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Businesses

Submission + - Computerworld's 2007 IT Salary Report (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
jcatcw
jcatcw writes: "Computerworld's 21 Annual Salary Survey has some good news and some bad. The good news is that salaries are going up at a more rapid pace than they have been in the past few years. The bad news is that not everyone in IT is getting those benefits. Use the Smart Salary Tool 2007 for easy comparisons across regions, industries and job titles. According to the survey, application development skills are in greatest demand by hiring managers. Survey respondents said writing and public speaking are two of the most important soft skills they look for when hiring new employees."
The Military

Journal SPAM: Chinese sub pops up in middle of U.S. Navy exercise 20

Journal by Jeremiah Cornelius

One Nato figure said the effect was "as big a shock as the Russians launching Sputnik." American military chiefs have been left dumbstruck by an undetected Chinese submarine popping up at the heart of a recent Pacific exercise and close to the vast U.S.S. Kitty Hawk. By the time it surfaced the 160ft Song Class diesel-electric attack submarine sailed within viable range fo
Security

Submission + - Garments glowing in the dark

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "Knitting specialists at the University of Manchester have developed high-tech battery-powered textile yarns that could be used to make clothing glow in the dark. These yarns could soon be integrated into clothing worn by cyclists, joggers, outdoor workers and pedestrians. These garments would be safer for users than current clothing used by emergency services which need external light sources to make them visible. Read more for additional references and a picture of a EL yarn garment worn by a dummy close to a blurred person."
Links

Submission + - Worldwide Hop Shortage (makebeerathome.info)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: http://makebeerathome.info/homebrew-articles/41-articles/164-hop-shotage Will Homebrewer's get hopping mad or smile over the brew kettle? Back in October of this year the news of an impending hop shortage claimed that prices will skyrocket for their favorite craft brew and that the price of hops in general would rise to all-time highs. If you are a micro/craft brewer perhaps the situation of the world hop market should be taken very seriously. If you are a homebrewer, how will this affect you?
Patents

Submission + - MPEG LA: "Vizio HDTV success from patent viola

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: A recent article in the Wash Post talked about Vizio's fast rise to the top of HDTV sales. Larry Horn, CEO of MPEG LA claims "that unlike other manufacturers mentioned (Samsung, Philips, Sony and Sharp), Vizio reduces costs in part by failing to pay for a license under patents enabling the core digital compression technology used in all high-definition televisions, including its own.

What's more, it encouraged the unauthorized use of intellectual property, which in this case is readily available to all high-definition television suppliers, including Vizio, on fair, reasonable nondiscriminatory terms."

Is MPEG LA a patent troll? Is Larry upset because Vizio is using someone else's HD technology? If a violation is occuring where's the lawsuit?
Google

Submission + - Google to hire Theo de Raadt

Submitted by
pauamse
pauamse writes: "A very funny story. The email address seems not to be from a troll, but from an actual google employee


David Mack
per a misc@openbsd.org
data 13/10/2007 02:23
assumpte Google employment opportunity
enviat-per openbsd.org
Hi Theo,

My name is David Mack, and I am a recruiter for the Google.com engineering
team, a dynamic, challenging and fun group, which is responsible for our
Google website, from start to finish.

While doing a search for a specific skill set, I found your contact
information on-line and I wanted to contact you to see if you may be
interested in learning more about opportunities with us. You seem like you
might be a great fit here at Google.

We have a number of exciting projects going on throughout the company in a
number of different locations. Just wanted to see if you might be interested
in exploring some? If you're open to that type of conversation, please feel
free to circle back with me.

Thank you and I hope to hear from you soon!

