67009257
submission
braindrainbahrain writes:
President Obama's announcement of an executive order to reform immigration was a big news item, but little was said about the order's impact on the technical workforce. “Are we a nation that educates the world’s best and brightest in our universities, only to send them home to create businesses in countries that compete against us?"
While there were no immediate changes to the H-1B visa system, there are changes to the Optional Practical Training and the National Interest Waiver programs that would make it easier for foreign workers to legally work in the U.S.
66705285
submission
braindrainbahrain writes:
... so maybe a rock star programmer needs one too. As described in this article, the 10X talent agency , which got started in the music business, isnot your typical head hunter/recruiter agency. "The company’s name comes from the idea, well established in the tech world, that the very best programmers are superstars, capable of achieving ten times the productivity of their merely competent colleagues."
64353673
submission
braindrainbahrain writes:
Now a private company, The International Telecommunications Satellite Consortium, aka Intelsat, is 50 years old this year. Created as an international organization with as many as 80 countries signing on, its mission was to bring “nations, and ultimately the world, together through communication and video” using new cutting edge space technology. The organization “bought people around the world to one organization with a common goal in an almost utopian concept”. “It looked like the United Nations”, said one member.
Satellite technology was in its infancy and the people at Intelsat had to make it all work. “We were doing something new; there was almost no precedent You were able to get bright people with a bag of tools but no experience”.
In our present day, accustomed as we are to instant news and communications worldwide, we forget the astonishment of people seeing things unfold in real time half a world away. The phrase “live via satellite” preceded broadcasts such as the 1969 moon landings and the 1978 World Cup. Intelsat even linked the White House and the Kremlin by the infamous hot line.
63186455
submission
braindrainbahrain writes:
NASA is seeking information on private businesses to provide telecommunications services to/from Mars. Seems that MAVEN (the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution space probe) is going to be the last spacecraft orbiting Mars for a while and when its gone, there will be no one left to relay communications between Earth and surface probes and rovers. Hence the need and opportunity for the private sector to step in and offer this service.
63128775
submission
braindrainbahrain writes:
NASA is seeking information on private businesses to provide telecommunications services to/from Mars. Seems that MAVEN (the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution space probe) is going to be the last spacecraft orbiting Mars for a while and when its gone, there will be no one left to relay communications between Earth and surface probes and rovers. Hence the need and opportunity for the private sector to step in and offer this service.
Now's your chance to contact your favorite VC to invest in this new adventure in the private space industry!
61576271
submission
braindrainbahrain writes:
In what is claimed to be (and probably is) the largest crowdsourced project ever, a group of students, advisors, and industry sponsors are planning to send a "time capsule" to Mars by charging 99 cents for each person that wants to upload a file, be it a photo, text, or what have you, to their website. They need to raise $25 million to pull this off (that's a lot of files!). The uploaded files will be loaded onto a small form factor satellite which will be launched to land on Mars and (hopefully) be found by explorers sometime in the future.
61049845
submission
braindrainbahrain writes:
An outfit in Massachusetts is poise to offer — no, make that "is offering" — consumer light bulbs based on induction technology, challenging the market share of LED and CFL light bulbs. Induction lighting, long used in industrial applications, was invented by none other than Nikola Tesla, and said Massachusetts company has miniaturized the technology enough to fit an implementation in a standard light bulb size.
57926703
submission
braindrainbahrain writes:
Gene Rush, a former division chief at NASA Johnson, is running a five-part series on how the US can return to the Moon in four years. And not just land there, but actually build a base on the Moon.
How is this feasible? Hint: A public/private partnership between NASA and and a private space travel company.
55552651
submission
braindrainbahrain writes:
To add to recent Slashdot discussions about the music business, there is one area of music sales that is growing, much to everyone's surprise.
That would be vinyl sales, yes, like your dad listened to (or maybe you did — get off my lawn!). Read TFA here
55220747
submission
braindrainbahrain writes:
Mars One, the low credibility effort to colonize Mars, is at least funding some interesting concept studies for their alleged plan to colonize the red planet. One of the most interesting is the effort to maintain uninterrupted communications with Mars. This is not as trivial as it may sound, as any satellite in Martian orbit will still have to deal with occultations between Mars and Earth due to the Sun. Surrey Satellite Technology will be performing the study.
54774069
submission
braindrainbahrain writes:
Slate magazine has written the story about the only work of art placed on the Moon , the Fallen Astronaut sculpture, placed on the Moon during the Apollo 15 mission to commemorate both American and Soviet deceased astronauts. The little statue, rather than bringing fame and fortune ended up being nearly forgotten and got both Apollo astronaut David Scott and Belgian sculptor Van Hoeydonck in hot water with the US government.
35084805
submission
braindrainbahrain writes:
Here we go again! A Slate author, who conveniently dodged science classes, is making the claim that "America Needs More Scientists and Engineers". Some choice quotes:
"I ducked organic chemistry for economics, real science for social science"
"Instead of paying smart kids reasonable wages to design drugs and engineer cars that benefit almost everyone, we’re paying them unreasonable wages to develop financial models that benefit almost no one."
The difference this time is that the site is open to ideas to increase the amount of scientists in the US. "If you’ve got a notion...for how American can mint more scientists"
OK, so we missed the deadline. So between us (a) How would you increase scientists in America and (b) Do we really need to increase the number of scientists in the first place?
33466515
submission
braindrainbahrain writes:
It must be great to be in cyber security! First, Lockheed Martin announces the win of a half billion dollar contract providing cyber security services to several government agencies. At the same time, a senior adviser for innovation at the State Department, has a piece of advice for students : "If any college student asked me what career would most assure 30 years of steady, well-paying employment...I would respond, cyber security.". The latter article goes on to discuss the shortage of cyber security professionals, how the government needs to hire at least 10,000 experts in the near future, and how the NSF is trying to promote an interest in computer science at the high school level.
So, for cyber security experts out there: Is this field really all roses? Do you get frequent calls from recruiters? Big raises? Retention bonuses? Or is this all a bunch of hooey?
31758429
submission
braindrainbahrain writes:
Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, has a facebook page in which he posts a short gripe about Comcast. Seems watching video through Xfinity is subsidized by Comcast by not counting towards your cap on your data plan. All other services, Netflix included, do.
T quote him:
"When I watch video on my Xbox from three of these four apps, it counts against my Comcast internet cap. When I watch through Comcast’s Xfinity app, however, it does not count against my Comcast internet cap
29733099
submission
braindrainbahrain writes:
Coincidence or conspiracy? Two new science fiction magazines have just been announced and they are both being published by more serious science publications. New Scientist magazine has announced the publication of Arc, "A new digital magazine about the future". Arc features such articles as "The best time travel movie ever made" and "The future of science fiction, games, galleries — and futurism". They are advertising new fact and fiction from the likes of Maragret Atwood and Alastair Reynold.
The MIT Technology Review has announced the TRSF, dubbed "the first installment of a to-be-annual 'hard' SF collection". Some authors: Joe Haldeman and Cory Doctorow.
As an interesting note, both publications will be printed on paper for the first ("collectable") issue only, all forthcoming ones will be e-books.
