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NASA

Submission + - SPAM: NASA spends $12M to keep advanced aircraft apart

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "NASA this week awarded $12 million worth of research contracts to two companies to study how new aircraft, such as very light jets, super heavy transports, unmanned airplanes, supersonic transports, vertical and short landing and takeoff (V/STOL) aircraft and private space launches, will impact the nation's air traffic control system. Raytheon and Sensis will get $6 million contracts each to simulate, model and develop recommendations for how to best manage the safety, flight characteristics and overall impact these mostly futuristic aircraft will have on United States airspace. Some of these aircraft are of course already having an impact on current air traffic systems. [spam URL stripped]"
Link to Original Source
Social Networks

Submission + - When Social Networks Attack: Obama Supporters Turn (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
CWmike
CWmike writes: "A group of more than 20,000 supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama have used his official social network to organize an online protest against Obama's support of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act (FISA). The act would continue the controversial surveillance of e-mail and phone calls by the U.S. National Security Agency started after Sept. 11 and would likely end lawsuits against the telecommunications carriers that participated in the program."
Networking

Submission + - SPAM: NSFnet : 20 years of Internet obscurity, insight

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "The National Science Foundation (NSF) reissued the words that started the Internet revolution 20 years ago today: "The NSFnet Backbone has reached a state where we would like to more officially let operational traffic on." That was the email sent to users of the NSF's fledgling NSFnet to announce that the network's backbone had been upgraded to a "blazing T-1 speed." NSFnet was created by NSF a few years earlier in an attempt to create a computer network similar to the Department of Defense's ARPANET. When the original six-node, 56 kilobits-per-second NSFnet backbone went into operation in 1986, NSF made the decision to allow any academic, governmental or commercial entity to hook up to this network of networks. Within a few weeks of going online, traffic on the new network began doubling every few weeks. The network's backbone of core 56 kilobits-per-second connections were considered fast, but they were not fast enough to satisfy the demands of all the new users who were coming online, according to the NSF. [spam URL stripped]"
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The Internet

Submission + - SPAM: How social networking saved New Orleans

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "If there is any doubt to the power of social media, social networking and social software, then nonbelievers may need to Think New Orleans. In a powerful presentation on the marriage of software tools and crowds of people in desperate need of organization around a cause, Alan Gutierrez of the nonprofit group Think New Orleans detailed an inspiring post-Hurricane Katrina story of how a crash course in social networking helped people emerge from the rubble; find their voice; fight the government; solicit help; and save their neighborhoods, schools and each other. At the annual Burton Group conference, Gutierrez, a self-described underemployed programmer looking to lend his considerable talent to nonprofit causes, told a story he entitled "Innovating Your Way Out of Total System Failure" to highlight how citizens in a handful of the hardest-hit neighborhoods used ingenuity, creativity, digital cameras, Flickr, WordPress, Google Maps and Yahoo Groups to bend rebuilding efforts to the will of the people and away from the wrecking balls swung by city government. [spam URL stripped]"
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Graphics

Submission + - NVIDIA Responds To GPU PhysX Cheating Allegations (hothardware.com)

Submitted by
MojoKid
MojoKid writes: "There's no shortage of drama in the Desktop Graphics industry, with bitter rivals NVIDIA and AMD-ATI taking shots at each other at any opportunity. Recently, allegations surfaced that NVIDIA was cheating with driver optimizations that change workloads in benchmarks, specifically Futuremark's 3DMark Vantage. However, in this interview with NVIDIA Developer Relations, as well as Futuremark's President and Mark Rein of Epic Games, it appears NVIDIA's new PhysX port to their GPU products in the form of a beta driver release, is pretty much on the level, whether you're a game developer looking to implement better physics in games or from the end user perspective."
Microsoft

Submission + - Is Ballmer the Right Man for Microsoft? (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
CWmike
CWmike writes: "Ballmer and Gates have been joined at the hip, but once Gates leaves as a full-time employee, Ballmer told the WSJ: "I'm not going to need him for anything. That's the principle ... Use him, yes, need him, no." Meanwhile, Ballmer said this month that he plans to run Microsoft for another nine or 10 years. He will be 62 years old in 2018, and if he's still running Microsoft then, he will have been atop the company for 18 years — an extremely long run compared to most Fortune 500 CEOs. Some think he's sill got it: "Ballmer is a competition addict," noted journalist Fredric Alan Maxwell, author of the 2002 unauthorized biography "Bad Boy Ballmer". "I see him giving up the helm akin to Charlton Heston giving up his gun — 'from my cold, dead hands.'" Others are not so sure that cuts it: "Why hasn't Microsoft caught Google? Why has Steve Jobs clawed his way out of his grave to be adored once again?" asks Forrester CEO George Colony in a recent blog post. "It's because Gates over the last five years has moved on to philanthropy — and taken his formidable legacy with him." Computerworld blogger Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols made his feelings know with Five reasons to fire Ballmer. What do you think (read and weigh in)? Is Ballmer the right man for Microsoft — for another 10 years?"
Programming

Bjarne Stroustrup Reveals All On C++ 371

Posted by CmdrTaco from the still-secrets-after-all-these-years dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Bjarne Stroustrup, the creative force behind one of the most widely used and successful programming languages — C++ — is featured in an in-depth 8-page interview where he reveals everything programmers and software engineers should know about C++; its history, what it was intended to do, where it is at now, and of course what all good code-writers should think about when using the language he created."
Windows

Submission + - No XP Reprieve, But Windows 7 Release Set (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
CWmike
CWmike writes: "Microsoft has laid to rest rumors that it might reconsider pulling Windows XP from retail shelves and from most PC makers next Monday. Microsoft's Bill Veghte wrote to customers reiterating that June 30 would be the deadline when Microsoft halts shipments of boxed copies to retailers and stops licensing the operating system directly to major computer manufacturers, or OEMs. However, Veghte did leave the door open to all computer makers, even the largest, who want to continue selling new PCs with XP preinstalled. "Additionally, Systems Builders (sometimes referred to as 'local OEMs'), may continue to purchase Windows XP through Authorized Distributors through January 31, 2009," he wrote in the letter, repeating an existing policy that lets small computer builders obtain XP from dealers like Ingram Micro Inc. "All OEMs, including major OEMs, have this option," said Veghte. At the same time, Microsoft confirmed Windows 7 would ship in January of 2010. Who, if they have not already, would install Vista now?"
The Military

Submission + - SPAM: DARPA looking for wicked cool researchers

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "If you are looking to develop some far out advanced science project — and the folks at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency have a ton from airplanes that can fly for years without landing to skeletal putty for fractured bones — then DARPA wants you. The military's cutting edge research agency is accepting scientists for its Computer Science Study Group (CSSG) who's goal is to quickly identify ideas in the field of computer science that DARPA says will provide revolutionary advances to the Department of Defense (DoD). The CSSG has as you might guess, a wide and varied list of projects it would like to see, everyhing from biometrics and complexity theory to network management and Smart Surveillance Systems to name a few. [spam URL stripped]"
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