Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Movies

Submission + - Helvetica: the movie

Submitted by roguelike
roguelike writes: According to the blurb, "Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which is celebrating its 50th birthday this year) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives." It finally premiered on the 13th at SXSW, and has received excellent reviews.
Education

Submission + - What Game Companies Want From Graduates

Submitted by simoniker
simoniker writes: Game education site Game Career Guide has a new feature talking to recruiters from notable game companies like EA, Insomniac Games, and THQ about the best university courses and qualifications for getting hired to be a game developer. In it, EA's Colleen McCreary notes that she feels "not all students are suited for the traditional academic experience and it's nice for those students to have options," though adds that EA encourages students "to pursue more traditional academic degrees that allow for an emphasis on game development." She also comments of the rise of some TV-advertised mass market 'game schools': "Our concern with for-profit institutions is that students may not learn the fundamental the tools for understanding and solving complex issues," she says. "We are most likely to hire someone who has a BFA or MFA from a traditional art college and a BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science for our entry level artist and software engineer positions."
Programming

Submission + - C# vs VB in the .Net Environment

Submitted by groslyunderpaid
groslyunderpaid writes: I work in a 75 employee company. We build our own Web Applications for in house use, and some of them are also presented on a company extranet for 400 Agents to use.

We are a Microsoft shop, and until now have been strictly VB .Net (using Visual Studio .Net 2003 w/ .Net 1.1).

The old web developers have left the company and new blood has been hired. The new guys are pleading for the ability to use C# instead of VB.

What are the advantages one language has over the other, and vice versa? For what reasons would you want to program in one instead of the other, or NOT program in one as opposed to the other? Are there any additional security concerns from a Systems Administrator position when allowing one over the other?
Software

Submission + - Orson Scott Card Joins Global Warming Debate

Submitted by
SeaDour
SeaDour writes: "Science-fiction author Orson Scott Card takes a critical (and rather lengthy) look at a report distributed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a UN agency. Nearly everyone heard about that on the news back in 1999 — the "hockey stick" report that appeared to show the Earth is in its warmest period over the last 1,000 years. Through some detective work, a researcher found the original FORTRAN program which crunched the numbers and discovered that the report used falsified data sets, adding more doubt to the already highly controversial findings. In fact, punching random numbers into the program "magically" produced the same exact graph every time. It seems the company that produced the report had a final result in mind when they began calculating their equations, and did whatever they possibly could to get that result even if the actual data never lined up. Is fair science even possible when the governments and organizations that give researchers their grants demand certain results that line up with their opinions?"
Businesses

Submission + - If you could do it all over, would you choose IT?

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Given some of the complaints against IT and software as careers (long hours, offshoring, visa workers, ageism, boring projects, etc...), what would you do differently if you could do it all over again? Knowing what you know now, would you choose the same college major and the same career?
Microsoft

Submission + - More woes for M$ - NIST don't want Vista either

Submitted by RockDoctor
RockDoctor writes: Dark Reading is reporting that technical managers at the American National Institute of Standards and Technology (whose title is unusually descriptive for a quango) are going to hold a meeting in mid-April where "According to the formal agenda for the meeting, NIST technology workers will attend a session entitled "Windows Vista Security" to discuss "the current ban of this operating system on NIST networks."
That's right folks — the "standard" operating system for computers these days (if you believe what the adverts say) is already banned by the people who set the standards.

You've almost got to feel sorry for them. Almost.
Education

Submission + - New York Times Blasts Gore Over Warming

Submitted by
Rei
Rei writes: "There has been a lot of buzz today over Al Gore: in the wake of revelations that his Tennessee mansion uses 12 to 20 times more energy than usual comes an assault in the New York Times over the accuracy of his film, "An Inconvenient Truth". The article's author quotes a number of scientists who are critical of some of his statements, and describe the film as "alarmism". Quick to the counterpunch is RealClimate.org, which has published a harsh rebuttal suggesting habitual dishonesty and deception of readers on the part of the article's author."
Security

Submission + - Phishers target CareerBuilder.com users

Submitted by
bednarz
bednarz writes: "There's a new phishing technique making waves. Attackers are launching targeted phishing scams from the job-related site CareerBuilder.com, according to one network manager who says his engineering firm recently had to combat phishing techniques that use the lure of phony online resumes. The way it works is an attacker sends e-mails to managers seeking job applicants, asking them in a cover letter to visit a Web site to view a resume provided via a link. If a manager clicks on the link, the Web site then attempts to execute a backdoor Trojan to compromise the machine. Network World has the story: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/031207-phish ing-careerbuilder.html"

Submission + - What Programming Languages Should You Know?

Submitted by nitsudima
nitsudima writes: David Chisnall posits that the more programming languages you know, the better. The point is not to stuff your head with language rules. Rather, he explains how being able to read multiple languages, even if you never code in them, can help you to select the best possible tool for each coding need — and understand the limitations of the tools you're using.
Star Wars Prequels

Submission + - New Mail Boxes Pay Tribute to Star Wars

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: With the 30th anniversary of Star Wars this year, the Postal Service has come up with a unique tribute: R2D2 mail boxes. Pictures of legions of them lined up can be found here.
Music

Submission + - RIAA now settling suits online

Submitted by Achan
Achan writes: The RIAA has set up a website where you can settle any lawsuits online. From the FAQ "What payment methods can I use? Payments can be made by check or credit card (MasterCard, Visa and Discover)."
Space

Submission + - 50 ways to kill an asteroid

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "It is almost certain that a big asteroid will one day land on Earth and provoke a huge catastrophe. This is why hundreds of scientists have attended the Planetary Defense Conference 2007, held this week in Washington, D.C., to try to develop plans to protect the Earth from such an asteroid. All these researchers have lots of ideas, some which look feasible, some not. Some of them want to destroy asteroids with nuclear weapons. Other scientists want to use a robotic tugboat to push a dangerous flying object out of the Earth's path. And others want to send unmanned robots to the asteroid, drill into it and send the debris into space to alter the course of the asteroid. And this is just a sample... Read more for additional details and an illustration showing one of the methods which could be used in the future to modify the orbit of an asteroid before it hits the Earth."
Robotics

Journal Journal: An Implication of the Zeroth Law of Robotics

Journal by Morosoph
Most of us will be familiar with Isaac Asimov's Laws of Robotics, which, by simple virtue of their popularity, are bound to have an influence upon robot design.

In practice, however, human nature being what it is, we are bound to create war machines. Even if we do not, we should make ourselves aware of an implication of the zeroth law:
Software

Submission + - What Bosses should know: software requirements

Submitted by
Esther Schindler
Esther Schindler writes: "CIO.com asked developers to name the ONE thing that they wished the CIO understood about software requirements. The summary is several pages long, but it pulls no punches: from the role of requirements, to defining who creates the requirements (and in how much detail), to the need to shake the boss to get him to understand that requirements change, to paying attention to the process. It's all here, in Five Things CIOs Should Know About Software Requirements, with a few dozen developer's voices loud and clear. For instance, one developer comments, "The CIO has to realize that if there is no bad news, there is something very wrong. Smiling people nodding 'Yes' in meetings is not a sign of great intelligence at work.""

Slashdot Top Deals

The earth is like a tiny grain of sand, only much, much heavier.

Close