Wind.
If you want to spend trillions securing the infrastructure, make it rodent proof and bury it.
(California is on their own -- the "bury it" idea doesn't work too well when the ground moves...)
Comment Re:I am a Mac Fan... (Score 1) 557
yes dear... that was the funny part...