All the best,

David Mack
Technical Recruiter/Sourcer
Google Staffing
650-253-7919
dmack@google.com

Check the rest of it at

http://kerneltrap.org/mailarchive/openbsd-misc/2007/10/12/336637"
Robotics

Nissan Adds Robot Helper To Its Concept Car 127

Posted by Zonk from the i-don't-trust-glados-with-a-stick-shift dept.
narramissic writes "Nissan has mounted a robot passenger in the dashboard of its Pivo2 concept car whose job is to keep the driver happy, give spot-on directions, and even check your e-mail. 'We have data that happy drivers' accident rates are drastically lower than depressed ones, so this robot stays there to make sure the driver is happy always,' said Masato Inoue, chief designer at Nissan's exploratory design group, in an interview at the Motor Show. 'This guides the driver and sometimes cheers up the driver. For example, if the driver is irritated it might say 'Hey, you look somehow angry. Why? Please calm down.'' Other features of this vehicle include a cabin that can turn through 360 degrees so you never have to worry about looking behind when you back up and wheels that can twist 90 degrees, eliminating the need to parallel park." The article includes a video of the car talking to the driver, which is kind of adorable in a 'future is now' sorta way.
Education

Submission + - Schools warned off Microsoft deal .. (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by
rs232
rs232 writes: ""The UK computer agency Becta is advising schools not to sign licensing agreements with Microsoft because of alleged anti-competitive practices"

"the problem was that Microsoft required schools to have licences for every PC in a school that might use its software, whether they were actually doing so or running something else""
United States

Submission + - Japanese Stealth Fighter: Return of the Zero (inventorspot.com)

Submitted by
reporter
reporter writes: "According to a news article by the Associated Press, Tokyo has begun developing an indigenous stealth jet-fighter that will be deployed in 2016. Mitsubishi, the prime contractor, has already developed a full-scale model, of which several pictures have been accidentally leaked to the press. The model is named "Mitsubishi ATD-X". A laboratory of the French government has evaluated the "stealthy-ness" of ATD-X.

Will ATD-X achieve air superiority over the F-22, which Washington refuses to sell to Tokyo?"
Space

Submission + - Sputnik at 50: An improvised triumph (yahoo.com)

Submitted by
caffiend666
caffiend666 writes: "According to an AP News article, "When Sputnik took off 50 years ago, the world gazed at the heavens in awe and apprehension, watching what seemed like the unveiling of a sustained Soviet effort to conquer space and score a stunning Cold War triumph. But 50 years later, it emerges that the momentous launch was far from being part of a well-planned strategy to demonstrate communist superiority over the West." "At that moment we couldn't fully understand what we had done," Chertok recalled. "We felt ecstatic about it only later, when the entire world ran amok. Only four or five days later did we realize that it was a turning point in the history of civilization." "And that winking light that crowds around the globe gathered to watch in the night sky? Not Sputnik at all, as it turns out, but just the second stage of its booster rocket...""
Businesses

Submission + - High-tech culture of SV originally due to Radio (jory.org)

Submitted by
yroJJory
yroJJory writes: "SFGate has a interesting piece on the history of Silicon Valley and its roots in radio. It begins: "When the Traitorous Eight, as they're sometimes called, held their hush-hush meeting in San Francisco, they had reason to fear discovery — but no way to know that by quitting safe jobs for a risky startup, they would earn a place among what Stanford University historian Leslie Berlin calls the "Founding Fathers of Silicon Valley.

Roughly 30 years before Hewlett and Packard started work in their garage, and almost 50 years before the Traitorous Eight created Fairchild, the basic culture of Silicon Valley was forming around radio: engineers who hung out in hobby clubs, brainstormed and borrowed equipment, spun new companies out of old ones, and established a meritocracy ruled by those who made electronic products cheaper, faster and better.

An interesting read with some great photos"
Biotech

Submission + - Bringing Patients Back from the Dead (msn.com) 1

Submitted by FattyBoeBatty
FattyBoeBatty writes: Interesting article claiming that patients generally don't die from lack of oxygen — but from the rapid reintroduction of it. Cells without oxygen can conceivably live for upwards of an hour without any damage. While this idea is already proving successful in small ER trials, this may change the way emergency medicine is delivered around the world.
Data Storage

Submission + - Coppola loses all his data 4

Submitted by Colin Smith
Colin Smith writes: This is really an object lesson in backup methodology.

Film director Francis Ford Coppola has appealed for the return of his computer backup device following a robbery at his house in Argentina on Wednesday. He told Argentine broadcaster Todo Noticias he had lost 15 years' worth of data, including writing and photographs of his family.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7019644.stm

Once you have backed everything up... Take it somewhere else!

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