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United States

Submission + - Is the US Suffering an Innovation 'Brain Drain'?

eldavojohn writes: "A recent article I read was looking for answers in the United States' drop in broadband rankings and proposed an 'innovation brain drain' as one of the reasons. Being an ego-centric American, I initially dismissed the idea but thought more about it and now am more curious as to what everyone else thinks. Do you think that the US is suffering from lack of innovation? If so, what's causing it? What's so different today from a period renowned for innovation? Poor schooling or grade inflation? Governing laws, regulations or patents? Economy? Growing difference in pay? A sense that everything is 'good enough' or lack of necessity? Political & military problems? I know I've read posters warning that the US is falling behind in several fields but I'd like to hear ideas why that is."
Education

Submission + - British Bad At Math(s)

soton_scruffy writes: The BBC are running a story about students being disuaded from studying mathematics, incase they screw up and bring their schools grade average down.

The worth of the "A Level" (Academic courses studied between the ages of 16 and 18) has been brought into question before with both pass marks and (absent) silabus material broought into question. It would seem that studying maths at A level is just too challengeing now.

The 15-16 course "GCSE" doesn't cover matrices or calculus... I wish I was kidding.

The Royal Society of Chemistry now laments that "Increasingly, universities are having to mount remedial sessions for incoming science undergraduates because their maths skills are so limited, with many having stopped formal lessons in mathematics two years earlier at the GCSE level." and as reported by this BBC story is offering a prize for a student who solves a very simple geometry question.

Me? I did Two A levels in maths, ten years ago, and it took me about five minutes to finish the puzzle.

Feed GiSTEQ PhotoTracker brings GPS phototagging to the masses (engadget.com)

Filed under: Digital Cameras, GPS


We've been seeing a bunch of GPS camera-trackers pop up lately, but the implementations have all seemed a bit silly, like Jelbert's big honkin' GeoTagger. GiSTEQ is looking to change all that with the introduction of the PhotoTracker, a $99 GPS receiver that's designed to unobtrusively work with virtually all digital cameras. Like Sony's GPS-CS1, you sync the unit to your cam's built-in clock and then toss it in your bag or pocket, where it can record location data for the next 3-4 weeks. The included software then takes this info and adds the appropriate geotags to your photos as you're pulling them off your memory card. It's a simple (and great) idea, we just wish the software didn't look like it's going to insist on being your primary photo manager.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!


Feed Semiconductor Production 101 (pheedo.com)

It takes over 300 individual production steps to make a microprocessor out of sand. We look at the fundamentals of what is involved.

Television

Submission + - HD-DVD Wins?

Bizzeh writes: "
There is one retailer that has the power to call the winner of the protracted Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD fight and that vendor is Wal-Mart. Over the weekend they apparently leaked plans to bring in a massive number of low cost (possibly sub $200) HD DVD players for Christmas. The manufacturing side of this has apparently been in the works for a few years but this is the first time we have had projected prices for the result.
Read more
If this isnt a nail in Blu-ray's coffin, i dont know what is."
Mozilla

Must-Have Extensions for Thunderbird 2.0 262

Operator writes "While Firefox has been in the spotlight for some time now, Thunderbird has yet to enjoy the same wide adoption or glowing praise despite being an excellent email client. It's no surprise that a popular topic has been Firefox's best (and worst) extensions while Thunderbird add-ons have gone largely unnoticed. In celebration of the recent release of Thunderbird 2.0 here are the best extensions for the program along with some honorable mentions."
Slashdot.org

Submission + - CollabNet buys SourceForge Enterprise Edition

rca66 writes: Yesterday CollabNet and VA Software announced in a press release, that CollabNet will take over the SourceForge Enterprise Edition Business from VA Software. As part of this deal several employess from VA Sofware will change to CollabNet. CollabNet is specialized on the development of distributed applications and supports the Open Source project Subversion. VA Software will concentrate on the the online media of its subsidiary OSTG, which owns Slashdot, SourceForge, NewsForge, Linux.com and Freshmeat.
Mozilla

Help Make Firefox On Mac Suck Less 375

bluephone writes "Colin Barrett, one of the new Mac geniuses, and an Adium developer, has posted an entry on his blog offering an open call to all Mac users of Firefox asking them, 'What sucks about Firefox on the Mac?' He says he already knows about and is trying to solve such things as: 'Native Form Widgets (currently scheduled for Firefox 3), Keychain Integration, Firefox should have a Unified toolbar (not completely hopeless, it turns out), Performance...', but he wants to hear what else Mac users want from Firefox. So please, if you're a user of Macs and the interwebs, then RTFA, unclog your tubes, and send him your ideas."
Security

Submission + - Internet Security About Prevention

An anonymous reader writes: An anti-malware application is just as good as its resident shield. Anything that gets past an active resident shield will seldom be detected by any anti-malware protection system. More...
Education

Submission + - Failing students? Change the grade

EvilTwinSkippy writes: "The Philadelphia Inquirer has the story of one principal's crusade to turn a school around. It involved inventing extra paperwork teachers had to file to fail a student. When that failed, she simply went into he computer and changed the grades herself. With No Child Left Behind's emphasis on school performance, you have to wonder how often this is happening and teacher's don't blow the whistle. Especially in lights of the fact that the article mentioned this has happend before, in the same district."

Feed Smarter people are no better off (pheedo.com)

Contrary to common expectation, intelligence does not always predict financial wellbeing, and neither does it protect people from financial difficulty

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